No Quarter (NOLA's Own #2) (59 page)

Madman Fiancé:
Yes, please. We just got here. I miss you and love you. XXX (porn).

Me: Love you, too.

After we were married, I was going to change his name to Crazy-Ass Husband. As it was, we hadn’t even discussed planning for this thing, and I thought he understood I wanted to take our time with it. We’d been together for less than six months.

I knew he wanted a proper wedding with our friends and family surrounding us.

Da and Gloria had tied the knot at the courthouse, a civil ceremony where Connor and I had stood behind them as they signed the necessary papers. Then, Phil and Louis had taken everyone to a fancy dinner and dancing.

I thought it had been nice, but I could see it in Phil’s eyes that he was going to have his Baby Girl walk down the aisle in a white dress.

Morning disappeared in a flurry of work, and soon, my staff and I were heading out for lunch together. Normally, it was just Gavin and I grabbing sandwiches and eating at the picnic table out front, but we all decided it’d be nice to hit up the café down the street, considering I wouldn’t see them for more than two weeks.

Lucy had embarked on a new relationship with a veterinarian named Jeff. He was tall and handsome, and when it came to his Lucy, he was completely devoted. They had met at a New Year’s party and fallen instantly in love.

“We’ve been talking about finding a place together. Jeff’s renting a house, but his lease is up next month, and he’s thinking of somewhere in La Place with a big yard for his dogs. He’s taking me to Lafayette this weekend for Valentine’s.”

I understood her excitement. I felt it every morning when I woke up.

Charlotte’s grandchild was born the past weekend, and she was flying out to Seattle after work tomorrow to meet her for the first time. A dedicated woman, her family was her heart, and I was pretty sure she was theirs. I had met her husband, and after nearly thirty years together, he still had a twinkle in his eye when he gazed upon his wife. I could only hope Phil’s eyes would still twinkle like that at me after thirty years.

“Frank and I are gonna hit up the clubs and find some single ladies to pass the weekend with,” Gavin told us after Charlotte had asked what his plans were.

We all laughed at that—Gavin and Frank, the built bald duo, wing-manning it for each other. I couldn’t understand why he was single. He was such an awesome guy, and it wasn’t like he was unattractive. He was short maybe but cute.

Lunch ended too quickly, and we all went back to the clinic. I had only a little bit of paperwork to do, so I walked in with my work family, smiling and laughing. Charlotte went straight into her room to get set up, and two patients came in and took their seats in the waiting area. Lucy circled into the receptionist station, dropping her purse beneath the desk and flicking on the computer screen.

That was when I felt
it
, and Phil’s voice rang through my head,
“Somethin’ doesn’t feel right.”

Startled, I glanced at Gavin, who shivered unexpectedly. He looked back at me, silently asking,
Do you feel that?

Nodding at him, I tried to shake it off.

The phone rang, and Lucy answered, “The Center for Radiant Health. Dr. MacGregor’s office…”

I reached over the waist-high counter for some files, and my Burlap Beast bumped the sign hanging on the half-wall that closed off the receptionist area from the waiting room, knocking it off the nail.

“Damn it,” I complained.

I stooped down, and Gavin did the same to help me hang it back up—

BOOM!

The whole building shook to its fucking foundations.

Turning my shocked face toward Gavin’s, I yelled, “What the fuck was that?”

“I have no fucking clue!” he yelled back.

BOOM!

Above us and behind reception, an explosion of concrete and debris shot out into the waiting area. I turned to see the waiting patients frozen in terror.

“Get the fuck out of here!” I screamed.

Jumping to their feet, they hauled ass out the front door. As the second one just made it out into the world beyond, another blast and a wave of searing heat shot above where Gavin and I were crouched. My ears popped, and at the same time I felt it, Gavin winced.

What the fuck is happening?

“Oh God!
Lucy
!” I yelled.
Fuck me
. My ears were ringing.

Shooting to my feet, I couldn’t really register just what it was I was seeing. Lucy’s entire work domain was under a pile of rubble. The concrete wall that had separated the spa kitchen from our clinic had blasted in on us. By the looks of it, there was no kitchen left.

Gavin grabbed my arm. “Gas lines!”

“What?”

“We’re on gas lines! In the kitchen!”

Oh, fuck. This is fucking bad. This is really, really fucking bad.

The air stilled as we stared at each other for a few heartbeats.

Then, I heard through the ringing in my ears, “Dr. Kenna? I’m stuck.”

Both of us rushed into the rubble, finding Lucy pinned beneath the huge bookshelf and chunks of concrete.

“We have to get her out fast! The lines might blow!” Gavin shouted.

With all our adrenaline-fueled strength, Gavin and I hefted the load off Lucy.

“I’ll hold it up! You pull her out!” shouted Gavin.

As fast as I could, I let go of the shelf and dragged poor Lucy out from under the wreckage. Gavin screamed with the effort it took for him to hold it up long enough to allow me to do this. I only just got her out as his arms gave way.

Black smoke was now pouring out of the gaping hole from where the kitchen used to be.

“We have to get out!” Gavin yelled. He went to scoop Lucy up in his arms. “The kitchen is on gas. The gas lines are blowing! If it hits the main—” When I put up my hand to stop him, he saw it.

Effectively, the large bookshelf behind her desk had landed on Lucy’s back with such force and at the perfect angle that it had severed her spine in two. Her spine…we could
see
the horrific break popping up beneath her skin, already turning black with internal bleeding.

“It doesn’t hurt,” she told us weakly. “I just can’t move. Please, I just want to get out.”

“Okay, Lucy. We’re getting you out,” I told her. The ringing in my ears started to take over, and if she replied, I couldn’t hear it.

On each side of her, we wrapped our arms around her and lifted her broken body, dragging her toward the door.

The ceiling erupted into flames, and the heat had the physical force to bring us to our knees. The air was filling with acrid black smoke. It was so hot that it burned to breathe. The damage to Lucy was so severe that it didn’t really matter anymore. Gavin and I broke into a jog.

A weird groan shivered around us, a
whargnd
of a snarl. It was
felt
as much as heard. Through the door, into the sunshine and fresh air, I paused for just a second to suck in a lungful.

“Keep going!” shouted Gavin. “The gas main will put a crater in this place!”

We broke out into a run. Through the parking lot, I witnessed people gathering across the street.

“Where’s Charlotte?” I screamed.

But we just kept jogging with Gavin chanting, “Go, go, go, go!”

Halfway across the street, I found it horrific that
not one
of the spectators had come to help us. We were filthy, covered in cement dust, and black soot. I was rapidly losing faith with our fellow man when the weirdest thing happened.

Life trickled into slow motion, much like the time when I had watched the EMTs carrying my mom out of the house on a gurney all those years ago. Air shifted around us as though trying to suck us back into the black hole that was once our clinic.

Lucy’s broken back arched up in our arms, scaring the shit out of both of us. She threw her head back, her lungs filling with a screaming gurgle of an inhale, her unseeing brown eyes opened wide. No, she
could see
, but whatever it was, it was to remain a mystery to us. With a strength that should not be possible, her arms pulled our heads into her chest, knocking them together painfully.

“Ow!
Shit
, Luce—” I snapped, my eyes watering.

Behind us, a beast of unknown proportions opened its maw and unleashed a roar from the depths of hell itself.

Gavin’s other arm wrapped around me and held on to me tightly just as the shock wave blasted the three of us into the air.

As I flew, the sweetest of memories floated through my mind. A kiss that had brightened my life with the brilliance of Technicolor. A voice full of promise for wondrous things to come.

It told me,
“Don’t go anywhere.”

Not without you,
I wanted to reply.

I didn’t go anywhere. When I hit the ground, I went to Nowhere.

It was darker than black in Nowhere.

Phil

Earlier that morning…

Next to me, I felt her stir. She stretched. I loved that, feeling it when she got to the good part. Her muscles trembled, and the vibrations passed through the bed and into me.

Opening my eyes, my heart skipped a beat.

Kenna…My Baby Girl.

Morning light caught her copper-hued hair, making the sight of her dazzle. She was so fuckin’ breathtaking that it hurt to look at her sometimes.

In my chest, I felt her excitement. She’d been ready for our trip for days now, and this was the last day of waiting. I wasn’t excited for Italy. I’d been there. It was beautiful, sure, but it was nothing new to me. What was new was that I would get to see it with
her
, through
her
eyes,
her
passion. That, and I got my fiancée all to myself. I didn’t have to share her with our friends and family or her work. It would be just my Baby Girl and me.

She moved to get up, get this last day started and over with. I didn’t want her to go. I wanted her here with me, and I was suddenly flooded with panic.

Don’t let her go!

Wrapping my arm around her waist, I dragged her back, pulling her into the curve of my body.

“Don’t go,” I said, my throat feeling tight.

She laughed. “I
have
to, babe! Last day!”

“No. Call in sick.”

“Pfft.”

“I’m serious.”

She turned to face me, her green eyes flashing and then softening up. She was just so stunning, even with sleep still hanging around her face. I blinked, trying to stop my vision from being dazzled by her.

I couldn’t make her understand what I was feeling.
It doesn’t even make sense to me, so how can I fuckin’ try to make her see?
She got up to do her yoga, leaving me lying in bed, my heart being squeezed with panic.

In the shower, I couldn’t bring myself to give her the kind of fucking she liked first thing in the morning. She was just so…precious, so amazing and sacred. She needed to know that. She had to feel what it was I felt for her always. Holding her up against the wall, she was so tight as my dick sank in deep. I could easily spend the rest of my fuckin’ life inside her, just like this, feeling that tiny heartbeat in her tripping on the head of my dick, making us both go apeshit.

Mine, mine, mine, mine.

Afterward, I looked down into her eyes, my favorite shade of green, the color of leaves with sunlight passing through them. I could get lost in those eyes. I
had
been lost in those eyes.

She heard my soul begging her not to go. Stubborn little shit that she was she refused to listen.

I can’t let her go.

I
have
to let her go.

And I did. I watched as she pulled that piece-of-shit Volkswagen out of the driveway. I was gonna buy her a new fuckin’ car when we got back from our trip.

My other half took my heart with her as she drove off.

Grabbing my gear, I got the guys moving, and we headed out. For fuck’s sake, I just wanted to stop feeling the weirdness in my chest. I might succeed if I kept my head busy. Kenna would tell me I was being irrational. She was like fuckin’ Spock, all Vulcan logic bullshit. She fuckin’ meditated too fuckin’ much.

Today, I was riding with X and Connor in the Jeep. Connor was more quiet than usual. I wondered if he felt it, too. As we pulled into the parking lot, my phone beeped, and I got a text from Kenna. I tried to feel relieved that she’d made it to work okay, but I didn’t.

It got worse as the morning continued. It did my head in. I couldn’t fuckin’ focus on shit.

“What’s with you today, man?” Jason asked me, sounding all pissy as he strode into my office as though it were his own.

“I don’t know,” I replied honestly.

He walked up and whacked the back of my head. “Well, fuckin’ figure it out! We’re at the home stretch with our own fuckin’ album, and you’re all half-assed—”

“Piss off, douche!”

He just looked at me, realizing that there was something really wrong with me. “What is it?”

“I got a bad feelin’, is all,” I told him. Yeah, that only freaked him out.

“About what?” he asked, his voice quiet.

Flipper and X weren’t around, and I didn’t want them to know. There was just something about Jason that I trusted on a level that I couldn’t with the other guys—well, maybe Connor, but he was a weird hippie kid like Kenna. I didn’t know if I wanted to freak out her brother, too. It was bad enough with me losing my own shit. But Jason didn’t blow shit like this off. He listened when I had something to say. He always had.