No Quarter (NOLA's Own #2) (63 page)

A nurse in pink scrubs stood there, looking like a tiny harassed pink dragon.

“I’ve alerted the doctor, Brian,” she snapped. “You can’t just—” She looked up at me then, and her bitchy face went slack as her jaw dropped.

I glared at her and pushed my way in through the door.
The hell I fuckin’ can’t.

Behind me, Brian told her, “He’s her fiancé, Sue. He’s been waiting for nearly twelve hours.”

Dragon nurse huffed and flounced her pink ass off somewhere.

Kenna was sittin’ on the edge of Gavin’s bed. I saw the bandages, some bruises, but her back was to me.

“Baby Girl,” I breathed her name on my exhale.

She didn’t turn around.

“Kenna?”

Gavin tapped her bare leg—
bastard, I’ll break your broken fingers for that!—
then pointed at me.

What the fuck is goin’ on?

She turned to face me, and holy fuck, it was as though someone had kicked me in the junk. My Baby Girl’s beautiful face was all bruised, scraped up.

Her eye! Her fuckin’ eye!

“Oh God…” I moaned pitifully. I rushed to her side, but the closer I got…it was too much, seeing her so raw and in pain. I crashed to my knees before her, wanting to gather her in my arms, but too afraid I’d end up hurting her. “Oh God, Baby…I’m so sorry!” I choked. I raised my hands up to just touch her, too afraid to even place a fingertip on her. “I’ve been out of my fuckin’ skull, Kenna! Right out of my fuckin head—”

Her fingers pressed against my lips, and I looked up into her eyes, saw them filling with tears. I could feel my heart shattering apart, and I knew it was
her
heart that had just shattered.

“Phil,” she said. Her voice, the voice that made the best laugh in the world, was scratched up and even more husky. “I can’t hear you. I’m deaf,” she told me, fighting the urge to weep. “I can’t hear your voice.”

My voice, her favorite sound in the whole world.

“It’s okay,” I told her even though she couldn’t hear me. She could see what I felt. I took her hands and pressed them to my face. “It’s gonna be all right.”

“It’s only temporary,” Brian said from the doorway. “The explosions burst their eardrums. Gavin’s deaf, too.”

But my Baby Girl’s heart was shattered. Her busted beautiful face crumbled, and she gave in to her sobs. It shattered my own heart, to see her so broken. For the millionth time that day, my eyes filled with tears, too.

“Oh, no. No, no, no.” She sobbed, covering her face with her hands.

Fuck it.

As gently as I could, I lifted her into my arms and cradled her to my chest. I copped a squat on the empty bed and just held my sweet woman, rocking her.

Oh, yes. This is good.

She was in my arms. She was safe. I could protect her like this.

Nothing else mattered. The whole fuckin’ world could go to shit right now, and I wouldn’t give a flying fuck. She was warm and alive in my arms, and I was so fuckin’ happy, so fuckin’ thankful, with her head tucked beneath my chin, crying her broken eyeball out. Rocking her back and forth, I started to sing “Going to California,” hoping that she could at least feel it, if not hear it.

She pressed her head into my chest, tapping it with her left hand. “More.”

I kept singing.

Kenna relaxed in my arms. She sighed, and I felt her come to peace within herself in that very moment.

An older woman in a white coat—the doctor, I suspected—came into the room, harassed Dragon Nurse Sue on her heels.

The doctor looked at me. “Who are you?”

Glaring at Sue, I replied, “I’m Phil fuckin’ Deveraux.”
Well, shit.
“Dr. Kenna MacGregor is my fiancée. I ain’t leavin’ her, so don’t fuckin’ bother.”

The doctor’s lips twitched. “
You’re
Dr. MacGregor’s fiancé?”

Why does everyone seem so fuckin’ surprised?
I might be the size of a fucking troll, and I might sound like an ogre, but it wasn’t like I was too hideous for Kenna to wanna bang me. I thought we looked fuckin’ awesome together.

Holding Kenna with one arm, I dug into my pocket and pulled out her ring. My Baby Girl gave a little cry of relief, and I smiled stupidly.

“I thought I lost it!” she cried, her voice too loud.

She tried to sit up, so I helped her right herself, and I slid the ring onto her finger for the second time.

Dragon Nurse Sue stared at the ring in disbelief
.

That’s right, bitch. I’m a fuckin’ loaded giant troll.

“He’s been in the waiting room for twelve hours,” Brian told the doctor. “She woke up and wanted to see him. She was calling for him when she first got here. It was stressing her out.”

“Did you clear this with anyone, Brian?”

“No,” he replied, sounding defiant.

My respect for him grew just a little.

“You’re lucky we like you here,” drawled the doctor. Then, she looked at me. “And speaking of luck, both Gavin and Kenna were
extremely
lucky…”

Gavin had a broken arm, which was pretty fuckin’ obvious.

No lasting damage. No broken bones. No internal bleeding or injuries to organs. Even Kenna’s eardrums should heal up in time.

The doctor wrote all this down as she told me, so Kenna could read it for herself.

When she finished reading the verdict, she gave us a thumbs-up, like
we
were the deaf ones. Then, she handed the paper over to Gavin.

“Does Gavin have anyone to take care of him?” the doctor asked me.

“His brother, Frank. I think they live together. I’ll call him, and we can bring Gavin home, either to our place or his. Whatever he wants.”

“Great. I’m just going to give them a once-over and give you instructions for their care. I’ll be giving them both some morphine when I’m finished, and I’ll give you their prescriptions for pain meds, so you can fill it while I do all of this.”

“I don’t know if she’ll take ’em, Doc. She ain’t keen on that shit.”

“She will be once the dose I’ll inject wears off. They’ll need plenty of rest over the next few days. They shouldn’t overexert themselves for a while, and I’ll schedule them for a follow-up scan in three weeks just to make sure nothing has cropped up. Their bodies had some serious shock waves pulse through them, and they’ll be suffering from stiff, sore muscles.”

“She ain’t gonna take that well,” I muttered, and the doctor smiled at me. “What about her eye?”

“Burst blood vessels, either from the impact of hitting the ground or the blast itself.”

Exhaling loudly, it hit me hard, just thinking about what my Baby Girl had gone through.

“She’s very strong, Mr. Deveraux. I’ve had the privilege of working with her. You have a brilliant woman who knows what she needs to do to get well.”

“She’s a stubborn little shit who’ll downplay this,” I countered. “In two days, she’ll be so bored.”

“Then, you must be the one to make her see reason. After going through a trauma such as this, things can manifest afterward—blood clots, organ tears, that sort of thing. Make sure she rests, has minimal stress, and little to no excitement. She should wait until after the next scan before she overdoes anything, okay?”

I nodded, feeling that I had a hell of a battle on my hands.

The doctor checked over Gavin first, giving me more time to hold Kenna.

Kenna tapped my chest and pressed her ear to it. “Keep singing.” Sighing, she whispered brokenly, “I can almost hear you.”

But you feel me, Baby Girl. You know my heart and soul better than I do. You’re alive and in my arms, and I ain’t ever been so fuckin’ happy for that in my life.

I smiled and kissed her head softly, singing “No Quarter.”

COMING SOON

THE SONG REMAINS THE SAME

OCTOBER 6, 2015

First, I’d like to thank my family for supporting me in following my dream. Without my wonderful partner’s patience and understanding, this series would never have come to light. I’ve got my very own superhero. Thank you, Espen.

To my lifelong friends who have inspired the characters, you are all so amazing that I had to share you in some capacity with the world. Liliana and Alison, thank you for being my soul sisters on this journey we call life.

My awesome street team—You wonder women rock my world. That you all have fallen as deeply in love with NOLA’s Own as myself is a blessing. Thank you for your love and support and all the hard work you do to spread the word. I’d be lost without you awesome ladies.

Thank you, Renee, for taking my vision and creating a cover that I adore. You are my wizard.

Thank you Elaine, for always listening and encouraging me never to give up.

Thank you, Jovana, for taking my words and creating grammatically correct magic.

To my readers—Thank you. I appreciate each and every one of you. Please don’t hesitate to contact me. I love hearing from you!

And MUSIC! Music, music, music…

Born and raised in Miami, Kelli Jean traded the tropical heat for the Arctic. Now, she deals with twenty-four-hour daylight in the summer, zero sunlight in the winter, and believes the Northern Lights make up for the mind-boggling amount of ice and snow she has to put up with for seven months out of the year. She’s surrounded by mountains and ocean and sheep, and she claims her bizarre sense of humor is what keeps her sane.

The insane don’t know they’re insane.

Kelli uses her imagination to create worlds where she can escape from the mundane tasks of everyday life, such as washing the damn dishes and vacuuming up Legos off the floor—and don’t get her started on the mad amount of cat hair on the end of the couch. She gave up on that a long time ago. When the household goes to sleep at night, she writes down everything that happened in her head while doing such tedious chores. But she enjoys living in her own head, so that’s pretty cool.

Technology terrifies her. She can barely turn on a computer, and she was completely shocked when she’d actually written a book on one. To this day, she has no explanation for this baffling mystery. It took her three years to realize she could take screenshots of messages and pictures of bearded, tattooed men with her phone. Now that she’s mastered this task, her phone is slowly dying. She’s nervous that she’s going to have to buy a new one, and it will take her another three years to learn how to use it.