Undercover Attraction (30 page)

He might miss working at the station, his
brother and father as part of his team, but right now, he knew he
would give up anything for Jenna, and he didn't aim to make her
have to ask him, even if she ever would.

Turning back to go tell Amy what the doctor
had said, he had a sudden thought that brought him up short. Would
the baby be strong enough to survive the stress on Jenna's
body?

If it was anything like Jenna, it could.

He pushed the door open, peeking in the room
to avoid startling Amy. Alex quickly stepped out to give them
privacy.

"Was that the doctors?"

Jacob nodded, a smile on his face. "She's
going to be fine, Amy. A few bumps and bruises, even a few broken
bones, a while in the hospital, but she'll be okay."

Amy smiled lightly, wincing when her lip
cracked. ”Thank you for saving me, Jacob. And Jenna also."

He smiled back. "No problem. I'll be down
the hall if you need me. Get some rest."

She nodded.

Just as he was closing the door she called
for him.

"Jacob."

He popped his head back in. "Yeah?"

She nibbled her lower lip for a second.
"Could you send Alex back in? I don't want to be alone."

"Sure thing," he said, closing the door
softly behind him.

He found Alex sitting with his dad in the
waiting room. One of them had went for fresh coffee and cookies.
Suddenly Jacob realized he was starving, and reached for a handful
of the fresh treats as he sat next to Alex.

"Well?" His brother asked, eyebrows raised
as he watched Jacob shove a giant chocolate-chip cookie in his
mouth.

Jacob smiled, chocolate in his teeth. "She's
going to be okay."

Alex and his father both smiled, patting
Jacob on the back. He almost told them the other good news, but
decided that it was Jenna's secret to tell first. It was the only
reason he hadn't told Amy, either. It wouldn't be fair to Jenna if
everyone knew she was pregnant before she did.

But, damn, it was hard to keep it in.

He looked at Alex. "Amy's asking about
you."

The words were barely out of his mouth
before Alex shot out of the chair, disappearing through the
door.

Their dad chuckled and Jacob looked over at
him. "What?"

"I suspect I will have a lap full of little
grandkids bouncing on my knee in no time. I figure Amy is about to
have Alex wrapped around her little finger, just as Jenna has
you."

Oh. So that's what is going on between Alex
and Amy. He figured it was something along that line, as weird as
Alex had been acting since arriving at the hospital.

He couldn't stop the laugh from bubbling up.
Things were almost perfect. Well, he did say
almost
. Jenna
was in the hospital, as well as her sister, and her cat. But he was
going to be a dad, and Jenna had told him she loved him, and now
she was going to be okay. So far, it was looking like the rest of
the day would be great.

#

The nurse came and told Jacob he could see
Jenna during the next visiting hours.

When he walked into her room, it was like
stepping into a morgue. It was deathly quiet, no sound other than
whirring machines and medical equipment. The only thing that
waylaid his fears was the continuous beep-beep of her heart rate
machine.

She looked bad. Much better than when she
had come in, but not well enough to make his chest ease its
constriction. Her eyes both were painted a sickly blue, her face a
mass of bruises and swollen curves.

Her throat had bruises on either side of her
esophagus, and he was sure they were finger marks, from where
someone had held her by the throat. Her hair was matted away from
her face, and while no blood was evident on her brutalized
features, there was dried blood in her hair.

Her leg was in a cast, as was the opposite
wrist. He couldn't tell what the rest of her body looked like
because of the blanket she was covered with, but he was certain it
would all look just as bad, if not worse. A web of wires ran from
her body in various places to machines. IVs, heart and blood
pressure monitors, oxygen, all of it a tangled mass of cables.

He just wanted to touch her, but was afraid
to. Even though she was still unconscious, he wanted to cause her
no more pain. The backside of his fingers brushed against the tips
of hers, what peeked out of the cast.

And he talked to her, telling her that
Chuckles would be okay, that Amy was fine, anything he could think
of to break the silence in the room. He told her about his mom
leaving, stating that she would never have the chance to walk away
from him like his mother had.

He talked about anything that came to mind,
until a nurse came in and told him visitation was over. He bent
over her and kissed her nose, the only part of her face that wasn't
swollen, and with a whispered
I love you
, walked away,
feeling as if he had left his heart in her room.

#

It took a great effort for Jacob to stay
optimistic over the next few days. The only thing that comforted
him was the doctors constantly reminding him that Jenna was just
resting.

No, it wasn't a coma or she wouldn't respond
to the medications they kept giving her by trying to avoid it. She
was merely sedated, so that her body would be able to get the much
needed rest it required to heal properly.

Yes, they would begin waking her within the
week, slowly so as not to barrage her with pain and reality all at
once. Trauma like this takes time to get over, and research showed
that bringing the patient to awareness in small increments helped
them deal with the trauma as best they can during the healing
process.

Jacob had become increasingly frustrated
over the days. He knew the doctors had Jenna's best interest at
heart, but he needed to see her awake, her eyes opened, hear her
husky voice, to be sure she really was okay.

He already knew she was healing rapidly. The
bruises on her face and arms were becoming lighter, the swelling
gone down dramatically from the first day she'd lain there. The
doctors assure him that the baby was fine as well, and that they
were using anesthetics that wouldn't harm the fetus, additionally
adding in a prenatal vitamin to Jenna's IV each day.

Wires were removed daily, until she only had
a scarce few that were necessary. She had been moved to a regular
room from the ICU, and he could come and go as he liked now. She
had begun to react to his words occasionally in little ways,
telling him she could hear him talking to her in whatever dream
state she was in.

Her eyebrows would rise at some things, her
fingers would twitch, her lips bow, even her nose would wrinkle as
if she were trying to laugh. But that was the extent of her
reactions.

She had been there for five days. Amy had
been released and was even now staying at his house, along with
Alex and Mac.

It seemed as if those Alex and Amy had
formed a bond, and Alex was attentive and cautious around Amy. He
never moved quickly towards her, always gave her a sort of
comfortable distance unless she asked him to do something.

Amy shied away from being touched, though,
and he had seen his brothers fingers curled into fists on more than
one occasion as he had reached out to her, then thought quickly and
pulled back. He was treating Amy with care, as he would a shy baby
foal.

Mac had seen to the things that neither he
nor Alex could help her with. Baths, getting dressed, feminine
sympathy. Surprisingly, after Amy had her first breakdown the night
she was released from the hospital, she had dried her tears and
seemed stronger, yet to shed another tear over her pain.

Amy was determined to get on with her life,
and knowing that the assholes who had raped her were now dead, she
had decided that she would also go back to her college classes.
Alex took a leave of absence from the force to be able to stay with
her almost all hours, just to make her feel safe, and Jacob had
agreed that Amy and Alex could stay at his house as long as they
liked. He'd been staying at the hospital with Jenna, anyway. Just
in case she awoke before the doctors anticipated.

So far she hadn't and Jacob was talking
about trivial things again. He told her about how his house was
being invaded by Alex, Amy, and Mac. And how he thought Alex and
Amy had some kind of feelings for one another.

Jacob liked to think she smiled a bit at
that, her lips curving slightly.

He also thought her eyebrows wrinkled when
he told her he had resigned, although he wasn't sure if it was a
sign that she liked the idea or not.

Another day passed in dragging frustration,
and the next morning, Alex and Amy knocked on the door, quietly
entering.

"You look like crap," Amy said, surprising
him. She walked around the bed and placed a kiss on her sister's
forehead.

Alex sat in the recliner next to him. "We
are here to relieve you for a bit. Go home, take a shower, eat
something other than hospital food."

Jacob shook his head. "I'm fine." He didn't
want to leave Jenna. She could wake up any second, and he wouldn't
be here if she did.

"We'll call if she does anything. I promise.
You need rest and new clothes. You don't want her seeing you like
this when she does wake up," Amy threw over her shoulder to
him.

He did look a mess. A change of clothes
sounded good, as did his own bed for a few hours. And he could run
that errand he had been thinking about constantly.

He stood, turning to Alex, "Call me if
anything
changes."

Alex nodded.

Back at his house, Jacob took a quick shower
then caught up on a bit of sleep. He only allowed himself three
hours, and when he awoke, he felt immensely better.

He quickly dressed and left to run his
errand, eager to return to Jenna's side, even if she didn't know he
was there.

The little jewelry shop was one of the best
in Vegas and boasted to have unusual and unique pieces. After he
had made up his mind to ask Jenna to marry him, he had soon
realized he had to have a ring to do so, and she deserved something
befitting her personality and beauty.

He had been thinking of ways to ask her,
scenes and words running through his head as he tried to come up
with the perfect way to ask. Nothing else would do for her.

He would definitely be getting down on one
knee, and for that, the ring was imperative. He hadn't known her
ring size, so he had simply taken a narrow piece of paper and
wrapped it around her ring finger, marking where the end met the
center so that he could get a ring that fit her perfectly.

Listen to him- becoming all sappy like some
lovesick puppy. And he admitted to himself that he was lovesick.
Especially when it came to Jenna. He knew he would do anything for
her, die for her even, if it ever came to that. He wished he
could've taken her place during all the brutality she suffered at
the hands of his partner.

The only thing that kept him from wanting to
kill Dobbs was knowing that she was already dead. She had been
barraged by twenty-four bullets, all kill shots, and little was
left of her body once the bullets had passed through her. His
officers had packed high powered rifles that day, instead of the
glocks they usually carried. All because he knew that he wanted her
dead if they had a clear shot.

Jacob had wanted to question the driver
again personally, since the man's FBI transfer had been delayed,
but after Jacob had resigned, his father stuck to the rules,
prohibiting him from even entering the criminal section of the
precinct because Jacob was now a civilian. Dobbs's locker had been
searched as well as her home, looking for anything that could lead
them back to her boss. So far, the only thing they had to go on
were a few calls on her cell phone.

The two goon's places had been searched as
well, but they were like Mike had been, just henchmen hired for a
purpose, and that purpose had nothing to do with information, and
everything to do with violence.

The numbers would be ran to try to come up
with a name, and if that didn't work, his father would call the
number personally to trace it.

The case was almost over, and Jacob was sure
Jenna was safe now that Dobbs had been taken out of the picture.
Her boss would be trying to contact her soon to find out what
happened to the disc.

Jacob no longer had the disc. He had turned
it in along with all of the other evidence when he resigned. His
father had personally taken it, securing the information in a place
where no one else had access to it unless the Chief allowed.

So now that Jacob was sure he would be able
to protect Jenna from anything else life might throw her way, it
was time to move on. Put the past behind him and so on.

He stepped into the jeweler's, surprised to
find that the selection was as great as he had heard, and thirty
minutes later, left, a small bulge in his pocket.

Jenna would love it, he thought. It was as
brilliant as she was, and had cost enough to pay for a college
education, but she was worth every penny.

He arrived back at the hospital shortly
after, and was daunted that Jenna looked the exact same as when he
had left.

Amy was sitting by the bed, telling her
stories, talking to her in the way sisters do when their sibling is
ill.

Alex dozed in the chair next to the bed,
soft snores coming from him.

Amy looked up at him. "The doctor came in a
few minutes ago. He said in an hour they are going to start letting
her wake up for a bit. She'll be confused and delirious, and she is
only allowed fifteen minutes every few hours, which will increase
each day until they feel she is well enough to go without the
sedative completely."