When Dove Cries (20 page)

Cade looked at her and tried to say something.

“Don’t talk, save your strength.”

Blood poured from his body and from his leg. She took off her jacket and pressed it against the wound in his abdomen, trying to stench the steady flow.

“Stay with me, Cade,” she ordered him, trying to be fierce in the face of her panic. “Don’t you leave me. You hear me? I just got you back, so don’t you dare leave me.”

He tried raising his arm, and she got the impression that he wanted to say something. Her tears splashed onto his face as she laid her head next to his ear.

“I… I…love…you,” he managed to get out just before his eyes closed.

“Cade!” she shouted, tapping his face. “No. Please. I love you too.”

But she wasn’t even sure he’d heard her.

Chapter Twenty-One

Draven waited a moment until he was sure that Gunner wasn’t going to move before walking over to the fallen man. He kicked away the gun then bent to feel for a pulse. It was there—thready, but he hadn’t killed the bastard.

“John,” Dove gasped.

Draven looked at her and saw nothing but blood covering Cade.
Oh, fucking hell no!
He hurried over, his heart thumping with dread. Cade had taken both bullets meant for him. He’d saved his life. Holy hell, he hoped the man was still alive. He carefully checked him over and saw that one bullet seemed to have blown out his knee, and the other had gotten him on his left side. He hurriedly took off his leather coat so he could yank off his shirt. The knee, he couldn’t really do anything about, but he bunched up the T-shirt to apply pressure.

“Here,” he said to Dove. “Hold this.”

She quickly took over the task.

“Don’t you die on me, Vanaker,” Draven warned him, even though the man was unconscious. With blood covering his hands, he dug his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed Givon, standing to walk a few steps away. He couldn’t take his eyes off the man who had done nothing but save him and his family, time and again. “I don’t like owing someone, and now I owe you twice.”

Givon answered on the second ring. “What’s up, Draven?”

“We were ambushed! Cade’s been shot by Gunner and he’s bad, Giv. We’re on County Road Twenty-Five—wait, there’s a car coming.”

He waved his hand and the car slowed down. When he narrowed his eyes, he recognized Dr. Blake. The biggest wave of relief washed through him and he thanked whatever deity was listening that it happened to be a doctor.

“Dr. Blake,” Draven said, forgetting for a moment he’d been on the phone. “Man, am I glad to see you. Cade’s been shot. Can you help him until the ambulance gets here?”

“Sure,” Dr. Blake said, almost good-naturedly. He got out of the car and headed not toward Cade, but to where Gunner was lying. “Is he alive?”

“That’s not Cade,” Draven said. “He’s over here.”

“Is this Gunner’s gun?” Dr. Blake bent and picked it up.

Draven froze and realized that something was wrong. Silently, he cursed that he had put his gun back in its holster. “Dr. Blake?”

The doctor turned and held the gun on him. Then everything clicked into place.

Shit!

“You’re the third party,” Draven replied quietly. “You’re the one making the deals on the women, not Gunner.”

“It was easy since I have to drive around a lot in this God-forsaken state,” Dr. Blake said coldly. “I was working sixty hours a week taking care of stupid farming mistakes to get shit for pay. Do you know how hard I’ve worked to be a surgeon? The hours and days of not sleeping because I had to get my residency fulfilled, then I get stuck in the ER in Bum Fuck Egypt!”

“So you traffic innocent women?”

The doctor shrugged. “I do more than that. I also find new pussy to sell.”

“You tipped Hiller off about which room Allis was in when he tried to smother her,” Draven concluded. “Didn’t you?”

“And I set the fire. I couldn’t let little Miss Dove talk to the sheriff, could I?”

“Did you kill Gray Dog?”

Dr. Blake cocked his head. “I knew he was on digoxin. It’s a great medicine to treat atria fibrillation, unless you overdose. Nausea, vomiting, cardiac arrhythmia. It’s not pretty.”

Draven held up his phone. “It’s over, you know. The sheriff has just heard everything. He’s on his way.”

“Then I guess I’ll have to implement my escape plan right away. Too bad. This was a very lucrative side business and so easy to find buyers. There are some sick fucks out there, you know.”

Draven knew the doctor was going to shoot. It was written on every line of his body. He actually saw the man tighten his finger on the trigger. Then he heard the crack of a gun and he flinched, but surprisingly, there wasn’t any pain.

That’s when he saw the blood blossom right in the middle of Dr. Blake’s chest. The man got a wide-eyed stare of disbelief as he looked to the right. Draven followed his line of vision and saw Dove holding a gun, tears running down her face.

“D-Dove?” Dr. Blake asked incredulously. He fell to his knees and the gun dropped from his hands.

“Where are the other women?” she asked coldly. She looked so fierce as she took a few steps closer. “Where are they, asshole?”

He tried to sneer through the pain, but it was a losing battle. By now, he couldn’t talk. Blood just gurgled from his mouth as the glassy stare of death began to take hold of his eyes.

“I hope you burn in Hell,” she said tonelessly.

There was a blankness in her eyes that actually scared Draven. When the doctor fell onto his face, Draven hurried over and secured the weapon, which he should’ve done the first time. Then he hurried to Dove’s side. She still knelt next to Cade’s body, blood still covering her hands, arms and chest. Slowly, carefully, he took Cade’s gun from her and stashed both in the back of his jeans. Out of sight, out of mind.

“Dove,” he said softly.

She looked at him with dead eyes that scared him.

He shook her. “Dove, come back to me. Please, baby. Cade needs you.
I
need you.”

She blinked once, twice, then she started to shake. She tried to look past his shoulders, but Draven held onto her firmly.

“No, don’t look.”

“Did I…kill him?”

“I think so, baby, but you saved me. Understand? You saved my life.”

She sagged into his arms and broke down crying. “I’m so glad you’re safe.”

How long they sat there, he had no idea. Too long. Every minute brought Cade one step closer to dying. Finally, they heard the high-pitched wail of sirens, and Draven had never been so happy in all his life that the police were on their way too. Cade moaned and Dove hurried to cup his face.

“I’ve got you, Cade,” she said softly.

“J-John, is she…safe?” Cade managed to gasp in a weak voice.

“She is, buddy,” Draven replied. “You hang on. The good guys are on their way.”

Cade gave him the faintest smile.

Epilogue

Once he’d been stabilized, Cade had been transferred to a hospital in Casper since Destiny General was under FBI investigation. Draven and Dove had raced there to be with him but had been regulated to sitting in the waiting area. After many hours, the surgeon had come out with the news. Cade would be okay, but he’d lost his spleen, had a cracked rib, and would need intensive therapy to regain the use of his shattered knee, which was now made of titanium. His career as an FBI field agent was over. He’d be relegated to a desk job if he didn’t want to take an early retirement.

He had stayed in ICU for twenty-four hours, just to make sure there weren’t any immediate complications from the surgery, and Draven and Dove had taken turns visiting with him. Although Draven never told her what he and Cade talked about, she had a feeling it was a road to healing from the past.

After two weeks, Cade had been discharged and he’d gone to stay in a rehabilitation center to relearn how to walk on his new knee. Dove had used the life insurance policy her father had set up in her name and rented a hotel apartment that had a month-to-month lease for her and Draven. They were with Cade every step he made, soothing his frustration as best as they could. Dove watched happily as the two men’s friendship firmly began to take root.

The Red Wolves had let go of Bryman Jay’s generous offer. Since the DEA was onto him, the drug dealer had left Destiny. Dove didn’t care where he’d gone as long as the Wolves were out of it. Besides, she was coming to terms with killing a man. No charges had been filed, and Givon assured her that none would be because she’d acted in Draven’s defense. All at the sheriff’s office had heard Dr. Blake’s confession when Givon had hit speakerphone.

After three months of intensive therapy, Cade had been able to hobble around with a cane and he’d been able to go home as long as he continued with his therapy. Dove had taken on this task and, as any drill sergeant’s daughter would do, carried out the orders sternly and faithfully.

At the end of six months, he was walking with a limp, but cane free. Dove knew it was his stubborn determination not to be an invalid the rest of his life that had pushed him. Winter settled into Wyoming and the cold hindered his arduous therapy outside, so Dove modified the sessions for the indoors.

She’d used the rest of the insurance money to revamp Draven’s house. Now the three-bedroom home was modernized, repainted and sturdy. Just in time, too, as winter blew in cold and bitter.

Cade had decided to retire from the FBI with full benefits. Dove often caught him thinking and she wondered where his thoughts drifted to, half-fearful that he was thinking of moving on once spring blossomed. By this time, he and Draven had fallen into an easy comradeship, almost as if they’d been friends for years. The bitterness that had been Draven’s constant shadow had melted, and he looked younger, freer. Dove half wondered where that left her.

She couldn’t imagine her life without either man.

In early December, she was decorating the house, waiting for both men to return from Christmas tree hunting. She had just finished wrapping their presents when the sound of the truck crunching over the gravel driveway reached her. Dove quickly hid their presents and went out to meet them. Cade was able to walk slowly, only relying on a cane when he’d pushed his new knee too much, and by the way he was limping, she knew that he would be sitting the rest of the evening.

They carried in a huge tree, bigger than she’d said she wanted.

“What’s this?” she gasped. “It’s not going to fit.”

“He wanted a big tree,” Cade said.

“Really big,” Draven agreed.

“Well, you succeeded.”

The men set up the stand and secured the tree in the corner near the fireplace and after it was upright, with the top branch bent over from the ceiling, all three stood around admiring it.

“How in the world are we going to decorate it?” she asked in bewilderment.

“Carefully,” Cade answered dryly.

“I don’t think we have enough Christmas lights to go around.”

“I
know
we don’t have enough lights to go around,” Draven replied. “I’m the person who untangled them. By the way, how do they manage to get messed up every year when they aren’t even touched?”

Cade just grinned.

They used up all of Draven’s stored Christmas decorations, and although the tree looked a little skimpy on lights and garland, it was beautiful. Dove couldn’t take her eyes off of it. Her first Christmas with her men. For a moment, thoughts of her father and her military brothers filtered into her head, and her heart ached at the thought that they’d never meet the two men who had come to mean everything to her. This was the first Christmas without her father and she couldn’t help the tears that welled up in her eyes.

“Hey now, why’re you crying, love?” Cade asked softly as he wiped the tears off her cheeks with a finger.

“My first December without my father,” she whispered. “I wish you could’ve met him and the others.”

“I wish I could’ve too,” Cade murmured. He cupped her face and kissed her tears away. “But they’ll always be with us in spirit because loved ones never truly die if you remember them.”

“What about your mother?” Draven asked.

“I didn’t know her. My father met my mother in India and although her family refused to allow them to marry, she ended up eloping with him. Romantic, except for the part where she died giving birth to me.”

“Then we’ll remember them both.”

“I like that,” she said.

“Come, let’s fix some dinner.” He took her hand and led her into the kitchen. “Tree hunting and decorating has given me an appetite.”

She laughed, leaving the sadness behind. What he’d said was true. Her father might not be here in flesh, but he was never far from her thoughts.

After dinner, the men helped her clean up. Once the dishwasher was running, Draven caught her hand.

“Cade and I have a present for you,” he said.

“It’s not Christmas day yet,” she protested.

“This can’t wait.”

She raised her eyebrows, waiting. He looked over at Cade, who had a box resting in his open palm. Excitement exploded throughout her body.

“We would like to ask for your commitment,” Draven said.

“My what?”

“Well, the state doesn’t approve of polygamy,” Cade replied. “But we would like to make a commitment with you. If you want to marry, we can decide what to do, but we’d like to have our ring on your finger regardless.”

He opened the box to a beautiful ring of three thin gold bands interwoven together to form a cradle for a ruby, her birthstone.

“Oh, my God,” she whispered. “It’s gorgeous. I love it.”

“It’s not a traditional engagement ring,” Draven said. “And it doesn’t have to be. Cade and I just wanted you to wear a symbol of our love.”

She quickly held out her left hand. “Yes! Yes, yes, yes!”

With a huge grin, Cade took the ring out of the box then he and Draven slid the ring onto her finger. It fit perfectly. She stared at it for a long moment, loving it. But then a little thought invaded and she frowned at them.

“What about you two? I want you to wear something from me.”