Excerpt:

Prologue

May

The contractions began late that night, and they began hard. Marly awoke from a restless sleep, a pained gasp on her lips as her rounded stomach tightened painfully. Imperatively.

She reached for Cade, to awaken him, to warn him, but he was already there, his gray eyes filling with panic as he flipped on the bedside lamp and stared back at her.

“Oh shit.” She had never heard that particular tone of voice from him before.

Marly blinked at him in surprise, torn between laughter and concern as his wide eyes went to the rippling motions of the contraction that seized her heavily pregnant abdomen.

“Now, Cade,” she tried to soothe him as she scooted to the end of the bed, “don’t panic.”

“Fuck. Sam! Brock!” Marly was certain his demented scream rocked the upper level of the house.

Damn. They were all going to panic on her now. She did not need this.

“Dammit, Marly, where are you going?” Before she could throw her legs over the side of the mattress Cade was moving to her, his hands trembling as he gripped her arm to keep her in the bed.

“Cade August, I refuse to have this child at home,” she snapped, staring at him like the lunatic he was. “I need to get dressed. For that matter, so do you. I need the hospital.”

Marly hadn’t thought he could have gotten paler. But he did. In an instant his swarthy complexion went snow white as he swallowed tightly.

“Oh shit,” he seemed to wheeze.

The door burst open and Sam, Brock, and their wives rushed into the room. Sam had a gun and a hard-on. Brock was just sporting the hard-on. Thankfully, Sarah and Heather had thought to drag on robes.

Marly closed her eyes helplessly. They still hadn’t completely managed to still the terror that had gripped them during the months she, Sarah and Heather had been stalked. Annie still haunted them all.

“Heather was so right last year,” she sighed. “Only you guys would still have a hard-on, no matter the situation,” she moaned as she shook her head in resignation.

Another contraction seized her body, tightening her abdomen and rippling the flesh convulsively.

“Oh hell. She’s in labor,” Sam seemed to choke then as both he and Brock paled alarmingly.

“I don’t want to have this baby here,” she moaned, more than worried at the suddenly horrified faces of the men staring at her, as though she were some sort of aberration. “Sarah. Heather. Do something, please.”

Thankfully, they did. Marly wasn’t certain how they managed to get everyone dressed, including herself, and into the vehicles heading for the hospital. She was just thankful they had. The contractions were coming faster than Doc had told her they would starting off, and though she fought to hide her fear from Cade, she couldn’t hide it from herself.

She sat in the back seat of the Mercedes, Cade’s arms wrapped around her, doing the Lamaze breathing and feeling like a panting dog as she tried to relax through the rapidly building pain. God, she was so thankful she opted for drugs for the delivery. This was not comfortable. Not comfortable at all.

“Babe, you doing okay?” Sam glanced back as he sped through the night, his worried face reflected in the dim interior lights.

“Watch the damned road, Sam,” Cade snapped as he held Marly close to his chest, his gentle hands stroking her distended abdomen as it contracted harshly.

“I’m watching the road.” He turned back quickly as Heather’s softly whispered reminder of the upcoming curves of the road added to Cade’s order.

“I love you, Marly,” Cade whispered at her ear as another contraction gripped her stomach.

“Fifteen minutes apart, Marly.” Heather timed her. “Sam, honey, you’d better pick up some speed.”

He picked up speed. Marly closed her eyes instead of watching the night pass by at a rate that came close to terrifying.


* * * * *

The contractions were less than five minutes apart by the time they reached the hospital. Thanks to Heather’s call, nurses, orderlies, and Marly’s no-nonsense obstetrician were waiting at the ambulance entrance when they pulled in.

For Marly, life had turned into a minute-by-minute count between contractions as she tried to relax against the overwhelming pain of the labor. It had also turned into a kaleidoscope of memories.

As though her life were flashing before her eyes, Marly saw the impacting moments of her years with Cade, from the day she had arrived on his doorstep until now.

How he had taken her, a gawky, awkward child, and dressed her in the finest clothes, given her everything a child could have wished for. He had showered her with all the love, security and praise that he himself had lacked in his life. Brock and Sam had followed suit. Throughout her teenage years they had raised and protected her, sheltered her, and by turns had overseen each adventure in her life. Had overseen them, and had eventually become the adventure. And now here they were yet again. The three of them, faces pale, voices hoarse, as the nurses worked around her.

Between contractions, preparation and the smooth transition from pain to woozy comfort, she watched the three men. They stood silently across the room, their gazes shadowed and worried, flickering with fear. But Cade looked tortured.

“I’m okay,” she whispered, smiling for him as the pain receded. “We’re both going to be fine.”

He moved to her, careful to stay out of the way of the nurses until he could stand beside the hospital bed. Then he laid his head beside hers, his hands tangling in her long hair as he held her to him, his body convulsing with a hard shudder.

“I know,” he whispered bleakly, his voice so haunted with pain it broke her heart. “Everything’s fine. I know that.”

But she could hear his fears. Fears that had only grown as the pregnancy progressed.

“He’ll be as gorgeous as his daddy. And just as strong,” she whispered, well aware of the fact that the child could be no one’s but Cade’s. She had made certain of it.

She had given each of them the illusion that they would be as much a part of the baby as Cade was, to keep that bond alive for them. But privately, she had ensured no other fathered the baby but Cade. He was her soul. Everything that mattered in this world to her.

As his hands tightened in her hair, his body trembling with emotion, Marly feared the changes that would soon come crashing into his life. She wanted her husband happy. Whole. The nightmares were gone, but she knew his fears still lingered. The fear of losing her. Of being alone, deep inside, once again. And she swore to herself in that moment, for Cade, for their baby, she had to make him face the final demon that haunted him. Him, Brock, and Sam.


* * * * *

Brock sat nervously on the uncomfortable couch in the waiting room. He held his wife close to him and watched the clock on the wall across from them. It amazed him. She amazed him. In little more than a year, Sarah had managed to fill his life so completely that he knew he could never ask for more. Yet he had so much more.

Beside him, Sam held Heather as they talked softly. As they both worried about the woman and child Cade was with now. Alone. His brothers weren’t with him. But that was how it should be, Brock thought.

Until this moment, they had shared damned near every minute of that pregnancy with Cade. Had worried with him. Listened to his fears, saw his concerns. And as much as Brock was nervous now himself, he knew this final step was being taken as it should.

His fingers twined in Sarah’s hair, his eyes narrowing at the emotion that had been forming inside him for almost a year now. He could feel the change in the air. From the moment they rushed into Cade’s bedroom after his scream had disturbed Brock’s careful sensual torture of Sarah’s body, Brock had felt it. It moved like a wraith, weaving careful streamers of knowledge through his soul. He sighed deeply. No regret. No sense of nightmare. No overwhelming need to be certain he was still a part of the family, the bond that had saved his life for so many years. He had Sarah. With her, he could survive damned near anything.

“You okay?” She looked up at him, those whisky-colored eyes of hers soothing him as few other things could.

As always, Sarah sensed his feelings, his desires and needs, even before he knew himself.

“Do you know I love you?” he asked her softly.

A smile spread across her lips, through her gaze. “As I love you.”

His arms tightened around her. Change could come, as he knew it would anyway. But as long as Sarah held him, he knew he would survive.


* * * * *

Why didn’t he feel isolated? Sam sat beside Heather, his arm around her shoulders as her head rested against his chest, and frowned at that thought. Why wasn’t he going crazy, the need to be in there with Marly and Cade overwhelming him? He was concerned. Anxious. Sam thought of all the things that could go wrong, but he wasn’t frothing at the mouth to be certain. To share in it, to be assured Cade wasn’t alone. That he himself wasn’t alone.

He smoothed his hands down Heather’s arms, distantly aware of the softness of her skin, the warmth of her body. She was talking about her sister, Tara. He knew what she was doing. Trying to ease his mind. To give him something else to focus on. He frowned. She did that often. When the memories haunted him, it was as though she knew. She knew and she went out of her way to still his demons, to fill his heart.

Strange. He hadn’t seen that before. He had been married to her for well over a year, and was only now just realizing that.

“I told Tara this new assignment was a bad idea.” Heather sighed against his chest. “But she thinks she knows it all. Ryder’s not as easy to handle as she thinks he is. And Rick is just acting damned funny.”

There was a thread of suspicion in her voice. Sam could feel it, but couldn’t put his finger on what it was.

“Rick will keep her safe.” He wondered if that was really what she was worried about.

“Yeah. He will.” He heard the amusement in her voice. “Just like Cade will keep Marly safe.”

Sam frowned. “Of course he will. Cade wouldn’t let anything hurt her.”

“Then stop worrying so much,” she chided him gently. “I know you want to be in the delivery room yourself to be certain, but everything will be okay.”

Sam frowned. “No. No, I don’t.” He hated the streak of selfishness that often filled him. “If it were you, I’d want it to be just us, Heather. Together.”

He hadn’t been jealous when Brock or Cade touched her, loved her. It filled him with a sense of security to know she would always be loved, always cared for if something happened to him. But sometimes…sometimes he wished he didn’t have that need.

“It will be just us, Sam.” She rose from his chest, turning to him, her green eyes dark with love, with dreams and life. “I promise you that. Just us.”

His heart clenched. Something in his soul seemed to shift, though he wasn’t certain what it was.

“I love you,” he whispered.

She smiled that smile. The one that never failed to heat his blood, to mend his heart.

“As I love you, cowboy,” she said gently, leaning forward, her lips touching his. “Always, Sam. As I love you.”

t hadn’t during those bleak, dark days of captivity. So he fought…
 

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