Indecent Danger (Danger Incorporated #3)(65)

“What if she isn’t?” Travis asked quietly as if he was trying to keep the secret from himself. If he didn’t say it too loudly he might not hear the words and then it couldn’t possibly happen. “What if she doesn’t make it?”

Shane grabbed Travis by his shirt and dragged him to his feet so they were nose to nose. “Don’t even say that. You two are going to live happily f*cking ever after, you got that? Someone has to. It sure as shit won’t ever be me. She’s going to pull through and you’re going to have six kids all named Shane, you *.”

Travis knew that Shane had some deep personal crap that he kept well hidden. There was a woman, but who she was and what she meant was a mystery.

“I’m not naming my kids Shane.”

Both men began to smile and then the tears started. Travis let them fall unashamedly and Shane wasn’t too much of a man to join in.

“Sure you are. It’s a great name. Boy or girl.”

If Aubrey made it through this Travis would name their kids after the doctors that saved her life.

In fact, he didn’t need kids, or a house, or a dog, or any of that stuff to be happy.

He just needed Aubrey.





Chapter Thirty-Three




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Every bone and muscle in Aubrey’s body ached. She tried to move her arms and legs but they felt weighted down, heavy like lead. Panicking, her lids flew open and she groaned as bright sunlight bore into her corneas, sending shards of pain through her skull.

“Easy, baby. Easy. Everything’s okay. You’re fine.”

Those smooth, hushed tones belonged to Travis and she felt herself relaxing under his warm touch, his hands running up and down her arm while his fingers brushed at her cheek.

“Travis,” she croaked, her throat parched and sore. “Where? What?”

“Let’s set you up a little and get you something to drink. Then we can talk. You’ve had everybody mighty worried.”

Travis pressed a button on the side of the bed and the mattress lifted her up until she could finally look into his warm green eyes. He poured some water from a plastic pitcher into a glass and held the straw up to her lips to let her drink greedily.


“Not too much until the doctor takes a look at you. I don’t want you to be sick.”

She swallowed the cool liquid that tasted like the sweetest ambrosia. A sweeping gaze around the room told her she was in the hospital but her mind didn’t seem to want to work out how or why.

“I feel like a truck hit me.”

Travis grinned and chuckled, pressing a chaste kiss to her forehead before going over to the windows and shutting the blinds. The relief to her pounding skull was immediate and welcome.

“I’m not surprised, considering everything you’ve been through.”

“You look awful. Have you been sick too?”

Now that she could really look at Travis, she was shocked. He looked like he was dead and didn’t have enough sense to lie down. His skin was pasty, his eyes bloodshot and red-rimmed, and his clothes were hanging off his body as if he hadn’t eaten in days.

“I’ve had better weeks, baby. But seeing you with your eyes open makes up for everything. Do you remember why you’re here?”

She was about to shake her head and say no, but then flashes of memory ran through her head and she remembered that afternoon and Tom Lovell.

“Tom shot me.” Tears began to well up and then another memory had her struggling to sit up. “Caroline! Is Caroline okay? Oh God, he said he was going to make it look like a murder-suicide.”

Travis gently pressed her back to the bed, whispering soothing words as he stroked her damp forehead. “Caro’s fine. She left the hospital yesterday after surgery on her hand. You were the one that took the brunt of things. You were the one we were all worried about.”

Gulping in air, Aubrey let her heart rate return to something close to normal, although with all the tubes and machines hooked up to her she wasn’t sure what normal was anymore.

“We rushed him. We knew we only had one chance to get the gun from him.”

From the pained expression on Travis’s face he already knew the story from Caroline.

“You were very brave, baby. I only wish I’d been there to protect you. I’m so sorry I wasn’t there when you needed me.”

She lifted her left hand, unencumbered by an IV, and cupped his handsome face. Several days’ growth of whiskers brushed her palm but she welcomed the roughness against her fingers.

“It wasn’t your fault. We caught Tom trying to plant evidence against Alana. If you had been there he would have tried to kill you too.”

A muscle jerked in Travis’s jaw and she heard him take a few deep breaths. “If I’d been there you wouldn’t have been in front of that gun. I would have taken that bullet. That’s what a man is supposed to do.”

The Anderson men had a code of conduct that didn’t leave much room for error. Travis wasn’t cutting himself any slack even though he had worked hard to clear her and his friend’s names.

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. I’m kind of hoping actually that I’m done being in dangerous situations where you have to drag me to the hospital. How about we become the world’s most boring couple?”