Please don’t die.

The cry welled from her very soul. Ethan let out a low groan, and relief blew wild and hot through her veins, making her light-headed in the process.

The door flew open, and the police poured in. There were exclamations, demands for answers, information. It all blurred into one insane litany. She didn’t care what else happened. She only wanted Ethan to live.

“Rachel, sweetheart. Listen to me,” Donovan said calmly. “He was wearing a vest. He took the bullet in the chest. He’ll be okay.”

She stared uncomprehendingly at Donovan, her eyes and mind blank. Then she gazed down in bewilderment at Ethan, whose eyelids fluttered open at that precise moment.

“A vest?” she echoed.

Donovan cut Ethan’s shirt open and pushed the remnants aside. His hands slid down the face of the Kevlar vest, and then he pointed at the bullet lodged in the middle.

“See?” he said to Rachel. “Vest did its job. He’s going to be bruised, and he’ll be sore as hell for a few days, but he’s fine.”

She threw her arms around Donovan’s neck and clung fiercely as her sobs poured out in one relieved, forceful rush.

“Oh God, I was so scared,” she whispered.

Donovan hugged her back, rubbing his hand soothingly up and down her spine.

“You were fierce,” Donovan said. “I’m so damn proud of you, Rachel. We were in the ducts planning to drop in, and then we heard you negotiate for the release of the children, so we waited until they were out of the room.”

“Mr. Winstead?” she asked fearfully as she still clutched at Donovan.

She didn’t want to turn around. Didn’t want to see what had happened.

“And Jennifer?”

“They’re taking the father away now, and Joe has Jennifer,” Donovan said in a low voice.

She sagged against Donovan, but then the sweetest sound she’d ever heard rose from her husband.

“Rachel?”

She pulled away from Donovan and pressed her body down over Ethan’s so her face was level with his.

“Are you all right?” she demanded. “Do you hurt anywhere?”

“I don’t give a fuck about me,” he said gruffly. “I want to know how you and our babies are.”

Her heart filled with so much love that she thought she might burst from it. Relief had weakened her until she bobbled and nearly toppled over on top of him.

Donovan gripped her shoulders, giving her much-needed support as she hung there over Ethan. She stared down at him, tears making her vision all shimmery.

“Me and the babies are fine,” she whispered. “Especially now that I know you’re going to be okay. Don’t ever scare me like that again, Ethan. God, I thought you’d been shot. I didn’t know you had a vest on. I thought I’d lost you.”

“Never going to let you go again,” he muttered. “Stuck with me, baby. You and our babies.”

Two teams of paramedics rushed in and went to Ethan and Rachel separately. When she realized their intention, she turned pleading eyes on Donovan.

“Don’t let them do this. I don’t want to be separated from Ethan. He needs to be checked out, but I’m fine. I’m not hurt.”

Donovan cupped her face. “Do this for us, okay? We’re all frantic with worry over how all this stress and the huge scare has affected you. Just let them take you in, run a few tests. You’ll be home before you know it. But if you don’t go, then Ethan’s going to get all surly, and he’ll refuse treatment because he’ll be worried about you. We need to be sure he didn’t break any ribs.”

“I don’t want to go alone,” she confessed.

“I’ll go with you, sweet pea,” Garrett said as he joined Donovan by Ethan’s side.

“Go with him,” Ethan prompted. “Garrett will watch out for you while I get checked over. My brothers aren’t going to rest until we’re both given a clean bill of health. It’s better to just go with it so we can get it over with quickly.”

“He’s learning,” Donovan said with a grin.

“Joe and Nathan are taking Jennifer out to be reunited with her mom right now,” Garrett said in a low voice.

“Can one of you carry her out into the hall?” one of the paramedics asked. “We can only get one stretcher in here and we’re going to load up her husband first.”

“Not a problem,” Donovan said. He rose and scooped her up in her arms.

Rachel clung to Donovan’s neck as he carried her into the hall and eased her down onto a stretcher. As he arranged the sheet over her, she glanced earnestly up at him.

“Don’t let anyone break the news that I’m pregnant,” she said. “This isn’t the way I want Frank and Marlene to find out.”

Donovan smiled and brushed a kiss over her forehead. “Don’t worry. Our lips are sealed. But congratulations, little mama. I’m so damn proud for you and Ethan.”

His smile was gentle, and there was a wealth of emotion in his eyes. “You’ve come a long way, Rachel Kelly. I never doubted you for a minute.”

“Damn straight,” Garrett said in a gruff voice as he came to stand beside the stretcher.

He reached down to squeeze Rachel’s hand. “I’ve called Sarah and the others. I didn’t want them freaking out and worrying when they heard what was going on. They’re on their way to the hospital, so be prepared for the whole damn family to be there. Sophie was gathering the troops. They’ll probably beat you there.”

Rachel smiled and squeezed Garrett’s hand back. She loved this big, messy, noisy family with all her heart and soul. She wouldn’t change a single thing about them.

Of course, she worried every single time the guys went out on a mission. There was the reasonable fear that one or more wouldn’t return. She could lose Ethan after fighting so hard to get back to him.

But they were the best of men. They had a strong sense of family and justice. It didn’t surprise her at all that they’d been the ones to drop down from the ceiling and to end the standoff. She would have been more surprised if they hadn’t been involved.

Ethan’s brothers crowded around her stretcher, all demanding to know if she was all right.

“I’m fine,” she stressed. “Just shaken up. Please make sure Ethan is all right. He’s the one who was shot.”

“He’s a tough bastard,” Sam said with a chuckle. “Though he did give me a damn heart attack when he stepped in front of that bullet.”

Rachel shuddered and felt the blood drain from her face.

Nathan stroked his hand over her head. “Don’t worry about Ethan. They’ll load you both up and get you to the hospital. If I know the grumpy bastard, he’ll raise so much hell that they won’t be able to wait to get rid of him. He’ll probably show up in your exam room and be done before you are.”

Rachel glanced anxiously over at Ethan, who was predictably protesting the need to go to the hospital at all. Then he seemed to have lost her in the crowd of people crammed into the room and hallway, and he let out a bellow of displeasure.

Sam glanced up as a grim-faced older man stalked toward him. He let his hand briefly touch Rachel’s shoulder.

“I’ll see you at the hospital. There are things here I need to take care of. Garrett will ride with you and stay until Ethan is cleared.”

“Is everything okay, Sam?” she asked in alarm.

He smiled and leaned down to kiss her forehead. “Nothing that won’t work itself out. I have to smooth some ruffled feathers, and then I have to call my wife. She’s been blowing up my phone, and she’s not very happy with me because I didn’t tell her the entire story. I’m sure she’ll be waiting at the hospital to light into me.”

Rachel grinned, relief so sweet in her blood that she was intoxicated. Her family would be waiting at the hospital. Her sisters by marriage. Ethan’s brothers would all be there soon. Frank and Marlene would rush in and take over.

She closed her eyes and leaned back on the stretcher, emotionally exhausted by the stress of the morning.

As soon as her stretcher was pushed into the bright wash of sunshine, the world dissolved into chaos. The media was shouting questions. Parents were demanding answers. People asked if she was alive.

She opened her eyes just to answer that particular question, but she remained quiet, the buzz of questions swimming in her ears until she wanted to cover them to shut out the cacophony.

She and Ethan were loaded onto waiting ambulances, and she stared through the open back doors at the sea of police, media, and general public. It looked as if half of Tennessee was gathered on the middle school parking lot.

Then the medic attending her climbed into the back and shut the doors, obscuring her view. The ambulance pulled away, leaving the flashing lights and mob of people behind as it headed toward the hospital.

“You okay?” Garrett asked. “Sarah’s texting me wanting to be sure I’m taking good care of you. If she gets it in her head I’m falling down on the job, she’ll kick my ass.”

Rachel laughed and put her hand out for the phone. Garrett relinquished it with a grin, and Rachel quickly sent a text to Sarah telling her she was fine and then affixed her name to the bottom of the text.

Barely seconds later, the text came back from Sarah. Just two words.

Thank God.

“I’m so lucky to have all of you,” Rachel whispered.

Garrett gave her an indulgent smile and then ruffled her hair affectionately. “We’ve been friends a long time, sweet pea. I think it’s safe to say that we’re lucky as hell to still have you. Ethan knows it too. He may be stubborn as hell, but he’s not dumb.”

Rachel closed her eyes, no longer able to keep her head up. It was plenty warm in the ambulance, but a chill had settled bone deep, and she shook from head to toe.

She heard Garrett’s worried demand to the medic and the medic’s reassurance that it was just shock. A warm blanket slid over her body and was tucked around her neck. Garrett’s hand curled around hers, gripping it tightly.

Now that she allowed herself to think of all that had happened that morning, she was ready to completely lose her cool. She could have died. One of the children could have gotten hurt or killed.

Ethan could have died.

It was more than she could hold up under any longer.

Chapter 13

“I don’t need goddamn x-rays!” Ethan roared. “What I need is to see my wife!”

Donovan put his arm out to push Ethan back onto the bed. “Look, if I go check in on her and get a report from Garrett, will you shut the hell up and get the damn x-ray? You’re making things worse by raising so much hell. If you’d just let them do the x-ray, you’d be done and out of here, and you could go be with Rachel.”

Ethan pushed up from the bed, holding his chest where the bullet had bruised his ribs through the vest.

“Just give me a damn shirt and not one of those fucking hospital gowns either,” he said in a testy voice.

He wasn’t in the mood to play nice. The very last thing he cared about was whether he’d cracked a rib. It was obvious that he hadn’t broken one or done serious damage. If the x-ray showed minor fractures of his ribs, what the hell could they do about it anyway? All they’d do is tell him to take it easy and give him something for pain.

The best thing they could do to ease his pain was to let him get to Rachel.

Donovan sighed in exasperation and then tossed him a T-shirt from his pack.

“Get your dumb ass dressed while I find out where they put Rachel. Swear to God, if you so much as move before I get back, I’ll hold you down while they sedate you. You can’t go barging through the E.R. scaring the shit out of the other patients.”

“Then hurry the hell up,” Ethan snapped.

He yanked on the T-shirt, wincing when his knuckles brushed over the tender spot on his midsection. Not that he’d admit it in a million years, but he hurt like a son of a bitch. Taking a bullet close range, even with the vest on, wasn’t exactly a walk in the park.

A bruise the size of a softball had already formed.

But that’s all it was. A bruise. Hell if he was going to be sidelined over a damn bruise. He’d endured worse, and nothing was going to keep him from Rachel.

He was getting fidgety when Donovan finally walked back into the tiny cubicle. He lunged up from where he had been leaning against the bed and confronted his brother.

“So where is she? And is she all right?”

Donovan held up his hands. “Garrett’s with her, and Ma just got here. The wives are in the waiting room, and Dad’s on his way to see you right now. Just settle down. Let Dad see that you’re okay, and then we can all go down and see Rachel. The E.R. is a madhouse, and they’ve had to position police officers to keep the media out. Getting home is going to be interesting.”

Ethan sighed and leaned back against the bed again. He was going to go out of his mind if he didn’t get to Rachel soon, but he also didn’t want his Dad worried about him. The last thing Frank Kelly needed was more stress. He’d already had one heart attack, and Ethan wasn’t going to be responsible for giving him another.