Bearing It All (14 page)

He nodded and tried to reach for her, but his heavy-duty restraints kept his upper legs and paws in place, as well as his thighs and ankles. He was bleeding beneath the steel-reinforced manacles where his struggles had rubbed the hide raw beneath his fur.

She glanced around the room and mentally assumed her military commanding role. “Who is in charge of this patient? I want these restraints removed.” She snapped her fingers. “Immediately! Are you too blind to see they're causing him damage? Or is it that you just don't care how you perform your duties?” She moved a band far enough for Creighton, Laird of the Matheson Clan, to see the blood.

“Ye have me permission to fire any nurse ye see fit.” His anger was quite evident. This bear was his brother, after all.

Anisa surveyed the three nurses in the room, zeroing in on the one whose face was beet red. “Have you ever taken care of a bear before?”

“Once, but he was nothing like this.” The nurse in orange floral scrubs pointed at Magnus with disdain.

“You watch the tone of voice you use with
my
bear. He's a hero. He saved my life today. You will show him some damn respect and that's an order.” Her voice echoed off the walls, prompting everyone into action to remove the manacles.

Once he was free, Anisa cupped his face. “Do you want to hug me, Magnus?”

He nodded and Anisa's heart cracked.

“Now, remember, we will be gentle and no scratching with your claws.”

His jaws popped as his paws reached around her and pulled her close.

“I love you. I love Ronan, too. Ronan is my man. I need you both to sleep so you can get better quicker. No more fighting. I'll be back in the morning after you've slept all night.” She turned to the snippy nurse. “Don't you dare put those restraints back on him. It scares Magnus when he can't move at all. Do I make myself clear?”

The nurse's gaze slid to Creighton, who nodded his approval. “Okay, but if someone gets hurt, you'll have to take the blame.”

“Someone under me protection takes blame from no one, but me.” Laird Creighton motioned with his thumb for the nurse to exit the room. “Tell yer supervisor I said to put ye in charge of bedpans and changing bed linens until I deem otherwise.”

She whizzed out on a huff.

Davina touched Anisa's arm. “Do ye want me to stay with him? With both me husband and me being shifters, I ken how they act and react.” She leaned in so only Anisa could hear. “Tell him I'm yer friend and will follow yer orders on how to take care of him. He needs ointment put on his hide where he's bleeding, so he does.” Davina's head tipped toward the blood oozing through his fur.

Anisa wrapped her arm around the nurse's waist. “Magnus? This is nurse Davina. She's very gentle and we've become fast friends. Her husband is a shifter and so is she, so she'll know how to care for you. Will you be okay with her?”

His dark gaze shifted to Davina and he growled something.

She growled in return and he nodded. “He wanted to ken me husband's name. They ken each other, so they do.” Davina had a warm personality Anisa believed could put anyone at ease.

“Now I'm going to get some ointment to rub on your sore spots where those restraints made ye bleed.” Davina held his paw. “No one will hurt ye again. I won't allow it. Besides, Anisa would knock me on me arse, if I did.”

Anisa ran her palm down Magnus's face and he made the popping noise again. “My bear will be good. Won't you? He's very important to me. I might even name my first bairn after him, if he behaves himself. Will you give Ronan a message for me?”

His eyes glittered and he turned to Creighton to speak with grunts and growls.

Creighton placed his hand on Anisa's uninjured shoulder. “He claims Ronan is pissed with him and the bear's feelings are hurt over it.”

“Why? Because of the condoms?”

Magnus's dark gaze swept to Creighton and he growled to Creighton's bear again.

Creighton shook his head and sighed. “Ye ken Ronan has complained about ye being a willful bear.” Magnus shifted his gaze around and cast woeful eyes on Anisa, as if he were seeking her support. Creighton placed his hand on Anisa's back. “When the helicopters came, Ronan said, ‘Shift.' As the human, he's the boss, but Magnus didna do it. His thinking was a bear blends with other animals. A man would stick out and get hurt quicker. He was only protecting Ronan like he protected ye.”

She wanted to laugh. How did this bear think he'd blend swinging that damn broadaxe like a maniac? “Magnus, you must lie still so your wounds heal. If you wake up and I'm not here, I'm sleeping in my bed. I have to heal, too. Give me another hug before I leave. I'll come see you tomorrow. Promise me you'll be good and take care of Ronan.” Magnus nodded and his eyes drifted shut while she rubbed his ears.

Creighton helped Anisa back in the wheelchair. “Ye are a strong, yet tender woman. Ronan needs that. He wasna so bad until both Bryce and I got married. Then he seemed lost somehow. Och, he treated us all with love, but he didna appear to enjoy life like he once did.”

She glanced over her shoulder as they got on the elevator. “He's still mourning his da's death. He puts on a good front but, with the loss of the security of your da's presence, he's harbored fears all these years. There's an old saying from Wordsworth, I think. ‘The child is father of the man.' What's scarred him as a child affects him still as an adult, even though his mind knows better. His soul hangs on to the old pain. Now, with both his brothers married, he's having to face those fears.”

“Fears?” The elevator stopped to allow two hospital visitors to get on. They were talking about a new baby.

Anisa motioned Creighton closer. “Yes, like his decision not to have bairns because he might die and leave them to grow up fatherless the way he had to.”

“Bloody hell. But he's always had me to protect him, to see to his needs.” There was pain in Creighton's voice as he pushed her off the elevator when it reached her floor.

“Could you stand in front of me, so it doesn't hurt my head to keep looking over my shoulder?”

“Aye.” He pushed her chair off to the side, near a window that showcased the Highland vistas, and squatted in front of her.

“Ronan brags about what a fabulous brother you were as a young kid and are to this day. He worships the ground you walk on. During one of our long talks, he confessed to feeling he can't flirt or attract the kind of woman he wants.” She offered Creighton a small smile. “Although he did a mighty fine job with me. He even admitted to secretly wanting a child of his own, despite his fears. I like to think our budding relationship has helped change his mind about bairns. That he just needs the right kind of female. One who appreciates all his good points, for he has so many.”

He pushed her chair to her room. Two policemen stood guard in the corridor; one on either side of her door. “Are ye here under Kendric's orders?”

A man with ginger hair removed his cap and slipped it under his arm. “Aye, Laird Creighton. The detective's been reviewing the intel the lady here gave him. He's had the hospital records changed to show she's in a different room on the top floor.” He curled his fingers around the pistol in his holster. “We'll be working in teams to guard her door. No one gets past us except nurses and family, including the American with the pink baffies.” He jerked his head toward the closed door and then leaned toward Creighton. “Is she really a witch, sir?”

Creighton laughed. “Now have ye ever known a female who wasna a bit of a witch in her own sweet way? Ye ken how I love me wife. I think it's safe to say she's bewitched me with her kisses and sassy attitude. Even so, 'tis always best to keep Effie on yer side.”

“Creighton, what's a baffie?” Maybe she'd heard Effie correctly when the pink-haired woman said she was a witch, if the policemen were asking about it.

“Baffies are what we Scots call bedroom slippers.” He nodded to the men. “Would one of ye be so kind as to open the door so I can get Anisa back to bed?”

Effie sat perched on a chair, her legs crossed and one pink pelican baffie bobbing up and down as she read what appeared to be a romance novel with a bare-chested man on the cover. “Oh, there you are.” She slipped a bookmark between the pages and closed the book. “Whew, I was just getting to the good part where the hero puts a remote-controlled clit massager in his girlfriend's vagina before taking her to a family Thanksgiving meal.” Effie grinned. “Lawd have mercy! I bet the turkey won't be the only thing smoking at that table.”

Anisa gawked at the lady in pink.
Is it the drugs? I was okay in Magnus's room. Five seconds with her and I'm hearing about clit massagers and smoking female body parts.

“Now would a man be a terrible heathen if he were to present his wife with such an item once she's fully recovered from childbirth? And just where would one buy such a device?” Creighton winked at Effie and the old woman winked back. Both laughed, almost as if in a conspiracy.

“I had to take Anisa down to Ronan's room to calm his bear. He's become very attached to her and 'tis no wonder with the way she treats him.”

“Davina is going to stay with him since she's a shifter. Will I get another nurse?” Anisa glanced at Creighton as he scooped her from the wheelchair and settled her on the bed. Effie stood beside him, helping Anisa out of the robe and pulling the covers over her.

“I'll stay with her for another couple hours, but she will need a nurse to hook her back up to the monitors and IV drip, and to check on her during the night. What about Jaimie? She was so good to me when I was hospitalized here. Could you check her schedule, Creighton?”

He inclined his head and kissed Effie's cheek. “Anything fer ye, luv. I'll see to Jaimie before I go to Kendric's office to talk to him about what he plans to do next.” He took Anisa's hand in his. “Ye are the first woman, other than me beloved wife, to threaten to knock me on me arse. Ye are a scrapper, are'na ye? Aye, me brother needs that. Every man needs to be put in his place now and again. Rest. Ye'll be safe here. I'll see to it.” He kissed her hand and stalked out of the room.

Effie smoothed the linens over Anisa. “You've gotten attached to your bear? He needs you as much as Ronan. Poor fool of a man thought he could go through life without a woman or children. It was eating at him, causing him to slip into a male depression, living a life of quiet desperation. He was becoming one of those grumpy males who silently does for others, but never for himself or his bear.”

“Earlier, I overheard you say I was chosen for Ronan. What did you mean by that?”

Effie reached to fiddle with a pink hoop earring with a peace symbol in the middle. “The Protectors is a coven of witches that heals children and also helps those too weak to protect themselves from the evils of this world—even depression. I do ask that what I share with you about my being Wiccan is kept confidential.” She shrugged. “Some people around here think I'm a witch or just a plain weirdo for the way I dress and act. I accept both titles with pride. Who wants to be a cookie-cutter woman? You're not. You've always done your own thing.”

“True. But I allowed my high rank in the French military to cloud my judgment in some areas. Now Ronan is in danger because of me.”

Effie cupped Anisa's cheek. “My Wiccan sisters and I took a long time to match the two of you. Many olden words were spoken. Incense burned. Crystals, as well as tea leaves, were studied. Charts consulted. Your pasts studied. We noticed an old connection, a friendship that could have grown into romance, but the timing was off.”

Effie shuffled to the foot of Anisa's bed and shook a finger at her. “But now, the timing is perfect. Ronan, who is strong and giving, required a woman to jar him out of his funk, as we hippies used to say.” The old woman winked. “You are strong—both mentally and physically. You require a project to keep your mind and heart busy. And, honey, that man and his bear are so starving for you, they can barely see straight. They have a need to protect you, to love you.”

Effie pushed her pink curls back with her bright pink fingernails. “Oh, Ronan will throw some groovy macho stuff at you. He might even try to push you away because he'll be scared.”

“He did one evening at his cabin. He accused me of making fun of his flirting techniques and he stormed out.” Once she'd realized how easily he misunderstood her, she'd begun to understand him on a deeper level.

Effie curled her wrinkled hands around the railing of the bed and leaned toward Anisa. “Take what you like of his behavior and box his ears when he pisses you off. He's a man. They have a knack for saying dumbass stuff every now and again. God must have been having a migraine the day he created males, because so many have been headaches ever since.”

The door to the room opened and a nurse, whom Effie introduced as Jaimie, quickly hooked Anisa to the monitors and checked her vitals and bandages. She flashed a light in Anisa's eyes. “Ye're concussed just as I read on yer chart. I want ye to sleep.”

“I need to talk to Effie first and I could use some more water.”

Effie brought the straw to Anisa's mouth. “I'll read to her. I've got a book about a couple going to a big family meal that ought to play her out.” Effie, a smudge of pink lipstick on her two front teeth, smiled at Jaimie. “A page or two, and she'll be ready.”

Ready for what is the question. With Ronan in the background and injured, it will be a long time before he can turn me inside out with lust the way he does.

Jaimie smiled and hugged Effie. “That's a great idea. I'll be back later to see how the patient is doing. Are ye still seeing Dr. Earnan?”

Effie patted her pink curls. “We have a saying back in the States. Just because there's some silver smoke in the chimney, doesn't mean there isn't a fire raging in the furnace. Earnan's got plenty of fire, let me tell you.” She winked at Jaimie, who walked out of the room, laughing.

The door no sooner closed than Effie was back on her chair, romance book in hand. “I'll read you the section where he inserts the clit massager into her. She's never had one put there before.” Her pink lips spread into a broad smile. “It's a crotch warmer, let me tell you.” She giggled and suddenly they were like two teenagers reading about sex for the first time, only this was some heavy-duty BDSM.

The last words Anisa heard were “Maximo, the Dom, blindfolding his submissive and pouring hot wax over her labia….“
Yeah, like I'd ever let a guy do that to me. He'd find his shaft in his underwear drawer.

She dreamed of drawers full of cocks, some with balls attached and others wrapped in bows made of ribbons the colors of the French flag.

A slight dizziness still struck Anisa if she turned her head too quickly, but morning had brought a blessed relief to the constant pounding of the blinding headache she'd had the night before. She ate what breakfast her stomach allowed, a couple of bites of yogurt, a slice of toast, and coffee. While some of the staff remade her bed with fresh linens, Anisa walked into the bathroom. The image in the mirror halted her steps. Almost her entire face was bruised. She looked like she'd been in the boxing ring for five hours, being beaten and pummeled.

Once she crawled back into bed, she lifted the receiver to find out how to reach Magnus's room. Davina answered on the second ring.

“How is the patient doing this morning?”

“He's eating pancakes with honey poured over them. If only he kent how to use a fork.” The nurse snickered.

“Oh, I can only imagine the mess. I'm glad he's doing better. I'm sure you're very busy, I won't hold you. I just wanted to check on him.”

Just as she hung up the phone, the door to her room opened and Kendric strolled in, carrying his briefcase and taking the chair Effie had used last night. He wore his kilt with an oxford shirt and necktie, knee stockings and dress shoes. Yet, he had a commanding air about him that allowed him to pull off the outfit. “Good morning, Detective, I suppose you've had a chance to look over my evidence?”

He leaned forward, his legs spread and his hands clasped between his knees. “I havna done anything else since ye turned it over to me. Creighton came to me office last night and we both studied the files ye copied. I rushed home this morning to shower and change clothes. I was eager to see ye and Ronan, once he's able to shift.”

“You didn't show Creighton the videos of me in the shower, I hope.” She did not want Ronan's brother to see them.

“Nay, ye asked me kindly and I've respected yer wishes. In fact, I only fast-forwarded enough to see they'd done a thorough job of bugging and placing cameras in yer apartment. My focus was the evidence of the moles in ICAT, financial records, and emails to a contact in Russia.”

Her heart pounded in her ears. Did he believe her? “And?”

“And Creighton and I both agreed ye were fokin' set up. There are two worthless bastards in the CIA. To the best of our poring over yer intel, the top CIA official assigned to the team, Spencer Wells, had nay knowledge of what was going on. We didna see any evidence pointing to him. Then there was also yer French coworker Major André Mouzon. Although his name wasna mentioned as often. We found that odd. Either he was running the conspiracy, or in just enough to be used when the need arose.”

Anisa struggled to straighten the pillows beneath her so she could sit up straighter. “That's what I found as I went over all the records. Spence is a very by-the-books person. I trusted him, but not enough to go to him with my evidence. The CIA is a very close-knit organization.”

“Aye, so I've always heard.” He leaned back and folded his hands over his waist, his boots clunking a heel-to-toe beat. “But nay group is as close-knit as a band of shifters, no matter the breed—wolves, jaguars, or bears. Creighton's calling a clan meeting this afternoon. He'll share enough to get their support and protection. Nearly a year ago, we had trouble with Bryce's current wife being attacked by a deranged wizard. Although we knew he was out there, we didna provide her with round-the-clock protection. Kenzie snuck out of the house at night to come here to see Bryce. We should have paid closer attention. With ye, we will.”

Jaimie came in and injected medicine into Anisa's IV drip and checked her vitals before quietly slipping out. The blonde with her long hair in a braid smiled shyly at the detective and his gaze followed the sway of her hips in her hurried exit.

Had Anisa known him better, she'd have teased him for eyeing the young nurse. Since she didn't, she figured it would be wiser to stick to the topic at hand. She couldn't tell if he had a sense of humor or not.