* * * *
Ben had made it around the driver’s door when the car swung around and into the back of Libbie’s.
We’re going to owe her a new car.
The thought flitted through his brain in the space of time it took him to draw his weapon and come up, ready to fire. When he saw the driver point his weapon at Allan, he fired first, taking the guy’s head off and leaving a spray of blood and brain matter on the inside of the driver’s window.
He met Allan’s gaze and started to yell at him to take cover, when another car veered past, taking out the driver’s door and throwing him ten feet through the air, where he landed on his back by Allan’s front tire.
His gun flew from his hand as the wind was knocked out of him.
* * * *
“Yeah!” Florio screamed as he saw the man go flying. He slammed the car into park and jumped out, ready to finish the fucker off when the guy’s twin launched himself at him over the hood of the wrecked Toyota, knocking him to the ground.
* * * *
Allan lost his gun when he tackled the man. He nearly had him when the fucker got a lucky punch in and broke free, aiming his gun at Ben. He’d started to kick at him when he heard Libbie scream from behind him.
“No!”
Instinctively, as the gunman turned toward Libbie, Allan dove for her, wrapping his arms around her and shielding her body with his. He didn’t know if the impact he felt in the middle of his spine was from them hitting the pavement, or from the shot that he heard ring out. Either way it felt like someone had taken a sledgehammer to his ribs in an attempt to pound the air from his lungs.
* * * *
Libbie felt the air crushed from her as she hit the ground underneath Allan. She was vaguely aware of people running up, cops in SWAT gear. One of them pulled her out from under Allan, but the world moved in slow motion. She turned back toward Allan as they forcibly dragged her away. She saw he wasn’t moving.
And that the back of his shirt looked like it had been blown open. She fought, screaming, as she lost sight of him as two men bent over him. Ben was slowly sitting up with the assistance of someone else and she sobbed in relief at that, but still clawed at the two men now dragging her away to get free.
She had to get back to Allan.
Her ears still rang from the sounds of the blasts and she could barely hear what anyone was saying.
“…shot…”
“…officer down…”
“…ambulance…”
That was when her stomach lost the battle she’d fought against morning sickness all morning. Everything she’d eaten in their room a little after dawn came roaring back up as her world went black.
“Take it easy, ma’am. You’re okay.”
Libbie tried to sit up, but realized she’d been strapped down and from the looks of it was in the back of an ambulance. The weight pressing against her chest from the bulletproof vest she wore didn’t help. She immediately began struggling with the EMT, thrashing and screaming at him to let her up. He tried to hold her down when she slipped an arm free and clawed at him.
“I need some damn help back here!” the man yelled. “She’s going crazy!”
The rear doors flew open. Libbie made out two dark figures backlit by the bright afternoon sun. As they scrambled inside, she sobbed with relief when two Donohue brothers pushed in, one on either side of the stretcher, to calm her. One was shirtless, the other had a streak of dried blood down his left temple.
She grabbed their hands and quit fighting. Her screams turned to relieved sobs as she squeezed their hands as hard as she could to reassure herself there were two and not just one of them in some crazy double-vision illusion.
“You’re okay,” Ben said, the dried blood apparently not indicating a serious wound. “Calm down.”
“You got shot,” she said to Allan, who winced as he moved as if he was in a lot of pain.
“Bulletproof vest.” He leaned in and kissed her, groaning as he did. “Fucker would have shot you if I hadn’t. What the hell were you thinking, baby?”
“Are you all right? Are both of you all right?”
“Yeah, we’re okay,” Ben said, “but Jake is pretty damn upset.”
“Jake?”
Allan nodded. “Poor guy’s sitting on the ground with an icepack on his balls. Did you have to kick him in the nuts? He was trying to help keep you safe.”
She felt her face heat. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”
Someone leaned into the back of the ambulance. “Detective Donohue? The major needs to speak with you.”
“Be right there.” He kissed her before he unhooked the gurney straps. “You. Stay. Here. And quit fighting and kicking everyone. You already threw up on two SWAT guys in addition to poor Jake.”
She didn’t miss the proud twinkle in his eye.
“And she tried to take my eyes out,” the EMT grumbled from somewhere behind her head.
She looked back. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I’ll behave. I promise.”
Allan leaned back, wincing in pain.
“You want me to take a look at you?” the EMT asked.
He shook his head. “I can wait. How is she?”
“Who’s the lucky father again?” the EMT asked.
“It doesn’t matter.”
The EMT snorted. “Yeah, it will to him. If she’s this wound up and only in her first trimester, I pity the guy who’s got to put up with her hormones for the other six or seven months.”
Allan winked at Libbie. “You just have to know how to hold her down is all.”
I wonder if the same superstition about rain on wedding days applies to fog?
Libbie looked outside the bathroom window. She’d barely made it to the toilet in time to empty her bladder. Now with that chore taken care of, she saw the fog, which had moved in late the night before, still clung to the ground, swirling around the trees in the wooded lot behind the bakery.
Yesterday had been a foggy Thanksgiving morning. Looked like today would follow suit.
“Did you fall in?” Ben called out.
Somewhere in the living room, Allan snickered. “She’s too big to fall in.”
“Bite me!” she called back, unable to suppress her smile.
“We will!” they both yelled back.
She washed her hands and waddled out into the living room. Ben was starting the coffee, while Allan had turned the TV on to the morning news. He leaned over and lifted her nightshirt to kiss her swollen belly. “Good morning, munchkins.”
“Yeah, you say that now,” she said as she stretched her back with a groan. “You just wait until you and Ben are doing midnight feedings. Mornings won’t look so good then. You didn’t spend the night with them trying to kick your bladder into a pulp.”
She heard the sound of feet pounding up the stairs before someone rapped on the door.
knockknockknock
“Libbie.”
knockknockknock
“Libbie.”
knockknockknock
“Libbie.”
“Ah, the bridesmaids are early.” Allan opened the door. Mandaline and Sachi stood there, Mandaline holding a large, white garment bag, and Sachi carrying a duffel bag.
“What are you two still doing here?” Mandaline scolded. “Get out! You can’t see the bride before her wedding.”
“They did more than see her,” Sachi joked, pointing at Libbie’s belly.
“We’re going,” Ben said. “You didn’t want us leaving you with her without making her coffee first, did you?” He brought a steaming mug over to Libbie, who gratefully took it. He kissed her. “We’re going. We’re heading across the hall to get our showers, and we’ll see you at Grover’s at noon.” He kissed her one more time. “Love you.”
Allan kissed her as well. “Love you.”
She smiled. “Love you both.”
“Oh, for crap’s sake,” Sachi teased, “they knocked you right the hell up already. Quit with the mooney eyes for all of a few hours so we can make an honest woman out of you, cancha?”
The morning flew by, with her friends helping her get her hair and makeup done, helping her dress, and Libbie was ready to go when the limo pulled up, with Grover in the back, at a quarter ’til twelve to ferry them over.
Grover climbed the stairs to help her down. She didn’t miss the way his eyes suddenly looked too bright as he stared at her. “My, you’re beautiful, missy.”
“Dammit, Grover,” Sachi scolded as she fussed with Libbie’s train. “Don’t you dare cry and make her cry.”
Mandaline laughed. “Okay, let’s get moving.”
Grover hugged Libbie. “Your mom and dad would be so proud of you.”
She couldn’t help but think of her parents all morning. The men had immediately agreed to her request to stop by the cemetery after the wedding and reception were over, to lay some flowers at their graves.
Then when they reached Miami, where they were spending their honeymoon, she wanted to visit the graves of their mom and dad, too.
She tightly held on to Grover’s arm as he helped her down the stairs. “How are those babies this morning?” he asked.
She laughed. “I know the doc said I’m not due for another few weeks, but I’ll be happy when they come.” Two boys, both healthy, as proclaimed by her ob-gyn, who’d performed the necessary tests to prove to Libbie that her babies were fine.
Grover let out a sad sigh. “I know your mom and dad never told you this, but twins run in your family, too.”
She stopped, shocked. “What?”
He nodded. “They had a set of boys before you were born.” He looked sad. “Stillborn. Your momma was heartbroken. Your dad told me they weren’t going to tell you until or unless you had kids of your own. That’s why they didn’t have any other kids after you. Your mom was too afraid to lose another baby.”
“That’s why,” she said, feeling a little numb, “when I asked her why they didn’t have any more kids, she told me that they got it right the first time and didn’t need to try again.”
“Hey!” Sachi yelled up the stairs. “Those kids are going to be in college by the time we get there if you don’t hurry up!”
They continued down the stairs. “She’s feisty, isn’t she?” Grover asked.
Libbie laughed. “That’s one word for it. But I love her.” In the months since returning to Brooksville following the showdown at the storage yard, and the subsequent hearings and depositions and trial, Libbie had become quite close with Sachi, and even closer with Mandaline. As well as several other regulars from Many Blessings. Mandaline and Sachi had even made several trips with her from Brooksville to Miami when both Allan and Ben were stuck there during the trial.
Bianco had been arrested immediately, his bond revoked after two of his men at the showdown quickly cut a deal with the Feds to testify against him, as did Bianco’s in-house computer geek.
They also provided information tying the mob boss to the death of the witness found in Naranja, and to Leeza Maxwell’s murder.
Libbie didn’t know what she would have done without the women’s support and love throughout the long and arduous summer.
Today, however, Libbie didn’t want to think about any of that. Bianco would never be free again. Today was about dreams coming true. Sachi would be her maid of honor, while Mandaline performed the ceremony.
And Grover would walk her down the aisle and give her away.
They’d decided she would legally marry Ben. Even though he’d already resigned from the department, she could get coverage through his health insurance.
And she’d already made peace with the fact that she didn’t care which man had fathered her children…or which one might father any future children. They were both the fathers, just as they were both her men.
She blinked as they stepped out the door and into the sunlight. “Looks like the fog’s finally lifted,” she noticed.
Sachi, who’d grabbed Libbie’s train as she emerged from the building, waved her toward the car. “Fog, schmog. We’ve got a wedding to get to.”
Grover and the driver helped her in, followed by Mandaline and Sachi, before the driver closed the door and they departed for Grover’s house. Between the Johnson brood and her friends and customers, there were over a hundred expected to swarm the house and property.
Luckily, Sachi had suggested renting portable toilets to handle everyone.
It wasn’t until Grover and Libbie paused at the end of the aisle and she looked down to where Allan and Ben waited for her that she finally accepted her dream was coming true. With the wedding processional music softly playing, the crowd stood and turned to watch her approach.
“Grover?”
“Yeah, sweetie?”
She smiled. “I think you don’t need to worry about needing your woodchipper anymore.”
He laughed and squeezed her arm. “No, baby doll, I’d say those boys have done more than right by you. You happy?”
She nodded. “Happier than I’ve ever been.”
“It’s a sweet life.”
Libbie happily sighed. “It sure is.”
THE END