Page 16 of Ethan

He ate her, using his tongue to bring her twice more before he licked her shoulder. He needed to mark her. Needed more than anything to make her his again and again, he bit down on her shoulder and felt the connection between them more profound than ever before.

After licking the wound closed, not even realizing that he’d bitten her so hard, he rolled over and left her there. If he’d had the energy, he would have pulled her atop him and slept. As it was now, he thought that he was just simply too tired to close his eyes, much less cuddle with his mate.

Waking up once in the middle of the night, Ethan reached for his phone. He didn’t know where he was for a few minutes so he was confused when someone at the other end kept asking for Doctor Tucker. When he was able to get things all straightened out, he was given a briefing on the patient that he needed to go to the hospital and see.

Getting up, he showered quickly and was drying off when Shawn joined him. Telling her what was going on, she told him that she thought it was a good idea to get up as well. No amount of convincing had her going back to bed. In the end, the two of them had a nice but light breakfast together before he made his way to the hospital. Being on call surely made it for sleeplessnights. But Ethan thought that he’d have it no other way. He loved his job.

A few weeks ago, he thought that he was going to have to quit his dream job when the hospital was figuring out who was going to be in charge of the department. A lot of things came to light, one of them being that the doctor who had been in charge before him had been a drunk. Not him, but his brother had had a run-in with the local surgeon, and it had not ended well for the older man at all.

Just as he was pulling up in front of the emergency department, parking in his own space, he made his way into the rooms that would hold the patient that he’d gotten here for. Taking one look at the man’s badly bruised and beaten body, he started barking orders that had the entire staff running around to do his bidding. It wasn’t until they were in the operating room that he had a moment to look over the file that had been sent to him.

Backing away from the sterile area, he asked his head nurse to call in another surgeon. That the man on the table was his stepson. He would do it, he told his staff, but he’d rather not. Three calls were made, and since he was already ready to go, Ethan was asked to assist.

The man had been beaten so badly that he wouldn’t have known him from one of his brothers. Usually, he never knew the names of the people that he was to work on in the operating room. Only their needs were ever given to him, and that was all. The only reason that he’d been able to know that this was Shamus was the tattoo that was on his right hand that looked like it was a crude adaptation of a house. Which house could only be answered by the artist. Who he thought as Shamus himself.

Once the surgeon came in, Doctor Wilson, he was able to step back and was only there to answer questions. Rarely did anyone ask the second surgeon much, but he was there in the event thatsomething came up.

Shamus coded twice on the operating table. Wilson had been working on putting his skull back together when one of the nurses noticed that there was blood coming from Shamus and dripping onto the floor. Since there was very little that could be done without stopping the surgery, they only hoped that he wouldn’t bleed out before they were finished with his head.

After everything that could be done for Shamus was finished, now it was up to the other man as to him living or not. There was a very slim chance that he’d not pass away anyway, even after having him in the operating room for over six hours, but his chances were better than they had been before. When he came out after changing and cleaning up, Shawn was there to meet him.

Holding her in his arms, she told him how much she loved him and that she knew that he had done the best that he could with the other doctor. Wilson had been out to see her before he had arrived and he was happy for that. He’d be able to give her more hope than he had for Shamus, and that was the truth of the matter.

Chapter 7

“When we arrived at the scene where your son was being beaten, he told us to go away, that he had things under control. It didn’t look like it to any of us, but we did back off when Shamus told us to. Under the law, we can’t help anyone that doesn’t want it.” Shawn nodded, telling the officer who had come to talk to them about Shamus and him being beaten by a group of men that he’d paid to hurt him. Either he had, or the men had gone too far in their beating, and it cost him his life. “Once he declared that he’d had enough—to be honest with you, ma’am, we didn’t think that he was going to take any more from the beating than he already had when we arrived, once he told them that he’d had enough, they took off running and never looked back. However, I want you to know that since Shamus seemed to have things in his control, we stood by in the event that things, whatever was going on, were in his control until the end. After the group left, he told us to call you first off then to call 911. We didn’t quite do it that way and called for help first then you on the way to the hospital. He was talking to us when they loaded him in the ambulance.”

“How long do you think this had been going on? And why do you think that he paid the men that were beating on him?” Shawn didn’t ask any more questions but let Hudson do it. Her heart was still tender from the note that had been given to her after the failed surgery in an attempt to save his life. The officer said that he thought things had been going on for at least twenty or so minutes before they arrived. “Then you said you were there for the next ten minutes. In that time, he didn’t ask for you to step in?”

Hudson Tucker, older brother to Ethan had shown up about the time the police had. He was an attorney for the family; he and his wife were still trying to figure out who wanted to bethe stay-at-home parent, and he’d been asking the questions of the officers at the incident for the last two hours. Asked to be excused, she made her way to the kitchen when she was okayed to leave them to it. Ethan was at the hospital right now being asked similar questions about Shamus, and it was suddenly too much for her.

“I’m sorry for your loss.” Nodding at Brook when she appeared in the room, she asked her when was the last time she ate anything. “There is a lot going on, and you don’t want to fall ill just now. Just, even if it’s only a couple of bites, please eat something.”

While cookies and a few other fruits were set before her, all she could manage was to pick up a grape and play with it. She’d been called to the hospital only yesterday when she’d been notified that her son had been hurt badly and then taken to the hospital in a police cruiser to expedite his arrival.

“Do you need anything?” Shaking her head, she told Brook that she didn’t. That she was just fine. “You’re far from being just fine, and I think we both know that. When did they call in the police for this? I’m assuming the police are trying to cover their asses on what really happened.”

Instead of saying anything, she simply handed the written note from her son that he made sure she was to get. Also, the bill for him being beaten to shit as well for the men that had done the deed for him. Five hundred dollars that was all he had charged the men for beating him to death, as it turned out. He told her that she was to pay it so that he wouldn’t be beaten up again. Once was enough for him.

Brook started reading it to herself, but Shawn had a sudden thought that she might have misread something in the note, so she asked her to read it to her. After getting herself and Brook a glass of water, she waited for the other woman to start.

“Mother, you’ll have to allow me into our home now, won’tyou? How would it look if you tossed me out of my own home when I’ve been beaten up? Not good at all, I’m assured of that. But you will do this for me. You’ll cater to my every whim and without any kind of backtalk, either. Once I’m healed, in about a week, I would imagine, then you will never push me out of the way again.” Brook looked at her. “He was a ballsy sort of shit, wasn’t he?” That made her laugh. She continued reading after that.

“I have a list of rules that you’ll be following. The first thing is that I want you to publicly apologize for the way that you’ve treated me since you’ve come to this area. And for sending me out of that restaurant when you knew that I wanted to speak to you. I will never forgive you for treating me less than my position as your oldest son. Secondly, you’ll give me full access to all the funds. In that, I will have control over everything that you seem to be flittering away without any thought to my needs. There will be more, I’m sure. But for now, that should suffice the fact that I’m in control of you forever.

“Now, regarding that man, you claim to be married to. I’ll allow that if he behaves himself. I doubt very much that he’ll stay with you very long. Especially when he has no more access to my funds. But you will not have other children, especially male children, so long as I’m alive.” Brook looked at her. “I take it he didn’t know that you already have four children, one of them being a male.” She went on with the letter then. “Nor will I allow either of you to make out a will unless I approve the wording at it. You’re not going to be tossing me out again.

“I know that I keep saying that, but you have a bad habit of pushing me away. I will not have that done to me anymore. Do you understand me?” Brook looked at her and the other pages that had been given to her. “I’m wondering now if there wasn’t a few screws loose in his head. I mean, demanding that you have no more children? That’s none of his business.”

“You should read the rest of the rules. He also tells me that I’m not going to have any money, ofmymoney nor a credit card unless he approves the purchases. Also it will have a limit on it so that I don’t go crazy and spend his money. And that if I need something, anything at all, he will make sure that I have it unless it’s not something that he approves of.” She laughed a little when she thought of something else. “He really thought that he could keep me under lock and key, didn’t he? And apparently, Ethan and I would, too, have separate homes. So he can keep and eye on us to ensure that we weren’t making other children. I never realized what a monster he was until now. I mean, I knew that he was slightly off, but this takes the cake.”

“I can’t get over the fact that he hired three men to beat him up so that he’d have to be taken into your home. What on earth did he think that was going to accomplish?” Shawn nodded, her heart not broken for the loss of her child but that he had thought so very little of her. “What’s on the agenda now, honey? I know that you were going to have him cremated, but that’s been put on hold for a while.”

“They want to clear us all of the wrongdoing. I don’t blame them. I think after reading this letter, most will believe that he caused this all on his own. Hudson said that he was proud of Ethan for not going ahead with the surgery. Since he died, it won’t come back on him.” There were other things in the letter to her too but right now she couldn’t think about it. “Ethan and I are going on a trip. He won’t tell me where, but I’ll be happy that this is all over. It’ll be something that the children will enjoy too. I think they have an idea of what is going on but they’re being really supportive of us both.”

“Kids are wonderful about giving comfort when you didn’t know that you need any. I love those kids of yours. Oh, didn’t I tell you? No one can be found for the four of them. And the one relative that might have been related to them has declined totake anyone but the baby. I’m glad that the judge made it so that they were kept together as a family.” She was, as well. “As soon as it’s official, I’ll have the paperwork done for you so that you don’t have to worry.”

“Thank you for that.” Shawn thought of something else. “Everyone thinks that we’re married. Has that paperwork been filed as well? I hope so. I don’t think that I have it in me to plan anything much more than dinner right now, and we have a cook for that.” Brook told her that it was all taken care of.