Page 3 of Marshall

“First off, she won’t care for you calling her Maggie.I don’t think.I know that some of her men call her that, and it pisses her off something—Is she really going to be all right?Don’t butter me up.Just tell me.”He told her that she would be better than all right now.She gave him a side look.“You know something, don’t you?”

“Yes, ma’am.I do.As I said, it’s nothing—” She told him to get on with it.“Maggie or whatever she prefers for me to call her is…I belong to her.As in, I’m her mate.”He asked her if she understood the meaning of that.Nodding, she stared at the man.“Good.I’m older than I look.By a great deal.Older than you but a great many years as well.I’ve been around since the only people here were the Indians that laid claim to—hundreds and hundreds of years old.”

“You’re trying to tell me something more.I know it.But I will tell you that my granddaughter, she’s not going to like this none.She’s been, you might say, that she and her sister are a tad jaded about men in general.”Marshall told her that he could understand that as well.“What else?I’m assuming you have more.”

“Yes, ma’am, I do.A great deal more.I’m an immortal, and from the moment that I claimed, with words only, I promise you, the moment that I acknowledged Maggie, she became an immortal.The same with you and DJ, too, if you wish.”She did have to ask him what that meant.“It means that you won’t die, not from anything.Neither will either of the girls…women die either.I didn’t claim your sons because I thought that I’d leave that up to you and the women.”

Mitzy thought of something else.However, she wasn’t sure that she wanted to voice it.Instead of asking him right off if that was the only reason that her granddaughter was still alive, because of him, Mitzy asked him if he had a place where they could be safe.More than anything, she wanted to ask him.But she’d leave that for another day.It was then that the doctor came down the hall as well,and she had a bright smile on her face.It was more than she could have hoped for.

Chapter 2

Opening her eyes, she felt the heaviness of the drugs she’d been given weigh them down again.There were people in the room with her.In only a little glance, she saw her grannie and sister.If there were others in there, she didn’t care right now.Trying to get her eyes to stay open, she did take a look at her grannie.

When her grannie had had surgery a couple of weeks ago, it occurred to her that she was getting older-looking.She’d always been old to her, grannie having been around her entire life.However, now she looked to her as if she had aged several years since the day before she’d been shot.

If not for her, she wasn’t sure what would have happened to her and her sister all those years ago.But as far as she knew, they were all safe.Someone cleared their throat and she turned her head slightly to see the big man that had been in her ride with her.

“You’re going to be just fine, Maggie.Can I call you that?”She was just forming the words to deny him calling her anything so personal, but he was moving on quickly.“You were shot twice.Once in your arm, that went through and entered your chest.Your grandmother doesn’t know that part.She only knows that you were shot in the upper arm.There was a shot to your leg that had shattered your femur.And in doing that, you had a great deal of bone mass in the area that had to be removed.”

He asked her if she needed a minute to think.Shaking her head, he moved on.It was then that she realized that he was speaking to her through a link.One that she thought that they’d made on the ride to the hospital.

“Additionally, you have a concussion.I’m assuming that you got that when your head snapped back when you hit the ground hard when landing the second time.That is healing nicely.Any questions so far?”She asked him what they’d talked about in the ride here.“I claimed you.I was going to work up to that part of what happened, but your grannie told me that you’re the type of person that likes straight up, that you don’t like pussy footing around when it comes to information.”

“Meaning?”It was getting more and more difficult for her to grasp what was being said to her, so she let her eyes close and sleep take her under.Whatever happened now, she had an idea that this man was going to make sure that she was safe.A strange thought about someone she’d only just met.

The next time that she woke up, not at all sure how long she’d been sleeping, the room was dark, and there didn’t seem to be anyone in the room that she could see.Moving her legs, just so that they didn’t cramp up, she felt the pain of it immediately.Her left leg was on fire with pain.

“I have you.”She’d not realized that she’d cried out until a man’s voice spoke to her from her right.Turning slowly so that she’d not hurt anywhere else, MJ asked him to turn on a light.Asking her to close her eyes, she heard the small click and opened her eyes again.It was Marshall.The man she’d spoken to all the way to the hospital.“Your grannie went to my house to get some sleep.She and DJ are going to come back in the morning.They’re safe there.Plus, there are agents with them in the event someone tries to harm them.”

“When?”She licked her lips, trying again.“When was I shot?”Marshall said that she was shot eight days ago and has been recuperating since.“Grannie?DJ?All right?”

“Yes.I’ve made sure that they’ve both been eating and not skipping meals.We have a cook now.I never thought of that when I got the house, but it’s working out well.If you don’t like it, you can always say so.”She told him to slow down.His laughter made her smile.It was as if he’d been caught off guard by it.“Do you remember the conversation we had when I brought you here?About I being your mate?”

“Some of it.”She wanted to sit up, and she wanted to go back to sleep, too.There was simply too much going on for her to make heads or tails about things.“You saved my life.”

“Yes.You saved mine as well.I had no intention of finding another mate this late in my life.But here you are.And I couldn’t be happier.”She told him to hold his horses.“I can do that.You’re tensing up.Are you in pain again?They said you can have as much as you need.”

“I’m not too sore right now, but it’s there.Right on the edge of my mind.”She didn’t raise her head but found the buttons for the bed and slowly raised herself up.When it started to hurt, she stopped.“You said something in the ride.Something about claiming me.I’m assuming that’s what saved my life.”

“You’d been shot in your left arm that entered and exited there.The bullet then entered your chest on the left side, nicking your artery.If not for me claiming you, and I’m profoundly sorry for not asking you sooner, but if not, you would never have made it here.”Closing her eyes for a moment to think, she looked at him after a few minutes.“Tell me what you’re thinking.I won’t hold back, Maggie.”

“MJ.And you’d better not.I might not like what you’re saying, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t want it to be the truth either.”He nodded and smiled at her.“Wipe that grin off your face and pay attention to me.I’m not a pushover, either.I have my life just about the way that I want it.In a couple of years, or less I think I’m going to retire and become a homebody that never leaves the soil of the United States again.I’ve had enough of traveling all over the place.”

“I have as well.”He didn’t say anything more, and she was happy about that.Her leg was bothering her as was her arm.Since she didn’t know if she should be hurting in the chest, she didn’t mention it when she asked for a bit of pain meds.“There are two kinds of meds you can have.One will put you under again.The other, a lighter dose, will just take the edge off.From experience, I’d take the edge off now so that the pain doesn’t get the best of you.”

She nodded, almost sick with the pain.Before the shot was given to her, however, she threw up twice.The next thing she knew, she was out cold and floating along the clouds before she was finished speaking to Marshall.

~*~

Marshall couldn’t help but frown while she slept.Even drugged up the way that she was, it was obvious that she wasn’t sleeping well.Reaching out, he put his hand on her head and felt the moment that she started to rest.While he hated to do that to her, he thought it best that she rested more than chewing his ass out because he’d taken liberties with her.

“I have two questions for you.The first one I think that I can answer but I want your input on it.”He’d only known Lauder for a short time, but he had learned quickly that she never minced words when she was looking for something.“Those uncles of the women, what do you know about them?I ask that because I know about all there is to know about them but wondering what you actually knew.The second question is, did you send a pack of wolves to the house to guard it?I’m thinking that you did but I want to make sure that I don’t step on any toes while I’m gathering information.”

“I don’t know other than what I’ve gleaned from the family about the uncles.I know that they’re hell-bent for leather on getting the house and land surrounding it but the rest I have only guessed about.The second question is a yes.I did send them there.I think that Calhoun might have sent a couple of his burin there as well.I have yet to thank him for that, but I will.”He watched Meggie sleeping and thought of something else.“I have a question for you.Not a biggie if you don’t know the answer but have any of the men served time?They were carrying is the reason that I ask.I know that’s a big no-no when you’re out and about.”

“Yes.All three of them have been in prison at one time or another in their lives.Twice they’ve all three been in at the same time.Different reasons, but all the same sentencing.I don’t understand how they aren’t serving a longer sentence but I’ll figure that out.”He told her about how Mitzy had a direct line to the president.“I would imagine that’s true.The things that I’m finding out about your mate are something that few people know about her.She’s saved the president several times over the last few years, and he’s ever so grateful enough that he told her that when she retires, which I’m thinking she’s close to doing, he’ll make sure that she’s taken care of better than anyone else in the world when it comes to benefits as well as pay.One of the times that she saved him was when she was on his detail for a last-minute change in his men surrounding him, and she took a bullet intended for him.”

“I can see her doing that.”When she stirred in her sleep, Marshall touched his hand to her head again.When she quieted down, he smiled to himself.“She’s not resting all that well here.I don’t know why because I don’t want to look, but I keep putting her in a deeper sleep so that she can rest.I don’t know if you’re aware of this or not, but she would have died had I not claimed her right then.I have no idea why but I have a feeling that it was one of her uncles that took the shot at her.”