Marriage Reunited

Chapter 18

The first hint of something not being right was when Connor noticed the front door ajar. He didn't have an expensive alarm system because he'd never needed one. The small town where he lived was full of family and friends who looked out for each other. The one thing that he was very careful with though was ensuring that the doors were locked and secure. Seeing that door partly open caused his system to be flooded with fear even as he tried to convince himself to calm down because he was probably just being paranoid.

He rushed up to the door uncaring of whatever threat may lay within. He just wanted to know that Lilly was safe. He could tell as soon as he opened the door fully that whatever she was, she wasn't safe. The first thing that he noticed was an ornament overturned before his eyes locked onto the small figure on the floor.

"Alexa!" he shouted, and he ran to her side as panic sliced through him. Oh god, please let he be alright. He wasn't even sure what she was doing here but there was no sign of Lilly. He checked her pulse and breathed a sigh of relief when he felt it. For a moment there he'd thought that she wasn't even breathing. He was just taking his phone from his pocket to call an ambulance and the police when Alexa groaned and moved her head from side to side.

"Alexa?" he said, and she groaned again and squeezed one eye open. She reached a hand up to her head and then let it flutter uselessly to the ground as she groaned again.

"What happened?" she asked in a weak voice. That was what he wanted to know, Connor thought grimly.

"I'm not sure, honey. You're bleeding though," he said as she moved her head and he saw the trickle of blood at her temple.

"Lilly!" she shouted as she suddenly launched herself into a sitting position and her eyes widened in both horror and pain.

"Easy there," Connor said as he put an arm around her and tried to ease her back down, but she wasn't having any of it. Instead, she stared up at him with wild, panicked eyes.

"They took her," she said, and Connor's heart felt like it stopped.

"Took who?" he demanded even though he already knew the answer.

"They took Lilly."

Connor's first instinct was to call the police but then he had a sudden horrifying thought. It seemed odd that he'd never had any trouble until his brother had turned up again. The problem was that if his suspicion was correct then what the hell could the police do? Making a decision, he dialled his brother's number and waited for the call to connect.

"I have a situation. Get to my house now!" he demanded and then he hung up before Cameron could say anything. His phone rang immediately but he ignored it. Maybe his brother would finally get it through his head that this was damn well serious and that he had better get his arse here now.

"Who was that?" Alexa asked but Connor was more concerned with the state of her. She looked pale and there was the trickle of blood that was worrying him.

"I need to call an ambulance," he told her, and her panicked gaze met his.

"No ambulance," she insisted, and he hesitated.

"I have to call one," he said. He knew that if it were Lilly laid here then he wouldn't have hesitated.

"Don't you dare call an ambulance or I swear I'll never forgive you," she snapped.

They were still arguing about whether to call an ambulance or not when Cameron appeared in the doorway. His assessing gaze scanned the room and narrowed in worry at the sight of Alexa sat on the floor. It was the only thing she hadn't argued with Connor about, and he was glad that she hadn't tried to stand up.

"What the hell is this?" Cameron demanded. He looked the most pissed off that Connor had ever seen him, and he'd been on the receiving end of a few of his brother's tempers over the years.

"What is he doing here?" Alexa demanded of Connor who tried not to look guilty. He was completely within his right to call his brother and let him know that she was injured. Especially since she wasn't the main reason that he'd called.

"Have you even rung an ambulance?" Cameron demanded as he strode over and bent down to try and fully assess her injuries. She batted away his hands when they tried to touch her.

"Don't touch me," Alexa hissed. It didn't do any good though as he simply ignored her and carried on checking her injuries.

"I tried but she refused," Connor said. That stopped Cameron's roving hands as he turned an incredulous look on his brother.

"And you listened to her? Are you out of your fucking mind? Look at her," Cameron snapped. They both turned to look at her and Alexa folded her arms over her chest and glared at both of them.

"I am absolutely fine, and I don't need any alpha male to protect me. Meanwhile Lilly is in serious trouble and all you two can do is argue," she told them. Connor was all in agreement with that. He might be concerned about Alexa but at the end of the day his wife was in more immediate danger.

"What's going on with Lilly?" Cameron asked, taken off guard.

"Men broke in with guns and kidnapped her," Alexa said. Connor paled at that. He'd established that someone had taken her, but he hadn't realised that they'd had guns. What if she'd been shot? She was pregnant, alone, and scared. He wished that he'd been here and had the chance to stop them from taking her.

"What men?" Cameron demanded.

"They didn't exactly say who they were, but they had matching tattoos. I saw it clearly on the one that I knocked out," Alexa said. Cameron's eyes snapped to hers at that and if his anger had been bad before then it had just gone nuclear.

"You knocked one of them out?" he asked in a deadly soft voice, and she shrugged as though it were nothing for him to concern himself about.

"Yes," she confirmed, and Cameron gritted his teeth together.

"Are you insane? They had guns and could have shot you," he ground out. She shrugged again.

"But they didn't."

"Then what the hell is that bullet hole?" Cameron demanded as he finally spotted the bullet embedded in the wall.

"They weren't aiming for me," she said firmly and with her chin stuck in the air.

"And what if they bloody had been? You could have been dead," Cameron told her, and she shrugged again.

"But I'm not," she said stretching her arms out to confirm that in fact she was still alive. At least she would be until he throttled her. How could she have been so damn stupid?

"Can we get back to the men with guns please," Connor said, and Cameron finally focused on his brother's problem.

Within minutes he'd gotten the headlines of the kidnapping from Alexa and established that the men were part of the group that he was hunting. He figured that they'd probably confused Connor with him and assumed that Lilly was his wife instead of his brother's. It wasn't that big of a mistake to make. People had often been confused by which brother was which when they were younger. Alexa and their mother had been about the only ones who knew which brother was which.

"So, what do we do?" Connor asked. He looked lost without his wife and Cameron's heart went out to him. He knew exactly what he was going through because he had felt it every day since they'd threatened Alexa's life. Tonight, they'd almost ended her life and he wouldn't let them get away with it.

"You are going to take my wife to the hospital," Cameron said.

"Don't call me your wife. And I'm not going to hospital," Alexa told him stubbornly. She may as well have saved her breath as both men ignored her completely.

"And what are you going to do?" Connor asked his brother.

"I am going to get my team together and bring Lilly home," Cameron announced. Connor was relieved by this declaration. That was one thing that he could say for his brother, he kept his promises to him.

"I am not going to the hospital," Alexa repeated.

"I'll make sure your wife is cared for and you make sure you get my wife home safe," Connor said. Cameron gave him a nod and then with one last unreadable look sent Alexa's way he disappeared into the night.