Honeymoon from Hell V (9 page)

She should tell him no and refuse to
leave until checkout, but that wasn’t fair to the hotel staff and
honestly, at this point she just wanted to get this over with and
if that meant that they had to have it out now, then so be it.
They’d talk, she’d let him know that she wasn’t going to put up
with anymore of this Bradford bullshit and hopefully they’d find a
dinner that had pumpkin pie…and blueberry pie…and they could put
this whole mess behind them.

Once he understood that the next time
that he tried to make decisions for her that she would make his
life a living hell, they’d be fine. Grabbing her bag, she walked
out into the hallway, past the nervous employee and-

“
There you are,” Trevor
said with a smile as he swept her off her feet before she could get
a startled gasp out, turned around and carried her to the elevator
where Jason stood, waiting for her with a grim expression on his
face.

That’s pretty much what scared her the
most, because no matter what life threw at Jason, he could usually
manage a smile.

“
What’s going on?” she
asked, trying to act casual as Jason reached over and took her bag
from her.

She waited for Trevor to put her down,
but he never did. Not even when the elevator doors opened,
revealing an empty foyer, or when he carried her out of the hotel.
She thought once they reached the parking lot that he’d put her
down, but once again she was wrong.

He kept his arms locked around her
until she realized what was going on, and by then, it was too
late.

Chapter 10

Massachusetts…. Two Days
later…..

“
Can’t we talk about this?”
Jodi asked as she shifted nervously on his lap, trying not to
appear as though she was looking for a way to escape, but he’d been
trained by the military and was a Bradford by birth so he knew how
to spot the signs of someone desperate to get away from
him.

It was a gift, he mused with a
satisfied smile as he continued to absently caressed the large
swell of her stomach, loving the way that his boys nudged up
against his hand in approval.

“
I think we’re past the
point of talking, don’t you?” he said, barely paying attention to
where they were going since all of his attention was on his
skittish wife who’d made a total of twenty-three escape attempts
since they’d kidnapped her from the hotel last night.

Well, kidnapping might be a strong
term since all they did was carry her against her will out of the
hotel, place her in a car and drive her straight through the night,
ignoring all of her requests that they let her go. There were other
requests, like they could go fuck themselves and an adamant plea
that they rot in hell, but since he knew that she really didn’t
mean any of it, he decided to ignore her murderous glares and enjoy
the long ride home with her in his arms.

He knew that she was just incredibly
pissed at him, because he’d kept her in the dark and refused to
tell her anything more than he loved her and just how beautiful she
looked, which to him she did. To the rest of the world she looked
tired, bitter, on the verge of committing murder, but the rest of
the world had absolutely no idea how incredibly fucked up the last
few days had been for her.

Not that it could have been avoided,
because…

Well, it probably should have, he
mused while he absently tightened his arms around her and held on
when she tried to make another escape, most likely to dump him out
of his wheelchair so that she could kick his balls into submission.
He probably should have sat her down and calmly explained
everything, explained why they’d kidnapped her, the whole sordid
family history, why he was rushing her, the arrest and bans were
probably something better left discussed for later, but he could
have at least done whatever he could to make this easier for
her.

He could have, but…

Well, let’s just say that he was being
cautious about what information he gave her right now, mostly
because he hadn’t wanted to delay their return home by answering a
hundred questions as well as the time it would take to convince her
that he wasn’t crazy, which probably would have added a few days to
trip.

Now he had nothing to worry about, he
thought, fighting the urge to sigh with relief because he knew that
it wasn’t over just yet. He still needed to get her across the
threshold of the house that his father and Trevor had purchased for
them to lease before he could stop worrying about the curse. Not
that he was still worried about it, he wasn’t, really, but he
didn’t want to fuck this up anymore than he needed to, which was
why he refused to answer her questions until they were safely
inside.

“
Ready?” Trevor asked with
a grim expression as he took a deep breath.

“
Ready,” he answered with a
firm nod, tightening his hold around his wife and making sure that
she didn’t make her escape and prolong this damn curse any longer
than was necessary.

Nodding once firmly, Trevor pushed him
towards the wheelchair ramp that someone had added onto the house
recently and headed for the front door where Jason stood, holding
the front door open and keeping his eyes locked on Jodi to make
sure that she wasn’t able to make a run for it.

What felt like a lifetime later, they
were crossing the threshold into the large house that was theirs to
use. As soon as they were safely inside and the door was locked
behind them, he released his hold around Jodi and grunted when her
elbow slammed into his side as she scurried off his lap and
smiled.

It was finally over.

They were home and out of reach of the
curse. Granted, his father was still awaiting bail and trying to
fight the charges, his cousins were exhausted, they were out six
thousand dollars for the car rental they’d fucked up getting home,
had over a thousand dollars worth of speeding tickets to take care
of, were exhausted, starving, still wearing the same clothes since
last week and felt disgusting, but at least they were home, at
least they were safe.

“
I’m out of here,” Jason
said, giving his shoulder a firm squeeze as he nodded towards the
door. “Give me a call if you need anything.”

“
Zoe and Haley stocked the
kitchen. Everything’s in reach so you should be okay,” Trevor added
even as he looked around the large old house that had been recently
renovated. “But if you need anything, we can be here in less than
five.”

“
We’ll be fine,” Danny said
with a relieved sigh as he decided to make something for his wife
to eat before he grabbed a shower and some sleep.

Jason paused by the door. “Do you want
help explaining everything to Jodi?” he asked, gesturing with a nod
in the direction that she’d disappeared.

“
No, I’ll be fine,” he
said, confident that everything would be fine now that they were
home. He’d make Tink something to eat, finally explain everything
to her and when he was done they’d probably have a good laugh, curl
up in bed and sleep for a week and try to pretend that none of the
bullshit from the past week had ever happened.

As far as he was concerned the only
thing that mattered was that they were married, finally home after
spending the last few months in the hospital and a beautiful future
to look forward to. Nothing else mattered, especially that trip
from hell that he’d like to forget, something that he was sure that
his wife was more than happy to do as well.

*-*-*-*

“
Open the fucking
door!”

Since he’d refused to answer her
questions or even acknowledge her existence over the last couple of
days, besides the kidnapping that is, she decided to continue the
trend and ignore him as she settled in more comfortably in the
large garden tub that she’d discovered only moments ago.

Normally, baths really
didn’t do much for her except offer a short reprieve after a long
day, but since she’d started showing and the boys had proved
exactly how much of a handful they were going to be, she’d come to
enjoy her baths more and more. Unfortunately the house that they’d
rented in Florida had only one bathtub and it had been a shallow
tub that barely allowed the water to reach above her
hips.

It also didn’t help that the water had
been hard water that reeked of chlorine, effectively killing her
enjoyment anytime she tried to take a bath. This bathtub however
was absolutely perfect. She wasn’t like her husband’s cousin, Rory,
who was obsessed with baths, but she could definitely see herself
falling in love with baths thanks to this beautiful tub.

God, this felt good, she thought as
the wet heat wrapped around her and seeped into her bones, erasing
the aches and pains from traveling the last couple days. She really
could fall in love with this bathtub, she decided as she closed her
eyes, sighed, releasing all the stress that had built over the last
few months and just enjoyed herself.

It was so nice not to have to worry
about Danny, late night calls from the hospital, fighting with
Bradfords for food, or the call that she dreaded, the one where the
doctor called her in so that he could tell her that Danny was never
going to walk again. Just like that all of her worries and fears
were gone, but instead of smiling with relief, all she felt like
doing was crying.

She pulled her knees up to her chest,
wrapped her arms around her legs, closed her eyes and pressed her
forehead against her knees, releasing a shaky breath as she tried
to remind herself that everything was okay now. They were fine.
Danny was home and as long as he listened to his doctors and
followed through with his physical therapy then he would be fine.
He’d be walking in less than a year, they’d have children and
everything would be fine.

Just fine, she told herself, wishing
that she could believe it, but she couldn’t. She’d never been this
happy in her life and she was terrified that something was going to
happen and destroy this moment. At any moment, things were going to
go wrong, something would go wrong with the babies, Danny would get
hurt again and her heart would break and this time, there would be
no coming back from that kind of pain.

So, when she realized that she was
crying, she just let go. She needed this, needed to finally let go
of the pent up terror that something would happen to Danny or their
babies and let go.

Chapter 11

“
Do something!” he yelled,
terrified out of his fucking mind as he was forced to sit there
while his wife sobbed hysterically in his arms, unable to much more
than shake her head or nod against his chest when they asked her a
question.

“
Jodi? Sweetie, can you
tell us what’s wrong?” Aidan asked with a kind smile, but Danny
could see it in his eyes that he was just as scared out of his
fucking mind as he was.

For two hours she’d been sobbing
hysterically and no matter what he said or did, she wouldn’t stop.
If he told her that he loved her, kissed her or told her how
excited he was to be a daddy, she would bury her face against his
chest, sob harder and hold on to him tighter like she was afraid
that if she didn’t he would suddenly disappear.

He’d tried to calm her down, but
absolutely nothing worked so he’d called his brother, praying that
they weren’t losing the babies. It would kill him to lose their
babies, but it would absolutely destroy him to lose her.

“
Are you in pain?” Aidan
asked as he rechecked her vitals while Danny sat there, praying
that the answer was no.

He nearly sagged in relief when she
shook her head against his chest.

“
Then what’s wrong, Tink?”
he asked softly, praying that she couldn’t tell just how badly
she’d scared him, because-

“
Mother fucker!” he yelped
with a gasp when the vicious brat grabbed his nipple and twisted
it.

“
You bastard!” she snapped
around a loud sob as she-

“
Ow!” he snapped when the
vicious woman successfully grabbed his nipple for another twist,
making his eyes water.

He considered setting the woman down
and scooting away from her before she could go for his other
nipple, but realized that the move would give her access to his
poor defenseless balls. So, instead he tightened his hold around
her, careful of their babies, and made sure that she couldn’t
continue with her malicious attack.

“
You arrogant bastard!” she
yelled, but before he could ask her which one of them she was
referring to, she was trying to wiggle her way off his lap, but he
wasn’t having it.

Mostly because he was terrified about
the damage that an extremely hormonal woman could do to his balls,
he kept her exactly where she was as he shot his brother a look
that said it all.

“
Right,” Aidan said,
clearing his throat with a firm nod as he backed up towards their
bedroom door. “I’ll just leave the two of you to talk this
over.”

Keeping his eyes narrowed
on his wife, he waited until he heard the door click closed behind
his brother before he asked, “Are you done yet?”

Stupid question.

Really stupid fucking question, he
decided as she shook her head and-