Page 58 of Question Everything

“We can figure it out together,” he said, but then he stopped speaking for a moment. “Unless you don’t want me around. I guess I may have jumped to an inappropriate conclusion.”

Maeve took his hands in hers and dragged him over to the bed, motioning for him to sit down next to her. She lookeddeeply into his eyes. “Kyle. Listen carefully. There is nothing I want more than to spend the rest of my days with you. I just don’t feel that it’s fair to put you through what I know will happen next. So, how about a compromise?”

“What do you have in mind?” he asked.

“You let me go, for now. Finn and I will take Daisy and disappear – he’s good at that and has the connections to make it happen. Whenever this story goes away and I feel that Daisy is safe from harm’s way, I’ll come find you.”

“I don’t know…”

“Kyle. Once I tell the world who Daisy’s father is, and I have the DNA proof of that fact, The Firm will have to deal with me. I’m not going to be able to keep them from being in her life, if that’s what she wants when she is old enough to understand. But she won’t be hurt by them. I won’t let it happen.”

“I want to provide you both with a safe place to fall, Maeve. I want to raise Daisy with you, as my own. I want to marry you, Maeve.”

She stared at him, now speechless herself. She felt her heart race and her palms grow sweaty. “Marry me? That only complicates my life, Kyle. I’m not in the right state of mind for marriage.”

“I’ll wait until you are, Maeve. For as long as it takes. I love you and I’ll ask you again. Hell, I’ll ask you over and over until you finally say yes.”

She threw her arms around him, got close and whispered into his ear, “I love you, too. I promise not to take too long.” She leaned in to kiss him and when their lips touched, she felt that familiar shock wave of electricity spark between them. In that moment, she would have granted him anything – her heart, her soul, eternity. Before she realized it, they were pulling on each other’s clothing, trying to get closer, to be skin to skin, almost succumbing to the passion they both knew they sharedbefore and wanted to experience again. But it was not to be. Just as he pulled the warm sweater over her head, they heard what sounded like an explosion downstairs. There was shouting and the sound of furniture being overturned. They had unexpected guests and all either of them could think was that Daisy was alone in her crib. At the same time, they ran toward her room to protect her from whatever was happening on the floor below them.

CHAPTER 33

By the time Kyle had secured Maeve in Daisy’s room, instructing her to wedge a chair under the door handle and not come out under any circumstances unless she heard him tell her their password, there was all-out shouting and sounds of a scuffle coming from the living room. He stopped back in his bedroom to get his gun; he knew his brothers would not have theirs on them, not having suspected intruders to show up at their front door. Aside from Finn, they didn’t think anyone else had found them. They thought they were in the clear.

He quietly and carefully made his way, grateful for the carpet that muffled the sound of his feet on the stairs. He realized that these intruders might be armed, and he didn’t want to startle them, causing one or the other to shoot one of his family members. As he got closer, he could see his brothers, hands in the air being threatened by two burly men, each with a gun. All he could hope was that the rest of his family was downstairs in the cedar closet, locked in and safe. Then he realized that Finn was not there.Was he hiding out somewhere else, planning an ambush? That could lead to errant shots fired and one of his brothers getting hit. Or was he working with these two somehow? If that was the case, Maeve would be devastated.

Aside from the night that Maeve had the nightmare that brought him running to her bedroom, this was the only other time since the incident when he shot the young man by accident that put him on administrative leave that he held his gun. The time he went to find Maeve alone in her bed, he had grabbed the gun without thinking about it. He knew that he’d shoot anyone who might have posed a threat to her, but he’d been thankful that there was no one there. Now, with his brothers threatened by two actual intruders, he realized that the risk of firing his weapon was greater. If one of those two men primed their gun, he’d have no choice but to take them out. He hoped that in the moment he’d make the right choice.

Kyle steadied his breathing; that was step one in a crisis.Stay calm,he told himself.Stay in the shadows; listen and go slow.He focused on the conversation that was now taking place between these two men and Conor and Tim. He knew that they’d both gone through hostage negotiation training in their roles as a police officer and a firefighter. They would keep these two men talking for as long as possible to avoid a negative outcome. He strained to hear what was being said.

“We want those DNA results. Where are they?” one of the men said.

“They haven’t arrived yet,” Tim replied.

“Bullshit. We watched the mailman ring your doorbell thirty minutes ago. I saw him hand you an envelope.”

“That was nothing, just the regular junk mail that gets delivered to this address.”

“Cut the crap. We want that test result. We want it now. And then we’ll take the little girl and go. No one needs to get hurt.”

“If you think that you’re taking anything out of this house…” Tim began.

One of the men brandished a gun, pointing it directly at Tim’s chest. “We don’t want to make a mess here, buddy, but we will if need be.”

“You won’t shoot us,” Tim said. “The cops will be all over you. I’m a police officer, my brother here is a firefighter. The penalty for shooting one of us is greater than it is for an average citizen, if you know what I mean. You won’t make it to trial. Our fellowship runs deep, if you get my drift.”

“I’m sure you can appreciate that we have a job to do,” the other intruder said, as if he could broker a deal. “Let us take what we need, and we’ll never darken your door again. Your family will be safe.”

“C’mon, man! What do you take us for? We all know that you can’t leave a trail behind. If we give you what you want, you’ll kill all of us.”

“If you don’t give us what we came for, you’re dead anyway. Let’s make this less painful all around,” the first man said.

Kyle could feel the pounding of his blood as it traveled through his body. These guys were serious, and time was growing short. He had to make his move. He lifted his foot to place it quietly on the next step when he saw a shadow cross the room, then a body.It was Finn and he was holding a large kitchen knife!

The next piece unfolded in slow motion. Finn lifted the knife in both hands overhead and ran into the man closest to him, wedging the blade in the man’s back, landing it between the intruder’s shoulder blades, causing him to fumble his gun. The second intruder whirled around and fired his weapon, hitting Finn in the thigh. Finn dropped to the ground. Conor reached for the fallen gun and the second intruder then raised his own pistol and took aim at him. That’s when Kyle made his move.

Without a sound, he rushed down the staircase and took a shot. He hit the second intruder in the shoulder, the man fallingto his knees, his weapon skittering across the floor, out of his reach. With three men bleeding on the floor in front of him, Kyle’s first thought was that Sibby was going to be pissed. But he calmly said, “Tim, secure those weapons. Conor, call 911. Tell them we need medical and police details here right now.”

His brothers leapt into action. The guns were laid out on the coffee table, Tim putting his body between the injured intruders and their weapons. Conor called it in and then turned to his brothers and said, “They’re on their way. Four minutes out.”

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