Babes Stripping For Love

“B-big trouble?” Mara parroted from the other line. Okay, granted that she hadn’t answered or replied to Keegan’s many calls and texts, but she didn’t want her focus to be sidetracked. Keegan would surely convince her to stay back and waited some more when he had enough.

“Yes, you ought to be proud of yourself that he has found you. He’s in the same building as you.”

“He is?” Okay, now she sounded stupid for repeating his words. Mara had checked in the motel under her and Cody’s aliases and she had been walking around town hoping to get noticed by her stepdad. It was an easy plan and she had nothing to lose, not when she knows that Cody was in good hands. If anything should happen to her, her brother would be taken care of.

He was young enough that he’d forget about her when he reached adulthood. But when she heard Keegan’s voice, she could hear his anger trickled with worry, yeah… it was clear as day. Mara had recognized and could already have imagined his facial expression. She had lived with him long enough to understand him. Keegan has always been that obvious. Most of the time, anyways.

“Mara, did you even hear me? or are you just going to let me repeat myself?”

She could hear his annoyance, but she was not going to apologize for her action. Instead, she kept quiet and let him speak.

“I have Leonard, he’s on his way to your room. I’m sending you his photo, do not open the door for anyone else. Then, I want you to go with him while I’m following your stepdad, the bastard is still talking to the front desk guy.”

“But I…”

“Mara, I need you to let me do my job.”

“Okay. But you better get him, Keegan.”

The man replied with a grunt. Keegan sounded angry and Mara knew that she was not going to get through to him. So she ended the call and let him handle the rest.

Not long afterward, there was a knock on the door. Mara thought that it was Leonard. She checked through the peephole and the guy looked like Leonard in the picture that Keegan had sent. But when she unlatched and unlocked her door, her stepdad came out of nowhere and then shot the guy from the back. The man falls to the floor. She screamed but he silenced her by aiming a gun to her temple.

“Shut your stupid mouth, you little bitch. You’re going to get us out of here, we’re going to get your little brother and we’re going on a road trip.”

Mara was about to run. She was still in shock from watching him shoot Keegan’s man. She was not going to let him near Cody, she’d rather die. When she pushed away from him the moment she tried to run away, she realized that Leonard was still alive. He grabbed her evil stepdad, eagerly trying to push him down the stairs. There was a lot of cursing and yelling when they got outside the room. His hand latched onto her wrist, while she was forcing herself to tug it free.

Mara was finally able to pull away from him, but not before his gun fired and hit her in the arm. Mara didn’t even feel the pain, maybe it was the adrenaline or the possibility that she was going to die without saying goodbye to her little brother. But when she saw the blood trailing down her forearm, she hissed from the pain. Her body slumped to the motel door while her eyes witnessed in horror how her stepdad fell down the stairs. On the bottom of the stairs, she could see his head was angled in a way that Mara knew he’d break his neck from the fall and die.

“Mara!”

It didn’t take much for her to recognize his voice. There was distress in his tone, but the fact that her arm was throbbing from the pain made her head woozy. Luckily, Leonard was there and he grabbed her just before she fell and join the bastard at the bottom of the stairs.

“She got shot!” Leonard shouted beside her while Keegan quickly checked the body lying on the floor.

“You got shot too…” Mara interjected.

“I’m wearing my vest, I’ll be okay. It’ll bruise like hell but I’ll be fine.” Leonard said gently as he pressed on her upper arm with the small motel towel he grabbed earlier, trying to stop the bleeding.

“Ooo… I think… I think I should sit down, I’m feeling a bit lightheaded.”

“Shit! you okay,” Keegan asked Mara, then he asked his friend, “Leonard?”

“My vest got knicked, I’ll be fine. You should get her to the hospital. I’ll take care of everything here. The front desk had probably called the cops, go… I’ll text you with the updates.”

Mara was barely hearing the guys when her arm felt like it was going to fall off. Okay, it was an exaggeration, but she was hardly standing up when Leonard was practically holding her limped body. Mara was trying to stand though barely having the strength to do so.

Keegan was at her side, he didn’t waste any time when he hold her up while still putting pressure on her arm. He ushered her back to his car, but not before unbuckling his belt to strap it to the motel towel that Leonard used to stop the bleeding. Mara managed to get into Keegan’s car and he helped with the seatbelt while she let out another painful grunt from the pain.

“I don’t know how you guys do this for a living. But this freaking hurt so bad!” Mara whimpered when he helped her out of his car the second they arrived at the Emergency bay of the nearest hospital.

“She was shot, lost blood, and felt queasy!” Keegan practically yell at the first female nurse that came to their side.

“Okay, sir, if you can help me get her settled over here…” she hurriedly led them inside, passing through several patients still waiting to be called. Then the older nurse shouted to another nurse, urging him to get the doctor while spilling more medical terms that they were not familiar with. All while leading both Keegan and Mara to a vacant bed. He helped her and stayed by her side, until Keegan was asked to leave, telling them that he needed to fill out some administration forms while she was being treated.

Keegan had to lie, telling them that he was her fiance to make sure that he would be able to follow up on her condition. He should have gotten her to their usual doctor, but the hospital was closer and he could always have their doctor take over if there were going to be any problems, administration-wise.

He would no doubt be talking to the cops because of the gunshot wound, it was not his first rodeo. Keegan had already called Seamus and got his lawyer to come to the hospital making sure that Keegan would not be taken away from her side. It was an arm wound, she should be okay, and he intended to be there for her when they move her to her recovery room.

More than two hours later, after having a conversation with the cops along with Seamus’s lawyer present, Keegan was finally taken to her recovery room. As Mara’s fake fiance, Keegan had informed earlier to one of the nurses to let Charlotte into her room. Seamus’s wife was there and she raised a questioning look, to which Keegan smirked in reply. He told her quietly that it was needed because she didn’t have any close relatives. Charlotte nodded to his explanation and went on to go to Mara’s recovery room.

“This was why I hesitated, I am not letting you go rogue in the future.” Keegan could hear Charlotte scold Mara for God knows how many times already. His beautiful lover looked guilty, or maybe she was still a bit high on the painkiller. Keegan decided to get closer, and when he does, he couldn’t help to press a kiss on her forehead.

“How are you feeling?”Content is property of NôvelDrama.Org.

“High as a kite. I didn’t know that you’re my fiance though and I think the nurses had had it with my pain tolerance and decided to let me enjoy the good stuff.” She grinned and Charlotte laughed.

“Okay you guys, I can’t leave Cody alone for too long. I only said that I was going out to get his ice cream, which I still need to get. I expected that you came up with an excuse for him, or tell him the truth… whatever it is, he needs to know that everything is going to be okay.”

Keegan put his hand on top of Mara’s healthy hand, before convincing her that they would do exactly that. “I will have our doctor expedite Mara’s release for home care. Hopefully by tomorrow afternoon.”

“Good… good, I will have her room ready,”

“Uh… they’re coming back to my place.” Keegan quickly said while Mara stayed quiet, not trying to correct either him or Charlotte.

“Keegan, she just got shot. She will need assistance and you will need to deal with the aftermath. You should just stay with us too, Cody has been asking for you,”

The man looked at Mara as if he was asking for her approval and when she nodded, he eventually shrugged and agreed, thinking it was the best solution at least for the time being. Charlotte was right, he needs to deal with Leonard and his other work that got pushed behind since he was busy with Mara’s issue. Keegan also need to talk to his boss, who was still waiting for his reports.

The day couldn’t drag on longer, but at least he was content that Mara was safe and her issue with her stepdad was no more. Keegan wished everything was done, but there were still so many things that needed to be done.

Tomorrow… there’s always tomorrow, he assured himself while he was back at Mara’s side after Charlotte was on her way back to Seamus’s with one of their guards.