Page 102 of The Prince of New York

After giving Madelyn a hug, my sister came over, eyed my legs, and crawled onto the chair so she could take over my lap, careful to avoid the gunshot wound. “You can’t run away if I’m here.”

That I couldn’t. While I doubted I had any active empathy skills, I could tell when my sister needed comfort and a hug, which I provided. “It really was a ricochet, but Terry’s jacket has a bullet hole in it, and I think we broke Will with the evidence of damage.”

“Were you broken, Will?” my sister asked.

“Pretty much. Had I known you were on the way, I would have waited at the airport for you.”

“I came in through Sacramento, and the RPS dispatched a helicopter,” she explained. “I would have flown commercial, but apparently, New York has planes and pilots, and Ed was happy to fly me here. They insisted I come in through Sacramento to spread out the royal targets. Ed is getting settled in a suite if you want to see him, Will.”

“I do, as always. And Olivia?”

“She has been shown where Terry’s suite is, and she’s being put to bed, because she’s tired and cranky. She’s fine, but she was not staying home when you’re here, Terry. She knows about the bullet hole in your jacket, but she’s fine about it because she’s freaking out that Ian was shot.”

“It’s not like someonetriedto shoot me. You didn’t have to come all this way, but I’m glad you’re here. I’m already running a fever, and I’m going to have my suppressors on, so I’m going to need you to fight over the corpse with Her Royal Majesty. Who, for the record, has demanded I call her my mom. I wisely have been calling her Mom.”

“Good move. Shewillcry if she doesn’t get her way. I’m proud of you for knowing when to surrender.” My sister made herself comfortable and rested her head on my shoulder. “Ethan, stop hiding in the hallway.”

My brother-in-law poked his head into the room and laughed when he saw me serving as my sister’s chair. “My mom and dad are squabbling out here. Dad taste tested the stew, and he’s convinced it was made with wine, and he is claiming we willnotbe making his baby boy sick with wine. What did you do to my parents, Ian?”

“I’m guessing they did not handle finding out my parents cornered me in my workshop with grace and are trying to make up for the trauma. Please remind your dad that we brought wine safe for us and it was used to make the stew. And if Dr. Stanton gave them alcoholic wine to put in my dinner, she is pure evil and I have to appreciate her cunning.”

“I did no such thing,” the doctor in question said from the hallway before peeking into the room. “I swear. I’m surrounded by a bunch of children. Rachel, let your brother up. It’s time to feed him so we can send him to bed. Please tell me you brought your vitamins with you.”

“I have my vitamins,” my sister replied, and she eased off my lap, careful to avoid my leg. “I even got the prescription you gave me filled on the way, but we have questions. Can I just switch to the new one in the morning? I’ve been taking mine in the morning.”

“I’d like you to switch to taking them right before bed, and you can take your first dose tonight. The vitamin you were on is a good one, but this one is better, and stacking them like this won’t hurt you for one day. I’ll check on you in a few hours to make certain everything is fine, and then it’s business as normal. If that bastard is stupid enough to come here, you have my blessing to use your talent to its full extent. Sorry, Ian. I want you suppressed as soon as you’re done eating supper.”

I saluted the woman. “As you command, ma’am.”

“You can give him his crutches back,” my sister said, grinning at Madelyn. “How did you like your first taste of being a spy?”

“It was strangely enjoyable. He got me a watercolor set!”

Rachel went to investigate, and she admired the wooden box. “That’s very nice. All he gives me is a hard time, going on a wander out of my palace, and driving me to the brink of my sanity. Really, Ian? You couldn’t have dodged the bullet? Now we have to worry about you wandering around because of a fever?”

“I think I did pretty well having it hit where it did. It hurts, but I’m not going to die unless something drastic happens.” To placate her, I raised my hands in surrender. “I left you a present of dead terrorists and their intact stuff.”

“So I was told, although I think you left the RPS and Daphne with the present rather than me. Your present to me was making sure everybody except the terrorists got out alive. And as yours is the worst of the injuries, you got everyone out basically safe and sound, too.” My sister sighed at me. “Seriously, Ian? You couldn’t have dodged the bullet?”

“I honestly didn’t even clue in I’d been shot until my leg gave out on me and Terry started cursing,” I confessed. “Eddie did great, though. You should be praising him. It was his first real exterior RPS assignment, and he got an entire terrorist attack.”

Eddie, who had done a good job of trying to disappear into the wall, stared at me with a rather unamused expression. “I would have preferred a calm trip to the palace. I have learned my lesson. Interior work is exciting enough for me. Coordinating the agents during events is stressful enough. I literally gave my dad a heart attack, Ian.”

Right. Eddie would need a talking to before his anxiety and guilt ran away with him. “No, Eddie. You didn’t give your dad a heart attack. Your dad has been a walking heart attack risk for years. He’s getting the care he needs, but any stressor at this point could have caused that heart attack. He was going to have that heart attack either way. The only question was when. I know you’re not going to have an easy time believing that, but it’s the truth.”

Dr. Stanton came into the room, went to Eddie, and smoothed his collar and fiddled with his hair. “Ian’s right, Eddie. What happened to your dad isn’t your fault. He knows you’re safe, and Deidre is already on route to Texas, so that problem is being solved, too. If your dad requests you, you’ll get an allowance to go back to Texas, but he hasn’t called you back. He knows you have an important job, and he knows Ian needs you right now. If anything, your dad is going to be proud as hell of you once you’re back in Texas after this assignment, whenever it ends. Yes, for the moment, you’re part of the Californian RPS. But you’ll always be a Texan. You’ve grown up on him. Your other fathers are likely having just as many kittens as your dad, too. Just take the time to give them all a call.”

Will snickered. “Or in the case of Geoff, go see him once you’re off duty. He’s here, as Mackenzie was not going to deal with Geoff fretting about you and Pat. This way, he’s only fretting about Pat. I’ll likely loan California Geoff for a few weeks, as Mackenzie’s backup lead needs practice working as a lead. But Dr. Stanton is right, Eddie. It wasn’t your fault. Hell, Ian getting shot wasn’t your fault, either. Thank you fornotgetting shot, because I don’t think Texas has enough therapists to deal with Pat trying to cope with that sort of trauma right now. He’s going to have a bad night because he never got over your father’s death.”

Eddie sighed. “We still go to my father’s grave every year, too—and I’m pretty sure Dad needs to go more than I do. I’ve accepted why my dad died. I don’t know why Dad hasn’t.”

“He blames himself,” Dr. Stanton replied in a gentle tone. “He thinks that if onlyhehad done something different, your father wouldn’t have been killed in the line of duty. Because your father was part ofhisdetail, it hit him pretty hard—and your father was the first agent onhisdetail to die in the line of duty. That made it more real for him. It’s not the same when there’s a car accident or something like that—or there’s a terrorism event that RPS agents respond to as a general rule. Your father died protectingPat, and that is the difference. I’ll try to talk to him when I go to Texas in the morning, and I’ll make sure your mom knows those demons are still haunting him. It just hit a little closer to home today than normal.”

While it took him a few minutes, Eddie nodded. “I mean, logically, I understand that. I was told when I joined the RPS that I would be mostly interior due to my father’s death. They trained me for exterior in case it was needed, but nobody wanted to find out how Dad would react if an incident went poorly.”

Once Madelyn gave me my crutches, I lurched to my feet, regretting I had gotten into an altercation with a bullet. “Now that you’ve had your taste of exterior, do you think you can be happy with interior?”

Without even a hint of hesitation, Eddie nodded. “Now I really understand why what we do on the interior side is so important. I guess I just didn’t see the whole picture before.”

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