“Stop being such a baby and man up,” he said, barely looking up from the file in front of him as he reached for his beer.

“I’m not being a baby! I………..,” Shayne’s words trailed off before he let out a chuckle. “I’m a f**king idiot, lad.”

“Agreed,” Tristan murmured, all of his attention on the latest kidnapping case.

“Well, that’s a relief,” Shayne with a satisfied sigh.

“Uh huh.”

“Ye don’t want to know what that sound is?” Shayne asked, sounding amused.

“Not really,” Tristan said, frowning down at the detective’s field notes and trying to decipher scribble.

“Then maybe I shouldn’t tell ye.”

“Then don’t.”

“It involves Marty,” Shayne said after a slight pause, grabbing Tristan’s attention in a big way.

“What about her?” Tristan asked, looking up, folder forgotten as all of his attention went to his grinning friend.

“Looks like ye got a babe on the lass,” Shayne announced proudly seconds before his own words seemed to sink in and when they did, his pleased expression turned horrified.

Tristan was too stunned to respond at first, but when Shayne let out a vile curse and suddenly disappeared, he found himself frozen on the spot.

Marty was pregnant?

He was having a little difficulty processing that thought when the screams for help started.

Chapter 26

“Open the f**king door!” Tristan shouted, panic taking over as Marty’s screams for help abruptly stopped and the sounds of men fighting grew louder.

“Marty!” he shouted, slamming his bad shoulder into the bedroom door, barely aware of the sharp pain shooting down his shoulder and into the tips of his fingers.

After a few more failed attempts, he swore as he stepped back and slammed his foot in the door. The door gave way after two kicks. Before the door had the chance to bounce off the wall, Tristan was making his way inside and ready to kill whoever had broken into his house with his bare hands.

“You’ve got to be f**king kidding me,” Tristan bit out in disgust when he spotted Shayne fighting with the spirit of a large man by the bed.

He shook his head in disgust as he looked around the room for his wife. When he spotted her in the bathroom, kneeling in front of the toilet, looking pale, he wanted to kick his own ass for not taking better care of her. She was running herself ragged and it was starting to take its toll on her. She couldn’t keep going like this, not with a baby on the way.

A baby…….

They were having a baby. It didn’t seem real, not at all. Only a month ago he was prepared to step back and allow her to go on with her life and now they were bringing a child into this world and starting a family. He honestly didn’t know what to think about that. It didn’t seem possible that someone like him could be this blessed.

The only thing that he was certain of was that it was past time that he took better care of his wife. After shooting one last glance at Shayne as the man took the intruding spirit down with an impressive chokehold, Tristan moved to go help Marty.

“Baby, are you-“

His words were cut off when a large man stepped in front of him and struck him in the chest, sending him flying across the room before he could get a good look at the bastard’s face or react. The air was forced from his lungs as his back slammed into the wall, his bad shoulder connecting with the edge of the windowsill as his head slammed back into the wall with a sickening crack.

“Tristan!” he heard Marty scream as he fell to the floor, the plush carpet doing little to protect his battered body.

His vision blacked out as he struggled to get to his feet. It took several attempts before he could manage it. His legs gave out on him several times before he accepted the fact that he couldn’t walk, but he didn’t let that stop him from going to his wife.

Squinting, he moved forward, crawling as he struggled to remain conscious. He couldn’t see anything so he moved towards the sounds of Marty’s cries. Someone had her, was hurting her and he was helpless to do anything to stop them so he did the only thing that he could think of before he lost consciousness.

“Protect……..her, Shayne.”

*-*-*-*

“Tristan!” Marty screamed, watching helplessly as Tristan dropped to the ground. She moved to help him when the voice that she’d come to think of as her protector spoke, drawing her attention to a large and very handsome man with short black hair and killer green eyes. Then again, all the men in the room, seven the last time she counted, were handsome with jet black hair and killer green eyes and no doubt related.

“Was that really necessary?” the familiar voice demanded with a put out sigh as he moved to Tristan’s side.

“Aye,” the large man, who’d wrapped her up in a sheet and carried her into the bathroom only moments earlier, replied flatly.

When Marty tried to walk past the man to go to Tristan, she was surprised that he didn’t try to stop her. She learned the reason for that barely a split second later when four of the large men who’d been leaning against the wall suddenly vanished only to reappear by Tristan’s side before she could blink.

“Oh, come on now, lads!” the man who’d been looking Tristan over snapped as two of the men grabbed him by his arms and yanked him to his feet and away from Tristan.

“Bring them downstairs.”

“Wait!” Marty said as she rushed to go to Tristan, desperate to make sure that he was okay. Before she could reach him, two of the men reached down, grabbed him by the arms and disappeared, leaving her stumbling forward as her heart skipped a beat and she forgot how to breathe. The rest of the men quickly followed until she found herself alone.

“When you’re ready, we’ll be downstairs waiting for you, Macha,” the large man who’d helped her to bathroom said softly from behind her, making her realize that she wasn’t as alone as she’d thought.

“That’s not my name,” she found herself saying as her mind struggled to grasp what just happened.

“Everything will be okay, Macha,” he promised softly with a sympathetic smile that struck her as vaguely familiar.

She wanted to point out that everything had been fine before he’d showed up, but at that moment her stomach decided that everything definitely was not okay.

*-*-*-*

“What’s she doing?” Liam asked as Quinn materialized in the kitchen, his glare never leaving Tristan who sat slumped forward in the kitchen chair with his hands cuffed behind his back.

“Still getting sick,” Quinn said with a sneer of disgust. Shayne knew that if they’d still been human that Quinn would have been joining Marty. He’d always had a weak stomach, something they used to taunt and tease him about constantly. It was a pity that he couldn’t use that against Quinn right now, Shayne thought with a sigh.

“Find something to settle her stomach,” Liam ordered as he folded his arms across his chest and leaned back against the counter.

“What were those things that she liked the last time she was pregnant?” Declean asked as he moved into the kitchen.

“Apples?” Finn suggested with a frown as he moved to join his brother in the search for something that would settle Marty’s stomach.