Page 42 of Single Teddy (Mayberry Protectors #6)

THIRTY-SIX

WESLEY

“ T hank you for coming on such short notice, Mrs. Reyes,” Wyatt said as a small Filipina woman and Azrael entered The Outpost and shook his hand.

“Don’t mention it. Where is he? And call me Maria,” she replied.

Wyatt led Azrael’s mom to us, and both she and Azrael stepped up.

“May I?” Azrael asked, putting his hand on top of mine, and with some hesitation, I let go of applying pressure to Teddy’s chest so Azrael could take over.

My heart dropped when blood gushed from the wound, and I stumbled. Autumn caught me.

“Are you okay, honey?” she asked.

Was I okay?

Was I okay?

Well, let’s see. The boys and I had been abducted and taken to a remote location to be killed because of my stupidity.

People had died right in front of my eyes, and more importantly, right in front of the kids’ eyes, and as if that wasn’t enough, Teddy had been shot, and I had no idea how bad it was.

“Yeah, yeah,” I said, choking down the real answer that made it hard to breathe.

I watched as both Azrael and Maria worked on Teddy with urgency and care, and even though I’d been reassured she was a nurse and he was a combat medic, it was still hard to watch this giant, beautiful man incapacitated.

“Azrael!” Teddy mumbled.

“Hey, buddy. How are you doing?” Azrael asked.

“Meh. Okay, I suppose,” Teddy groaned, and I choked down a laugh that made my eyes sting. I had to blink fast before the tears overwhelmed me.

“Excellent.” I admired Azrael’s calm amid the chaos.

He took the pressure off the wound for a moment and massaged Teddy’s chest before he looked up and addressed his mom.

“I can feel it. It’s still in there. I think I can get it out. Scissors?”

Maria handed him the scissors, and Azrael cut Teddy’s shirt. Seeing the blood smeared all over his front, I’d had enough. I tapped out and turned my back on Teddy. I’d never been good with blood. Or death. I couldn’t watch.

Autumn, on the other hand, looked captivated.

I looked around the bar and tried to breathe. Tried to blink. Tried not to think.

What if he didn’t make it?

My eyes burned again, but this time, the tears didn’t hesitate to run. No amount of self-control or thought exercises could stop them. So I withdrew to the restroom and splashed my face with cold water until I felt human again before I rejoined the others.

Everything was blurry, making me squint constantly to try and see more clearly, as if squinting could fix short-sightedness.

All it did was give me a splitting headache.

The quiet though? The quiet was undeniable.

A bar that was meant to be lively and cheerful was somber and quiet.

The only source of noise was Azrael and Maria talking to each other and Joey’s voice from the kitchen as he cooked for the kids and kept them distracted.

This was all on me. My fault. My stupidity. I’d caused this. Barnes and me together.

“This was too easy,” I heard Wyatt mutter.

He was standing next to Donovan and Slade as they all watched Teddy being tended to.

“I know,” Donovan agreed.

“Easy?” I croaked.

I had to clear my throat before I spoke again.

“That was easy? What the hell are you talking about? Teddy has been shot. The kids have been traumatized for life. What about this was easy?”

All three looked at me like I was an alien.

“What? You don’t like the truth?” I shouted.

Wyatt took a step forward and put his hands in front of him as if to calm me, but it only made me angrier.

“That’s not what I meant,” he said in a quiet, calm tone.

“Then what did you mean?”

I knew I was being erratic, yet I didn’t care.

“I was talking about Barnes and the trap they set for us,” he said.

“Wh-wha trap?” I took a step forward and narrowed my eyes as if that would make me look more menacing or serious.

“The two boathouses,” he started, and my breath caught at the memory of the explosion I’d thought had claimed their lives.

“Oh, that trap. How did you know about that anyway?”

“There was intel. In the phone you cloned,” Slade said and straightened up. “First, we got the wrong location on the Android. Then came the right location on GhostLink. But we still didn’t know which was right and which was wrong, so we went to both.”

“The first location was rigged with explosives, but Joey deactivated them,” Wyatt said.

“He’s good at that,” Donovan added.

“When we scoped it out, we found an obscene stash of drugs inside,” Wyatt said.

“Actually, it was powdered sugar,” Donovan noted.

Wyatt nodded.

“Someone wanted us to believe we’d found another stash house, but it was clear it was a trap. Which meant the second location was far more likely to be where you were.”

“So we blew up the first one to keep up the ruse and made our way to you,” Donovan added.

“Hang on. If they set a trap with the phone…” I said. “Then they knew we had cloned it.”

Wyatt shook his head with uncertainty.

“Either that or they assumed.”

“But why would they send both locations?”

“Maybe they don’t know we have access to their GhostLink,” Slade suggested.

“Or maybe they do, and they were using us,” Wyatt said. “I’m telling you. This was too easy.”

I sighed.

“You’re playing fast and loose with the word easy there, sir,” I said.

He didn’t seem to mind my challenging him, which made me stand a little taller, knowing I wasn’t talking out of my ass.

“Every time we’ve come up against these people, there’s been a whole army of them. It makes no sense that they’d put only two people on watch.”

I pondered his words for a while and replayed the conversations I’d heard back at the boathouse.

“Have you thought maybe…this Sal— What’s his name?”

“Salieri,” said everyone in the room, including Maria and Teddy.

“Have you thought about the possibility that Salieri was using you to tie up loose ends?”

“What do you mean?” Wyatt asked.

I shrugged.

“I don’t know. I think Barnes—or whatever his name—was indeed a drug dealer, but then you found the stash house a few months ago, and it’s been quiet since, right?

” They nodded. “Apparently, Salieri slashed Barnes' cut in half since then, and so Barnes started doing deals on the side, cutting out Salieri. So what if?—”

“So you’re saying is…” Wyatt interjected, “Salieri found out and was trying to tie up loose ends.”

“Detective Bennet told him in no uncertain terms that he had to blow his cover to save his ass. What if he didn’t? What if Salieri made Bennet blow his cover to get rid of Barnes once and for all and get you off his tail? Now that he’s dead, his phone is useless, right?”

I didn’t know how I’d made all these connections when five minutes ago I’d still been scrambling to process what had happened to me, but when I saw them nodding along, I realized I was onto something.

I didn’t know if Salieri had planned this whole thing months in advance or if it had been spur of the moment.

He couldn’t have predicted me walking up to the boys and taking them to the police.

But then again, how fast can you fill a boathouse with fake cocaine on such short notice?

It was probably a combination of both long-term planning and a short-term opportunity.

And hell, it could have gone even better for him.

He could have blown some of the guys to smithereens and still gotten rid of Barnes. And me.

“You’re a clever guy, aren’t you?” Donovan chuckled, and I shrugged.

“I’m a teacher,” I replied.

A groan filled my eardrums, and I turned to Teddy, who was being helped into a sitting position by Azrael and Autumn.

“Teddy!” I cried and let go of everything. Salieri, Barnes, traps, and schemes, and ran to him. Ran to my Teddy. “Are you okay?” I asked and then turned to the impromptu medical team to ask them the same.

“Your boy is going to live, don’t worry. The bullet got lodged inside, but it didn’t puncture anything,” Azrael said with a big, comforting smile, and I grabbed Teddy’s hand and brought it to my lips.

“It didn’t puncture anything? What about all the blood?” I asked and kissed his knuckles.

“Bullet wounds tend to do that. It’s not always as bad as it looks.”

“But he passed out.”

Teddy raised his other hand and cupped my cheek, and I turned to him.

“I’m fine, see? I’m just a wuss. Me and blood don’t get along,” he groaned.

“You don’t sound fine,” I said.

I didn’t know if I believed him, and not that I didn’t trust Azrael, but I definitely wanted a doctor’s opinion.

I helped him off the table with Azrael’s assistance and carried him to a chair. Autumn came up from behind me with a large glass of water and pills and helped him take the pain relief. I didn’t let go of him for a second. I wasn’t going to ever again.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

He cocked his head.

“What for?”

I dropped my gaze to the floor and breathed through the knot in my throat.

“This. This whole thing. It’s my fault.”

“How exactly?” he croaked.

I sighed.

“If I hadn’t picked up the kids off the street?—”

“You couldn’t have left them to their fate. What if something happened to them?” he said.

“Yeah, but if I hadn’t taken them to the police?—”

“And where would you have taken them if not an institution that’s meant to protect people?”

“But they didn’t.”

“And you didn’t know that, did you? I mean, I barely knew it.”

“Still. I feel responsible. You got shot because of me.”

Teddy lifted our hands between us and squeezed, planting a kiss on the back of my hand while he placed his other hand on my nape.

“Listen to me, Wesley Crawford, because I will say this only once, and you better believe it. None of this, none of it, is your fault. You did your job as a teacher, a compassionate man, as a human, and they took advantage of that. You did what was right, and I won’t take any objection to that. Okay?”

There was the stinging burn in my eyes again. God. What was wrong with me today?

Oh right .

“Okay,” I muttered and looked back down, only for him to lift my head back up and make me look into his eyes that still shone bright despite everything.

“And just in case it wasn’t clear, I’d take a bullet for you again. I’d take all the bullets if it meant saving you. So remember that. No matter what happens, I’ll always come save you.”

I couldn’t hold it in any longer. I burst into the tears I’d been holding for the last few minutes. Or more accurately, the past half hour.

Oh who was I kidding? I’d been choking down the tears for the past few hours, trying to keep my composure for the kids and to not give those evil men the satisfaction, but…I couldn’t anymore.

So I let go.

And everything that had happened today, the abduction, the betrayal, the fear, the shoot-out, blew over me like a storm. A storm that could only be tamed by his touch, his gaze, his lips.

“I love you, Teddy. I love you with the entirety of my being,” I declared, and yeah, maybe it sounded cheesy or rushed or whatever, but I didn’t care.

For once, I didn’t care.

Funny how almost dying can change your perspective .

He smiled, and it was as if he were fine. As if he’d never been hurt. As if we were all alone.

“I love you far, far more,” he said and pulled me in to kiss me.

I was no fool. I let him. I locked lips with him and kissed him with all my strength and might. With my entire soul. And boy, it felt good.

Some coughed. Autumn chastised them. Maria giggled. Azrael whistled, but it was only when Wyatt huffed that we pulled apart.

They were all staring, of course. My cheeks went warm.

“Sorry,” I said.

“Don’t apologize. You did nothing wrong,” Autumn said.

“In fact, you did everything right,” Donovan said, only to get elbowed by Autumn.

“Maybe a little more tongue next time,” Azrael suggested, and Teddy scoffed.

“You’re children,” Wyatt grumbled, and I laughed.

“The children,” Teddy said, making me pause. “Where are the boys?”

“In the kitchen with Joey,” I told him, patting his knee.

“What are we going to do about them?” Autumn asked.

“The right thing, of course,” Wyatt said. “We need to get them into the system.”

“No, we don’t,” someone said, and we all turned to look at Joey bursting through the kitchen.

“What do you mean we don’t?” Wyatt asked.

“It means I’m not letting those kids go through the foster system. The system sucks. They’ve already been through enough. They need a safe home.”

“I realize that,” Wyatt said. “But we can’t just take them. That’s not how it works.”

Joey bit his lip.

“I don’t care how it works. I’m not letting them suffer any longer.”

He looked really angry. Angry and protective. Like a real father.

“How about we apply for emergency protective custody first and take things one step at a time,” I suggested, and when Joey looked at me, I didn’t know how, but I could tell.

It was as if he were born for this moment. Born to be here and now so he could claim those kids as his own. And even though I barely knew him, I knew he had a heart of gold and would be a great father to the twins.

“Shit,” Slade cursed, and everyone’s attention turned to him.

“What happened?” Wyatt asked.

Slade didn’t answer him. He slowly looked at Teddy with a frozen, sunken expression and bit his lip.

“What happened?” Teddy growled.

And his reaction, combined with Slade’s, made my stomach drop.

“It’s Bear. He…he’s missing.”