A Matter of Circumstance by M J Marlow (if you give a mouse a cookie read aloud .TXT) 📖

the house they would start firing into the windows. Hawk was hoping he’d be free to grab his wife and get her out in the confusion. Please God, he prayed as he saw the front door open. Help us! “Take your hands off of her!” Hawk snarled as he walked in and saw Madison beating Victoria with a belt while she was taped face down against the grid on the office wall. “Hawk!” “Agent Travers,” Madison smiled as he turned from Victoria. “Your timing is impeccable. I wanted you here to convince your pretty wife to undo the damage she wrought on my computer network.” He looked at her as a parent would a naughty child. “She has been most reluctant to comply.” “It’s not going to happen,” Hawk said tightly. He approached her slowly and was relieved when Madison let him free her and pull her into his arms. “What have you done to her?” “Far less than the little bitch deserves,” Madison spat. “Now that you’ve had your reunion, let her go and make yourself comfortable.” He whirled as a bullet came crashing through the kitchen window. Hawk pulled Victoria down and they went fast and low towards the front door. Victoria cried out as someone struck him down. She was caught around the waist and forced into the office. Morgan held her into the chair at the desk as Madison and Mason followed, dragging Hawk behind him. Madison closed and locked the door. They were now in a room with no windows and no way in or out but the door, as far as Madison and his men were concerned. “Now, pet,” he snarled at her as he yanked Hawk’s head up and pointed a gun at her husband’s temple, “do as I asked or you will be a widow.” Victoria sat behind the desk and booted up the computer. Madison watched every movement she made until he was satisfied she was doing what he asked. He went to Hawk and kicked him in the stomach. Victoria reached under the desk and pressed a hidden button. She cancelled what she had just done as the wall behind her slid open and she dove under the desk. Warren’s first shot hit Madison in the hand and the gun he’d been holding fell from his grip. Warren turned his gun on the other two men as he stepped aside and allowed Martin and the agents to come in. Victoria went to Hawk and sank down next to him. He opened his eyes and winked at her. “You bastard!” she hissed and hit him in the shoulder with her injured wrist. “Oh God!” she screamed as the pain raced up her arm and hit her brain. She blacked out and woke to find herself nestled in Hawk’s arms on the couch in the living room. Doc Washburn unwrapped her wrist and she winced as he examined it thoroughly. “Will I live, Doc?” “It’s going to hurt like hell for quite a while,” the man told her honestly, “but they stopped short of breaking it.” He wrapped it up and gave her a sling. “Keep it up for the next few days. Hawk can wait on you if you need anything.” Victoria closed her eyes and dozed off and woke to find herself on the couch and the house empty. From the time on the clock, she had been asleep for nearly five hours. She got up and went to find something to drink. She looked out the windows and no one was there. They were all in town with the prisoners she decided and thought nothing more of it. She heard the door open and turned to see Madison coming in. “We were interrupted before we could finish our play, pet,” he said as he trapped her in the corner. He slammed the drawer she was opening and grabbed her injured wrist, smiling as she cried out in pain. She drove the knife she’s gotten out before he’d stopped her into his arm and he backed up. She was out the door before he recovered. She ran towards the road and lost her footing. She scraped her hands on the rocks as she landed and blacked out. She was crying as she heard him approach. She found a large rock behind her body and clutched it in her hand tightly. He bent down to yank her up and she brought the rock crashing down on his head. “You witch!” he roared in pain. He caught her as she got up to run and slapped her across the face. Then he drove a fist into he abdomen. The pain of it sent her crashing to the ground. She curled up in a ball to protect her child as he began to beat her. “I will teach you to obey me, Victoria!” He froze as a bullet hit the ground near his knee kicking up the dry ground. He yanked Victoria up in front of him and she hung there nearly unconscious. “Look who’s come for you, ma belle,” he laughed as he grabbed her hair and yanked her head up so that she cried out in pain. “Your hero husband!” “Let her go, Madison,” Hawk snarled as he saw his wife’s battered face. “This is between us now.” Madison screamed as Victoria suddenly twisted and raked his face with her nails. He slapped her and she fell to the ground. He raised his gun and the bullet hit the ground as she rolled. His second shot never got off as Hawk fired. Hawk kicked the gun Madison dropped away and shoved him down on the ground, pressing the muzzle of his rifle into the man’s chest. “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t shoot, Madison,” Hawk exclaimed as he glared at the man. “I have two, Hawk,” Victoria said softly as she struggled to her knees. He held out his arm and she pulled herself up to her feet and clung to him. “Your son and I. We need you.” Hawk nodded and kept the rifle where it was, removing his finger from the trigger. They were still standing there when Vincent and the others arrived. Madison and his men were taken into custody and Victoria was taken to the clinic. “You’re lucky, Victoria,” Doc Washburn said as he looked over the test results and checked the fetal monitor. “He could have killed both of you with that beating. As it is, you are going on bed rest for the rest of this pregnancy.” “Her in bed for two months?” Hawk laughed. “I’ll have to tie her down, Doc.” “You’ll have help,” Reverend Ryan said as he came into the room. “Muddy and I will be right there with you. We’ve accepted a transfer to Saint Paul’s right here in Montrose.” “Uncle William!” Victoria cried in relief. “You’re back!” “I couldn’t let you two get away with not marrying in a church!” Ryan chided her. He looked at the stunned Hawk. “I should be cross with you, young man; but if you promise you’ll do your best to keep her out of trouble from now on, I am prepared to forgive you.” “I’ll do my best, sir,” Hawk said in mock contrition, “but this is Victoria we’re talking about.” “Hey!” Victoria protested. She saw their smiles and she shook her head and laughed. “I want a church wedding before our son is born, Hawk.” “If it will keep you on bed rest, honey,” Hawk smiled down at her fondly, “I’ll give you the largest wedding Montrose has ever seen.” Epilogue During the next two months Madison and Kennedy met with accidents in prison as they awaited trial. Interpol and the FBI questioned Nicol but there was no proof he had any knowledge of the events and he was released. He was on hand to entertain Victoria while she was on bed rest. Her new best friends, Joanna and Juliana, kept her busy helping her plan her church wedding to Hawk. Nicol sat with the Marlow family as they filled the pews of Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church in Montrose as the new reverend, William Ryan, officiated over the wedding of his niece and Hawk Travers. The very pregnant bride did not tell anyone her water had broken right before her father had come to claim her for the walk down the aisle. She was shivering as the labor pains continued to build but she was not going to leave until she had her church wedding. “Damn it, Victoria!” Hawk snapped as he caught her when she could no longer stand and she collapsed with a scream as pain ripped through her. “You need to be in the hospital!” “I am not leaving this church until we’ve said our I do’s, Hawk Travers!” Victoria snapped back at him. She pulled herself up to her feet, leaning heavily on her husband’s arm, and glared at him. She turned to her uncle then. “Please Uncle William?” Ryan nodded and the ceremony was concluded in an abbreviated manner. Hawk carried her into her uncle’s office as Doc Washburn followed. Hawk laid her down on the couch, holding her hand as the labor progressed unhindered. So it was that Andrew Ryan Travers was born in the church office fifteen minutes after his parents were pronounced man and wife by his great-uncle. “Do you think we can manage to make it to the hospital for the next one?” Hawk asked his smiling wife as he carried her to the FBI helicopter waiting for them while she nursed their son. “Montrose doesn’t have a hospital, Hawk,” Victoria said softly as she smiled up at him innocently and then returned her attention to the perfect dark-haired boy in her arms. He knew he was asking a lot with her. This woman who owned his heart as he did hers was a force of nature. Their life together was never going to be what other people considered normal. And pondering what they had shared over the past several months, he really didn’t want it any other way.
Imprint

Text: M J Marlow
Images: Bookrix
Editing: M J Marlow
Publication Date: 01-10-2010

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