First and Only (Callaghan Brothers #2)

“You lie.”


Aidan shrugged his shoulders elegantly, as if he could care less whether or not anyone believed him. “When she was not at her hotel, I used the GPS on her phone to locate her here.”

“How did you happen to have Lexi’s medicine?” Jake asked.

Aidan considered him thoughtfully before speaking slowly and carefully. “Lexi and I are very close.”

“Meaning?” There was something far too intimate, too knowing in Aidan’s manner. Ian didn’t like it at all.

“If she did not share the details of her illness with you, I am not sure that I should.” He ignored Ian’s lethal stare and glanced around at the packed waiting room.

Michael came back through the doors. Before he could say a word, Aidan began walking toward him, already rolling up his sleeve. “Take mine,” he said. “We are compatible.”

At Michael’s skeptical look, he added gravely, “I’ve done this more times than you can imagine, Doctor.” Michael nodded, indicating that Aidan should proceed back toward the exam room.

“What’s going on, Mick?” Ian asked.

“Lexi needs a transfusion. The meds are helping, but her blood is so thin it’s not enough.”

“Then take mine!” Ian said fiercely, but Michael shook his head. “Sorry, Ian, but your blood type’s not an exact match, and she’s not strong enough for anything else right now. It would kill her.” He looked away from Ian’s pained eyes, scanning the room until he found the one he sought. “Taryn? I could use a second donor. You up for it?”

Taryn was on her feet in seconds. “Like you even have to ask.”

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Lexi was in a medically induced coma until her body had a chance to recover from the damage and assimilate the meds. Jake and Shane escorted an exhausted, bloody Ian back to the Pub for a quick shower, but only after Michael swore that there was nothing anyone could do and refused to allow Ian anywhere near her for a few hours.

He showered. He shaved. He put on clean clothes. And it was all done automatically, without thinking. Because the only thing Ian could think about was the realization that he almost lost Lexi, and the possibility that he still might.

What the hell had happened? She’d been fine the morning of the fair. Hadn’t she? He thought back, recalling the purplish bruises he’d seen forming as he bathed her. But afterward... she’d been wearing jeans that covered her legs to right above her ankles, long, loose sleeves that extended to her wrists and tied right below her collar bone. Sonofabitch.

He still had some time before they were heading back to the hospital. He sought out Taryn, found her resting in her and Jake’s room, looking almost as worried as he felt. It didn’t take much to convince her to tell him what had happened that day in the kitchen.

Using that information and what he had managed to pick up in the ER, Ian sat down at the computer. Moments later, Ian stared in shock as he finally broke through as screen after screen filled with data. Much of it was in medical terms and beyond his area of expertise, but he knew enough to get the gist of it.

He sat back, stunned, glad there was no one else around because what he found scared the shit out of him. Lexi had a rare blood disease, a form of hemophilia that kept her blood from clotting properly. It was hereditary, inherited from her mother. She’d been undergoing treatments for years, each one more risky than the last by the look of it. Daily injections allowed her to live a fairly normal life, but even the smallest cut could be life-threatening.

It was all beginning to make sense, not the least of which was why Kieran had been so overprotective. No wonder Kieran had been so freaked out over the raspberry bushes. He was one of the few who knew that one good scratch in the wrong place could make her bleed out. Kieran had also apparently figured out what happened in the kitchen that day, and confronted her with it. For the first time, Ian began to understand the pain and worry his brother must have been feeling all along.

And he had been so rough with her. He felt sick to his stomach, remembering the way her body had been battered. Kayla had admitted to shoving and pushing her, but it hadn’t been Kayla that had done all that damage. It had been him. Barely managing to make it to the bathroom, Ian fell to his knees and threw up. He’d almost killed the woman he loved.

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Lexi remained unconscious for the next two days. They all took turns sitting with her, though Ian and Aidan put in the most time, each reluctant to leave her alone in the company of the other.

“Why, Lex?” Ian asked for the hundredth time as he sat beside her. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Aidan snorted derisively as he stood by the window, staring out over the park below. It was such an uncharacteristic action from the smooth, composed man that Ian turned to look at him. “What?”

“You are an idiot.”