When Dove Cries by Beth D. Carter Page A

He looked around. “I guess I don’t have to tell you to watch over Dove.”
    “You got that right,” Cade replied.
    “My deputies and I will be here most of the day, sorting through things,” he added. “Call me if you need me. Okay?”
    Everyone nodded. Givon kissed Allis, nodded to North then headed toward his truck.
    Dove’s nurse came up to them. “We should be able to move you back into your room shortly,” she said. “As soon as we get the okay from administration.”
    She offered an impersonal smile as she moved on to the next patient, saying the exact same thing. Even though the situation was tense, Dove couldn’t help feeling safe wrapped in Draven’s arms.

Chapter Eight
     
     
     
    The morning was long and tedious. One of the Red Wolves, a man named Nimrod who had the word ‘prospect’ on his cut, had produced a chair for Dove to sit on. She was embarrassed that Draven had held her so long and had probably hurt his back. Not that he looked like he was hurting. The man had muscle upon muscle, so she figured he’d just gotten in some weightlifting for the day.
    “What’s it like being with two men?”
    Allis raised an eyebrow. “Are you asking me for sexual clarification, or are you curious how two men don’t get jealous?”
    Heat filled her cheeks.
    Allis didn’t look away, and neither did Dove.
    “Both, I suppose.”
    “We sleep in the same bed,” Allis replied, cocking her head as she stared at Dove. “I suppose it helps that Givon and North are best friends. It would be hard if they had tension between them, like Cade and Draven.”
    Dove’s eyes went wide. “I didn’t mean… That is…”
    Allis chuckled. “It’s okay,” she said. “It can be unnerving when two men are interested and you’re interested right back. You wonder how you can choose between them because each man gives you something that you want and need.”
    “No, I, ah… That’s wrong, isn’t it?” Dove asked softly, swallowing. She glanced at Cade and Draven, who stood shoulder to shoulder watching the fire department. “I like them both.”
    Allis patted her hand. “I understand. I really do.”
    Dove sighed. It felt good to talk to someone who understood, who got it.
    “But it’s not easy,” Allis continued. “There will be people who’ll whisper behind your back, and there’ll be people who’ll call you a slut. And you can’t marry both men, so you have to figure out if you’ll just live with them or if you’ll marry one publicly, which I can’t do because to me, that’s picking one over the other. We’ve actually decided to get married on the reservation. Polygamy was practiced in Native American history.”
    Draven had peeked over at her, and Cade, who seemed to have sensed that Draven had turned, did the same thing. She stared at both men, and excitement shot through her whole body. Now that her body was healing, her emotions were waking up. Her heart fluttered suddenly with excitement, and a heaviness settled into her limbs that made her think of beds and silky sheets. Surprising, since she’d never had any fantasies of any man, and that included all the handsome, hunky men in her father’s unit. She’d been their little sister, and she’d taken care of them, or at least taken care of the house they’d lived in.
    Even though the nurse had said Dove would be going back to her room shortly, it was over two hours before the fire department and administration allowed people back into the hospital. Dove didn’t think Cade relaxed once. He stood guard over her like a Secret Service man protecting the president. It melted her heart.
    Now, as they settled back into her hospital room and her nurse reattached her fluids, she began looking at Cade and Draven in a whole different light. Draven had been her angel, and Cade had been her protector. In the five days they’d been plastered to her side, they’d begun to morph in her head. Now she saw how handsome they were, how each man held a