Riley jumped in. “I’m Riley Rogers. I’d like to see Dean before I leave.”
“Of course you can!” The woman handed the drinks to Dean’s brother, cutting off Mr. Matthias’s dissent. “She’s a doctor, Peter. What do you think she’s going to do?”
“He just got out of surgery!”
Dean’s mother folded her arms and lifted a brow in response.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before giving Riley a quick nod. “Fine. Just Dr. Rogers. And only for a minute.”
Riley’s mom helped her to the door before stepping back. Riley walked into the dim room and closed the heavy wood door behind her. Dean was lying in the hospital bed, hooked up to several different monitors.
Out of habit, Riley checked all the monitors to make sure everything looked okay. Dean’s eyes were closed and his breathing deep, as if he were asleep. She came closer and sat gently on the edge of his bed. His eyes fluttered open.
“Riley,” he said, his voice hoarse. “You’re here.”
“How are you feeling?”
He laughed softly. “Do you want the honest answer or the one where I try to impress you?”
Riley was glad it was dark enough he couldn’t see her blushing cheeks. They’d spent the last several days together nonstop, but everything felt different now that they were in the real world.
He swiped his thumb along her wrist, sending tingles up her arm. “I’m happy to be alive and have an amazing woman at my bedside.”
She took his hand and held it in hers, glad to feel the steady pulse of his heartbeat. “How much do you remember?”
“You helped me out the window. Everything after that is a blank until I woke up here in the hospital. Dad said that you and Rodel dragged me over six miles.”
“It was mostly Rodel.” She shifted, sucking in a breath when one of her wounds pulled.
His eyebrows moved down in concern. “What’s the matter?”
“It’s nothing.”
He waited.
“I just got shot a little, too. Only a graze,” she clarified when his gaze turned thunderous.
“No one told me that.”
“They don’t want you to worry about me, Dean. You need to focus on getting better.”
“I’ll decide what I want to worry about.” He took her hand and held it tight in his. “How bad was it?”
“Getting shot? I didn’t even realize that it had happened until we arrived at the hospital. Adrenaline, I guess. The rest of it, though?” She didn’t know if she should tell him all the details of their escape or not. “It was bad,” she finally settled on. “But we made it. And we’re all alive.”
He brought her hand to his mouth and kissed her fingers. Riley’s heart stuttered.
“I would have died if you weren’t there.” His intense stare bored into her. “I will forever be grateful to you.”
The words struck her painfully in the chest. She tried to smile and accept them graciously, but emotion caught in her throat. This is dumb, Riley. He’s grateful to you. You saved his life. That’s amazing.
But she couldn’t help recalling when she’d taken care of him at the cabin and he’d told her he loved her. Had she expected him to say that again? He’d been drugged. He would have loved anyone who was giving him pain relievers.
With a sudden realization, she knew she loved him. She loved Dean Matthias. She’d fallen for his smiles, his kisses, his drive, the way he cared about people, his courage, and even for the potential of all the things she wanted to get to know about him.
A loud rap sounded on the door, followed by a glint of light into the room as it opened. Riley’s dad stood there with an apologetic smile. “The plane is ready for us. We’ve got to go.”
“One more minute,” Dean said, and her dad nodded.
“What are you going to do now?” Dean asked.
“I don’t know. I guess I’ll go home. Find a job in my parents’ town.” The words sat in a disappointing heap in her stomach. She cleared her throat. “What about you?”
“Same plan. Except I’ll probably get assigned a babysitter at the company where my dad finds a place for me so I won’t screw up.”
Riley shook her head hard. “You are not a screw-up, and if he can’t see it, then he’s an idiot. And I have a hard time believing that.”
Another knock sounded, and Riley stood before the door could open. She took all of Dean in—the dark hair her fingers had run through, his freshly shaved jaw, the mouth she loved to see curved into a smile. Would she see him again?
On a whim, she leaned forward and pressed her mouth against his. His lips responded to her touch. Light burst into the room, and she yanked away, not meeting Dean’s eyes.
“Time to go,” a man in a suit said, his arms folded.
“Goodbye,” Riley whispered before turning and leaving the room.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
◆◆◆
The private plane bumped around in the air when they hit a patch of turbulence. Dean gritted his teeth against the pain of his arm being jarred. The damage to his muscle was so extensive, the doctor in Manila wasn’t sure if he’d ever have full mobility again. Apparently he’d lived through an exciting escape he had almost no recollection of. At least he recalled Riley coming to his hospital room and saying goodbye. The tender feeling of her lips against his was something he’d thought about often in the three days he’d remained in Manila after Riley had left.
The plane jolted up and down again, and the pilot’s voice came over the speaker. “There’s a storm over Boston, but it won’t keep us from landing. We’ll start our descent in about fifteen minutes. In the meantime, please stay in your seat with your seatbelt fastened.”
Dean peered out of his window. It was cloudy, so all he could see was a large expanse of white. Cole had told him that Riley had refused to leave until she could see Dean for herself. He wished he could have seen her stand up to his dad. It was something that didn’t happen often enough.
A stab of pain flew through his side, and he sucked in a breath.
Cole frowned at him before unbuckling his seatbelt and coming to stand beside Dean’s bed. “Do you need more pain meds?”
“You’re supposed to stay in your seat,” Dean said. He hoped that someday he could speak without every word sounding strangled.
“I’m taking a page out of your book … breaking the rules,” Cole tried to joke, but his face still held all the lines of concern.
Dean looked around the plane, wondering at the last time his entire family had been together. His brother and dad and even his mom had flown to Manila, although she was sitting as far away from their dad as was possible. His dad had his laptop and phone out, and had been on one or the other for the entire plane ride. It was almost like all their old family vacations again.
“How are you feeling?” Cole braced his feet when the plane took another dip. He’d asked the same question only two hours before, and nothing had changed. But he knew when his brother had something on his mind.
“Awful. Better. Some combination of the two.”
“Good. Or not good, I guess.” He ran a hand over his jaw. Dean rarely saw Cole flustered or unkempt, but he’d been both when Dean first woke up from surgery. This experience had taken a toll on all of them.
“Thank you for coming,” Dean said.
“Of course I came!” His brother’s expression was grave as he studied his hands. “We were really worried about you, Dean. When we heard about the terrorists and the ransom …” He laughed humorlessly. “Worried isn’t a strong enough word. I don’t think any of us ate for days.”
“How did you find out?”
“The news.” Cole shook his head. “Well, from one of Dad’s personal assistants who heard it on the news on the way to work. Those terrorists didn’t mess around in getting that video of you out.”
Dean cringed at the memory of making the video and the thought of everyone seeing it.
“Dad contacted the FBI,
but they said they don’t do ransoms, so while they did whatever they were doing, Dad starting pulling out funds.”
“I knew it was going to be impossible to get enough money.”
The edge of Cole’s mouth quirked. “Impossible? Not for Dad.”
“He got it?” Dean asked, shocked.
“Not only that, he got it while flying on a plane to the Philippines.”
Dean’s stomach ached with trepidation. “Did you send it to the terrorists?”
“No. We were going to that morning, but then the boat arrived, and we didn’t.”
Relief flowed through Dean. He appreciated that his dad had been willing to give up a quarter of his fortune to save Dean’s life. More than appreciated. He was in awe of that.
“Tell me about Riley,” Cole said.
Dean’s mind flew back into the conversation. “Why?” It came out harsher than he’d intended.
Cole’s eyebrows rose. “We were only able to speak with her for a few minutes before she needed to leave. I’m curious about the person who saved your life.”
Dean studied his brother for ulterior motives. “Then why don’t you ask about Rodel, too?”
“Okay, fair enough. Tell me about Rodel.”
The problem was, Dean didn’t want to talk about Rodel. It wasn’t Rodel who filled his mind every second, who had wheedled herself into his life and made him trust again. Riley had managed to get past all of his defenses, and he longed to see her again.
“Rodel?” his brother prompted.
“We’d be dead without him.” Dean had spoken with him briefly, using a translator, before he’d had to leave. Rodel was getting treatment for the cancer spot on his arm in addition to the shot he’d received to his head.
“Do you know why he decided to help you?”
“Riley saved so many lives in that village, including his, and he was doing the same for her in return. I was just lucky enough to have her with me.”
“And it comes back to Riley.” Cole leaned forward, a smile tugging on the edges of his mouth. “Seems like someone I might want to give a call some time. To thank her for saving your sorry butt.”
“Don’t,” Dean said. “Leave her be.” Jealousy too swift to push down rose in him at the thought of his brother and Riley talking. It wouldn’t take long for Cole to see in Riley what Dean had seen. Too late he realized that he had just given his brother the exact reaction he’d been hoping for.
Cole laughed. “Fine, I won’t call her. But you should.” He clapped a hand on Dean’s knee.
“I will,” Dean said, determined to do whatever he needed to convince her to fall for him as hard as he’d fallen for her.
Cole sat and folded his arms, a sudden frown crossing his face. And there it was. Cole’s mind was off of teasing, and back on whatever had brought him over to Dean’s side in the first place.
“What’s going on?” Dean asked him.
Cole lowered his voice. “Dad’s been on the phone for the last hour. I heard him talking to John and then Dr. Rogers.”
Dean’s body tensed. He should have been the one to call her. He missed hearing her voice, having her near him. But for his father to do it, something was up. “What’s going on?”
Cole’s lips tightened into a straight line. “It sounds like he’s shutting down the Worldwide Care Project.”
It wasn’t a surprise, but Dean had hoped things would be different. He imagined Riley’s disappointment, and felt his own just as keenly. But maybe it wasn’t too late. “Dad,” he called out.
His father turned in his seat with raised eyebrows before unbuckling and coming to stand beside Cole. The two of them hovering over him was exhausting. His mom appeared as well, her eyes dark and tired. Her worried look had faded, but she had told Dean it would be a long time before she stopped picturing how he’d looked when he was taken off the boat in Manila. She perched on the edge of his bed and squeezed his ankle.
“You can’t shut down the Worldwide Care Project,” he began, but his dad interrupted him before he could continue.
“We have to. It’s too dangerous.”
“Riley was in that village for six months without anything happening. It wasn’t until I showed up that things got dangerous.”
He shook his head. “I can’t take that chance. I almost lost a quarter of everything we have because of this terrorist group. And who’s to say something like this won’t happen again?”
His mom jumped in with a sour glance at his dad, then turned a caring one toward Dean. “Dean, you could have died.”
“But I didn’t.” He paused to take a deep breath. He’d tried to imagine what this experience had been like for his family—hearing about the kidnapping and ransom, seeing that video of him, and then trying to gather an insane amount of funds in such a short time. They’d all aged a decade in only a week. But the Worldwide Care Project had helped so many people. It had made a difference and saved lives. For the first time in his life, he’d been a part of something that really mattered, and he wasn’t willing to let that go. “What did Riley say when you spoke with her?”
His dad leaned forward and clasped his hands together. “We mostly spoke numbers. She certainly made the program an unmitigated success while in the Philippines.”
“Then we need to at least consider moving forward with another location. We’ll plan better security next time. I’ve traveled extensively, and nothing like this has ever happened before.” He was desperately searching for an argument that could win over his stone-faced father. Humility washed over him. “I was dumb on this trip. Too impulsive, and I put a lot of people in danger. I’ll never do that again.”
People like Rodel and his son and all the people in the line waiting to see Riley—they needed medical care. He understood that now more intimately than he ever had before. Without Riley’s competent and knowledgeable care, he’d be dead. How many more people could claim the same thing? Possibly hundreds. And he wasn’t willing to let something like that go.
“No, son,” his dad said. “I know this program means a lot to you, but I’m pulling funding. End of discussion.” He clapped a hand on Dean’s good arm. “I am proud of you. You did a good thing.” He acted as though he might say something more, but only shook his head and went back to his seat. Cole patted Dean regretfully on the shoulder and followed.
Dean closed his eyes and willed away the emotions welling up in him. His dad said no, and it was over.
“Dean.” He cracked an eye open and found his mom still near his feet, watching him thoughtfully. She frowned, and he knew she was picturing him near-death again. “This project really means a lot to you.”
“It does.” Frustration that he couldn’t get up from the bed and continue to argue the merits of Worldwide Care to his father ate at Dean. “This has been something I’ve dreamed about since you took us on all those trips, but I didn’t understand what an impact it could make until I saw Riley at the clinic and spoke with her about it. It’s wrong that something that can make such a difference is going to be dropped.”
“I’ve always wanted to do something like this,” his mom mused. “You’re a better person than the rest of us. The least cynical and most trusting.”
Dean laughed humorlessly. “And look where that’s gotten me. A fiancée that used me and a terrorist group that kidnapped me.”
“I’m not saying that it doesn’t come with a cost. But there are rewards, too.”
Riley’s face came unbidden into his mind. The way she sucked her cheeks in when she was concentrating, how her eyes lit up when she smiled, and the way her soft lips felt against his. Alive. That’s how it made him feel. She loved the Worldwide Care Project, but even more, she loved the people.
A crackly sound came over the intercom, followed by the pilot’s voice. “Prepare for landing.”
“I’m not ready to give it up,” Dean said.
“Then don’t.”
Her response surprised him. “What about the danger?”
&n
bsp; “If I know anything about you, it’s that you learn from your mistakes. You won’t let the same thing happen again.” Her expression turned determined on his behalf.
“But without Dad backing it …”
“You’ll have to be creative.” She lifted an eyebrow. “If you’re up to the challenge.” Mom went to her seat, leaving him with his racing thoughts. The plane landed on the tarmac with several bumps, but instead of pain, excitement rose in him.
His mind raced through a million possibilities. His dad would be furious, but Dean was an adult. There had to be a way.
First thing, he needed to talk to Riley himself. Hear her voice. Make sure she was okay. See if she’d ever give someone like him a chance now that they were back in the real world. So many people only saw his money, worldly success, and the fact that he was labeled as Most Eligible Bachelor on the cover of a magazine.
But Riley saw something deeper. She’d seen things in him that he’d only hoped existed. She cared about compassion, drive, intelligence, and courage. He wanted to be the kind of man she’d respect and care for, the same way he did for her.
She’d kissed him in the hospital, which gave him the hope he needed that she did have feelings for him, too.
“Uh, Dean.” Cole pointed toward the windows of the airport, where cameras and reporters awaited his arrival, pulling Dean from thoughts of Riley he wished he could hold on to for a little longer.
Dean groaned and closed his eyes. “Is this all over the news?”
“Yeah.” Cole tossed Dean his phone, opened to a live stream of a news station.
“… Hero, Dean Matthias, saved two people while in the Philippines. The Worldwide Care doctor, Riley Rogers, and a local man who acted as their guide through the jungle. We’ve received more details from a very credible source that after getting beaten and shot, Dean was able to orchestrate their escape from the house where they were being held and helped a severely injured Dr. Rogers to safety.”
“What?” Dean asked over the other anchor’s gasp.
The first anchor continued. “No, wait. It gets even better. While the terrorist chased them down a beach, Dean carried the unconscious doctor and got her safely in a boat, and then turned and fought them off so he could save their guide as well. Incredible.”
Hearts In Peril (Billionaire Romance) Page 13
