BILLIONAIRE ROMANCE: The Unforgettable Southern Billionaires: The Complete Collection Boxed Set (Young Adult Rich Alpha Male Billionaire Romance)

by Walker, Violet

  “She’s headed into surgery right now,” a nurse replied.

  “Please,” he pleaded. “Help her. She’s everything.”

  “We’ll do our best for her, sir. Right now we need to get you into surgery and fix this shoulder.”

  Grant was wheeled into an operating room and put under IV sedation. Before falling asleep, a thought popped into his head.

  “The brakes,” he said. “Tell them to check the brakes.”

  Grant woke some time later in a quiet hospital room with no sound other than that of the machine intermittently monitoring his blood pressure and heart rate. He turned his head to the side and saw his father standing at the window, looking out at the city below.

  “Dad,” he choked, his throat hoarse from the oxygen he’d had during surgery.

  Mason Crawford turned toward his son, a look of relief on his face. Grant tried to boost himself up in the bed, but the bulky sling around his left shoulder didn’t allow easy movement.

  “Careful. Here, let me help,” Mason said, coming to the bed and helping to ease Grant into a more upright position. “Try not to move that arm too much,” he said. “The doctor said you need to keep it as still as possible. Are you in much pain?”

  “No,” Grant said, reaching for the cup of water on the bedside table with his good arm. “Desi? How is she?”

  “She’s still in surgery, last I heard,” Mason said. “She had several broken bones and some internal injuries. What the hell happened out there, Grant?”

  Grant was trying to remember everything that had happened before the crash, but his brain was foggy from all of the medication. He was suddenly very tired. “I can’t remember,” he said sleepily. His eyes drifted closed and he fell into a restless sleep.

  Chapter Two

  Desiree again had the sense of several people hovering around her, but this time she opened her eyes. She blinked rapidly against the harsh white light shining down on her, ears adjusting to the beeps and hums of the machines in the room. She was in the hospital, that much she could gather, but she had no recollection of how or why she was there. She tried to open her mouth to speak, but realized a tube was down her throat and began to panic.

  “Easy, easy,” a pleasant-faced nurse said to her. “Desiree, you were in an accident. You are at St. Regis right now and we are taking good care of you. You have some bruising on your lungs so we have a tube in to help you breathe right now. Everything is going to be okay.”

  Desiree became instantly aware of all of her aches and pains. Her head, chest, and right leg throbbed, and she winced.

  “Are you feeling pain?” the nurse asked. “There is a button in your left hand, so when you feel pain, go ahead and push it and the medicine will come through your IV, ok?

  Desiree nodded her understanding and pushed the button, grateful for the near instant relief that washed over her. Grant, she thought. What about Grant? She reached out with her right hand to get the attention of the nurse who was charting next to the bed, but she couldn’t get any words out with the damn tube down her throat. Desiree pointed to the file the nurse was writing in.

  “What is it,” the nurse asked. “You want to know what I’m writing?”

  Desiree shook her head “no” and made a writing motion with her hand. Understanding, the nurse gave Desiree the pen and a piece of paper from the drawer. Desiree scribbled “Grant” onto the paper and pushed it toward the nurse. The nurse nodded and smiled at Desiree reassuringly.

  “Mr. Crawford is doing fine,” she said, as tears of relief trickled down Desiree’s face. “He had a dislocated shoulder and some cuts, but he’s stable and in his room,” the nurse finished.

  Desiree relaxed and let the pain medication dull her senses. Now that she knew Grant was alright, she allowed herself to sleep.

  “You really shouldn’t be up and around just yet, Mr. Crawford,” the nurse said to Grant. “You just had surgery and should be resting.”

  Grant ignored her and continued to get out of bed, which was proving to be difficult with one arm. “I just need to see Desi,” he said. “If you can just wheel me down there so I can see her for myself, I promise to be a much more cooperative patient.”

  Finally, the nurse admitted defeat and helped Grant into a wheelchair. She took him down to the Intensive Care Unit where Desiree was recovering. He was briefed on her condition before being wheeled into her room. According to Desiree’s nurse, she suffered a severe concussion, multiple rib fractures, bruising on her lungs, and a broken femur, which had severed the artery and almost caused her to bleed to death. She was in for a long recovery.

  Grant sat next to her bed for a few minutes, taking in all of the bandages, tubes and machines surrounding her. He was so grateful that she was alive; he couldn’t even bring himself to think about what he would’ve done if she had died. He reached out and took her hand in his, finding comfort in the familiar warmth. After sitting with Desiree for a few moments, both his and her nurse returned to the room. Both patients needed their rest and Grant was taken back to his room with the promise that they would update him on Desiree’s condition.

  As they were getting off of the elevator on Grant’s floor, they saw Mason at the nurses’ station.

  “Where is my son,” he demanded. “If he’s not out having a test, why isn’t he in his room?”

  “Dad,” Grant called, “leave them alone. I’m right here.”

  “Where have you been?” Mason asked. “I’ve been here for fifteen minutes and no one could tell me where you were.”

  “I was down in the ICU visiting Desi,” Grant said.

  “You need your rest. Grant. You’ve been through a very serious accident and you’ve had surgery. You shouldn’t be parading around the hospital!” Mason said angrily.

  “Can you please take me back to my room?” Grant asked the nurse fidgeting uncomfortably behind him. “I don’t think everyone here needs to hear my father yelling in the hallway.”

  Once Grant was settled back in his bed, Mason started on him again.“Grant, you really shouldn’t be…”

  “Stop right there,” Grant said, holding up his hand to quiet his father. “What don’t you understand about this? I love her and she almost died. Of course I’m going to make sure that she is alright.”

  Mason let the argument go for the moment, not wanting to jeopardize Grant’s health with undue stress. He looked at his son, his only child, and sighed. He’d been so angry with him the past week, but when the hospital had called and said he’d been in an accident, Mason’s fear had overridden any anger and he rushed to be at his son’s side.

  Grant eyed his father from his bed, trying to read his emotions. When he’d woken early this morning, his head cleared and he remembered why he and Desiree had been on the road yesterday. Now was as good a time as any to confront his father about it.

  “Seven years ago you convinced me that it was in our family’s best interest to break things off with Desiree,” he started.

  “Not this again,” Mason interrupted.

  “But it wasn’t because of the scandal Destiny’s death would bring was it?”

  “What do you mean?” Mason answered. “Of course it was.”

  “Are you sure?” Grant asked, leveling his gaze on his father’s face. “Or was it so that no one would find out that you’d been sleeping with her sister?”

  Chapter Three

  All of the color drained from Mason Crawford’s face and his authoritative stance wavered ever so slightly.

  “Where are you getting your information?” Mason asked, when he recovered his composure. “Who told you that nonsense?”

  “Desiree found a box of letters in her mother’s old room. Addressed to Destiny, from you,” Grant said, watching for his father’s reaction.

  Mason turned to face the window, his shoulders stooping slightly. “And you read these letters?”

  “Just one,” Grant answered, “but it was enough for us to know you were sleeping with her. How could you?”<
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  Mason dropped into the chair at Grant’s bedside and lowered his head into his hands. “It wasn’t planned. I swear,” he said, sounding defeated.

  “So you just happened to fall into bed with Destiny on accident one day? Come on, dad, you barely knew her outside of me and Desiree.”

  Mason sat back in the chair and sighed, suddenly looking tired and ten years older. “Did I ever tell you about my first love? No, I guess I probably didn’t. Not something a father talks to his son about when that person isn’t his wife,” he paused.

  Grant sat patiently and waited for his father to continue, not knowing where this was going.

  Mason took a deep breath and continued. “When I was seventeen I met a girl and fell in love. We spent almost every day together along with my best friend, Victor.”

  “Victor,” Grant interrupted. “As in Victor Crawford?”

  “The same,” Mason answered. “We were friends once upon a time, best friends. Until the love of my life chose him over me.” The bitterness of it still rang in his voice almost thirty years later.

  “Oh my God,” Grant said, realization dawning. “You were in love with Desiree’s mother.”

  “Yes,” his father said quietly. “Your grandfather had already decided that I should marry your mother and I would have protested, but when I went to speak with Elizabeth, I found her and Victor together. I was devastated. I could barely look at either one of them again. So, I married your mother per your grandfather’s wishes.”

  “Did you ever love her?” Grant asked. “My mother, I mean.”

  “Over the years I have grown to love her, yes, but it was never the same passionate love I had for Elizabeth,” Mason admitted.

  “Is that why you’ve always targeted Palmer holdings? To get back at Desiree’s parents?”

  “Yes, it was the only way I thought I could hurt them like they hurt me. I thought if I could make more money, be more successful, take some of what was theirs, it might make Elizabeth see that I was the better man,” Mason said.

  “To what end?” Grant wanted to know. “Did you want her to come back to you? And then what? You would divorce my mother?”

  “After Victor died, Elizabeth still turned a cold shoulder to me. Honestly I don’t know what I thought would happen, or what I would have done if she had come to me,” Mason said sadly. “Over the years, I gave up on her. Your mother has been a good wife to me and I tried to refocus my thoughts on her, but I still never felt the same for her as I always had for Elizabeth. I was distraught when she died. When I saw Destiny at the funeral…” he trailed off.

  “You realized how much she looked like her mother,” Grant finished. “That’s it, isn’t it?”

  Mason’s eyes misted over momentarily. “Yes, if you were to see a picture of Elizabeth at seventeen it was like looking at Destiny.”

  “So you pursued her?”

  “Not then, no. But one night, about six months later, I was in Atlanta for business and Destiny was having dinner with some friends at the same restaurant. We had a polite conversation for a few moments and she was on her way. She must’ve stayed behind and followed me because later that night, she showed up at the bar I was at. She tried to order a drink but was carded and they took her fake ID. They were about to kick her out, but I stepped in and took her outside. She broke down on the sidewalk and I could see she was in pain. She said she missed her mother and I said I did too. She kissed me and we ended up in a hotel.”

  “So your affair lasted over a year,” Grant asked.

  “Yes,” Mason answered. “She broke it off about two months before she died.”

  As Grant opened his mouth to tell him about the baby, his mother breezed into the room and Mason’s carefully constructed mask fell back into place.

  Desiree woke from her medication-induced sleep to find that her breathing tube was being constricted. She choked and fought, but the pain in her head and ribs and the immobilization of her leg made it nearly impossible. The room was dark and she couldn’t see her assailant. She tried to reach for her call button but it had been removed, and with the tube in her throat, she couldn’t call out for help. She began to panic from the lack of oxygen. Her lungs were too bruised to be able to work without considerable, help and she could feel herself suffocating.

  She tried once more in vain to reach something, anything that she could knock over to get someone’s attention. She quieted then and lay very still, trying to conserve as much breath as she could but tube was kinked too tightly and she felt herself start to float. Her vision darkened and the sound of her pulse crashing in her ears began to dull. Desiree fell away into an abyss and the only sound left was the steady, monotone whine of the heart monitor.

  Chapter Four

  Catherine Grant rushed over to her son’s bed. “Oh my goodness, my dear, are you alright?” she asked as she fussed over his blankets and pillows.

  “Yes mother, I’m fine,” he responded.

  “I’m so sorry I wasn’t here earlier, I had some business to take care of in Atlanta, but I got here as soon as I could.”

  “I’m okay mother, really I am,” Grant said again, pushing her hands away as she tried to brush his hair from his eyes as if he were seven years old.

  “Are you in pain? Do you have enough water? Have you eaten? Where is your nurse?” Catherine spit question after question in rapid-fire succession, not pausing to let him answer any of them.

  “Mother,” Grant said sternly, “I’m fine.”

  “Well, I was just so worried when I got the call about the accident. Grant, what were you doing driving Desiree’s car? And why so fast?”

  “Well seeing as how dad had my car towed, I really had no other option,” Grant said. “As for the speed, well…”Grant trailed off as a sudden memory came flooding back.

  “Grant?” Mason asked, “what is it? You look pale.”

  “The brakes,” Grant said. “I hit the brakes, but nothing happened. I pushed the pedal all the way to the floor but the car never even slowed down. I have to call the police.”

  “Wait, are you saying the brakes went out?” Mason asked.

  “Yes, I’m telling you I was practically standing on them and nothing was happening. Get me the phone,” he said to his mother.

  “Calm down, sweetheart,” Catherine said. “I’m sure the police are looking into the accident. There’s no need to call and fuss at them right now. You need to focus on getting better.”

  “Mother, I will feel better when I talk to the police. I think someone tampered with the brakes on Desiree’s car,” Grant said.

  “Well now why would anyone do that?” Catherine asked. “The girl’s been gone for so long and only back in town for a few weeks now. Who would care to mess with her car? I’m sure you’re just jumping to conclusions?”

  “Mother-” Grant raised his voice.

  “If it will make you feel better, I will call Sheriff Todd,” Mason offered. “See if they’ve started looking into the crash yet. Let him know your thoughts.”

  Grant settled back into his pillows. “Yes, thank you dad,” he said.

  “I’m sure it’s nothing,” Catherine said. “You have always liked to drive fast; it was only a matter of time before you had an accident.”

  The short burst of adrenaline faded, leaving Grant very tired. He shifted around to get comfortable in the hospital bed and closed his eyes.

  “There, that’s more like it, you get some rest, baby,” his mother said, pulling the covers up to his chest.

  Before Grant could fall asleep, the hospital PA system came to life and an operator uttered five words that made his blood run cold.

  “Code Blue in the ICU!”

  Desiree’s nurse was sitting at the nurses’ station when the screen showing Desiree’s monitor started to beep a long, low tone. She glanced up and saw the flat line across the screen and got up to go check. The nurse walked into the room expecting to find that a lead had fallen off, as was often the case when the alarm soun
ded. To her horror, she found Desiree unresponsive and not breathing. The nurse checked for a pulse, and, finding none, began chest compressions while calling the code.

  Doctors and nurses came running into the room with the crash cart, stocked with the defibrillator to restart Desiree’s heart. The nurse continued compressions until the crash team was ready to step in. They opened Desiree’s hospital gown and placed the paddles on her bruised and battered chest.

  “Charging two hundred,” the head nurse called. “Clear!”

  The machine delivered a jolt to Desiree’s system, causing her limp body to jump like a ragdoll tossed into the air. They all looked at the monitor, but no pulse was evident.

  “Charging two-fifty, clear!” They delivered another jolt, but still no response.

  The doctor ordered epinephrine into Desiree’s IV and called for one more shock of three hundred volts. With the drugs and the increased voltage, the monitor finally showed a small blip, indicating Desiree’s heart was beating again. The doctor checked her vitals as the crash team moved their equipment out of the room.

  “What happened here?” the doctor asked.

  “I checked on her during my rounds on the floor no more than fifteen minutes ago,” she responded. “Miss Palmer was sleeping, her vitals were stable. I came back to the nurses’ station to do my charting and the alarm went off. I came in to check, thinking a lead had fallen off, and I found her unresponsive.”

  The doctor made note of all the nurse said as he continued to check Desiree’s vital and neurological signs.

  “Her pupils are sluggish,” he said. “What time did the alarm go off?”

  “At 14:23,” the nurse replied. “I was in the room no later than 14:24.”

  The doctor checked his watch, “So she was down for approximately seven minutes. Page for a neuro consult, she will need to be rechecked in twenty minutes for any signs of neurological deficit. Seven minutes is a long time for the brain to be without oxygen.”

  The nurse used her hospital cell to page the neurologist on call and set about restoring order to the room. The crash team was a Godsend, but they always left a trail of debris and chaos in their wake. She wiped the gel from the paddles off of Desiree’s chest and reset her heart monitor, then closed her gown and covered her back up. She bent down to pick up the last of the mess the crash team left, and something caught her eye. Just below the level of the bed rail, the ventilator hose was kinked so badly that it was almost crushed in one area and, by the look of it, it had been done deliberately.