Rick had known Killian was badly hurt. It wasn’t until that moment that it occurred to Rick that Killian might die.
One eye was swollen closed, the other opened a slit. Killian’s voice was so hoarse, Rick wouldn’t have recognized him. “I know. I look great, don’t I? A real Harrison Ford.”
“Nonsense,” Lana said calmly, sitting at his side. “Harrison Ford never had anything on you.”
His right eye opened a little more at Lana’s voice. “I was hoping I would get to see you.”
“Nothing could have stopped me.” Lana took his hand. “What happened?”
“It’s a long story.” Killian shifted, an expression of pain creasing his features. “The morphine isn’t doing much anymore. They won’t give me more.”
“I’ll talk to them.” Lana started to rise, but Killian grasped her hand tighter, holding on.
“Don’t leave. Please.”
Sinking back into her seat, Lana nodded, her eyes watery. “I’m not going anywhere. Is your mother here?”
“They sedated her. She’s very upset.”
“We’re all upset, dearest,” Lana said. “But stay positive. You’re too strong for some silly car crash to take you down.”
Killian tried to smile, but it wasn’t easy. Not when so much of him had been injured. “The doctors are politely saying I’m dying. Something about internal bleeding. I’ve never done it before, but I think this is what it feels like. Dying has to be better than listening to those two out there.”
Haleigh and Enzo had started screaming at each other out in the hall, causing Lana to turn and frown.
“Rick? Would you mind?” she asked.
“Gladly.” Rick turned on his heel and strode to the door.
His intervention wasn’t necessary, however much he wanted to grab the two by the scruffs of their necks and toss them both into the elevator. Security had already been called. Rick waited until a protesting Enzo and a crying Haleigh were escorted out of ICU.
When Rick slipped back in, Killian’s eyes were closed. Lana still held his hand tightly in her own.
“He fell back asleep.” Her voice cracked. “I promised him I would stay.”
“Then we’ll stay,” Rick said quietly.
“Last night, everything seemed so perfect. Was it only twenty-four hours ago?”
“Seems like a lifetime, doesn’t it?” There wasn’t another chair, but Rick was fine settling down on his heels at her side, holding Lana’s hand as she held Killian’s.
For thirty-six minutes, they listened to him breathe. Then they watched him stop.
* * *
Of all the things Lana had witnessed in her life, watching her cousin have shock paddles pressed to his chest had been among the worst. Even now, she could hear the monitors flatlining.
The skilled doctors and nurses had revived him, but they’d insisted family leave the room. Donors or not, they would have to wait in the waiting room like everyone else.
Lana’s aunt Rebecca was a mess, but for once, Silas was being helpful. He’d let her lean on him, keeping an arm tight around the sobbing woman as they waited for her husband’s transcontinental flight to land.
Attempting to console her aunt was futile, not that Lana blamed Rebecca for being so upset. In the end, all Lana could do was hold Rebecca’s hand. Every so often, a heavy palm rested on her shoulder, squeezing gently, reminding Lana that Rick was there with her. No matter what happened, she wasn’t alone.
Lana appreciated it more than he could possibly know.
They plied Rebecca with enough sedatives that she fell into a state of quiet weeping, then finally sleep. Only then did Lana slip outside the private waiting room they’d been given.
“This could be a while,” she warned him. “You might want to take a rideshare back to a hotel.”
“I’d rather stay with you,” Rick said kindly. “Can I get you a coffee or some tea? Your hands are shaking, sweetheart.”
Before Lana could accept his offer, her phone rang. A brief phone call later, she ended the call and frowned at her cell.
“My mother wants us to come by the house.”
“Is that what you want to do?”
She wavered, watching a well-dressed man stride toward the waiting room. “My uncle is here for my aunt and Killian. I’m not sure what we can do waiting here. At least we could freshen up.”
In the end, Lana erred on the side of taking Rick back to her parents’ house in a suburb of Chicago. Their home looked like every other home on the street. Old but well maintained. Three stories, brick exterior, a nice door, and neatly trimmed evergreens out front. As home bases for the ultrawealthy, it wasn’t what most would expect.
As the car pulled into the drive and through a discrete gated entry, it seemed far less intimidating than what people thought they’d be walking into.
Lana glanced at Rick, staring out the window.
“Not what you expected?”
“I was trying to think of a nice way of saying that,” Rick said ruefully.
“Old money is old for a reason. We save.”
As they got out of the car, Rick held his arm out for Lana. “As much as I enjoy ending up in a pile of gummy bears with you, there’s ice.”
He could make her laugh, even in the hardest of times. Grateful for his presence and his supportive arm, Lana tucked her fingers into his bicep.
Lana’s heels clicked on cobblestone pavers, then on gleaming marble as they entered the home through an unobtrusive back door. The marble mudroom was their warning sign things were about to get a whole lot more expensive, if subtly so. Rare paintings from the 1800s graced the foyer. Antique chairs once used by French royalty sat in the study. The garage outside held a 1930s Rolls-Royce that had set her father back almost $2 million, not that he’d ever be gauche enough to drive it.
Speaking of Langston, he was headed down the hall, having been alerted by the security system of her arrival.
“Lana.”
Her name on her father’s lips was enough to almost break through the composure Lana had fought so hard for since getting the call about Killian’s accident. She hugged him in greeting, holding on just a touch too long before stepping back and saying, “Dad, this is Rick Harding. Rick, this is my father, Langston Montgomery.”
“I’ve heard good things about you from my wife,” Langston said, shaking Rick’s hand. “It was kind of you to come with Lana. This is a trying time for our family. A friendly face is appreciated.”
Meeting the parents wasn’t the easiest on the best of terms, but Rick held any discomfort he might have felt close to the chest.
“It’s nice to meet you, sir,” Rick simply said, then shifted back to let Lana have her father’s full attention. He didn’t often hug her a second time, but this was a double hugging occasion if ever there was one.
Releasing her, Lana’s father sighed. “Your mother should be down in her office by now. I know she wants to talk to you before we leave.”
Only then did it occur to Lana that her father was in his best tuxedo, a fashionable Italian number tailored to fit him perfectly.
“Leave for where?” she asked, frowning.
Langston didn’t answer, merely glancing at Rick before heading toward the library that had served as her mother’s “office” for the last several decades.
One day, Lana wanted to have a library that was used for curling up and reading, not for holding meetings or entertaining important guests. Two stories of gleaming bookcases, a curved massive fireplace, and rustic wood beams drawing the eye up to irreplaceable antique stained glass window artwork. In the middle of it, her mother leaned one hand on a leather cigar chair. Dressed in a cocktail dress Lana had never seen before, Jessica pulled on a pair of heels, balancing her phone between her shoulder and her head. “Yes, thank you, Silas. I know. I’ll tell he
r.”
Ending the call, Jessica tossed her cell on the chair, addressing them without turning. “Langston, your sister-in-law is going to need her own room soon. They’re taking Killian into surgery to cauterize a bleed next to his kidney, and she’s falling apart.”
“Her son is in intensive care.”
“Yes, and this is the time she needs to be strong for him.” Turning, Jessica realized Lana and Rick were with her husband.
“Lana, you’re just in time,” Jessica said, sounding relieved. Hustling over, she hugged Lana tightly, then did the same to a surprised Rick. “Rick, you’re a dear for coming too. I’m Jessica. It’s so nice to meet you.”
Rick mumbled a reply, thrown by the hug and—Lana assumed—how much cleavage her mother had squashed into his chest. Jessica was a stunningly beautiful woman, and Rick wouldn’t be the first one of her dates to drop a jaw when her mother walked by. In a different situation, she would have teased him mercilessly.
“Your cousin is going into surgery,” Jessica continued. “Silas is keeping me updated, but Langston and I are headed over to the hospital after the ball.”
“The ball?” Lana had no idea what her mother was talking about.
“I had a few things brought over for Rick. I’m sorry. There’s obviously no time to have anything tailored for him, but I doubt anyone will notice.”
“I’m sorry. I’m here for Killian, not a holiday party.”
“A holiday party being hosted by Forester and Dunning. We have too much at stake to offend the Foresters by not showing up. I know you’ve been focused on your Moose Springs project, but the rest of us have been up to our ears in this. We can’t afford any mistakes now, and not having the majority of the board of directors attend is the kind of insult they won’t forget.”
“My cousin is dying.”
Jessica sighed. “Unfortunately, F and D couldn’t care less. What they do care about is the show of power for their major shareholders, all of whom will be there tonight. Rebecca, your uncle, and Killian were all supposed to be there. You and Rick will be their stand-ins.”
Lana’s composure finally slipped, shock filling her voice. “This is absurd—”
“Your mother and I don’t like it either, Lana,” Langston said. “Unfortunately, fulfilling our obligations to the group doesn’t stop because we’re in the middle of a family crisis. You know that better than anyone.”
“And you don’t believe that’s a little harsh? Killian—”
“Killian wrapped a quarter-million-dollar sports car around a brick wall because he never put the family first,” her father said firmly. “I am brokenhearted at his prognosis and sick to my stomach at how much this is hurting the family, but we all know this call was coming. The boozing, the women, the fast cars.”
“We kept hoping he’d settle down,” Jessica added sadly. “Apparently, he took too long to grow up.”
Lana didn’t know how her parents managed to say those things and still sound compassionate.
“Go to your party,” she said, bristling. “We’re going back to the hospital.”
Lana’s mother sighed. “Silas said you might feel this way. We’ll manage without you if we have to. Silas can stand in for you if he must. He’s been the family’s rock throughout all this.”
The fact that those words were spoken without a hint of sarcasm made Lana’s blood run cold. Of course. Of course Silas would take advantage of a tragedy to ingratiate himself with her parents. He couldn’t have been less subtle about his intentions.
Langston caught her eye, and Lana knew without saying a word that she wasn’t the only one aware of Silas’s machinations.
And with Moose Springs on the line, the less power Silas had, the better. Langston patted her shoulder.
“It’s only an evening,” he promised. “A Montgomery can withstand anything for an evening.”
* * *
“One of these days, I’m going to figure out how to not look like an idiot in a tie,” Rick told Lana as they dressed in their borrowed finery. This time, Rick was fighting with a bow tie, one of the most complicated objects he’d been forced to deal with in his adult life.
He missed his simple snowflake tie dearly.
“Did this have to be a tie-on? They make clip-on bow ties.”
“Yes,” Lana said from inside the largest closet Rick had ever seen. It was almost the size of his living room. “Montgomerys never clip on.”
“Hardings always clip on. Black works, right? I tried on the white one, and it looked stupid.”
“The black will be perfect. Stop fretting; you look good in anything.” Lana stepped out of the closet, and Rick’s ability to breathe simply stopped. He stood there, staring, knowing he should say something and unable to force his tongue to move, let alone make a coherent sentence.
She was wearing the kind of gown he’d only seen in movies.
“I’ve missed this dress,” Lana said to herself, running a hand down her hip. “It was always one of my favorites.”
“You should wear that all the time.” Running through his memory, Rick couldn’t remember ever seeing a woman look as beautiful as Lana did right now.
She flashed him a quick grin. “Even when moose catching?”
“Especially when moose catching.”
Her parents had already left for the party, so Lana and Rick took a separate car. At least that saved Rick from the distressingly low-cut gown Lana’s mother was wearing. Few first impressions were as bad as checking out his date’s mother…even if accidentally done.
The drive through Chicago was surreal. Rick had toured the lower forty-eight while playing billiards, but it had been a long time since he’d been surrounded by skyscrapers. Where Anchorage felt crowded, this city was overwhelming.
Lana wasn’t the only one nervous about tonight, but Rick tried his best not to let it show. He didn’t want her to have to help him or worry about him. She had enough to worry about.
He could tell by her reaction to her cousin’s name that Lana wasn’t happy with Silas…not that anyone could be happy around the noxious man. But Rick didn’t understand how Silas’s presence was enough to make Lana leave her cousin for the evening. There was more to her worries than she would tell him, and Rick was having a hard time not asking.
He wanted her to be open with him, but he wasn’t going to push. But damn, it bothered him that she was pulled between her job and her family, and it made him wish there was something more he could do.
Maybe Lana didn’t need his comfort and support, but he was going to make sure she had it. And if he needed to help her deal with Silas, then Rick was all in. He’d dump the twerp in a punch bowl if she wanted him to.
They pulled up to the mansion where the party was being held, a four-story midcentury modern monstrosity that could have held the entirety of his town within the sleek concrete walls. When Rick stepped into the mansion, Lana on his arm, he had a brief feeling of being in someone else’s life. This certainly wasn’t his. His life was a pool hall that was always too cold in the winter and too warm in the summer. A mortgage that wouldn’t go away, even when he wished it would. A grumpy kid on the couch, lamenting both their love lives.
Rick’s life wasn’t crystal glasses of champagne, ball gowns, or chic tuxes, surrounded by professionally designed wintery floral arrangements and diamond-crusted ornaments on Christmas trees suspended on nearly invisible wires from the ceiling. The white tuxedo, black bow tie, and black shirt she’d given him for the occasion left Rick feeling like an inverted penguin. But with Lana in the deepest, richest red gown next to him, Rick knew it didn’t matter one bit what he wore. No one was going to be looking at him.
All eyes were on her.
“I’m going to have to mingle,” Lana warned him. “If you get sick of it, squeeze my hand twice, and I’ll ask you to get me a mixed drink.”
&
nbsp; “I’ll be fine,” Rick told her. Boy, was he wrong. On the twenty-second repeat of the same conversation, Rick conceded defeat and went to get her a drink. With each reiteration of “how was her poor dear cousin, what a shame, would she want to set up a meeting with them to talk business?” Rick had to keep biting his tongue harder. Silas kept interjecting himself into the conversation, reminding Rick of a toy-sized dog jumping up and down to be noticed.
Lana introduced him to each newcomer, and initially Rick worried maybe Lana’s colleagues would think he wasn’t good enough for her. But the reality was, to them, he wasn’t even there. Even Silas was ignoring him. Lana handled everything like the professional she was, deflecting requests with compliments and somehow remembering everyone’s name.
Only Rick knew how uncomfortable she was with it all and only because her thumb never stopped drumming against her hip.
“Scotch, neat,” Rick told the bartender, grateful to be away from the masses. “And a second for me.”
He almost laughed at the absurdity of it all. Waitstaff were passing around caviar on actual silver platters, but this was a cash bar. Of course the fancy fish eggs were free when all Rick wanted was a stiff drink.
One wouldn’t hurt. Not on a day like this.
“My daughter is beautiful, isn’t she?” Jessica’s voice pulled Rick’s attention. He’d been so focused on Lana, he hadn’t noticed her mother leaning against a table near the bar. Like Lana, Jessica had picked a rich red for her gown, although with a plunging neckline Rick was trying very hard to avoid glancing at.
“Lana’s stunning,” Rick agreed.
“She’s the heir to one of the most powerful real estate conglomerates in the world. She could be cross-eyed in a burlap sack and everyone would tell her how amazing she looks.” Lana’s mother took a sip of her scotch, breaking from the rest of the room’s choice of champagne. “But you’re right. She’s stunning. You’d have to be blind not to notice her.”
He didn’t know what to say, so he paid for a third scotch instead, nodding to the bartender to give it to Lana’s mother.
Mistletoe and Mr. Right Page 29
