“I just wanted to tell you… I love you,” I said, wiping tears off my cheek. “You don’t have to say it. You don’t ever have to say it. I just want you to know that I love you. I’ve always loved you, and I never stopped loving you. I’m sorry I walked out two months ago… I just… please… please get well… please… even if you and I don’t…”
I paused, not wanting to continue down that path.
“I love you, I’ll always love you, and I want you. I need you. Please be okay. Please be okay. And thank you… thank you for saving my life.”
I got up, leaned over the bed, and kissed him on the lips. They were soft and warm, but didn’t move to meet mine.
One of my tears fell from my cheek onto his face. I wiped it away, then kissed him again on the lips, then the cheek, then the forehead.
“I love you,” I whispered into his ear.
There was a light knock.
I looked over. The door opened halfway, and Dr. Sarpara gestured to me. “He needs to rest.”
I nodded silently, kissed Connor again on the lips, and quietly walked out of the room.
9
Once I was out in the hall, I asked, “Can I stay up here with Johnny?”
“Yes, that will be fine,” Dr. Sarpara agreed, “but if you go in there without permission – ”
“I won’t,” I promised.
“Alright. We’re clearing out a room upstairs for him, he’ll probably be moved within the hour.”
“Thank you.”
The doctor nodded and walked down the hall, then disappeared into another room.
“So… congratulations,” Johnny grinned.
“On what?” I asked, bewildered.
“The wedding.”
“…oh.” I started laughing, then shook my head. “Sebastian told them that, not me. They wouldn’t have let either one of us up here otherwise.”
“Why wasn’t I invited?” Johnny teased.
“You were – you were there, don’t you remember? You were the best man. Sebastian got one of those licenses off the internet and officiated the wedding.”
“Ohhhhh, yeah,” Johnny grinned. “Now it’s coming back. I must’ve had too much to drink.”
“Yeah, you got pretty sloshed.” Then I shook my head. “If Connor freaked out before about saying ‘I love you,’ he’s going to love that we’re married now.”
“Well, if the alternative was being married to Sebastian, I think he’ll actually be pretty happy about it.”
We both laughed. It felt good. I needed a release from the worry and the fear and the darkness.
Johnny grew more somber. “Does he look okay?”
“Yeah. He’s sleeping, but he looks good.”
He breathed out heavily and stared at the floor. “Lily… I want to apologize. I’m so sorry.”
“For what?”
“For almost getting you killed.”
I frowned at him in alarm. Did he know something I didn’t?
“What are you talking about?”
“There was one other fucking guy in the hallway. Just one, just one fucking guy… and I stupidly assumed because he had on a uniform… if I’d just been watching him – ”
“Stop it,” I said, putting my hand on his shoulder. “You saved our lives.”
“Yeah, after I let Connor get shot,” Johnny said savagely.
“Hey – hey,” I whispered, and hugged him. “It’s not your fault.”
Johnny hugged me back with one arm, but he still stared blankly into the distance. “I’m his bodyguard. I’m his head of security. I’m not supposed to assume – ”
“Who nagged him until he agreed to wear the vest?” I interrupted.
“Yeah, but – ”
“Every day I was with you, and I’ll bet a dozen times a day after I left, until he gave in? Who did that?”
“He could have been shot in the head – ”
“But he wasn’t.”
“But he could have been – ”
“But he wasn’t. He’s alive, and I’m alive, and we wouldn’t be if you hadn’t been there.”
For the first time since the conversation began, Johnny looked down at me by his side, his eyes misted up. “Thank God you saw the gun, Lily. Thank God you screamed, or I don’t know what would have happened.”
“If I hadn’t been there,” I said, my voice cracking with guilt, “Connor wouldn’t have been there in the hall in the first place, and he wouldn’t have been in danger, and he wouldn’t have gotten shot.”
Now it was Johnny’s turn to frown. “What are you talking about?”
“If I hadn’t pulled him up to the penthouse – if I hadn’t shown up – ”
Johnny hugged me tight. “Then the guy would’ve done it later, maybe in the ballroom, and maybe killed somebody else. And he might have gotten away in the chaos, just dropped the gun and run away with everybody else after the first shots were fired. We would’ve never gotten him. You saved Connor’s life tonight by being there.”
“Sebastian said the same thing,” I sobbed.
“Well, you should listen to him. He knows everything,” Johnny said with affectionate mockery.
I laughed and sniffled into a tissue. “Maybe we both ought to stop beating ourselves up, huh?”
He smiled. “I will if you will.”
He stuck out his hand like Put ‘er there, and I took hold and shook. “Deal.”
We stood together in quiet peacefulness, waiting for a nurse or doctor to come and start the move to a different room.
Neither of us expected what happened next.
10
First Sebastian showed up.
We were just standing there when Johnny suddenly got a text on his cell. He frowned and read it, then tapped out a response.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“It was Sebastian. He was asking what room Connor’s in.”
“Why? He can’t come up here.”
“You can’t, either, and yet here you are,” Johnny pointed out.
“You did drink too much at the fake reception – now you’re even forgetting conversations about the fake wedding.”
“Maybe he really is planning to use the gay marriage excuse.”
I looked back at the closed door to Connor’s room. “You two-timing bigamist,” I joked.
“No – a bi… gamist,” Johnny offered, pronouncing it ‘bye’ instead of ‘bih.’
“Oh God, that was bad,” I groaned.
Johnny didn’t get a chance to respond, because Sebastian suddenly appeared around the corner, only twenty feet away. His face was strained, and he kept looking around like he was afraid of being busted for a crime.
“What are you doing here?” I whispered as he approached.
“I came to warn you – ” he began breathlessly, before he was cut off by an older woman’s voice.
A very aristocratic voice, tinged with money, power, and privilege.
“What the hell is she doing here?”
My blood almost froze in my veins.
Johnny and I turned to see Lenora Templeton stalking through the hospital hallway. Augustus Templeton was right behind her, although he looked significantly less pissed-off than his wife. Vincent brought up the rear, followed by a cringing bald man in a suit.
“Too late,” Sebastian moaned.
“Oh shit,” Johnny muttered.
“What the hell is she DOING here?!” Mrs. Templeton yelled, her eyes boring into me with blistering hatred. In her fury, she completely ignored Sebastian and Johnny.
“Lenora,” Mr. Templeton rebuked her, though it didn’t have any effect. “Please, control yourself.”
“I – we – the hospital wouldn’t have allowed anyone but family up here,” the bald man stuttered. I guessed he was some kind of administrator.
“She’s not family, she’s a gold-digging whore!” Lenora snarled.
Well, at least we’d moved out of the 18th century.
“You bit– ” Sebastian
started, but I put a hand on his arm to quiet him. He shot me a quizzical look, then closed his mouth.
I had decided to cut the woman some slack. After all, her son had just been shot (although potentially at the behest of her other son’s girlfriend).
Not to mention that I really didn’t want a scene. Not with Connor on the other side of the door.
“I want her removed immediately,” Mrs. Templeton spat at the bald guy. “With all the money my foundation gives this hospital, you would think I would be afforded some courtesy around here!”
Apparently the administrator was on a very short leash, the end of which was currently in Lenora Templeton’s hand.
But even dogs on leashes have some dignity.
Not this guy.
“Of course, Mrs. Templeton,” he said, all but lying down and kissing her feet. “If I had even known you didn’t want her here, I would have never allowed her on hospital grounds.”
“You can’t do that,” I protested in shock.
He wheeled on me, his face contorted in anger. “Oh yes I can! Just watch!”
Suddenly it became crystal clear to me: this guy was another Herr Klaus, just in a different line of business. And with less hair.
“Stop talking and do it!” Mrs. Templeton raged at him. “NOW!”
“Lenora,” Mr. Templeton sighed. “Stop it.”
A group of nurses and doctors had begun to gather in the hall. Dr. Sarpara came around a corner and approached our group.
“Mr. Burke,” he said, greeting the bald man in alarm. “Is there a problem?”
“Yes, there’s a problem – my son has been shot, and you brought up the conniving slut who nearly ruined him!” Mrs. Templeton yelled.
Okay, screw being nice.
“Speaking of people who tried to ruin him, nice to see they let you in, Lenora,” I said icily.
“Good one,” Sebastian whispered in my ear.
I’d used her first name on purpose, figuring it would drive her insane to have a social inferior speak to her with such lack of respect.
It worked.
“You,” Mrs. Templeton hissed, jabbing one jagged finger just inches away from my face. “You shut your vile little mouth!”
“Dr. Sarpara, did you let her up here?” bald-man Burke asked. He used a nasty tone that contrasted mightily with the craven, obsequious voice with which he’d addressed Mrs. Templeton just a moment before.
Dr. Sarpara looked at me in irritation. “She said she was the patient’s wife. She said they married in a secret ceremony.”
Oh crap.
Sebastian drew himself up huffily and crossed his arms in disapproval. “So much for discretion,” he snapped at the doctor.
“And what are you doing here?” Dr. Sarpara asked, his attention shifting to Sebastian.
Sebastian lifted one finger and wagged it back and forth like Oh no you did NOT. “That is not the issue right now – ”
“His wife?” Mr. Templeton asked, aghast.
“Yeah, I call bullshit on that one,” Vincent smirked, until Daddy glanced over and cowed him with a look.
“His wife?!” Lenora screeched, then gave a single, cackling laugh. “May God strike me dead should I ever live to see that day!”
“If God can guarantee that, I’ll go find the chaplain right now,’” Sebastian offered.
Mr. Burke glared at me. “Are you his wife, or not?”
“Um… in my defense, I didn’t actually say I was his wife… somebody else did that,” I said feebly.
“Snitch,” Sebastian whispered in my ear.
“You’ve broken the law,” Mr. Burke said officiously. “This is a very serious – ”
Apparently, when Sebastian was in trouble, he figured a good offense was the best defense. “I think it’s more serious that your doctor has violated HIPAA and revealed extremely personal patient information – ”
“Are you really married?” Mr. Templeton asked me – not angrily, but in shock.
“Of course they’re not, she’s lying through her teeth! Have her arrested!” Mrs. Templeton yelled at groveling Mr. Burke. “Have them both arrested, NOW!”
“Lenora,” Mr. Templeton seethed quietly.
But there was no stopping Mrs. Templeton’s tirade. “We had to leave behind his actual ex-fiancée in the lobby, and this little tramp has the audacity to lie and worm her way up here – ”
“Miranda’s here?” I asked, incredulous.
Vincent looked especially unhappy when his mother brought up the ‘ex-fiancée card.’
Not that Lenora cared. “Yes, and she had to stay behind while you lied and – ”
I stared at her in complete and total disbelief – and then started yelling. “You brought her into this hospital?! She HIRED the man who tried to kill your son!”
“Lily,” Sebastian said, his voice panicked, and put a hand on my shoulder to stop me.
Too late. The words were already out.
Both Mr. Templeton and Vincent turned pale as soon as I said it.
It was like I had figuratively reached out and slugged them in the gut.
As it turned out, Lenora literally slapped me in the face.
One second I was looking at the men, and then a second later I felt a sharp, stinging blow across my cheek. My head jerked to the side as sparks of light flashed in my field of vision.
The entire hallway gasped – doctors, nurses, bald Mr. Burke, even Mr. Templeton and Vincent.
Sebastian actually shrieked a little. “Oh my GOD!”
I touched my hand to my cheek and looked in shock at Mrs. Templeton. Her face was mottled red and twisted into a harpy’s ugly sneer.
“You slanderous little bitch – how dare you say such vicious things about her! You, who dragged my son’s good name through the press with your wretched, whorish – ”
As she spoke, she made the slightest move towards me – but her outburst was cut short when Johnny stepped between us.
“You touch her again,” Johnny said in a low, dangerous voice, “and so help me God, I will break your fucking arm, Mrs. Templeton.”
Lenora goggled at him in amazement, then turned back to her husband, son, and Mr. Burke.
“Did you hear what he said to me?!” she crowed in triumph. “He threatened me! Get security up here and arrest the lot of them!”
“Did you forget the part where you just committed assault and battery, you senile old bitch?” Sebastian snapped (safely behind both me and Johnny, I might add). “Please, let’s get security up here now and see who gets hauled off in chains.”
She stood there trembling with rage, her face twisted into the ugliest mask of hatred I’d ever seen, and stumbled to find words loathsome enough to convey her outrage yet ‘proper’ enough for mixed company. “You – you queer – ”
Mr. Templeton reached out and put an arm around his wife, pulling her away. His face had gone from pale to ghostly white, and he looked around at all the people in the hallway as though calculating the damage this might do to his reputation. “Lenora, stop, for God’s sake, you’re making a scene – ”
“…yes… Mother… you’re making a scene,” rumbled a voice from my left.
I looked over to see Connor in the open doorway, a murderous look on his face.
11
The hallway exploded.
“Connor!” I gasped.
“Connor!” his mother cried out.
“Mr. Templeton, get back in bed!” Dr. Sarpara ordered.
Somewhere down the hall, somebody yelled into a phone, “Security!”
“Come on, man, don’t,” Johnny pleaded, and tried to gingerly push him back into the room –
But Connor stood his ground. He gripped the door with one hand to steady himself, and with the other hand pointed at his family like some sort of specter of death.
“…get… these fucking people… OUT of here.”
“Even now?!” his mother howled. “Even now, you attack us – ”
“After you
tried to ruin me?!” he yelled, his face wracked with pain from his broken ribs. “After you tried to destroy the woman I love?!”
My heart swelled with so much emotion when he said that, I almost burst out crying.
“You don’t love her,” Lenora Templeton scoffed, her voice filled with acid.
“After you tried to have both of us killed?!” Connor shouted.
“What?! Don’t listen to her!” Lenora screamed as she pointed at me. “Why are you listening to her?! She’s insane – ”
His face the embodiment of wrath, Connor turned and stared directly at Burke. “I have excellent reason to believe that these… people conspired to have me killed tonight… just like they conspired to blackmail me – ”
“This is ridiculous,” Mr. Templeton sputtered.
“Connor, for the love of God!” Mrs. Templeton shrieked.
“ – TO BLACKMAIL ME and destroy my business!” Connor shouted over them. “Remove them from the hospital, or I swear to God, I will have my bodyguard do it for you!”
He glanced at Johnny, who gave a curt nod.
Burke looked in panic from Johnny to Connor to Mr. and Mrs. Templeton, totally unsure of where he should place his chips on the betting table. No matter which way he turned, the gods were conspiring to crush him.
“Mr. Templeton,” Mr. Burke said to Connor in the most servile voice he could manage, “please, your family has always been very good to this hospital – ”
“Didn’t you HEAR me?! They triecd to kill me tonight!” Connor yelled, then clutched his side in pain.
“Don’t listen to him, he’s a raving madman!” Mr. Templeton shouted. “The drugs are making him say these things – ”
“He’s insane, that whore has turned him against us!” Mrs. Templeton shrieked.
“DON’T YOU FUCKING CALL HER THAT!” Connor roared.
“Mr. Templeton, you must get back in bed – ” Dr. Sarpara pleaded.
“JOHNNY – ”
Before he could give the order, though, I was by his side.
“Connor,” I said softly as I pressed myself against him.
He looked down at me, his face twisted in rage at his parents.
“Don’t,” I whispered, and put my hand up to his face.
All That He Loves (Volume 2 The Billionaires Seduction) Page 30
