Total pages in book: 27
Estimated words: 27069 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 135(@200wpm)___ 108(@250wpm)___ 90(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 27069 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 135(@200wpm)___ 108(@250wpm)___ 90(@300wpm)
Millie tried to clear her vision. To make herself read what was written on the screen. But it had gone all blurry.
All she knew was that it wasn’t Spike’s ringtone.
His current ringtone was one she’d found called Big Bad Daddy. It was hilarious.
Answer the phone, Millie.
What if . . . what if something had happened to him? And answering this call made it real?
A sob broke free. Suddenly, her phone was pulled from her tight grasp. She glanced up through blurry eyes at Reverend Pat as he answered the call.
“Yes? No, she’s indisposed at the moment, who is this? Yes . . . yes . . . I’m her . . . father.”
Another sob.
“I will tell her. We’ll be there soon. Thank you.”
“What’s happened?” she asked as tears dripped down her cheeks.
He hesitated.
“Please,” she begged. She’d gone from not wanting to know to needing to. “Just tell me.”
“It’s Spike. There’s been an accident and we need to get to the hospital.”
Oh. God.
8
Hold it together. Hold it together.
But she couldn’t. She really couldn’t.
Millie paced up and down the waiting room. What was going on? Where was Spike?
A sob escaped her and she wiped at her cheeks.
“Millie?”
She glanced over to see Damon stepping into the waiting room, his face pale and worried.
She ran at him and he caught her, his arm under her ass as he lifted her into his arms and held her cradled against his chest.
“It’s all right. You’re okay.”
“I’m not. I’m not. Spike . . .” His name was a cry on her lips. Filled with pain and fear.
“Do we know anything yet?” Damon asked.
“Stupid doctors tell us nothing,” Andrey said. His accent grew thicker when he was upset.
After Reverend Pat answered her phone and discovered that Spike was in the hospital after a car accident, he and Andrey had brought her here to the hospital while the others stayed behind to tell everyone who arrived what had happened. And to take care of Mr. Fluffy.
Andrey had driven them here, while Reverend Pat had called Damon.
“I’ll go find out what is going on,” Damon said darkly, setting her down on a chair. “You stay here, sweetheart.”
Uh-oh.
When Damon got that look, someone was going to get an earful.
Or worse.
“Do not bother,” Andrey told him bitterly. “I threaten them many times. With bodily harm. With cutting of the balls. Choking of the cock. They just stare at me as if I not speak English.” He started muttering insults in Russian. “They not know who they deal with. I strangle them until their eyes pop from their sockets.”
“Damon,” she whispered.
“I’ll find out. Don’t worry. And I’ll keep them from calling the cops on him.” He nodded toward Andrey.
“The police do not scare me!” Andrey cried.
Reverend Pat sighed and walked over to talk some sense into Andrey while she sat there anxiously. It seemed to take Damon forever to return. Her phone was buzzing with messages from her friends and their men. But she just couldn’t talk to anyone.
When Damon finally came back, she jumped to her feet. The room swayed around her.
Oh God. She was going to be sick. Or faint.
She wasn’t sure which.
“Fuck, Millie.” She was gathered up against Damon’s chest. “It’s all right, sweetheart. He’s going to be all right. They were doing an MRI on him. I don’t know why no one would talk to you, but I think the doctor wanted to check the results before coming to speak to you. The doctor will be here soon.”
“He . . . he’s alive.”
“Of course he is. Do you think a car accident is going to kill him off? He’s too stubborn to die. That bastard has nine lives.”
She appreciated his attempts to lighten the situation, but the truth was that she felt too upset to smile.
A noise had her turning, tears filling her eyes once more as they all arrived. Sunny and Duke. Jason and Jewel. Betsy and Ink.
They kept coming, filling the room.
Effie and Grady were among the last of them to get there.
Millie was surrounded by friends, all the support she could need, but all she wanted was Spike.
Her best friend. Her Daddy.
The door to the waiting room opened again and a frazzled-looking doctor walked in. He glanced around. “Uh, I’m looking for the family of Quillon Lochlin?”
She jumped up again, breathing through her nausea and dizziness. “Yes? I’m . . . I’m his girlfriend.”
“And I’m his brother-in-law,” Damon said.
The doctor blinked at them both. His gaze moved over her outfit. Right. She’d forgotten that she had her Easter dress on. Well, screw him if he didn’t like it. But he simply turned his gaze to everyone else. “Well, if you could both follow me to my office we can speak alone.”
“You can speak here,” she said, desperate to hear what he had to say.
“Ahh, the patient’s privacy—”