Built for Power (12 page)

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Bree held up the edge of her dress and slid behind the wheel of Reid’s sports car. The music from the gallery could still be heard floating on the air. She looked in her rearview mirror and saw the familiar lights of the SUV Mallory’s man drove. After a week of quiet days and nights, Bree had thought she didn’t need the security anymore. However, after Jeff stormed into her office that morning, she was glad he was there.

The traffic was light this late at night. Bree was able to get out of downtown and onto the interstate with little trouble. She’d even talked to her friend at the paper while driving and was assured the picture of Bree and the senator would be on the front page of the paper tomorrow morning.

Bree hung up the phone as she approached her exit. Slowing down on the ramp, she stopped at the light and waited to turn left. While waiting, Bree couldn’t help but think of Logan. She wanted to call him. She wanted to tell him what happened today. She wanted to share her thoughts and feelings at having met Mallory’s father. She wanted to hear how his day went. Maybe Mallory had been right. She should have tried to make it work.

“I’m so stupid!” Bree chided herself as she pressed on the gas and shot from the stop line when the light turned green. She was going to call Logan as soon as she got back to the house. Or maybe she’d just get on the plane and go see him. Bree had to explain to him how much he’d come to mean to her. She hadn’t even realized it at first, but the way he listened, the way they joked, the way her heart was full of him, all showed how much she’d fallen in love with him.

Bree was so caught up in her thoughts she didn’t notice the headlights until it was too late. The impact of the SUV crushed her door. She couldn’t even scream as her body was hurled to the right, only to be snapped back and slammed into the airbag covering her door. The seatbelt burned into her neck as it caught and refused to go slack. The front airbag deployed almost simultaneously, sending her beaten body crashing back into the seat.

The airbag held her in place as the world continued to spin. She heard her passenger window shatter and the airbag covering it ripped away.

“Help me,” she managed in a small voice to the dark figure leaning into the car.

“This is your last warning. You know what you have to do or next time you’ll be dead. But first I’ll start with your sisters. You’ll attend every funeral knowing you’re one step closer to joining them if you don’t hand off the corporate building job to the other owners by the end of the week.”

Bree was hyperventilating. She couldn’t draw breath into her lungs, and she couldn’t stop the man as he jumped into a waiting car. She heard her security yelling. But it wasn’t enough to keep the world from tilting and trying to fade black as she battled for oxygen. Only the pain radiating through her body kept the darkness at bay.

A knife appeared in front of her, but she couldn’t scream. Bree was sure the man had come back to finish her off, but instead the airbag was torn away from the steering wheel and her bodyguard’s worried face came into view.

“An ambulance is on its way, Miss Simpson. Can you feel your legs?”

Bree tried to nod but ended up hissing in pain instead. “I can feel them,” she ended up gasping.

“You’re hyperventilating because you’re upset. Just keep breathing. Know that the air is flowing into your lungs. Close your eyes and envision the air flowing through your nose and filling your lungs.”

Bree closed her eyes and listened to his calm voice. Soon she felt the air and her body relaxed. Unfortunately, it also made her painfully aware of her injuries.

“How are you feeling now?” he asked as the sound of sirens reached her ears.

“Better. I hurt, though. My neck is burning and my shoulder . . .”

“It looks dislocated. It’ll hurt like a bitch, but it’s not serious. What did the man say to you?”

Bree closed her eyes as she tried to remember. “This was my last warning. He’ll come after my family next.”

“While they work on you, I’m going to call Mallory and your family. I’ll be five feet away.”

Bree was worried she was hallucinating as the image of the man dressed as a doctor appeared next to her bed in the Emergency Room.

“Hello, Bree. It’s nice to see you again.”

“Aiden! If I’m not imagining this, then you better hurry with my exam. Shirley will probably be here soon.”

The sight of Aiden going white under his spray-on tan was enough to make her feel better. “I better warn Barry. We’re both residents here—me in the ER and him in Plastics. I’d appreciate if, um, you wouldn’t mention how we’re paying off our student loans.”

“Ow!” Bree hissed as Dr. Aiden pressed on her shoulder. “I won’t tell if you stop hurting me.”

“Then I’m in trouble. Your shoulder is dislocated. Luckily, your knee is just bruised, but we’ll X-ray it just to make sure. The pain on your neck you’re complaining about is seatbelt burn and you have a mild case of whiplash. Now, I’m going to call in all my favors with every nurse and tech I know to get you into X-ray before Shirley gets here. But first, let’s get this incredibly sexy shoulder back into place.”

“Any chance you can take off your shirt while you do that?” Bree asked as the pain medicine took effect, allowing Aiden to put her shoulder back in place.

“There,” Aiden smiled as Bree took deep breaths, hoping the pain would fade. “Good as new. X-ray time!” he said cheerfully as he hurried her into a wheelchair and started to race her down the hall.

* * *

“Bree!” Her mother along with the rest of the family rushed from the ER room and stopped the nurse wheeling her back from where Aiden had looked over her X-rays. “Oh, honey. Are you okay? What did the doctor say? I want to talk to him, where is he?”

“Mom, I’m fine. My shoulder was dislocated, but everything else is fine. No broken bones. Just starting to get really sore and tired. My head seems to be okay, but they’re going to keep me overnight just to make sure.“

The nurse helped her get into bed and made sure she didn’t moon her family. The pain medicine that had made her loopy was now making her tired. All she wanted to do was sleep.

“Well, I want to talk to your doctor anyway. I need to be reassured,” Margaret said as she wrung her hands.

“Mom, I think Bree is about to pass out from exhaustion. She’s fine. Drake will go find the doctor and get a full report while we say goodnight,” Elle said gently as Drake got the message and hurried to get a full report.

Bree managed a soft smile. “Really, Mom. I’m fine. This medicine is just making me sleepy. I’ll be at work first thing tomorrow.”

“You will do no such thing. You will move back in with me and I will take care of you.”

“Mo-o-m,” Bree whined, accompanied by an eye roll. “I’m not a kid anymore. I can take care of myself.”

Margaret just shook her head. “When will you all learn? You’ll always be my babies. And I will always want to take care of you.”

Allegra wrapped her arm around her mom’s shoulder. “How about you stay for a while tonight so you can see that Bree’s all right. Then we’ll tackle the care instructions tomorrow after her doctor has checked her out.”

Margaret nodded her head and took a seat next to Bree’s bed. Bree felt her eyes start to fall.

“Man, Bree. I’m secure enough to admit this. Your doctor is a handsome man,” Drake told the women as he sauntered into the room. Bree’s eyes shot open. “So you have noticed,” Drake teased.

“It would be nice to have a doctor in the family,” Elle joked. Bree looked at her sister. When their eyes connected, Bree gave her a look only a sister could interpret. “But then again, they are always so busy. Now an architect . . .”

Bree gave up. She just closed her eyes and figured if she faked going to sleep maybe her family would leave, bless their hearts. But she never found out. The second she closed her eyes, she fell fast asleep.

* * *

Bree had a feeling her mom was staring at her before she even opened her eyes. She stretched and almost immediately regretted it. She was so sore that she involuntarily groaned as she moved.

“Is there anything I can get you, sweetheart?”

Bree’s brow creased. That wasn’t her mom’s voice. She opened her eyes and blinked at the light coming in through the window.

“Logan? Is that you or did I hit my head harder than I thought?”

The deep chuckle caused her heart to race. He was here!

“It’s me. Your mother called me last night and told me what happened. Your brother was in Paris and ordered the plane to detour to London to pick me up. How are you feeling?”

“Oh,” Bree moaned. “I’m pretty sore, but we have to stop seeing each other in the hospital.”

Logan’s lips quirked and Bree’s stomach turned to mush. “I agree. As much as I like taking care of you, I'd rather do it under different circumstances.”

The mush turned into flutters as Logan reached out and stroked the side of her face. “How long can you stay?” Bree hated to ask. She should live in the present, but she had to know.

Bree felt so good pressed against his hand. Logan didn’t want to think about leaving already, but he knew she had to ask. He had given himself a week to win her heart. If those sparks that he thought were already there weren’t, then he’d leave and never come back. But, if they were there . . . “A week. I’ll stay through your sister’s wedding. I took some long overdue vacation time. I was thinking we could . . .”

Logan looked up as the door to her room opened and her doctor walked in. Holy shit, that wasn’t a doctor; that was a freaking male model.

“How ya doing this morning, sexy?” The doctor grinned, kind of, before turning and acting surprised to see Logan sitting there. Logan’s hands were clenched and he was thinking some very harmful thoughts toward the doctor. “Oh, you have company.”

Bree giggled.
She giggled!
“This is Logan Ward. Logan, this is my doctor, Aiden Starr.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Logan said drily. He hadn’t even been gone a week and he’d already been replaced.

“Is this
him?
” the doctor whispered to Bree. She nodded and Logan lost it.

“This
him
is leaving to give you two some privacy. Thank you for answering all the questions I had.” Logan shot up from his chair and stormed out of the room. He ignored Bree cursing after him and was stabbing the elevator button when he was grabbed from behind.

Logan spun around and knocked Dr. Starr’s hands from his shoulders. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“Stopping you from making the biggest mistake of your life. Bree’s not my girlfriend. We met the other night at her sister’s bachelorette party and we talked. About you, mostly.”

“Mostly?” Logan asked hesitantly as hope started to build.

Dr. Starr looked a little embarrassed and then leaned forward and lowered his voice. “You can’t tell anyone, but this old lady named Shirley hired me to, um, entertain the ladies.” When Logan looked confused, Dr. Starr continued. “I’m an escort. I do it on weekends to help pay off my student loan debt. And Shirley had dressed Bree for the night. And I . . . well, um, I thought she was another escort.”

Logan didn’t know whether to laugh or be mad that this guy thought Bree was an escort. If Shirley dressed her, then he could certainly understand it. Bree had a killer body hidden under her work clothes—a body that he’d thought about constantly. “You thought Bree was an escort?” Logan decided laughter was the way to go.

Dr. Starr looked relieved and smiled. “I even told her she could get a job as one. I mean, she was in a skirt that barely covered her bottom and her butt is
fiiiine
.”

Logan must have growled because Dr. Starr stopped and cleared his throat.

“Do you know who Bree is?” Logan asked a little sharper than he meant to.

“No.”

Logan laughed this time. “She’s Bree Simpson of Simpson Global. Bree is the VP of their steel and construction side.”

“Holy crap. I asked a major donor of the children’s hospital if she wanted to moonlight as an escort,” Dr. Starr groaned as he buried his head in his hands.

“I’m sure she finds it as funny as I do.” Logan slapped Dr. Starr on the back. “Now tell me how she’s doing.”

“After I die of embarrassment.” Dr. Starr took a deep breath and shook his head clear. “She’s good. She’ll be sore the next couple of days and shouldn’t stress her shoulder too much. I was about to tell her she could go home. I’ve had to stay away because her mom was here, and I really didn’t want anyone to recognize me from that night.”

“I won’t say a word. Now, I’ll take
my
girl home.” Logan shook Dr. Starr’s hand and headed back to Bree’s room.

“Logan,” Dr. Starr called out. “She really likes you. Some women are worth moving mountains for . . . or crossing an ocean.”

With a nod of understanding, Logan headed back into Bree’s room. He hated what he saw. Bree was yelling through tears at the nurse to hurry and remove the IV.

“Bree. Be quiet and let her do her job,” Logan chided kindly.