Burn For Him (8 page)

Just as I opened up the bottle and took a long, cool swig, a scream rang through the club, overshadowing the pounding music in his intensity. Milligan quickly shot up out of his seat and spoke quietly into the device on his wrist.

“What was that?” I asked, standing up and looking around myself, but I couldn’t see anything.

“I’m not sure yet. Stay here.”

I didn’t appreciate the stern manner in which he spoke to me. He had only known me for five minutes. That wasn’t anywhere near long enough to give him the right to boss me around. Harper had known me most of my life and I didn’t let him get away with it, so Milligan didn’t stand a chance.

I took a couple of steps away from the table and saw a crowd gathering at the foot of the stairs that led to the VIP lounge.

I was as bad as the rest of the rubber-neckers. You see a car crash, you have to slow down and take a peek. You see some kind of accident and you have to check out what happened. You hear a scream, you follow the crowd to find out what had gone one. It was simple human nature.

I couldn’t get close enough. I heard a lot of chatter, but seeing as the music was still blaring out, there was no way to decipher what was being said. A sudden push through the crowd and Harper appeared in front of me, looking pale and shaken.

“Destiny.”

It was all he had to say to get me moving.

I shoved my way through the heaving crowd of people, elbowing and kicking my way through when they wouldn’t move out of my way. I didn’t care. If Dee was somehow involved in this, then I had to get to her. Harper grabbed hold of my hand and dragged me through the remaining people, who were stood around, talking and staring.

Destiny lay in a broken heap at the bottom of the stairs. I couldn’t understand what I was seeing at first. Why was she on the floor like that? Then it hit me and I crumpled to my knees at her side. A terrified sob rose in my throat. I reached out a hand to touch her, to let her know that I was there with her, but my hand was quickly snatched away.

“Carrie, don’t. She’s badly hurt. We can’t risk touching or moving her yet.” Harper said in a voice that was thick with emotion.

“The paramedics are on their way.”

I turned to see Milligan standing solemnly off to one side. The moment that he saw the pain in my eyes, he crouched down next to me and put his strong arms around my shoulders. I buried my face into the curve of his neck. What the hell had happened here? It was too much for me to think about. I couldn’t seem to keep my thoughts straight. What had happened to Destiny?

“Carrie? Do you know her?” Milligan asked me gently.

I pulled my head back to look at him. It was strange to think that I didn’t even know this guy, but he was giving me untold comfort. Having him at my side was giving me strength.

“She’s called Destiny. She’s my best friend.” I looked over at Harper, who was watching us with a strange expression on his face. “She’s our best friend.” I added as I reached over to take Harper’s hand.

I didn’t find it strange that Milligan didn’t remember her. After all, he had only had eyes for me when we were introduced. Plus, even I found it hard to recognise her like that. She looked bloody and broken.

“Harper? What the hell happened to her?” My voice broke.

Who would have ever thought that the night would have ended up like this? I heard Milligan move away slightly to talk to some of his staff who were trying to thin out the crowd of people that were gawking at us, making sure that the medics had room to get through. All the while, he kept his hand at the small of my back, reassuring me that he was still there and not leaving.

“She fell.” Harper replied simply, not taking his eyes off of Destiny’s still form and grasping tightly to my hand.

“Will she be okay?”

“I’m no doctor, Carrie. But, she’s alive. And as they say, where there’s life, there’s hope.” I sagged against Harper when he said that. She looked so still, but I didn’t want to think the worst.

I looked up the staircase. Perhaps she had caught her foot on the carpet? Like I had? Glancing up, I saw Michelle standing at the top of the stairs, her hand over her mouth and tears streaming down her face. I glanced at Harper, the question in my eyes clear. He shook his head slightly. I knew what that meant. He couldn’t go and comfort Michelle. He had only just met the girl. He couldn’t leave Destiny lying alone on the floor to go and see to a complete stranger. Our friendship was stronger than that.

Milligan returned to my side, holding my other hand that was free and squeezing it reassuringly. I knew that he wouldn’t be going anywhere. This was his club and the accident would have to be investigated. But, even if he was still only there for his business interests, then I was glad about it. His touch gave me warmth.

I wished that Michelle would come and put an arm around Harper. He needed something like that, just as much as I did.

“The paramedics are here.” Milligan said softly as soon as he received word of their arrival. I looked behind us to see the uniformed men rushing towards us.

“Do you want me to give you a ride to the hospital? We could set off now and meet them when they get there.”

I turned to look at Milligan. His face was a mask of concern, but I knew that it wasn’t just concern for his business. He was genuinely concerned for Dee, and for me. I turned to glance at Harper, not knowing what to do for the best.

“You are in no state to drive. Neither of you are. Let me help you. I’ll drive you both there.” I nodded dumbly as Milligan turned to speak quietly to Harper and within seconds, we were getting hustled out of the club via a rear exit.

“I shouldn’t be leaving her.”

“It makes more sense for us to meet her there. It gives the medics room to help her without us cluttering up their space. There’s nothing more we could have done for her there.” Harper insisted, taking my hand again.

“But, she’s all alone.” My voice was threatening to crack.

“Not for long she isn’t.” Milligan put an arm around my waist to help me down the remaining stairs. “She’ll have both of you with her again soon enough.”

“Come on. Let’s get a move on.” Harper said impatiently.

Chapter Five

We spent all night at the hospital. Milligan only left my side to go and see to the business implications of what had happened. There was no way that I could blame him for doing that. I didn’t even blame him for what had happened to Destiny. Accidents happen. Apparently, they had already reviewed the security footage and she had simply fallen. There was nothing more to it. She hadn’t snagged her foot on the carpet. She’d simply slipped.

Harper had taken on the responsibility of calling Destiny’s father’s nurse to tell what had happened. Apparently, her father wasn’t particularly lucid at the moment and the nurse didn’t think that it would be wise to pass on the message just yet. We thought that we would leave that decision up to her. We had done our bit. She was caring for him and would be able to better assess the state of his mind. I couldn’t think of anything but Destiny at the moment.

It wasn’t looking too good at the moment. Destiny had a broken wrist, her leg was broken in two places and she still wasn’t waking up. The doctors could find no medical reason as to why she wasn’t conscious yet and were planning on another round of tests in the coming hours.

“You should get going. You don’t have to stick around here.” I said to Milligan when he came back from taking a call.

“Are you going home?” he asked.

“No. I’m staying right here.”

“Then I’m staying too.”

He smiled at me and took my hand like we had been together for years. We had only met a matter of hours ago, but the touch was real and comforting. It did feel like I had somehow known him forever and didn’t think twice about crying on his shoulder. It was a shock to think that it was only a little while ago that the mere presence of him had made me a nervous wreck and now I was a blubbering wreck in his comforting arms.

“You really should go home and get some rest. This isn’t your problem. ” I smiled at him to try and soften the blow.

It wasn’t like I was trying to get rid of him, and he knew that. I just knew that he had a business to run and staying all night at the hospital with him wasn’t going to do him any good tomorrow. I was feeling emotionally and physically drained and I knew that he was going to be feeling tired too.

“You really need to try and get some rest yourself. You look like you’re ready to drop on your feet.”

It was true. I knew that I was looking a little worse for wear. I had Milligan’s jacket on over the top of my skimpy outfit. I had been feeling cold and felt more than a little uncomfortable sitting around the hospital wearing next to nothing. Somewhere in the rush of getting out of the club, my leather jacket had been mislaid, so Milligan had offered me the use of his.

I’d wished I hadn’t bothered looking in the mirror when I paid a quick visit to the bathroom when we’d got to the hospital. My hair was hanging in a limp mess after running my fingers through it nervously one too many times and I knew that I had already cried off most of my make-up. Milligan was still looking as good and unruffled as he had the moment I had first set eyes on him. If not better, if that was possible. He was clearly a night owl and thrived on lack of sleep.

“You should let him take you home and try to get some sleep.” Harper said wearily when he returned with a couple of cups of disgusting smelling coffee in those awful plastic cups, and a can of Coke for me. “I’ll ring you and let you know what they say the moment they tell me anything.”

I thought about it for a split second, but I shook my head at the pair of them. I couldn’t just leave her on her own like that. We were all that she had. Her father was in no fit state to be able to come to the hospital and she had no other family that gave a damn. We were it.

“Carrie, listen to me.” Harper said as he pulled me off to one side of the corridor, away from the other visitors and out of Milligan’s earshot. “You need to get some rest. If we both burn ourselves out, who is going to take care of Dee then? She needs us and she needs us functioning.”

I looked at him in silence. He was looking drawn and tired himself. Harper always had so much light and life about him and it was worrying to see him looking so down like this. Nothing usually got to him. It was like the drain of the situation and the hospital environment was sucking him dry.

It made sense though, what he was saying. We could take shifts sitting with Dee and waiting around for information. He had a point there. But, that didn’t mean that I wanted to leave either of them.

“What about you? You shouldn’t be here alone, either.”

“I’ll be just fine.”

“Harper.”

He held up his hands. “Okay, okay. Michelle is actually on her way to come and sit with me. So you don’t have to worry about me being on my own.”

For the first time in what felt like hours, I felt myself grinning at him. “Oh, so that’s why you want to get me out of the way, is it?” I teased him. It felt good to have a moment of lightness.

Harper shook his head at me before turning and waving a hand at the blonde who was quickly making her way down the corridor to us. “Be nice.” He warned me once again.

I glared over at him. Why the hell wouldn’t I be nice to her? I thought that it was really sweet of her to do this, to take the time out to come and sit with Harper at the hospital. She didn’t have to do that. They’d only just met. She didn’t owe him anything.

I smiled at her as she approached. She looked totally different now than she had at the club last night. She was dressed casually in jeans and a hoodie, with her hair scraped back into a pony-tail and no make-up. She looked natural and dare I say much prettier without all that fakeness on show.

“Hey, Michelle. Thanks for coming.” Harper smiled at her and I saw what I thought might have been a spark in his eye. I hoped that this traumatic start to things wouldn’t put them off. I looked over at Milligan and hoped the same for us. It was quite a situation to throw the four of us into. To say that I hadn’t spoken more than a handful of words to him before this had happened, he had been my unexpected rock tonight.

“How is she?” Michelle asked, looking concerned.

“She’s the same.” Harper looked down for a moment. “You remember Carrie, don’t you?”

“Of course I do. How are you holding up?” She turned her attention to me for a moment and I was pleasantly surprised by how natural and sweet she looked in the cold light of day. I had to admit that I thought that she was a bit of a Barbie doll last night and now I felt bad for making those kind of assumptions when I didn’t even know her.

“You know.” I shrugged.

Michelle nodded. Words couldn’t help anything now. All we could do was wait and see what happened next. It was out of our hands.

“I guess I can come back in a couple of hours and then you two can take off and get some rest.”

“Please do me a favour and try to get some sleep. I promise to call you if there is any change at all.” Harper assured me.

“Promise?”

“Promise.” He bent slightly to kiss me on the cheek. I couldn’t help but sneak a glance over at Michelle to check out her reaction. The girl passed the test. She didn’t look jealous or anything, which was a major point for her.

I walked over to where Milligan was still sitting in the waiting room and he stood up as I approached. “Are you ready?” he asked.

“Are you sure that it’s okay for you to drive me home?” I knew that he would, as he had already offered, but I didn’t like to just assume. I didn’t really know the guy, not really. I didn’t know anything about him. But, there was a deep connection between the two of us that just couldn’t be denied. His being there for me tonight was more than anyone had ever done for me, excluding Harper and Dee, of course.

Milligan smiled at me and said, “Silly question.” And he took my hand to lead me outside to where he had parked his car.

Sliding into the passenger seat of the gorgeous black Audi A8, I could have groaned out loud at the comfort of the seat. After sitting on those ridiculously uncomfortable plastic chairs in the waiting room of the hospital all night, this was pure heaven. I laid my head back and listened to the gentle purr as he started up the car. It was a strangely hypnotic sound.

“We’re here.” Milligan’s words pulled me out of my thoughts and I looked around in surprise to find that we were already parked up outside my apartment building.

“How did we get here so fast?”

“You fell asleep.” Milligan chuckled.

I felt myself blushing furiously. I must have been more exhausted than I thought.

“But how did you know where I lived?” I couldn’t remember telling him my address and I was pretty sure that I didn’t have any ID in my bag with it on, so he hadn’t been through my things while I’d been sleeping. I looked at him, puzzled.

“Harper told me earlier. I was telling him that I’ve bought a place not too far from here.” He explained.

This was the first time since Destiny’s accident that I had actually felt a little awkward and uncomfortable in his presence. I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do next. Was I supposed to invite him up? I wasn’t the one-night-stand kind of girl and sex was the very last thing on my mind right now. But, it would be awfully rude to just thank him for the lift and then send him on his way after he had spent most of the night sitting in the hospital with me.

Taking in a deep breath, scared of what the answer was going to be, I asked him, “Do you want to come up for a coffee?”

He looked at me and for a moment I thought that he was going to decline the offer, but instead he smiled broadly. “Sure, I’d love a coffee. Especially after that muck we’ve been drinking at the hospital.”

Shit.

We got out of the car and walked into the building, Milligan a few steps behind me and we rode up in the elevator in silence. I was too tired to talk. All I could do was rest my head against his solid chest, where he had me cradled and I closed my eyes. He kept his strong arms around me, keeping me upright.

He took the keys out of my hand and opened up the door for me. “Perhaps we should take a rain-check on that coffee?”

“Would you mind? I’m exhausted.” I felt like a zombie and was ready to drop on the spot.

“Not at all. Do you want me to call back for you in a couple of hours to take you back to the hospital?”

“No, that’s okay. I’ll be fine. Thank you.”

“I tell you what, ring me when you want to go back to the hospital. I know Harper’s got his car because I had someone drive it through for him. It would be silly for you to pay out for a cab when I am more than happy to take you.” I was about to protest when he continued, “And I would like to know how your friend is doing.”

What could I say to that? Evidently, he didn’t need to wait for an answer from me as he pressed his business card into my hand and pressed a gentle kiss to my lips. “And I want to see you.” He whispered before turning back to jump in the lift.

The business card just said ‘Milligan’s’. I called after him, “So, is it your first name or your last name?” He didn’t answer. He just smiled as the elevator doors swished shut, blocking him from my view.

I walked into the silent apartment. Tears pricked at my eyes. How could things go wrong like this in one single night? Was Dee going to be okay? That was my biggest concern. No one knew yet and that was one of the scariest things – the not knowing.

I didn’t have the energy to do anything but make my way straight to my bedroom, stripping off my clothes as I went. I fell asleep crying softly into my pillow.