The Billionaire (12 page)

 
We spent the
next hour and a half hashing out the best course of action when she was
released.

Dad wanted to know why she'd been airlifted in the
first place if all she had were a few broken bones and I explained that they'd
thought her head injury was more severe from the on scene examination. It
didn't matter to me, as long as she was getting the best care that's all I
really cared about.

"I think Ashley should come stay with us for a
couple of weeks, we'll get her a nurse to help out but you have to work and I'm
home all day anyway..."

"Thanks mom but no, she's my wife I'll be the one
to take care of her, the nurse sounds like a good idea though."

"Whatever works for you son, we're going to go
check into the hotel now, we'll be back later, do you need anything?"

"No mom thanks and thanks again for coming."

I watched them leave and checked my watch. I was
surprised that I hadn't heard back from my guys as yet. Just as I had the
thought my phone vibrated in my pocket.

"Thorpe."

"It's done."

I hung up without saying another word.

And so it begins, there was no going back now. I've
started a war with Clifton Sanders. I've taken the fight right to his door,
literally.

The next move was his but I had eyes on him, his every
move was being documented and his house was still wiretapped.

There was still one more thing I needed to do though.
I wanted to make sure all the players pay.

When Blossom finally woke up again she was hungry.
That was supposedly a good sign but they kept her on light foods like broth and
juice. I wanted to run out and get her the damn burger that she’d never got the
chance to have.

She fussed a lot because of the discomfort in her arm
and leg, she couldn't move around at her usual speed and she kept banging her
arm and her leg into the rail.

"Baby let me do it okay."

I took the spoon from her and fed her
her
soup.

She wanted to know when we could go home, the doctor
had said two days and I wasn't willing to move her before then.

She made such a face when I told her she had to stay
that I was tempted to beg the doctor to let her leave. Then she almost had a
coronary when I was leaving to go get him.

"Ashley what's wrong?"

"Don't leave me please." She pulled on my
shirt, her eyes wide with fright.

" Baby what's going on in that head of yours of
course I’m not gonna leave you come ‘ere."

I climbed back onto the bed and drew her onto my lap.
She curled into me like a baby and my arms drew tighter around her. I could
feel the runaway beat of her heart. My baby was scared.

" I don't want them to get me."

"Who baby?" Please God no, don't let her
know. I'd always believed that she had no idea what her sick fuck of a father
was up to. She hadn't been told about the accident so what was her fear?

"Who Blossom?"

"The monster, he'll get me if you're not
here." I was becoming afraid, had she had some kind of psychotic break or
something? I tried to play over every conversation we’d ever had to see if
there was any clue to what she spoke of. She’d never once let on that she knew
her father had anything planned for her so what…?

"Baby what monster? What are you talking
about?"

"I can't tell you." She rocked back and
forth in my arms as her hold on my shirt tightened.

What the fuck is going on here? She sounded scared out
of her mind, now I’m really becoming afraid that the blow to her head had
damaged her somehow.

"Tell me Blossom, there's nothing you can't tell
me, ever."

"You'll hate me, you'll think I'm dirty."
She started crying so hard she almost choked on her tears.

I racked my brain trying to figure out what the hell
she could possibly be talking about.

"Baby, I promise I will never think such a thing,
ever. You're my baby aren't you? How could I ever think that about my Blossom?
I love you more than anything else in this world nothing could ever stop me
from loving you, nothing. Now tell me."

I rubbed her back until she calmed somewhat, then
through hiccoughing starts and stops she told me a story that made my blood run
even colder.

I listened as she told me about the man that had
started visiting after she'd had her first period at the age of twelve. I
listened to the horror of her being subjected to vaginal inspections by the man
and someone she called the doctor. I listened as she spoke of her father
standing by while strangers violated her. It was a wonder she had escaped with
her virginity or her fucking sanity intact. Heaven only knows why the sick
bastard hadn't let them take her back then.

I cried in my soul as she cried herself sick in my
arms. Apparently the trauma of the accident had brought back
her
own
personal terror to the forefront.

"Why didn't you tell me this before baby?" I
brushed her hair lovingly, holding her hand. Doing anything I could to let her
know I was there for her and with her.

"I thought you wouldn't want me if you knew...if
you knew that I was bad." Her voice was barely above a whisper, so
forlorn, so broken.

"Oh no baby no, you mustn't think like that. You
did nothing wrong, it was your father and those men that were bad. Do you know
why they were doing that to you?" I held my breath as I awaited her
answer, hoping that she was innocent of this at least, that she had no idea. I
already had a pretty good idea where this was going and whatever I thought I’d
felt before was nothing compared to the black rage that consumed me now.

"The monster was supposed to own me."

Fuck me, no.

Chapter 16

We spent two days in that hospital room together, two
days in which I only left her side to take a shower in her private bath. I'd
put everything on hold to take care of her, even giving her
her
sponge baths because I couldn’t stand for anyone else to touch her. Always at
the back of my mind was the conversation we’d started that night but I was
afraid to bring it back up just yet. She was still so fucking fragile. So
instead we spent the time talking and kissing, lots of kissing because as
Blossom had put it, she needed the practice. It seems as if she’d gone away in
her head, not a mental break like I’d believed at first. More like her way of
coping with the trauma was to push it aside and not talk about it. I was
prepared for the fallout though. I knew it was only a matter of time before it
all caught up with her ad when it did. I’ll be there to pick up the pieces.

For now we whispered to each other all day, made plans
to do the things she liked, places she wanted to see. I had rearranged my whole
life in these last two days. My business will have to take a backseat for the
foreseeable future because she was now at the top of the list. Until she was
one hundred percent better I wasn’t about to leave her side and I didn’t want
anyone else taking care of her either, not even mom unless I was in a bind.
I’ll see to all her needs myself. How hard can it be? I had no idea.

It started with her baths; they were a trial because
it was hard to look at her without touching her. She was banged up and in pain
without the meds and I still wanted her. She caught on quick to what was going
on whenever I washed her body. I guess the fact I spent five minutes washing
her pussy was a dead giveaway. She’s such a little tease too and so very
responsive to my touch that she’d cum on the washcloth while I held it against
her heat. I threatened to stop and let the nurses take over but she pouted and
gave me the sulky bottom lip, which I couldn’t resist sucking into my mouth.
Besides it’s the only time she seems relatively happy and like her old self so
of course I wouldn’t stop.

Bedtime was another trial for me. I'd tease her with
my fingers softly and gently until she came keeping her pinned so as not to
hurt her poor head. Then I’d slide down between her thighs and eat her to
climax again.

After that it seems she would always go off to sleep.
That's when I did most of my thinking and planning.

My family had returned home after the first day. I
might need them more in the days to come than here in the hospital, so it was
decided that they'd go home since I had no intention of leaving her side.

I knew that Lynn was in traction in the hospital. I
learned that her attack was being investigated as a mugging, so now the whole
city was in an uproar because one of their elite had been supposedly accosted
and discarded in such a manner. The only thing missing from the story is that
she'd been left outside the Sanders’ house. I guess he’d pulled some strings
there.

I tried to keep Ashley's whereabouts a secret, but
they've gotten out somehow. Probably some over enthusiastic worker who thought
they were being helpful. It didn't matter though because she had
round-the-clock security even with me being here.

No one was allowed inside her room except the doctors
who were known by her security detail.

Today is her last day in here, she'd received the go
ahead and her local doctor back home, which she didn't have one, would take
over her care. That was first on my list of things to do.

Thinking of that reminded me of the conversation we'd
had about her visitors. After she'd dropped her little bombshell she'd gone
into hysterics and I'd been forced to cut the conversation short. But that in
no way meant we were through, not by a long shot. I wanted to know everything
there was to know about these two men shed’ spoken of the sooner the better.
The monster she’d mentioned was the missing piece to the puzzle. I’d already
uncovered the fact that her father had planned to sell her I just never knew
who or where.

Today was also the day I'd chosen to tell her about
the child she's carrying. I'm not quite sure why I'd chosen to do it here, but
somehow I thought it was best to do it while she was still surrounded by
doctors.

We were dressed and ready to go. She'd been given her
walking papers and the car was waiting to take us to the airfield, now was as
good a time as any. I had her sit on my lap while I tried to get my thoughts
together. I don’t know why it was so hard to get the words out. Will she be
happy? Pissed, what? I don’t think she realized that what we were doing could
lead to this. Her innocence was astounding.

"Blossom, baby there's something I have to tell
you." I felt her body tense up under my hand.

"No no baby, it's something good, at least I hope
it is?” For fuck sake Gideon just say it. “You're pregnant." I held my
breath and waited. She just looked at me as if I'd spoken a foreign language, then
she collapsed against me as if all the air had been knocked out of her body.

She started to tremble and shake and scared the fuck
outta me. "What's up baby? What's going on? Talk to me." She clutched
the lapels of my jacket in fear.

"I'm going to die Gideon, please don't let me
die."

My heart clenched in torment, the anguish in her
voice…fuck.

"Baby...no you're not, why would you think such a
thing?"

"Children kill their mothers."

Fuck you Cliff Sanders, you just earned yourself
another moment of torture before I put a bullet through your black fucking
heart. There was no doubt in my mind that he was behind this new terror. What
the fuck did you do to her you fuck? I calmed my racing heart by taking deep
breaths and held her closer because she’d started to shake uncontrollably. The
murderous rage will have to wait, revenge will have to wait she needed me now
and I hope like fuck I knew how to do this.

"Blossom, baby that's just not true, look at me,
you didn't kill your mother."

"I was too happy, you made me happy now I have to
die, he was right."

"No baby he wasn't, he lied to you your whole
life. Look at me...Ashley look at me." She turned almost dead eyes my way
and tore the heart from my chest.

Keep it in check Thorpe, don't lose it now, later yes,
but right now she needs you to be rational.

"You did not kill your mother, children do not
kill their mothers, if that were true my mother would be dead and so would all
the mothers of your classmates. I kept my voice even and light even though it
was killing me to just sit there and not run and find his ass and end him for
this. Even this he’d stolen from her the fuck.

"But…it's true, it has to be. He said if I was
ever happy I would die. I've never been happy before and now I am for the first
time and I'm going to die."

Her body was a block of ice but I refused to let her
go into shock, which seemed to be where she was headed. How much more could she
take? What other bullshit was she carrying around in her head that he’d put
there over the years? I’d been so cocky thinking that I could undo the damage
he’d done. I had no idea of the true extent of this man’s evil. Death was too
good for him I needed him to suffer. Death is final, he’s not getting off that
easy this motherfucker is
gonna
bleed.

"Baby please I'm begging you, please listen to
me. I know you had nothing to do with your mom dying but the proof is at
home."

She looked at me disbelievingly. I took a deep breath,
what I was about to say was all kinds of fucked up but I had to shake her the
fuck out of this fugue she'd gone into. That bastard had done a real good job
of convincing her of this bullshit. I’m going to take great pleasure in fucking
his shit up.

Any qualms I might've had were vanquished completely
by this. He was no longer human to me, not that he'd been much of one to begin
with, but this,
this
was beyond fucked up.

To convince your only child, a young beautiful girl,
that if she found happiness in life she would perish that. Just…fuck.

So now I'm left with the unenviable task of trying to shock
her out of this way of thinking. I was so not looking forward to this shit but
she needed a wakeup call and she needed it quick.

"Do you want to have an abortion?" I wanted
to burn off my tongue as soon as the words left my mouth.

She jerked as if I'd punched her.

"What, no, what...Gideon...how could you?"
She tried to get off my lap but I held her tight.

 
"Blossom
be calm, I don't want you to have one either but if you believe our child will
kill you then there's no way I'm going to let that happen."

"But it's just an innocent baby."

"Not if it's going to kill you." Please let
this shit work; please don’t let her start thinking of me as the fucking
monster.

"But..." She covered herself protectively as
tears flowed down her cheeks.

"I don't know what to do, what should I do?"
And that's when I knew why I'd chosen to tell her here, why I didn't wait until
we were at home.

"Come with me."

I settled her in the electronic chair I'd gotten her
to get around in. There was no point in her hobbling around on crutches all the
time, this way she could use the chair when she grew tired. I didn't want her
over tiring herself anymore than she had to.

We headed to the fifth floor, the nursery and exactly
what I expected to happen did. At least I hadn’t been wrong in this. I knew
her, knew my baby’s soft sweet heart he hadn’t been able to blacken that. Her
whole face lit up when she saw the babies. I knew it would, how could it not?
With that heart there was no way she could destroy our child.

All that was left to do was rebuild her from the
ground up. The damage was worse than I'd ever imagined but it could be fixed
I'd see to it. I leaned over and kissed the top of her head and she got as
close to the glass as she could staring from one tiny bundle to the next with a
look of wonder on her face. That’s my girl.

"You see baby, they're innocent and perfect just
like you were."

She grabbed my hand and held on tight.

"I'm scared Gideon." When she looked at me
this time, at least there was no longer a look of stark terror in her eyes. She
was still scared that much was evident but I was no longer in fear of her
slipping into darkness.

"I know baby but I promise, look at me...I
promise you that if you believe in me, if you trust me, everything will work
out great and in about nine months we're going to have a beautiful baby boy or
girl who's going to grow up with both a mother and father who loves them
unconditionally."

She looked at me like I had the answer to the secrets
of the universe. I'd settle for the secret to how to erase everything he'd done
to her.