What Matters Most: The Billionaire Bargains, Book 2 (27 page)

“Things don’t have to be hard to matter, Reese. Things don’t have to suck and make you cry and sweat and bleed to be important. There is nothing wrong with being a guy that people like having around. There is nothing wrong with being someone who can make other people happy and maybe give them a night off from their real life. You should know—you had a hell of a good time letting me sweep you off your feet for a weekend. And you need to stop feeling guilty about that.”

Reese felt her jaw drop. “Guilty?”

He nodded. “Guilty. You feel bad because for a night or two you got caught up, you forgot about the problems and the hardships, you had some fun, you blew some money, and you did something crazy and spontaneous just because it felt good.” He paused. “And the sun still came up the next morning.”

“I don’t feel guilty about the trip to Vegas.” But she did.

She hadn’t fully realized it until he said it, but yeah, guilty applied. And the thing was, she might have been okay with that guilt—it was only one weekend after all—but being married to Tony Steele meant a
life
like that weekend in Vegas.

“And what about when I need something from you that you can’t buy? Or something that isn’t cured by a quick trip to Vegas, Tony?” she asked, her heart aching.

He looked at her for a long moment, his expression one he likely used at the poker table, because she had no idea what he was thinking

Finally, he said, “I don’t know.”

Her heart sank a little. She wanted him to have an answer to that. She wanted him to argue with her as she tried to convince them both that they didn’t belong together.

Tony drew himself up taller. “So I want to be sure we’re on the same page here.”

She stood up straight as well and nodded. He was a good guy. It was very possible she was being a bitch. It happened. More than she’d like it to. She’d like to part as friends at least.

“I think we are,” she said.

“Then you understand that I’m completely taking responsibility and owning it when I tell your brother that he is welcome to stay in my house as long as he wants to,” Tony said.

That took a few seconds to sink in, but finally she said, “
What?
”

He nodded. “I’m letting Sebastian stay. And I’m fully aware that it might be a bad move and I take full responsibility for dealing with whatever happens. But as you said, I make my own choices.”

Reese opened her mouth to respond, but a loud noise from the front of her apartment made her jump. She’d been so wrapped up in Tony it took a moment to identify the sound as loud, insistent knocking—or more accurately
pounding
—on her front door.

With one last look at Tony, Reese headed for the living room.

Sylvia stood on the other side of the door when Reese pulled it open.

“Maggie’s not breathing.”

Panic raced through Reese and she took off toward Holly’s apartment at a run. Maggie was the oldest of Holly’s girls, six years old.

“Call 9-1-1!” she yelled back at Syl and Tony.

“They’re already on their way,” Sylvia called back, breathless with the exertion of running to and from Reese’s apartment. Tony hung back with her.

Reese burst through the front door to Holly’s apartment, her heart in her throat. She quickly scanned the living room and kitchen area. Molly and Max, Holly’s four and two-year-olds, were on the couch with Connie. All three were crying. Reese was sure they didn’t know exactly what was going on but were responding to the obvious fear and stress of the adults. Unfortunately, there was no time to be particularly comforting or reassuring toward them.

“Where is she?” Reese asked Connie.

“Bathroom. Vincent’s there. She was in the bathtub. He only left her for a minute.”

Oh God, not breathing, water…

Holly was at work, Reese knew. That meant Vincent had been in charge of bedtime. Obviously Syl and Connie had been over helping as they often did. With three young kids, it was easiest to play man-on-man defense sometimes when it came to things the kids didn’t like to do—like stop playing, take a bath and go to bed.

Reese approached the bathroom door quickly but with trepidation.

She didn’t want to see Maggie like this, but Vincent needed her.

Reese came around the corner and her heart stopped for a moment. Maggie lay on the blue bathmat wrapped in a towel, her eyes closed, her lips blue. Vincent was performing CPR, tears dripping down his face and onto Maggie’s cheeks.

“Let me,” Reese said gently, kneeling next to him.

He moved, slumping against the side of the tub and covering his face with his hands, sobs racking his body.

Reese struggled to focus. She had to do this right for Maggie, she couldn’t fall apart. Yet.

She leaned in to listen for a heartbeat. She held her breath. For a moment, there was nothing, and Reese struggled to keep the wrenching sob within. But then she heard it—a faint, but present thump in Maggie’s chest. Reese put a shaking hand to Maggie’s neck and nearly fell over with relief when she felt the bump of her pulse. Okay, that was good. That was very good. She moved so that her ear was over Maggie’s mouth next, also watching her chest, praying for the rise and fall of her breathing.

But none came.

Reese pulled in her own long breath, swallowed hard, and started the breathing pattern that Maggie needed help with until the ambulance got there.

She was vaguely aware of Vincent’s big body behind her but she successfully tuned out his crying. She also knew that Sylvia and Tony hovered in the doorway, but she blocked them out as well. She was all about Maggie. She only had to hang in there for a few more minutes until the paramedics arrived and could take over.

After what seemed like three years, she heard sirens from outside the building. Within minutes, there was a pounding on the door, voices and then, seconds later, four EMTs pushed into the bathroom and herded Reese and Vincent out.

Tony drew Reese away from the door and folded her in his arms without a word.

Everything else seemed to vanish, and she wrapped her arms around him and clung, letting the tears come. She sobbed into the front of his shirt, letting some of the adrenaline out. She couldn’t face the kids and Sylvia and Connie like this. She had to be strong for them. She was always the strong one. If she broke down, they would all be lost. But for just a moment, it felt too good to lean on someone else, to be able to show her emotions, and to be comforted.

Reese got it together in just a few short minutes. Letting that initial dam of emotion loose allowed her to take a deep breath and cleared her mind.

Sniffing, one arm still around Tony, Reese dried her eyes and turned back toward the bathroom doorway. The paramedics were still in there with Maggie for a few minutes, their actions out of Reese’s sight.

Finally, she heard, “I’ve got her intubated, pulse is weak but steady.”

Reese felt her knees give slightly and Tony’s hold on her tighten.

Then they were wheeling Maggie out on a gurney. She had a tube down her throat, her eyes were still shut and she was frighteningly pale.

“You the mother?” one of the paramedics asked Reese.

She shook her head but couldn’t quite make her lungs and mouth work together to make words.

“Her mother is at work,” Tony told him. He handed the EMT a business card. “I’ll be your contact person,” he said with authority.

Tony had absolutely no reason to be the contact person other than simply telling the other man that he was, but Reese was amazed to see the paramedic nod. “Fine. I can reach you at this number?”

“Yes. We will be right behind the ambulance and happy to answer any questions or give you any information you need in the mother’s absence. I’d appreciate it if you let the nanny ride along,” Tony said, gesturing toward Vincent.

The EMT looked, predictably, surprised to find the big man was the nanny. But he nodded. “Fine.”

Reese knew that wouldn’t have happened if anyone else had requested it. Vincent wasn’t family. None of them were, technically. But Tony had that air about him that made everyone listen and go along with his suggestions.

“That’s my cell and I’ll take care of anything you need,” Tony said. “Take her to Children’s. Dr. Foster is waiting.”

The paramedic nodded again, put Tony’s card in his front shirt pocket and followed the gurney out and down the steps.

Tony took Reese’s hand and led the rest of the group out of the apartment. “Where are your car keys?” he asked Reese.

“Counter top. My purse too,” she said numbly.

As he jogged off, the older women turned to Reese, their eyes wide with fear.

“It’ll be okay,” she whispered. She took Max from Connie’s arms and hugged him tight.

“You stay with Aunt Connie and Aunt Syl,” she said.

Max started crying again and Molly clung harder to Connie’s leg.

“They’re not coming?” Tony asked, handing Reese a zip up sweatshirt from her closet and her purse.

“I don’t have car seats in my car and Connie and Syl don’t drive.” She slipped on the sweatshirt, grateful he’d thought of it.

Tony pulled out his phone and put his arm around Reese’s shoulders, steering her toward the stairs.

“Will,” he said a moment later into the phone. “Bring the limo over and pick up the two ladies and two kids in apartment three-o-nine. Oh, and you’ll need two car seats. Bring them to the ER at Children’s.”

He pocketed the phone as they stepped out of the building. “Your car?” he asked.

Her hand shook as she pointed to the blue Ford Focus.

Tony headed for the car and opened the passenger side. He got her settled and strapped in before jogging to the other side and sliding behind the wheel. He tore out of the parking lot, barely braking at the entrance.

Reese grabbed the dash. “You do know how to drive right?”

“Yep.” He careened around the next corner.

“Just checking. What with the limo and all,” she muttered.

He made a right turn through a red light without even thinking about tapping the brake. “I prefer sports cars.”

“I’m shocked.” Reese shut her eyes.

Until she heard the police siren behind them.

“Fuck,” Tony grumbled. But he kept driving.

“That means pull over,” she said, glancing behind them at the flashing red and blue lights.

“I’ll pull over at the hospital.”

The hospital was four more miles away.

“Tony—”

“Let me handle it,” Tony said.

Sure. Fine. Whatever. It wasn’t like she’d be shocked to know he’d seen the inside of a jail cell before. It was her license plate, but he was the one they would taser first.

They screeched into the ER drive fifteen minutes later. By then there were three cop cars behind them.

“Run in. I’ll deal with them,” he told her, slamming the car into park.

She didn’t have to be told twice. Maggie was in there.

Tony got out and headed for the cops. Reese started for the ER door. She glanced back and saw him hand the cop another business card as she ran toward the building. Then she was inside and he was out of sight.

“Are you Mrs. Steele?” a nurse asked, approaching her immediately.

“No, I’m—” Dammit. “Yes, yes, I’m Mrs. Steele.”

“Your husband called and told us you’d be coming. Right this way.”

Reese knew that it was not typical protocol for a non-family member to be escorted in to see a patient, but she wasn’t going to argue. Tony knew what to say and who to talk to, she’d give him that.

Tony couldn’t remember ever being more frustrated in his life. Between the argument with his wife and nearly getting thrown out of her apartment—and her life—and then the cops, he was about to come unglued.

And since that almost never happened, he wasn’t really sure what the result would be.

He wasn’t used to being told no.

He’d called in a favor with the police. He’d thrown his weight around at the hospital. He’d been a demanding asshole to Will. He’d even been a dick to the pizza delivery guy who had shown up with the order he’d placed to feed Reese and her pseudo family as they waited for word on Maggie.

“I asked you to bring a DVD player and movies for the kids,” Tony said to Will.

Will gave him a
seriously?
look. “You called and asked me to get Holly from West End Hospital to Children’s hospital. Then you called me to buy two car seats and get two kids and two old women from their apartment to Children’s hospital. I’m amazing,” Will said. “But you haven’t bought the technology to allow me to be in two places at once, so I had to call in some assistance to even get what I did done. I haven’t had a chance to go movie shopping yet.”

Tony shoved his hand through his hair. He was being unreasonable. He knew that. But it was all slipping away—his confidence, his feelings of being in control and able to get things done. He really loved feeling in control and able to get things done. A lot.