TRIGGERED: A Romantic Suspense Bundle (5 Books)

by Evie Nichole

  Barkley’s foot bounced on the floor. His green eyes steady on Selene’s face. It was taking a long time for the thermometer to read. When it finally beeped, he pulled it from her mouth and looked at the digital read out frantically. 100.4

  Barkley stood and darted back down the stairs. Mary and Betty were placing the dinner on the table. Jim and MJ staring at the food with ravenous intensity.

  “Do we have aspirin or something like it?”

  They all looked at Barkley’s sweating face with astonishment. When no one answered, Barkley practically screamed at them, causing Mary to jump and step back.

  “Do we, or do we not!”

  “Calm down, Barkley. What’s wrong?” Betty said, her face displaying her displeasure with his behavior.

  “What’s wrong? She’s sick, that’s what’s wrong. So sick—in fact—that she’s running a fever and looks like death! I can’t even get her properly awake!”

  Everyone looked at each other for only a moment before the house became a flurry of movement.

  Within the hour, with wash clothes drenched in cool water applied to various places on Selene’s body, her temperature was still the same. It wasn’t so much that it was a high fever, but they couldn’t think of anything else to do.

  Barkley chewed on his thumbnail, as he watched Selene begin wheezing in her sleep. Her head turned from side to side, leaving sweat stains with every turn.

  When she seemed to awaken and started screaming, “Did we get the children out?” Barkley picked her up in his arms and took her limp body to his car.

  The women trailed after him, begging him to call an ambulance, but he ignored their requests and continued out to the car. He thought for sure Betty would have followed, but to his surprise it was MJ who slid into the passenger seat.

  “What are you doing, MJ?” he asked more gruffly than he intended.

  “I’m coming with you.”

  Barkley only wasted a second to give him a curt nod, before starting the car and tearing away from his house.

  ***

  Selene had the vague impression that she was flying. She couldn’t feel her arms and legs anymore. The only thought that made sense was that God had changed his mind after all, and he was taking her now because he hadn’t taken her in Afghanistan. In fact, she was sure of it. She could hear the gentle whoomp-whoomp of chopper blades. She turned her head to look blearily at Eric, but this time she wouldn’t reach for him. This time she knew the truth. But she didn’t see Eric, she saw Barkley.

  That’s odd. Barkley never served with me.

  “It’s ok, baby.” He whispered, grabbing her hand and holding it tightly. “It’s going to be alright.”

  “Am I dying?” Her voice sounded far away.

  A single tear slipped from the corner of Barkley’s wide green eyes. “No. You’re just very sick right now.”

  “Do they know…?” She tried to ask, but a coughing fit stopped her from finishing the question.

  Barkley covered his mouth, another tear trailing after the first. “It’s ok. Just close your eyes. We’ll be there soon.”

  ***

  Barkley kept his head down, his chin cradled in one hand, an arm across his stomach. The white linoleum floor of the hospital had little green flecks, and Barkley determined that it made a fine floor for a hospital. The bottom line was that he just couldn’t hear any more of what the doctor was saying.

  “Mr. Bailey, do you understand what I’m telling you?”

  Barkley looked up, his eyes red-rimmed and blood shot. Tim Stevens had come to the hospital after Barkley called to cancel their meeting for the next day. He walked in and shook MJ’s hand, keeping his eyes on the doctor and Barkley.

  “Mr. Bailey?”

  Barkley shook his head. “You’re telling me that someone poisoned her. Poisoned her on purpose.”

  “Poisoned, yes, but on purpose isn’t known.”

  “Will she live?”

  “We’re doing all we can. Yes, in my professional opinion she will live.” The doctor pushed his glasses further up his nose. “Her liver is what I’m concerned about right now.” He reassuringly patted Barkley’s shoulder. “Let’s just see how she does with the run of IVs.” He turned and walked away. Barkley hadn’t cared for the way his eyes belied a different story from what his lips were speaking.

  Barkley turned to face MJ and Tim, spreading his arms wide, as he began backing down the hall. “Can you believe this? A deadly mushroom somehow has been given to her. Why?”

  “Barkley…” Tim began, but Barkley waved him off and turned away, moving at a steady pace back to Selene’s room. He looked at her through the glass before he went in.

  ICU is a peculiar place, Barkley thought. Machines beeping. Tubes pumping. All while death waits patiently. Barkley set his jaw, his green eyes dark. Well, you can’t have her this time. So go wave your scythe somewhere else.

  He went in the room and took Selene’s hand in his. He sat on the stool beside her sleeping form, sat while a nurse came every fifteen minutes to check one thing or another. He sat while another nurse changed one of the bags that was pumping fluid into her body to save her life.

  A finger tapped Barkley on the shoulder. He didn’t know when he had laid his head down, much less how long he had been sleeping.

  “Mr. Bailey?”

  Barkley looked up, bleary eyed, to see a nurse with dolphins on her scrubs, staring down at him with gentle brown eyes.

  “What is it?”

  “There’s someone here to see you.” The nurse straightened, and Barkley looked to the glass door of Selene’s room. A man with a reddish mustache and hair was standing just outside of the door. His drab brown suit was too large, hanging on him, making him look more like a scarecrow.

  “He’s from the police department,” the nurse whispered.

  Barkley stood, attempting to iron the wrinkles from his own suit out with his hand. He held his hand out for the man once he was past the door of Selene’s room.

  “Barkley Bailey.”

  The man took his hand, the handshake firm. “Detective Jenkins. May I have a word?”

  “You can have as many as you like, if you can tell me what happened to her.”

  The man smiled slowly. “The cafeteria just opened. How about a cup of coffee?”

  Barkley looked at his watch. “I can’t believe it’s already six!” He licked his lips, stealing a glance over his shoulder at Selene. A cup of coffee sounded good. “Sure, but I don’t want to be gone long.”

  “It won’t take long.”

  The men walked in silence. Barkley saw MJ slumped in a chair with a hospital blanket draped over him. Tim was nowhere to be seen.

  “Your gardener here is quite protective of you,” Detective Jenkins commented as they strolled past.

  “He’s a good guy.”

  “He’s concerned for your lady friend. He thinks he’s responsible.”

  Barkley gave the detective a startled look. “Why on earth would he think that?”

  “I’ll explain it all once we’re downstairs.”

  Barkley pushed the button on the elevator and waited for a car to come and get them. Detective Jenkins whistled under his breath, but other than that, didn’t offer any small talk.

  The cafeteria had literally just opened, but where food was still being prepared, there was fresh coffee in abundance. The two men took their steaming paper cups and found a table which looked out onto a gray flagstone patio. The light had a silver quality, as the sun began its first attempts at lighting the day.

  “I must say, Mr. Bailey, you have bad luck with women.”

  Barkley gave the man a dark look.

  “Sorry, that was crass.” He sipped his coffee, wincing as the hot liquid hit his lips. “But true.”

  “Has anyone been to my home yet?”

  “Yes, we have a detective there, too, as well as several uniformed officers.”

  “And?”

  “Daylight will tell us more, Mr. Bailey
.” He sipped again. “Your gardener says he took Miss Velasquez into the woods. He said he wanted to show her a piece of history that’s back there. Are you aware of that?”

  “Yes, she told me.”

  Detective Jenkins nodded. “I imagine her exposure to the mushroom was out there.”

  Barkley’s eyes narrowed. “She didn’t say she ate a mushroom out there! The doctor said it was Amatoxin poisoning. Most likely from the Death Cap.”

  “Yes. You ate at Gordo’s the night before last?”

  “Yes. We had fried calamari, linguini Alfredo, and Tiramisu. Oh, and red wine.”

  “Just putting all the pieces together.” He smiled blandly.

  Barkley bit down on his tongue. The last thing he needed to do was aggravate the detective.

  “Your staff seems to think this woman is a stripper named Gisele. Why is that?” His brown eyes probed Barkley from over his once again raised coffee cup. Barkley was beginning to think that the man was using it like a shield whenever he needed to ask or say something touchy.

  Barkley rubbed at his jaw, the prickle of whiskers that needed to be shaved ticking his palm. “That’s a complicated thing.”

  “Please, I have all morning if necessary.”

  Barkley launched into the condensed version of how Selene had come to be in his life. He couldn’t help the rueful curl of his lips as he divulged that Lucas Mitchell, his own father-in-law, had hired her.”

  “Well, you can hardly blame him. Parents always want answers, even when they start grasping into thin air.”

  “Does my staff know the truth now?”

  “They call her Gisele. We will call her Miss Velasquez.”

  Barkley nodded, unsure whether he cared at this point what the staff thought.

  “Your relationship with your staff is a close one.”

  “Yes. I try to treat them like family.”

  Detective Jenkins crossed one leg over the other and turned his head to watch a bird hop along the flagstone outside. He seemed enthralled with a tight smile curling the corners of his mouth, as the little black and gray bird hopped and pecked, then hopped and pecked some more.

  “So Selene Velasquez came clean on her own, blew her own cover, just because she didn’t want to lie to you anymore.”

  “Pretty much.”

  “And you both have only been involved for about a week.”

  “Six days today.”

  The detective looked at him. “That’s…remarkable. Or very stupid considering your worth.”

  Barkley could feel heat rising past his collar. “Look. Selene could have kept the charade going for as long as she liked. She has asked me for nothing.”

  “Do you love her?”

  “Does it matter? Is that going to fix the fact that her liver might be destroyed, or that she may even die?” He talked with animated hand gestures.

  “I repeat: do you love her?”

  Barkley stared at the detective, his eyes bulging. “Yes. Yes, I love her. I have loved her I think since she danced her way into my entertainment room, pretending to be a stripper. I’m sure that seems ludicrous. I really don’t care.” He slumped back in the plastic chair, suddenly exhausted.

  “You understand why I must ask. So understand why I must ask this next question. Especially considering your wealth and the circumstances of her arriving into your world.” The detective shoved his coffee cup to the side with the back of his hand and leaned over the table, his hands coming together in a tight clasp. “Did you poison her?”

  “No.” Barkley’s answer was plain and to the point. He knew there was no use in going over the top out of anger. He had learned with Sarah that there was no use in it.

  Detective Jenkins stood. “Alright, Mr. Bailey. I’ll be in touch later today.” He didn’t try to shake Barkley’s hand, and he didn’t wait for Barkley to get up. He simply wandered away in his ill-fitted suit, whistling again under his breath.

  ***

  Barkley made his way back to the ICU and sat down hard beside MJ. He stirred and pulled the blanket off of his chest, yawning loudly.

  “How is she?”

  “Don’t know. I’ve been with the great Detective Jenkins.”

  MJ yawned again. “He’s an odd one, for sure.”

  Barkley looked at the floor. “Why did you come with me, MJ?”

  “I’m glad I did! Someone had to drive the car once you and Gisele flew away in a helicopter.”

  “Really…why did you get in the car with me to begin with?”

  MJ was silent for a moment. He spread his hands and then let them drop back onto his knees. “You have always been so good to me, Mr. Bailey. You pay me full wages whether it’s the hot sunny months with tons of flowers and shrubs to see to, or the grass growing constantly and needing cutting. You pay the same wages if it’s the dead of winter and all I can do is watch the snow fall from my own living room window, because you don’t want me to risk driving out to your house. You allow me to sit at your fine table and eat with you whenever I want.” MJ shrugged. “You treat us all like friends. I wanted to be your friend for a change.”

  Barkley chewed on his bottom lip. He couldn’t speak. He reached, without looking, and squeezed MJ’s shoulder.

  “Thank you,” he whispered.

  MJ nodded as Barkley stood and began moving back towards Selene’s room.

  “I’ll be right here. Don’t you worry.”

  Barkley threw up one hand without looking back. When he entered Selene’s room, he was rewarded with something which made him slump against the doorframe. Selene was awake and her mocha-colored eyes were trying to look above her head to see what was attached to her.

  “Hey there,” Barkley said, coming to her side.

  “Hi,” she replied, her voice shaky and weak.

  “How are you feeling?”

  “Like a pin cushion.” She tried to lift both arms, an IV taped down to each. She turned her head on the pillow. “You look exhausted.”

  Barkley carefully bent her arm so he could kiss her knuckles. “I’m great. Never been better now that you’re awake.”

  “Well, good morning, sunshine!” The nurse with dolphins on her scrubs came into the room and began checking the IV bags. “Looks like you’re all done with this run of penicillin.” She said and took down a squelched wrinkled bag. She adjusted the port in Selene’s arm. She smiled down at her. “You gave this big guy a scare!”

  “Sorry.”

  The nurse patted her gently and winked at Barkley. “I think he’ll forgive you.”

  Selene closed her eyes, and Barkley felt a moment of panic until she began speaking softly.

  “This is the second time that I have almost died.”

  Barkley squeezed her hand and moved the stool closer to her head so he could rub at her temple.

  “Want to talk about it?”

  “I was trying to save some children. It was in Afghanistan. A teenage boy had bombs strapped to his chest and he ran into a crowd of people and detonated. An IED went off right after. That’s where my scars came from. It’s a miracle, really. I shouldn’t even be alive. I shouldn’t be able to walk straight.” She coughed and laid her head back onto the pillow. Barkley waited until she was ready to talk again. “That man you met at the market, he was there too. We were a couple back then.”

  “Did he help you through your recovery?”

  “No.” The simple way she said the word made Barkley’s heart ache. How could anyone not want to help a loved one in a time of need?

  “Did the children survive?”

  Selene didn’t answer at first, and Barkley thought she had drifted back into sleep. “They all died. Three men from my squad, too.”

  Barkley closed his eyes; he couldn’t imagine that kind of horror. “I’m so sorry you had to go through that.”

  “I’m sorry those children had to go through it.” She sighed. “I might as well tell you now that I may never be able to have children because of some of my injuries. I mean, yo
u might not even be thinking that far in…”

  “Shhh. I don’t care. And yes, I am thinking that far into the future. I love you and that’s all that matters.”

  Selene looked at him. All of her doubt melting away. Who cared that their situation looked rash and impossible. All that mattered was how they felt.

  “I love you, too.”

  Barkley leaned over and kissed her as gently as he could.

  “I want you to go home and get some rest.”

  “No way. I’m fine.”

  Selene tried to muster enough strength to give him a deadly stare, with one eyebrow raised, but all she could manage was a grimace.

  “I may send MJ home though.”

  “He’s here?”

  “Yes. He rode with us last night and drove the car after we were medevacked out.”

  “I’m surprised they let you ride.”

  Barkley smiled coldly. “They didn’t have a choice.”

  “Ah, the life of a billionaire.”

  “Exactly.” He stood and stretched. “I’ll be right back.”

  Barkley left the room and started back down the hall to MJ. The ICU unit seemed to be in a shift change. There were several new faces going over charts with staff who had already been there for the night. Barkley stopped as his eyes fell on the connected chairs where MJ was seated. Ruth looked up and stood, running one hand consciously over her tweed jacket and another one over her silver and black hair. Barkley resumed his walk, albeit much more slowly than before.

  “What are you doing here, Mother?”

  She gave him a light shrug. “I called the house to speak to you. You hadn’t been gone more than fifteen minutes Betty had said. She told me how sick Gisele was.” To Barkley’s surprise his mother stepped to him and encircled him with her thin arms. She spoke into his chest before pulling away. “I’m sorry this happened to her.” She tried to smooth his hair. “I was shocked when the police arrived a couple of hours ago. Do you really think someone did this to her?”

  “I don’t know what to think.”

  MJ spoke up from behind them. “There are mushrooms that are Amatoxins.” He shook his head. “I shouldn’t have taken her into the woods.”