Falling for the Billionaire Doc

by Amy Ruttan

  “Don’t I know it,” she grumbled. She pushed the button to open the automatic double doors that led into the emergency room. Triage was busy, but it was mostly just people with minor ailments, and as soon as she saw that she frowned. “I wonder why they’re not at the free clinic?”

  “The free clinic was shut down,” a nurse said, hearing her and passing by.

  “What?” Kiera asked, shocked, spinning around to Henry.

  He put up his hands. “I didn’t shut it down.”

  “Then who did?” Kiera asked. “What’s going on?”

  “I shut it down,” Dr. Carr said, coming over to them. “By an order from the chairman of the board.”

  Henry looked confused. “I am chairman of the board.”

  Richard nodded. “And yesterday you told me to shut it down.”

  “I didn’t, though.”

  Kiera was having a hard time believing him, and she didn’t want to stand around discussing this. It was making her too angry.

  “I have patients to see,” she muttered, and walked away.

  She couldn’t look at him right now. She didn’t want to look at him. She felt betrayed.

  He had probably ordered it to shut down before they’d made their deal, but it still stung.

  Henry followed after her.

  “Kiera, I didn’t order it to be shut down.”

  “I’m sure.”

  He frowned. “You don’t believe me.”

  “Any reason why I should believe you? I don’t know you.”

  He grabbed her arm. “You do. Remember?”

  Kiera sighed. “You know what I meant.”

  Henry leaned forward. “I know that, but others don’t—be careful.”

  She wanted to discuss it further, but the ambulance bay door opened and the paramedics wheeled in a patient.

  “Twenty-three-year-old man. Third-degree burns over his face and his right arm.”

  Henry left and was instantly at the patient’s side. Kiera followed as they wheeled the unconscious patient into a trauma room for workup.

  “GCS in the field was a five. The patient has smoke inhalation. He was in a house fire,” the paramedic said.

  Kiera examined the man’s nose and throat and saw evidence that smoke had infiltrated the lungs. “I need to intubate him.”

  Kiera grabbed a laryngoscope and visualized the cords as she grabbed the endotracheal tube and placed it down his throat.

  A nurse used an Ambu bag to keep the patient breathing as Kiera listened with a stethoscope for breath sounds. She smiled, listening to the equal breath sounds. The patient was successfully intubated.

  “These burns are bad. I’ll wrap them and we’ll treat the patient once he gets to the intensive care unit,” Henry said.

  Kiera nodded. She took some blood and sent it off to be tested for carbon monoxide.

  She didn’t say anything else to Henry. There was nothing much more to say though she couldn’t get over the sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. Henry was quiet as he carefully cared for the patient’s burns.

  Once they were wrapped, they took the patient to the intensive care unit, got him registered and talked with the victim’s family.

  Now it would be a waiting game. The patient had high levels of carbon monoxide in his blood.

  The hairs on his face and his nose were singed and when she was intubating him Kiera could see the smoke inhalation damage. He’d be in the intensive care unit until his lungs could heal.

  “I’ll change the dressings tomorrow,” Henry said as he finished giving instructions to the intensive care nurses.

  Aspen Grace Memorial Hospital didn’t have a large intensive care unit, but they had a good one. Of course, they had a great free clinic, too.

  “Do you think you forgot you ordered it closed?” Kiera asked.

  “What?” Henry asked.

  “The free clinic.”

  “I didn’t have it shut down, Kiera. I didn’t have time after I arrived.”

  “But Richard said the chairman of the board shut it down. You are chairman of the board.”

  “But I didn’t do it,” Henry snapped.

  “Henry didn’t, I did.”

  Kiera spun around and saw Governor Baker standing there.

  Henry’s spine stiffened. “Father.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  “DO YOU MIND telling me what’s going on, Henry?” his father demanded as soon as they were behind closed doors. Kiera had returned to the emergency room because his father didn’t want her to be part of the discussion.

  “Do you mind telling me why I’ve been removed as chair?” Henry barked back.

  “You’re engaged to Dr. Brown—the person I sent you to stop from protesting. You’re a liability to the project now.”

  “Hardly. Kiera has some good insights regarding the hospital. Insights that you and I don’t have.”

  “You’re a doctor. Are you telling me you don’t have insight?”

  “Not at this hospital. I suppose I’ve been rendered useless to you again.”

  His father rolled his eyes. “Please... She’s using you. Can’t you see that, Henry?”

  Henry tried not to react to the kernel of truth his father was spouting. He’d been used before and he was not unfamiliar with it.

  Yes, Kiera was agreeing to be his fiancée while he was in town, but he was using her, too.

  Using her as a shield to annoy his father. Clearly, it was working.

  He knew what was happening here.

  The problem was that she was slipping past his walls, and he was afraid of being hurt.

  He was also afraid of hurting her when this was over.

  She’s not into you. You won’t hurt her.

  Kiera was strong. She didn’t need him, even if he needed her, and the thought spooked him because he had enjoyed being with her last night.

  That kiss was something he wouldn’t soon forget.

  He liked being around her, and he resented his father for forcing him to put a stop on things.

  “She’s not right for you,” his father said.

  “I say she is.”

  And it gave him satisfaction he had chosen Kiera in the heat of the moment.

  The woman his father apparently loathed.

  Of course, his father hadn’t liked Michelle much, either, because Michelle had been a strong woman, and that had driven his father crazy. His father detested strong women.

  His father didn’t want anyone defying him.

  Which was all the more reason Henry was glad that it annoyed his father so much that he was engaged to Kiera.

  And why he liked Kiera even more.

  You’re not really engaged to her, though.

  And he had to remind himself of that.

  Kiera wouldn’t like him if she knew why he was here. That he had been sent to deal with her because of his past and the deal he had made with his father. She wouldn’t like him if she knew that he planned to walk away from Aspen Grace Memorial Hospital and Colorado for good once this was over.

  “What’re you doing here, Father?” Henry asked. “You pulled me from my work in Los Angeles, and now you swoop in to do my job for me?”

  “I came here because I saw you were with Dr. Brown at our fundraiser and couldn’t quite believe it when your mother told me you were engaged to her. To our enemy. The one thorn in our side, standing in the way of our new hospital.”

  “She’s your enemy, not mine.”

  His father’s eyes narrowed. “I thought you wanted me to forget about your indiscretions?”

  “I do.”

  “This is not what I had in mind. You owe me, Henry.”

  “I’m working on it,” Henry gritted out.

  “How? You’re engaged to the woman I asked you to s
top! Did she blackmail you or something?”

  “No. She’s not like you.”

  His father grinned, but it wasn’t a warm, happy grin. It was cold, calculating, the kind Henry was used to.

  “Be careful, Henry. You have a task to do. Complete it.”

  “I will.”

  “I’m not convinced. Need I remind you that you’re a majority shareholder in this hospital. Her blocking the new building threatens your investment, too.” Which was true, but Henry didn’t care as much as he had before.

  “Kiera is prepared to discuss the new hospital if the free clinic stays open.”

  That had his father’s attention. “The free clinic?”

  Henry nodded. “Since I’m no longer the chairman, you’ll find all the paperwork in the boardroom. Including a report on the free clinic. Now, if you don’t mind, I have patients to attend to.”

  His father stepped in front of him. “Fine. I’ll look at the report, but you and Kiera need to be seen.”

  “What’re you talking about?” Henry asked, confused.

  “It would help the board’s reputation if you were seen out and about with Kiera. It would show our support for Aspen.”

  “I thought it angered you when I was in the papers in Los Angeles,” he smirked.

  “This is different.”

  “How?”

  “She’s a respected doctor in Aspen.”

  “You mean it would look good for your political career,” Henry stated.

  His father shrugged. “It couldn’t hurt.”

  “No. That’s not part of the deal.”

  “It is now since you bungled the original task. Get your picture taken with her. Announce your engagement. It’ll look good, and then maybe we can consider the free clinic in the new hospital. Maybe.”

  Henry seethed.

  All that mattered to his father was his political career.

  Why was he shocked about this?

  He wasn’t. He was angry that Kiera was involved because of him, because he had thought it would annoy his father the most. Now Kiera had been sucked into his father’s agenda even more.

  Kiera didn’t deserve this, and neither did he.

  “We’re done talking about this.”

  “Henry, I invested those shares for you. Don’t make me regret my generosity.”

  The threat sent a chill down his spine.

  If he lost the shares, then he couldn’t help Kiera and she wouldn’t want to be around him. The only reason they were together was because he’d promised to help her. Their engagement was fake.

  And if he couldn’t, why would she stay with him?

  What do you expect?

  It shouldn’t bother him, but it did.

  He was angry.

  Henry didn’t respond and left the room. Frustrated.

  He headed back to the emergency room, and though he should put some distance between Kiera and his uncontrolled emotions, he sought her out.

  He hated losing control. Control kept the grief, the hurt, the loneliness at bay. Kiera was a balm to soothe his soul.

  A balm that had a bit of a bite to it, but once you got past that burn, it was so good.

  She finished up with a patient and walked over to the desk to input information. He crept up beside her, and she glanced up at him and raised her eyebrows.

  “Whoa, that is some serious, dark, twisty energy coming off you.”

  “Want to go out?” he asked.

  “What?” she asked, chuckling.

  “Tonight. My place. Nothing fancy and I’ll cook.”

  Her mouth dropped open and pink bloomed in her cheeks. “Okay...yeah. That sounds good.”

  “Good. I’ll see you at seven. I’ll text you the address.”

  And then he left the emergency room. He had to gain some clarity, some control of the emotions raging inside him.

  And he had to make dinner, though he had no idea what.

  He wasn’t the best cook, and the last thing he needed was the papers proclaiming he’d poisoned his fiancée in some kind of scheme. He laughed at the paranoid thought.

  You can do this.

  And he could.

  More importantly, he wanted to.

  * * *

  Kiera drove up to Henry’s condo. He’d said it wasn’t far from the main part of town, but it wasn’t as close as she thought. She still had steep roads to negotiate and it was snowing, heavily, again.

  His condo was in a newer part of town, a new alpine village. Another place for skiers to come and ski.

  Another resort that catered to the elite.

  The shops that lined the quaint little street were exclusive and unaffordable. Kiera parked her car in the village parking lot and walked up through the village that sat at the base of a ski lift. Henry’s condo overlooked the mountain where all the happier skiers were enjoying a perfectly snowy night.

  After she typed in his code and the entry door opened, she made her way to the elevator. The elevator took her to the sixth floor, which was the penthouse of this strange modern condo that looked so out of place in Aspen.

  The elevator opened, and she was shocked as she walked straight into an open concept apartment that resembled a rustic ski chalet—with exposed wood beams, the floor-to-ceiling windows and a crackling fire put in the middle of a sunken living room.

  Henry came out of the kitchen and her heart skipped a beat. She had thought he looked good in a power suit and tuxedo, but those outfits had nothing on seeing him in a pair of well-fitted jeans and a blue sweater.

  The sweater was such a beautiful blue and brought out the color of his eyes. Made his brown eyes, deeper. Like mahogany. His hair was tousled and there were a few stray curls.

  “You found it okay then.” He took her coat.

  “This place looks completely differently from the outside,” she said, still stunned.

  “It’s why I like it.”

  “So this is your home away from Los Angeles?”

  He nodded. “It is. I bought it a while ago, but rarely come here.”

  “You didn’t want to stay at your parents’?”

  “No,” he said tightly, hanging up her coat.

  “Well, I do like this place. It’s open, but also warm and cozy.”

  Kiera followed him into the penthouse and down the steps of the sunken living room that was giving off a retro chalet vibe.

  The fire felt good as she perched on the edge of his large sectional couch.

  “Can I get you a glass of wine?” he asked.

  “Yes. Thank you.”

  Henry headed into the kitchen area and Kiera relaxed.

  “So, I’m intrigued about why you were so adamant in wanting to cook for me tonight,” she said, trying to make conversation.

  “Well, my father is convinced you’re using me. And if we’re going to continue with this ruse, I thought it best we got to know one another.” He came back and handed her a glass of red wine.

  “Is the wine to numb the pain?” she teased.

  He smiled, a twinkle in his eyes. “Perhaps.”

  “Well, it’s a good start.”

  She didn’t like people, other than Mandy and Dr. Carr, to know too much about her. It was too painful. When she had let down her guard in the past, in particular as she had with Brent, she’d been hurt. People couldn’t be trusted. They always left in the end, always disappointed you.

  They were selfish for the most part.

  Even she was selfish. She was only helping Henry out to get something from him.

  And she didn’t trust Henry; however, she was beginning to relax with him, and it was scary. She couldn’t let him in. She just couldn’t get hurt again.

  “I’ll go first. I’m forty,” he said, breaking through her morose thoughts.

&nbs
p; Kiera laughed. “I did know that tidbit.”

  “How?”

  “I did research on you before you came to Aspen, and I’m sure your father’s people have quite the dossier on me.”

  Henry chuckled. “Most likely, but I’m not privy to it. So you probably know more about me than I do about you.”

  “Okay, well what do you want to know?” Kiera hoped her voice didn’t shake as she said that, because she really didn’t like sharing personal information with anyone.

  She hadn’t had much privacy growing up and she liked to keep things close to her chest.

  She didn’t like to even remember her parents or her past. She didn’t like reliving it. Those had been dark times. Wilfred and Mandy had made her life happy.

  There was no need to think about the father who had abandoned her.

  The person she had waited to come back for so long, and he never had.

  She’d moved on.

  Have you?

  “Well, you said Dr. Burke raised you but isn’t your father. Are you related to him?” Henry asked.

  Kiera tried to swallow the wine caught in her throat.

  “Wow, you really get to the heart of the matter.”

  “We’re engaged, so I guess I should know about where you came from.”

  Kiera sighed. Her hands were shaking, her pulse was racing, and she felt sick.

  “No, I’m not related to Wilfred Burke or Mandy.”

  “You seem nervous.”

  “I am.” She set down the wineglass. “I don’t... I don’t think about it.”

  She trailed off as she thought about her past. Her mother had been so addicted to drugs that she’d died in an emergency room from an overdose, and her father had been unable to cope, either. He had left her in a dingy diner in Colorado Springs.

  Kiera had sat there for hours, waiting for her dad to come back.

  And he never had.

  She’d probably be dead if she had stayed with her biological father. She would have started using. No one would have helped her, and she certainly wouldn’t have become a doctor.

  It had been the scariest moment of her life, but eventually she’d come to Aspen, and Dr. Burke and Mandy had taken her in.

  “I’m not an orphan,” she said quickly clearing her throat. “My mother died, but my father abandoned me at a roadside diner.”