Billionaire On Fire: The Complete Series (A Bad Boy Alpha Billionaire Romance) (7 page)

"How am I going to
handle this?" I asked as I shrugged off his hand and rubbed my head until
my hair was a tangled mess. "We need a plan, Leo. Victor Vangel is going
to try to ruin me just out of spite if we don't have a plan."

"Then let's sit down and
draw one up and release the information," he said with a hopeful smile.
"On our terms, in our own way."

"This is gonna suck,
Leo," I said as I sat up and looked at him shaking my head as I played out
the scenario. "The guys at the station are gonna be pissed that I kept
this a secret and the news media is going to turn it into a circus. I can't do
this."

"You can do it,
Cam," Leo said. "You can and you will. And once you do it you'll be
free from it all for good."

"Maybe that's what I'm afraid
of," I muttered as I watched Leo grab a notepad and some pens and move
over to the conference table in the corner of the room.

"Maybe it is, but if
Vangel or Metzler is going to release the information, you've really got
nothing to lose at this point, do you?" he said as he began sketching out
a diagram for how we could break the news and maintain control of the flow of
information.

Two hours later, I looked up
from the rough draft of the report we'd created and, for the first time in a
very long time, I smiled at the prospect of telling people what was going on in
my life.
  
I’d told Leo a million times
that we should hire a PR person to do this work, but he insisted that we were
better able to handle our own PR and, besides, he didn’t trust anyone who was
able to spin the story better than he was able to.

CHAPTER
TWELVE

Alex

I
hadn't heard anything from Cam for several
days, but since my schedule was filled with studying and ER shifts, I didn't
give it a whole lot of thought. Or if I did, I knew there wasn't anything I
could do about it. My studies came first, and with graduation in sight, I had
to keep my eye on the prize.

Liz and I were scheduled to
work the late shift in the ER on Friday after having been absent for a few days,
so we'd whipped up a batch of enchiladas for the staff and brought dinner in
for everyone. There was a great deal of appreciation in addition to the
comments about Liz's new dye job and what role that had played in the enchilada
making. After all the fussing over the sink, I'd managed to turn Liz into a
platinum blond with blue tips on the ends of her hair. We weren't sure how Mrs.
Rikka was going to respond to the change in her charge's hair color, but we
figured that at worst, we'd argue that Liz was going for hospital pride by
matching her hair to her scrubs.

Around seven, Mrs. Rikka
toured the ER on her nightly rounds, and in tow she had Violet, Jessica and
Lydia. Liz and I exchanged looks as the girls followed Mrs. Rikka into the exam
rooms and emerged making notes about the condition of each room.

"Now, ladies, you'll see
that every well-run ER needs someone who is deeply invested in ensuring that it
is stocked and ready to go," she lectured as she walked around the nurses
station. "And in every ER you'll also notice that there are people
designated to be the stockers."

Mrs. Rikka looked at Liz and
I pointedly as she explained the way in which it was best to approach assigning
jobs in the ER. It took her a few moments, but when it registered, she turned
and exclaimed, "Elizabeth Banks, what have you done to your hair?"

"I dyed it," Liz
said in a voice she would have used with a small child.

"I can see that,"
Mrs. Rikka sniffed. "Why on earth would you use such an unnatural
color?"

"Oh, it's the rage with
all of the scholarship students," Violet interjected as she stared coldly
at Liz. "You know, when they can't make their academic mark, they aim
lower for shock value."

"Not really sure how
much lower one could get than that 80s hairstyle, you sport, Vi," Liz said
in an exaggeratedly cheerful voice. "But keep digging!"

"Ladies!" Mrs.
Rikka exclaimed. "Enough! This is a hospital not a school yard, and I'll
not have you fighting in front of patients and staff!"

"I'm sorry," Violet
said but I could tell she wasn't at all by the way she nudged Jessica and Lydia
and then gave Liz a nasty little grin.

"If she leaves me alone,
we won't have any problems," Liz said flashing a big grin at the trio.
"But they're always starting something."

"Miss Baker, I don't
care who's starting what, I will not have fights in my hospital, is that
clear?" Mrs. Rikka asked.

"Crystal," Liz
nodded as she turned toward me and rolled her eyes. Then asking in a sweet
voice, "Shall we get back to work, Mrs. Rikka?"

"Yes, please do,"
the supervisor responded as she motioned for the other girls to follow her. I
could hear her lecturing them on proper hand washing techniques for each floor
as they exited the ER.

"That Violet Metzler is
a menace to society," Liz muttered once they were gone. "I wonder if
her parents are aware of that."

"Aw Liz, you need to
ease up on her a bit or you're going to get yourself in trouble," I
warned.

"I'm not the
problem," Liz replied. "She starts everything, I just finish
it."

I laughed as I shook my head
and went back to stocking the exam areas. It wasn't until midnight that I
noticed Liz had disappeared again, but then a string of ambulances flooded the
ER and I got busy triaging patients and restocking supplies.

Around two in the morning,
when the rush had died down, I heard the front doors swoosh open and a familiar
laugh fill the ER. I looked up from the patient charts I was filing and saw Cam
walking through the door in full gear. His face was covered with soot and his
hair was even wilder than it normally was. I smiled as I watched him scan the
ER and find me. His eyes lit up and a smile spread across his lips as he turned
and said something to his buddies before taking long strides toward the desk
where I was sitting.

"Hi, Alex Pierce,"
he grinned down at me. "Fancy meeting you here."

"Hello, Cam
Connor," I laughed as I stood up and walked around the station. "I'm
not sure why it's such a surprise for you, other than maybe you were hit on the
head by falling debris at your last call."

"Good one," he
laughed as he bent down and leaned on the counter. "No, no falling debris.
Just a car fire that got a little out of control."

"Is there ever a car
fire that is not out of control?" I asked with a skeptical grin.

"And again with the
astute observation," he laughed before adding more quietly, "I'd like
to see you again."

I stared at him for a few
seconds until he looked down and muttered, "I mean, if you'd like to see
me again, that is."

"Silly man, of course
I'd like to see you again!" I laughed as he looked up visibly relieved.
"I was just trying to think about when I'll have time what with exams,
classes and work this week."

"I could help you
study," he said hopefully. "Quiz you on whatever it is you're being
tested on."

"You know, that might
actually work," I nodded, but when I looked back up at him, I realized
that any pretense of studying was likely to be abandoned if we were in a room
alone together. I could feel the magnetic pull of his body and a memory of his
lips pressed against mine flashed before my eyes causing me to look away.

"Uh huh, sure it
would," Cam said as if he'd just read my mind. "Well, at the very
least I could take you to dinner to help keep up your strength."

"I'd like that," I
smiled.

"How about tomorrow
night?" he asked as the guys from the squad signaled that it was time to
get back to the station. "I'll pick you up around seven?"

"Sounds good!" I
called as he ran for the door. It was only after he'd left that I wondered
where he was taking me.

"Got a date with the
firefighter, do you?" Leslie asked with a smile. "He's a
hottie."

"Do you all conspire to
make that same joke?" I laughed as Leslie laughed with me. I looked around
and wondered where Liz had wandered off. I told Leslie I was going to go look
for Liz and she nodded as she updated more patient charts.

#

It
took twenty minutes of searching to finally
find Liz. She was standing outside the pharmacy, staring at the poster covered
with a diverse group of people, presumably employees, which announced Chicago
General would soon be part of a larger network of hospitals throughout the
area.

"Liz, are you
okay?" I asked as I put my hand on her shoulder and turned her around.

"Yeah, fine. Why?"
she said in a brisk voice. "Just learning about the changes coming to
Chicago General."

"I see," I said.
"We've missed you down in the ER. Want to come back with me?"

"Yeah, sure," she
nodded as I took her arm and led her back to the department. I wanted to ask
her what was going on, but I knew her well enough to know that she wasn't going
to give me any answers until she was good and ready.

"Hey, Cam came in a
little while ago and asked me out," I said trying to find a topic that we
could discuss hoping it would draw her out of whatever funk she was in.

"Did he, now?" she
replied as we walked into the ER, then suddenly she was back to normal. "I
hope you told him he needs to take you someplace good, not to another of those
dive bars he and his coworkers seem to like."

"Liz! That's rude!"
I laughed as she gently punched my upper arm and winked at me.

"You've got enough
condoms, right?" she asked with a knowing grin.

"Elizabeth Banks!"
I half-gasped, half-laughed.

"Oh, don't be an old
spoil sport," she said. "We've had the talk, now it's time for you to
get some action!"

Something about Liz's
nonchalant tone set me off and I laughed until the tears rolled down my cheeks.
She stood looking at me, shaking her head as she watched my complete meltdown,
and that made me laugh even harder. When it was over, Liz offered me some water
and then said, "But seriously, condoms."

That set off another wave of
laugher and it wasn't until Leslie came over to find out what was going on that
I was able to stop and catch my breath.

"I have no idea what's
got her so hysterical," Liz shrugged as we cleaned up Exam 2.
"Something random just set her off."

"Alex, do you think that
overnight shifts are a little too much for you to handle?" Leslie asked.
"Maybe you aren't cut out for late shifts."

"There's a lot that's a
little too much for her to handle," Liz muttered under her breath.
"But it ain't overnight shifts, I'll tell you that."

This sent me into a new fit
of laughter and made Leslie giggle too. Liz continued sweeping the floor as she
looked at both of us and shook her head sadly. For the rest of the night,
anytime Liz look at me and said, "But seriously," I broke down in
laughter.

On the walk home, Liz
chattered about exams and the hope that Violet would fail all of hers, but
nothing was said about what had happened outside of the pharmacy. I worried
about her, but decided that if she needed something, she'd ask. It was Liz,
after all, and she knew she could ask me for anything.

CHAPTER
THIRTEEN

Cam

"
All
right, girl, here goes nothing," I said to
Tesla as I pocketed my wallet and grabbed my keys. "I don't know how this
is gonna go, but one thing is for sure: I won't forget about you."

Tesla let out a short bark
and then went and climbed up on the sofa. She sighed as she dropped her chin
between her paws and stared at me. I laughed at her attempt at emotional
blackmail as I tossed a few cookies her way. It always amazed me how quickly accusations
could turn to love when food was involved.

I drove over to Alex's
apartment and parked. She buzzed me up and when she opened the door, I was
struck by how beautiful she looked no matter what she was wearing. She had
chosen a soft blue dress that hugged her curves and high-heeled, leather boots
that made her hips sway gently as she walked around the apartment gathering her
things. Watching her move, I wasn't entirely sure that we would make it out the
front door.

"So, where are we
going?" Alex asked as she pulled her coat out of the closet. It took me a
moment to snap out of a fantasy involving me removing the blue dress and seeing
Alex in her lingerie.

"Huh? Oh, dinner,
yeah," I said as I grabbed the coat out of her hands and held it for her.
She laughed as she slid her arms into it and then buttoned it up. "Dinner,
I thought we should try someplace a little nicer than O'Neil's so I got us a
reservation at Villains over on Printer's Row."

"I've heard of it, but
never been there," Alex smiled as she locked the door and we headed to
dinner.

Over beers, we talked about
work and school, but the conversation soon turned toward getting to know one
another better, and I felt myself pulling back even though I wanted nothing
more than to have Alex know me.

"So, have you always
been single?" she asked before sipping her beer.

"Not always," I
said shaking my head. "Just for a really long time. Too long."

"Why is that?" she
asked tipping her head sideways so that her long hair fell across one side of
her chest. She looked like a Nordic painting. I swallowed hard and tried to
answer her question.

"I've just been really
involved in my career," I replied side-stepping the reality.

"So, have you ever had a
girlfriend?" she continued. I could feel the heat rising under my shirt
collar as my desire collided with the guilt I felt being so attracted to her.

"Sure, I've had
girlfriends," I said. "Nothing worked out."

"Is that because you
leave your wet towels on the bathroom floor or because you leave the toilet seat
up?" she asked as a hint of smile played at the edges of her lips. It made
me want to kiss her even more.

"You want the
truth?" I sighed as I gave up the ghost and decided that maybe, just
maybe, Alex Pierce was the woman I could tell this story to and not have her
look at me with pity.

"No, just lie to me.
It's so much healthier," she deadpanned. For a moment, I was confused, and
then I saw the smile on her face and a chuckled.

"Fine, but just remember
that you asked for it," I said shaking a finger at her.

"I'll do that," she
said wagging her finger back at me with a smile.

"Ten years ago my
fiancée died in a fire," I said quickly ripping the band-aid off the
conversation. "I was new to the fire squad, and I wasn't there."

"I'm so sorry,
Cam," Alex said quietly as she reached out and laid her hand on top of
mine. There was kindness in the gesture, so I didn't pull away. "It must
have been awful for you."

"It was pretty
terrible," I nodded as I debated whether or not to tell her the whole
story.

"How did it happen? The
fire I mean?" she asked sparing me the decision. "I mean, if you want
to talk about it. I don't mean to pry."

"No, no, it's
just..." I began as I looked across the table into her soft blue eyes.

"Just what?"

"It's just that you're
the first woman who's asked that question and not made me feel like an object
of pity," I admitted. "It's just weird."

"I don't see how anyone
could pity you," she replied as the server set down our food and asked if
we needed anything else. Alex smiled at him and said, "No, I think we're
fine for now, thank you," before turning back to me.

"You'd be surprised at
how much pity a dead fiancée can garner," I said grimly as I cut into my
steak.

"Well, I'm not going to
pity you," she said as she picked up her fork and dug into the smoked
trout on her plate. "So, you can either tell me what happened or we can
change the subject and talk about something else. Either way, I'm fine with
it."

In that moment, I made the
decision to open up, and once I started spilling the story, I couldn't stop. I
told Alex how Quinn and I had bought the house three months before the fire. It
was a foreclosure that had been on the market for three years and was in
desperate need of an overhaul, and that was the only reason we'd been able to
afford it. We lived in the bottom half of the house while I spent my days off
from my training with the CFD renovating the upper half. Over the weekend, I'd
finished the master bedroom and what would eventually be the nursery while
Quinn studied for her nursing exam downstairs in the kitchen.

Every so often, she'd bring
me a sandwich or a cold drink and comment favorably on the progress. Her
parents had been furious about us moving in together before we were married and
it had been hard for her to reject her South Side Catholic roots to follow her
heart. We had decided that we'd finish the house before she graduated from
nursing school and that we'd plan our wedding for the August after she got her
license. I picked up extra shifts to make sure that she could focus on school
and not have to work full time, but she somehow managed to take a full load of
classes and work nearly full time in the blood lab over in the basement of the
hospital. When I objected, she said that it was the perfect job because when
things were quiet she could study.

"She was a nursing
student, too," Alex observed as she continued eating. "Is that weird
for you?"

"No, actually there's
something kind of comforting in being around the hospital all the time," I
admitted. "Is that weird for you?"

"No, actually it's
pretty understandable," she smiled. "I mean it's not like you're
trying to replace her or something."

"No, not at all," I
said shaking my head.

"What happened?"
Alex asked. I hesitated because the memory was so overwhelming that I tended to
keep it bottle up tightly, but the look in Alex's soft blue eyes made me feel
like letting go.

"She was volunteering at
a South Side women's clinic," I said. "And someone with a grudge
against things they knew nothing about threw a Molotov cocktail through the
front window, and then three more right after it. The same people had blocked
the back exits, so there was no escape once the front area was on fire. Quinn
and the staff tried to get the patients into rooms where they could block off
the smoke and wait for the fire department, but the records room and lab both
caught fire and it brought the roof down before firefighters could get to
them."

"Were you there?"
she asked quietly.

"No, I was in training
then," I said looking at my plate. "But we heard the call go out on
the radio and I knew it was Quinn's clinic. One of the Battalion Chief's came
and got me out of class and drove me to the hospital. They wouldn't let me go
to the site. Quinn was still breathing, but they had her on a ventilator
because she'd inhaled so much smoke. I sat with her for two days before they
told her family that there was no hope and let them make the choice to
disconnect the machines."

"That must have been
horrible," Alex said. "How did you survive that decision?"

"I knew it was the right
thing to do," I said sadly. "I knew that letting her go was better
than keeping her in a state of limbo forever, but I didn't want to let her go.
I think that was the worst day of my life."

"I can only
imagine," Alex said. "I'm so sorry you and Quinn had to go through
that."

I looked up at Alex as she
spoke. It was the first time anyone had ever included Quinn's name in that
statement. Everyone had always said they were sorry for me, for Quinn's family,
for her patients, but no one had ever sad how sorry they were that she had to
go through it, too.

"Thank you, Alex,"
I said holding her gaze for a few seconds before looking away and saying,
"Sorry, I'm dominating the conversation with my sad tale, aren't I?"

"No, I mean, yes, but
it's perfectly okay," she replied. "I was just thinking about how
interesting it is that we all have our stories and that you never know a
person's story just by looking at them."

I nodded as I watched her
trace a circle around the bottom of her wine glass with the tip of her finger.
There was something very comforting about the motion, but the movement of her
finger was also incredibly sensual. I could feel myself responding to the idea
of her touch.

"What about you? What's
your story?" I asked as I looked up from her finger and caught her staring
at me.

"My story isn't very
interesting," she laughed. "Just the usual: parents who didn't really
like each other, but stayed married for the sake of the kids. Teenage
heartbreak, from which I actually did recover, despite feeling like I never
would. Failing out of college my first semester. You know, the usual."

"I can't imagine what
idiot would have ever broken your heart," I said. "But I'm kind of
glad he did."

"Eh, he was a jock with
a chip on his shoulder and I was to easily impressed by his cute smile,"
she laughed. "Teenagers are stupid sometimes."

As she said that, I sensed a
slight shift in the tone of conversation before she laughed again and turned to
look for the server.

"Should we get the check
and go walk around a little?" she asked changing the topic and indicating
that any further questions were off-limits for now.

We pulled on our coats and
went out on to the street where a light snow was falling making the city look
clean and fresh. Alex took my arm as we walked down the street toward my truck
and chatted about work and the way in which all of the residents were
completely worn out by the shifts they were required to work. She talked about
her classes and her exams, and as we waited for the light to change, I looked
down at her and smiled at the snow blanketing her hair. I reached out to brush it
away, but instead leaded forward and kissed her.

Her lips were cold but soft,
and I felt the familiar rush of blood as she reached up and rested her mittened
hands on my cheeks. I wrapped my arms around her and lifted her off the ground
as passing cars honked their approval. Alex started laughing as I lowered her
to the ground.

"I think we should take
this show out of the public view, don't you agree, Mr. Connor?" she
grinned.

"Where to?" I asked
as I nodded in agreement.

"Well, it's either your
place or mine," she shrugged and then added, "Where do you live,
anyway?"

I debated about what to tell
her, since I still lived in the house that Quinn and I had bought. I'd done all
of the remodeling myself in the years after the fire and now it looked like something
completely different than what it had back when we'd stared the overhaul.

"Over toward the West Side,"
I said avoiding the issue altogether. If she continued to be a part of my life,
I'd take her there and tell her about it, but right now I didn't feel like
having to explain CSC on top of everything else.

"Well, then my place is
closer!" she said as she reached down and scooped up a handful of snow and
tossed it at me. The light flakes broke apart in mid air and showered us both
with a dusting of snow making Alex laugh again.

Back at her place, we picked
up where we'd left off almost as soon as we'd shed our coats. The feeling of
Alex's body pressed against mine was almost more than I could bear as I cupped
her round bottom with both hands and kissed her harder and deeper. I could feel
her fingers running through my hair as she parted her lips and pushed her
tongue into my mouth. The intensity of our kiss made my pulse race, and
suddenly I felt light headed.

"Alex," I groaned
into her lips as she ran her hands down my chest.

"Mmm hmmm," she
hummed as she took my bottom lip between her teeth and lightly bit it. Anything
I was going to say flew out of my brain as her hands continued their downward
descent.

I found the hem of her dress
and quickly pulled it over her head, inhaling sharply as I saw that she was
wearing a black lace bra and panties. With her blonde hair falling down over
her shoulders, she looked like a fantasy. I yanked off my shirt and pulled her
against me, but she pushed me back as she looked up with a wicked grin on her
face and unzipped my jeans.