CHERISH (The Billionaire's Rules, Book 12)

CHERISH
(The Billionaire’s Rules, Book 12)

By Kelly Favor

© 2015 All Rights Reserved

The
patient is crashing.

That’s what the nurse had said when she’d
come to get Cullen.

Crashing
—just the sound of that word made
Ivy shake inside, made her stomach tighten, her breath choke in her throat.

Becca Woodhouse needed to survive this
operation.

Everything depended on this surgery being
a success.
 
But from the look that
had been on the nurse’s face as she came to get Cullen from the hospital
waiting room, Ivy thought that the chances of Becca surviving were slim at
best.

Cullen
always told you that.
 
He didn’t
want to perform this surgery, but you struck a deal without asking him.
 
You forced him into this position, even
after he tried to bring in Xavier Montrose to take over.

It had been about half an hour since
Cullen ran out of the room to try and save his distressed patient, and now Ivy
was sitting across the room, head in her hands.

Occasionally, she could hear the sobs and
whispers of Peg Woodhouse and her father.
 
They’d been sitting near her, but after the latest development, they’d
moved to the far corner of the room.

It was as if they associated her with the
worsening situation, as if she was to blame.

And
don’t they have a point?

Ivy closed her eyes and tried to calm her
frayed nerves.
 
It was awful to have
your heart racing and stomach twisting and turning, minute after minute, hour
after hour—an unrelenting deluge of fear.

 
I should call Mom.
 
She would tell me it’s okay.

Just the thought of her mother caused
another spike of anxiety.
 
She
couldn’t just call her mother anymore, either.

Every lifeline had been cut and she was
sinking in the ocean, drowning.
 
She
felt as alone as she’d ever felt in her entire existence.

Suddenly, a man entered the waiting
area.
 
Ivy looked up to see the most
unwelcome face yet, as Lucas strode into the room.
 
The moment he spotted her sitting there,
a snakelike grin crept over his features.

“There you are,” Lucas said loudly.

Ivy wanted to get up and run, but she
knew he’d simply follow her.
 
“Leave
me alone,” she told him.
 

“Relax,” he said, and then he took a seat
right next to her.

Ivy rose to her feet.
 
“Don’t get in my space, Lucas.”

“Sit down,” he told her.
 
“I’m not going to hurt you.
 
In fact, this may be the last time we
ever see one another.”

She looked at him warily.
 
“Why are you so chipper?” she said.
 

“Sit,” he said, patting the chair.
 
“Come on, Ivy.
 
I have great news.”

“You’re an asshole, Lucas.
 
Whatever your news is, it won’t ever
change that fact.”

“Maybe not,” he smiled.
 
“Or if you like, I’ll broadcast your
embarrassing personal business to the entire room.”
 
His voice grew louder.
 
“It’s fine with me, Ivy.
 
I’m not the one who’s married into a
family of criminals.”

She looked over and saw Peg and her
father staring in their direction with confused expressions that were turning
quickly to disdain.

“Be quiet,” Ivy whispered at Lucas, and
then took the seat next to him.
 
“If
you be quiet, I’ll listen to whatever you have to say to me.”

“Good girl.”

Her skin was crawling from being so close
to the man.
 
“Okay, I’m
waiting.”
 
She folded her arms.

Lucas grinned widely, clearly enjoying the
effect he was having on her.
 
“I
just wanted you to be the first to know, Ivy.
 
We got him.”

She stared uncomprehendingly.
 
“Huh?”

“We got him,” he repeated,
chuckling.
 
“So, aren’t you going to
even congratulate me on a job well done?
 
I’ll probably be getting a promotion, a raise—shit, I might even
get a commendation.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Preston Sharpe,” Lucas whispered, his
coffee breath hot against her face.

Ivy’s stomach dropped and she felt
numb.
 
“What about him?” she said.

“We caught him trying to board a private
plane in Rhode Island.”
 
Lucas
laughed.
 
“The guy was really
shocked that it came to an end so quick and easy.
 
After all that running and plotting and
scheming, we took him down and he was as meek as a lamb.”

“Is he hurt?” she asked, thinking of
Cullen, and how devastated he was going to be.

“Like I said, the guy was a total softie
when we took him into custody.”
 
Lucas shook his head and laughed again.
 
“To be honest, I expected more of a
fight.
 
I was preparing for bullets
whizzing by my head and all that good stuff.
 
But, no.
 
Preston Sharpe surrendered.
 
And he’s already giving up his friends
and leading us to all the money and data.
 
As we speak, cybercriminals and hackers around the world are being
rounded up and arrested.
 
We just
broke it wide open.
 
And I suppose I
should thank you for the part you played,” Lucas said.

“Whatever,” Ivy mumbled.
 
She made direct eye contact with
him.
 
“Now you’ve gotten your chance
to gloat.
 
Feel better?”

“Actually, I do,” he said, straightening
his tie.
 
He sat forward as if to
get out of his seat, but then he turned and looked at her once more.
 
“You know, if I didn’t hate you so
fucking much, I wouldn’t have worked nearly as hard on breaking this case as I
did.”

She shook her head.
 
“That’s just pathetic on so many levels,
Lucas.”

“I thought the least I could do was thank
you for your help in motivating me.”
 
He finally stood up, smoothing his blazer.
 
“God, I hate hospitals.
 
They smell of desperation.”
 
Then he turned and looked at her one
last time.
 
“Oh, damn.
 
That’s you I’m smelling.”
 

Ivy turned away from him and stared out
the window.
 
She wouldn’t give him
the satisfaction of seeing how much his news had hurt.

Lucas walked out of the room.
 
She could hear his footfalls and then
the door opening and squeaking shut.

When she knew he was gone, Ivy let out a
shaky, furious breath.
 
She was so
hurt and scared and angry.
 

Everything was falling apart now.

It was possible that in the very near
future, Cullen and his father would both be in prison and Ivy would be left
completely alone, no family, few friends, and a life in tatters.

 
Don’t
give up hope.
 
Don’t let Lucas
win.
 
This is exactly why he showed
up here.

He
wanted to make you sad and defeated.
 
Don’t let him win.

But she couldn’t help it.

It seemed like the Lucas’s of the world
were winning and she was losing.
 
She was losing everything she held dear.

The next few hours passed by slowly, and
each minute felt like a lifetime.
 
She
could hardly focus.

It was a kind of limbo.
 
The hospital waiting room was white and
sterile and hardly anything changed from one moment to the next.
 
What remained constant were the feelings
of fear and helplessness and despair.

She prayed, but it felt like there was
nobody listening.

And then time speeded up again as Cullen
came back into the waiting room, walking straight towards Peg and her father.

“Becca’s out of surgery,” he said.
 

The older man was trembling as one hand
reached out as if to grab Cullen.
  
“Is she going to live?” he said, his tone pleading, as if Cullen was the
one who could simply decide whether the patient lived or died.
 
As if Cullen wasn’t at the mercy of god
or nature or the laws of the universe just like everyone else—like he was
the judge, jury and executioner.

“Becca came through marvelously,” Cullen
told him.

Peg gave a shriek of relief and began
sobbing, face in her hands, sounding almost like an animal.

“Oh, God, thank you.
 
Thank you, Dr. Sharpe,” Mr. Woodhouse
said, his hands clutching his daughter now.
 
Tears streamed down his cheeks.
 

“I need to caution you,” Cullen
said.
 
“She’s been through a lot and
she’s still considered to be in critical condition.
 
There could still be complications and
we need to monitor her very closely over the next couple of days to make sure
she’s continuing to improve.”

Ivy stood up and walked across the
waiting room, wanting to be nearer to Cullen.
 
Her heart was soaring, but she was also
thinking about the fact that Cullen needed to be told about his father’s
arrest.

When she approached, Cullen turned and
gave her a smile and a wink, before turning back to Peg and her father.

“Dr. Sharpe, I knew you would do it,” Peg
sobbed.
 
Snot was pouring from her
nose and she wiped it away with a crumbled tissue.
 
“I knew…I knew that Becca would live if
you were the one who operated on her.”
 
And then there was another round of sobbing.

“Thank you for your confidence and
encouragement,” Cullen said.
 
“I’m
just glad that Becca fought through the surgery.
 
She’s clearly strong, with lots of love
and support from her family.”

Mr. Woodhouse rose to his feet and then
threw his arms around Cullen.
 
“I
owe you my life,” he said.
 
“You are
like family to me now,” he said.
 
His voice was choked with emotion.

Cullen stepped back.
 
“I was only doing my job, just as any
surgeon would have done.”

Ivy wiped her own tears from the corners
of her eyes.

Even though Cullen was being modest, she
could sense that he was absolutely jubilant and relieved now that the surgery
had been successful.
 
His spine was
straight, his shoulders square, his eyes brimming with confidence that she
hadn’t seen before.
 

It wasn’t just confidence, she realized,
watching him as he continued to give compassionately to this family that had
dragged him through the mud and put him through the ringer, forcing him
practically at gunpoint to operate on a sick girl.

But Cullen Sharpe had faced his demons
and conquered them.

And even after hours and hours of
intensive surgery, he was like a new man.
 
“Would you like to see Becca now?” Cullen asked them.

“Really?” Peg gasped.
 
“We can see her?”

“She’s conscious,” Cullen said, “so it
might be nice to have a very quick visit.
 
I don’t think we should stay more than a few minutes, because Becca
needs to rest and recover.
 
However,
I think it would be wonderful for her to see you both.”

Peg and Mr. Woodhouse were like a couple
of kids on Christmas morning.
 
They
were giddy and excited, laughing, their eyes showing with tears of joy.

Ivy felt their joy, but for slightly
different reasons.

Cullen had fulfilled his end of the
bargain, which meant that in all likelihood, the DA wasn’t going to pursue any
charges against him for negligence in Jillian’s death.
  

Nor should he have to defend
himself—Jillian died because she was ill and had an underlying condition
that nobody was aware of, not because Cullen was negligent.

They went back into the hospital hallway
and Cullen led them through to the critical care unit, and then brought Peg and
her father into the room to visit with Becca.
 

Ivy waited just outside in the hallway.
 
But she could hear the words of love and
encouragement that Peg and Mr. Woodhouse said to Becca, and it brought more
tears to Ivy’s eyes.