Married by Midnight (The BAD BOY BILLIONAIRES Series, #12) (21 page)

“I...think so.”  Still looking dazed Reed leaned forward then rolled over onto his knees before staggering up onto his feet.

Immediately Golden went to him, jamming her shoulder up under his arm, taking as much of his weight as she could.  Together they stumbled into the cover of the trees, far enough that they would be in no danger from an exploding car, then they collapsed onto the sodden ground.

Golden eased out from under Reed’s shoulder then panting, she stared at him, her heart still thumping like a drum.  “You need help,” she gasped.  “We have to call an ambulance.  Where’s your phone?”

He groaned and pointed to his right pocket.  Golden dipped her hand in to feel for the phone but there was nothing there.  The other pocket, maybe?  She dug around there, too, but came out empty handed.  That could only mean one thing.  The phone was still in the car.

She sucked in her breath.  Did she dare go back?  She turned to look at Reed.  When she saw his pale face she knew she had no choice.  She had to get him to a hospital.

“I’ll be right back,” she said to him then turned to push through the leaves.

“No, wait.  Too...dangerous.”

Reed’s voice was weak, terribly so, which only served to strengthen Golden’s resolve.  She didn’t reply, simply ran out of their shelter into the pelting rain.  Wasting no time, she tore the car door open and piled in then she peered between the seats and fished around.  “Where are you, phone?”  There was no answer to her frustrated muttering, only the sound of the rapping of the rain on the roof.  Dropping to her knees she felt around under the driver’s seat and when her hand closed around something flat and smooth and rectangular she breathed a sigh of relief.  Finally.

Within seconds she was back at Reed’s side, dialing before she even settled on the ground beside him.  “I need an ambulance,” she said as soon as the operator came on the line.  “We’ve been in an accident.”

It took another two minutes to explain exactly where they were but then she got the reassurance that the location had been determined and an ambulance would be dispatched immediately.

She looked over at Reed but he had closed his eyes again and his breathing looked ragged.

The worry returning full force, Golden wrapped her arms around Reed’s shoulders and held him close.

“Just hang in there, honey,” she whispered into the watery darkness.  “It will soon be all right.”

Golden didn’t know which one needed the reassurance more, she or Reed.  But it didn’t really matter.  Right now all they could do was sit and wait.

“G
et me out of here,” Reed whispered fiercely.  “I don’t have time for this.”

“But the doctor said-”

“I don’t care what the doctor said,” he growled.  “They can run all the tests they want after we get the job done.”  He twisted around to peer at the machines to which he’d been hooked up.  “What time is it, anyway?”

Golden glanced down at his cell phone which was fast running out of charge.  “Eighteen minutes after eleven.”

“Christ.  Less than an hour to go.”  He sat up in the bed.  “Find my shoes.  Quick.  And where the hell are my clothes?”  He glanced down at the hospital gown covering his body, his tanned legs stretching out before him.

“I think they put them in a locker somewhere.”  Golden got up from her chair and laid a hand on his shoulder.  “It’s all right, Reed.  We did our best but it wasn’t meant to be.  Right now what’s important is you.  We have to make sure you’re okay.” 

“What?  Are you giving up that easy?”  He glared at her.  “Just get my shoes.  I’m leaving.”

“But you might have a concussion.”

“Yeah, yeah.”  He dismissed her even as he was pulling the strap off his arm, making the blood pressure machine start beeping.  He hopped off the bed.  “Let’s go before the damn nurses get here.”

“Wait for me.”  Golden just had time to grab his shoes from under the bed and then she was racing down the corridor after him.  She knew they looked like a crazy pair, he with his hospital gown flapping around his bare legs as he hurried down the hallway and she, struggling to keep up, one of his shoes clutched in each hand.  Thank God none of the nurses caught them on the way out.

But then they ran into a major obstacle.  They got to the emergency room exit with no car, no money and there wasn’t a taxi in sight.  And time was ticking away by the second.  Not to mention the nurses who would be after them in another couple of minutes.

“Come.”  Reed grabbed Golden’s arm and hurried her away from the sliding glass doors, down the ramp and off to a corner where they would not be noticed. “We’ve got to find a car...” And then his eyes homed in on an ambulance parked in the lot.  His face lit up.  “If the driver left the key inside-”

“Don’t even think it.”  Golden cut him off before he’d even finished the thought.  “Stealing a vehicle?  An ambulance?  Are you crazy?  They’d throw us in jail for that.”  Then she glanced back to the exit to see if they were being followed.  “We’re probably in a whole lot of trouble already, sneaking out of the hospital when we haven’t even been discharged.”

“Great!  Now we can get going.”

“Great?  I just said we’re probably in trouble and you say-” She never got the chance to finish the sentence.  He was dragging her off again and when she whirled to see where he was heading she saw a wonderful, glorious sight.  A taxi had just pulled up to the curb.  They were saved.

“Top of Brompton Road,” Reed said, bundling Golden into the back seat and piling in after her.  “A thousand dollars if you get us there in under ten minutes.”

“Ten minutes?  Bleedin’ hell, guv.  D’ye think this is a bloody jet?”  The taxi driver’s voice was little better than a sneer.

“All right, fifteen minutes but a minute over that and you lose.”

The man gunned the gas pedal, slamming Reed and Golden back against the seat then with a screech of tires he shot off down the street, obviously determined to win the promised reward.

“Is that the judge’s home address?” Golden whispered.

“Yep.”

“But how do you know it?  Do they usually give clients that kind of information?”  Confused, she stared up into his face which was half hidden by the shadows.

“When you didn’t show up for the appointment I had a feeling we’d need his services after regular hours.  I did my research.”

“Online?”

“No, I made friends with his receptionist.”

Golden gasped.  “You didn’t. What did you do to make her give you her boss’s personal information?”

“Promised her a year’s supply of outfits, compliments of Davidoff Fashions.”

“Wow,” Golden whispered then she reached over and slipped her hand inside Reed’s.  “I guess that was too good for her to pass up.”  Then she smiled.  “I don’t admire what she did but I’m glad she did it.”

He leaned over to kiss her on the cheek. “Me, too.”

Within thirteen minutes the taxi was pulling up in front of the judge’s house.  “Wait here,” Reed told him as he flung the door open.  “We’ll need about twenty minutes.”

“Hey, pay up or else I’m coming in there with you.”

“No problem,” Reed yelled back as he took Golden’s hand and set off.  “I may need you as a witness.  We’re getting married.”

They bounded up the steps and as Reed rang the doorbell Golden could hear the chimes echoing through the house.  And then a thought hit her.  “My God, it’s almost midnight.  How can we wake the man in the middle of the night?  We should have called ahead.”

Reed grimaced.  “You’re right but it’s too late now.  I just hope he doesn’t fling us off his doorstep.”

“Or call the police,” she whispered, eyes wide as that thought entered her mind.

“Or call the police.”  Reed repeated her words with a sigh then he reached out and rang the bell again. And again.

“Who the hell is it, at this time of night?”  The judge’s voice came to them loud and clear and then the curtains by the window were drawn back and he was peering out.  When he saw the straggly group on his porch - a rain soaked woman, a man with hospital gown stuck to his body and a taxi driver with a look of bewilderment on his face – he frowned.  Then he shook his head and Golden could see he was making a clucking sound with his tongue.

Suddenly the entrance light was flipped on and the front door opened.  “Come in, come in,” he said, his voice half sleepy, half grumpy.  “I hope you know I only opened this door because I recognized you, Mr. Davidoff.”

“I appreciate it, sir.”  Reed grabbed his hand and shook it vigorously.  “Sorry I had to disturb you in the middle of the night but due to the stipulations of a will we have to be married before midnight.  Can you do this for us?”

“When I saw you on my doorstep,” the judge said, shaking his head again, “I guessed as much.  I’ve had experience with some of the strangest wills ever written.”  He glanced over at the taxi driver.  “So this is your witness?”

Reed nodded.  “One of.  We’ll need one more, I think.  Do you mind...?”

“I’ll get my wife.  She’s already up anyway.  With all that bell ringing you just did I’m surprised the children aren’t up, too.”  Then he gave a snort.  “Teenagers.  They’re like bloody logs.  God help me if I fall ill in the middle of the night and need their help.”  Then he jerked his head toward an open door.  “Go wait in the sitting room.  I’ll be right back.”

“Quick, please,” Golden couldn’t help interjecting.  “We’ve only got a few minutes before the deadline.”

“I’m well aware of that.  I will be right back.”  The judge didn’t seem too pleased at her attempt to hurry him along but at least he’d set off toward the stairway.  Still, Golden would not breathe easy until she’d said, “I do.”

In the sitting room Reed paced the floor while Golden perched on the edge of an armchair and their impromptu witness lounged on the leather couch.  The man pushed back his flat cap and looked at Reed then Golden then back to Reed.  His eyes narrowed.  “He called you Davidoff.  Any connection to Davidoff Fashions?”

Reed gave him a curt nod.  “The same.”

The man’s face broke into a toothy grin.  “I’m not among the common folk, that’s sure.”

Golden turned to glare at him.  Now that he knew who Reed was he was probably going to demand more money for his time.  A whole lot more.

To her surprise, the man simply settled back in his seat and said not another word.

“What time is it?”  Reed asked through gritted teeth.

She glanced at the cell phone.  “Eleven forty-eight.”

He balled his hands into fists.  “Where are they?”

Golden shook her head.  “We have a few more minutes.  We just have to be patient.”

Reed’s response was a frustrated snarl.

The sound of footsteps made Golden hop up from her seat.  She went to stand beside Reed just as the judge walked in with his sleepy-looking wife, her hair adorned with colorful rollers. 

“Now let’s get this party started.”  Judge Sandowski directed them to stand in front of him then he had his first witness stand to the right and his second to the left.  Then he glanced down at the paper in his hand.  “Full names, please.”  When they told him, he scribbled the information down then he looked up at his audience.

“Now, as we gather together to join this man and this woman in holy matrimony, is there anyone who objects?”  Ignoring his wife, he glared over his glasses at the taxi driver.  When the man gave a shrug and a bashful grin he continued.  “Are you, Reed Warren Davidoff, free lawfully to marry Golden Lily Browne?”

“I am.” Reed’s voice was bold and strong.

When the judge looked at Golden and asked her the corresponding question she replied proudly, “I am.”

Judge Sandowski nodded.  “By the powers vested in me I now pronounce you man and wife.  You may kiss the bride.”

With a relieved sigh Reed reached out and gathered Golden into his arms.  They were in the middle of their first kiss as a married couple when the taxi driver spoke.  “What time is it?”

It was the judge’s wife who responded.  “Eleven fifty-six.  They made it just in time.  Isn’t it romantic?”

After that, Golden did not hear another word.  She was too busy losing herself in the kiss she’d been awaiting all her life.  It was a kiss from her beloved husband, the kiss that had broken the evil spell.  Reed was her knight in shining armor who had rescued her from a most pitiful fate.

It was the fairy tale ending she’d dreamed of all her life.

G
olden could not believe she’d been married three whole months already.  Where had the time gone?

This morning she’d awoken to the day that would be the second most important of her life.  Of course, the day – or rather, the night – she’d married Reed would be first but today would be a close runner-up because it was the day she would walk down the aisle with Reed, in front of all their family and friends.  And with all the planning that had gone into this event, it would be like a royal wedding.

Reed’s brothers and his parents had flown in from the United States along with a ton of his friends from college days.  For Golden’s part she had few friends and even fewer relatives but those she had, she treasured and appreciated for coming out to support her on her special day.

Now as her mother helped her dress in her gown of white and gold she sighed.  “I’m so happy, mother.  Honestly, if I were any happier I would burst.”

Eugenia laughed as she bent to straighten Golden’s train one more time.  “I know what would make me happy.”  She looked up, her brown eyes twinkling.  “Grandbabies.”

“Oh, Mother.”  Golden laughed and held out her arms to give her a hug.  “Babies will come in good time.  Don’t worry.  You’ll soon have your hands full of them.”

“I can hardly wait.” 

Later, after exchanging wedding vows for the second time with her husband, Golden held Reed’s hand and turned to face the congregation.  There, beaming up at her was Claire, her very own fairy godmother who had outfitted her so richly for her first date.  Beside her was Marjorie smiling just as broadly as her mother.

At the very front sat her mother, tears glistening in her eyes but with a look of such happiness that Golden felt her eyes well up, too.