The Tycoon’s Secret(65)

“You don’t need to go there and upset her all over again. I swear if you hurt her again, you’ll have to deal with me!” Bree threatened.

Damien looked at the petite girl before him, not standing more than a couple inches over five feet, weighing less than half of him, and he realized she actually thought she could harm him. The thought was so absurd it made him smile, which was apparently the wrong move on his part. He jumped when the heel of her shoe slammed down on his foot.

“Damn!” he shouted as his toe began to throb. She knew how to aim those things. He glared down at her.

“Do not laugh at me, Damien Whitfield. You may think that me and my family are horrible people, but we love each other more than you could ever comprehend. I consider Sierra my family, and I swear I can take you out if you so much as make one more of her tears fall,” she roared.

Damien almost staggered again as the realization hit him that he liked her, he actually liked this woman he’d thought of as his enemy for so many years. He fought the warm feelings building inside toward her, but he couldn’t stop it.

“Let’s go,” he said, his voice gruff.

“What?” It was Bree’s turn to be confused.

“You obviously aren’t going to tell me where she’s located, so you’ll just have to drive me there,” he commanded as he locked his door and swiftly walked down the stone steps. He eyed her small convertible with suspicion as he glanced at the open roof and the grey sky.

Oh well, nothing like living on the edge, he thought as he maneuvered his large body into the small passenger seat. He suddenly had sympathy for sardines.

“I didn’t invite you in my car,” she said as she eyed him with suspicion.

“Well, too bad. You’ll just have to deal with it because I’m going to see Sierra.” He crossed his arms as he waited for her to make her decision.

With a roll of her eyes she finally climbed in, then gave him an evil smile before she threw the car into gear and pealed out of his driveway.

Damien grabbed the door handle, thinking he may have been a bit too rash in his decision to ride with the woman. She was obviously insane. He tried to yell for her to slow down, but as their speed picked up and she wove around traffic on the busy Seattle freeway, his words were carried away by the self-made wind.

He said a prayer for the first time in his life.

They arrived at the hospital and Damien really hoped his legs would hold him up. He hadn’t been that frightened since he was a young boy. As he touched solid ground again, he looked over at Bree with her ridiculous Cheshire grin. His respect went up another notch, dang it.

“Just remember, Whitfield, you’ve been warned,” were her parting words before she preceded him into the hospital.

Damien had no trouble keeping up with her as she moved through the hallways of the vast hospital. She stopped in front of a closed door, sent him a final warning with her eyes, then slowly turned the knob and walked inside.

Damien was stunned silent by the sight of Sierra. There were wires coming from seemingly everywhere, and a machine next to her with consistent monitoring beeps coming from it. Her face. Her poor face. Her right eye was bruised and swollen, and a scrape ran across her chin. The rest of her body was covered, but he almost didn’t want to know what it looked like.

“Her leg was broken, and she has two cracked ribs. The leg happened on the stairs. To the paramedics who came, it looked like the bruise on her side indicated someone had kicked her – hard.”

“I’m going to kill him,” Damien said, his voice quiet, but deadly truth lying behind his words.

“Not something a man who doesn’t care would do,” Bree taunted him.

He glared at her before moving to Sierra’s bed. It was his fault. He knew Douglas was a horrible man and he was under no disillusions that parents were always perfect. Though his mother had beaten him regularly, it was never to this severity. Looking at Sierra, he thought he’d had it pretty good.

Before he knew what he was doing, he lifted his hand and gently brushed her hair back. Her eyes fluttered as they slowly came open.

She looked at him with a sweet smile as if they were waking up on any ordinary day.

“Morning,” she mumbled, then flinched as she tried to move.

“Don’t move,” he warned.

Her eyes widened as she slightly shook her head, then looked around. Damien felt his heart clench as he watched the sweet smile disappear as reality set in. She looked back to him, and he saw her trying to mask her emotions, too weak to pull it off.

“What are you doing here?” she asked with a little hoarseness in her voice, while looking past him at Bree.