Bad Boy Billionaires 3 : The Vegas Shark(62)

Lyon glanced at Chickey again, and Chickey nodded. Lyon seemed to trust Chad, so he followed the stretcher to the ambulance and said, "You're going to be fine, buddy. I agree with Chad. You need to be checked out. If you need me later, call me. You know I'm here for you, bro." Before he stepped back, he turned to Chad, grabbed his arm, and said, "Don't fuck around with him. Seriously, man. This guy really is like a brother to me and he's been through a lot of shit today. I'll come looking for you."

Treston couldn't resist. "Whatever you say, don't mention you're like my brother. He'll want to sleep with you. He does that with brothers. Just ask the last guy he dated."

Chad didn't seem intimidated by Lyon or offended by Treston's remark. He actually smiled, as if he liked the way Lyon wanted to protect Treston, and said, "I wouldn't do anything to hurt him."

"But all my things are in the van," Treston said. "My entire life is in there. I can't just leave it." He wondered what more could happen to him. He never thought he would admit to himself being left naked at Lake Mead hadn't been the worst thing that had ever happened to him.

Chad glanced down at him as they lifted him into the back of the ambulance. The limo driver had given Chad a black jacket he'd been wearing to cover Chad's naked torso. "My driver will take care of everything. He'll have the van towed and emptied and he'll bring your things to my home for the time being. We'll figure it out later. Right now I want to know you're okay."

Without giving Treston much of a choice, they loaded him into the ambulance and shut the doors. From inside the ambulance, Treston saw Chad and Lyon talking about something that made them both look serious. Treston had a feeling Lyon was telling Chad about Cooper backing out of the wedding and Treston's heart sank to the bottom of his stomach. He would rather Chad had not known thiat Then Chad and Lyon took off somewhere together and the ambulance pulled away.



After Treston was examined by more than one doctor in the emergency room and had a few X-rays, they wheeled his bed into a small room in the emergency section that had been curtained off from the ceiling halfway to the floor. They'd cleaned up his wounds, had found nothing seriously wrong with him, and told him he would be discharged as soon as all the paperwork was ready. He figured he'd call Lyon or Chickey and they'd let him spend the night until he figured out what he was going to do next. Now, more than ever, the only thing he wanted to do was get out of Las Vegas and never look back again.




 

 

But he found Chad Pratt waiting for him in the tiny hospital room. Chad stood there in the black jacket his driver had given him, with part of his naked torso exposed, holding some kind of fake flower made out of felt. The fake flower stood up from a brown felt pot about a foot tall, with bright yellow petals, a vivid green stem, and a bold red center. Though Treston knew little about flowers, he figured it was a sunflower. Then Chad lifted the flower higher with both hands and pushed a button at the back of the brown felt pot. The moment the song You Are My Sunshine began to play the flower started to dance around in uneven circles.

Chad reached out with the flower in both hands and said, "I saw it in the gift shop while I was waiting for them to bring you back down. I figured you might like it. They didn't have many choices. It was either this, a stuffed rabbit, or a Sudoku puzzle book."

When Treston saw the helpless expression on Chad's face-as the ridiculous felt flower danced around to a tinny music box version of You Are My Sunshine-Treston looked up at the ceiling and started to laugh. He'd never mentioned anything about this song to Chad, and he'd never seen anything as dumb and adorable at the same time as the dancing flower.

"I heard you're going to be okay," Chad said. "The docs told me nothing's broken and you didn't even need stitches. Lyon drove me over here because they wouldn't let me ride in the ambulance. I've been here the whole time."

"I suppose Lyon told you about what happened with the wedding," Treston said. He glanced down at his lap and frowned.

"I'm sorry," Chad said. "I know how much you wanted everything to work out."

Treston flung him a look. "Are you really sorry?"

Chad hesitated for a moment. He turned off the music box and set the flower on a table beside the bed. Then he looked directly into Treston's eyes and said, "I'm sorry you were hurt. I'm sorry my driver slammed into you. I'm sorry that asshole left you naked at Lake Mead. I'm sorry for all the bad things guys have done to you all your life. But to be honest, I'm not sorry the park ranger backed out. There was something about him I never trusted, something kinky and weird. The man was a perv. I knew he'd never make you happy and I'm glad you didn't marry him. And if that makes me a horrible person, so be it."