Seduced by the Baron (The Fairy Tales of New York Book 4) (22 page)

*

Faith wasn’t sure
what time it was when she woke with a full bladder. A stray foot had accidentally knocked the clock radio off the bedside table and out of the wall during a particularly ambitious position last night so there were no glowing luminous numbers to inform her. She glanced over at the window. No light broke around the edges of the thick Waldorf curtains.

So, it could be any time before dawn. But it must be close because they’d been awake for hours and she was pretty sure she’d been asleep a while as well.

Raf’s big warm body lay cocooned around hers, his arm draped heavily over her waist and she took a moment to savor it. Last night had been a marathon. A delicious, energetic smorgasbord of touch and taste.

It had been wonderful.

*

Another signal from
her brain about her painfully full bladder poked her again and Faith finally gave into its demands, gently lifting Raf’s arm and sliding out from under.

“Hey,” he protested all deep and sleepy, his hand reaching for her as she sat on the side of the bed. “Where are you going?” he asked, his eyelids heavy, trying to open and failing.

“Just the bathroom,” she whispered. “Won’t be long.”

She left the bed, smiling at Raf already sound asleep again. She was still smiling as she stepped over her coat to get into the bathroom.

It was going to be hard to bring this day down.

She spotted her bag on the floor as she exited the bathroom, scooping it up and fishing through it for her phone. At least it would tell her the time. She sat back on the edge of the mattress and waited for it to power up.

The first thing she noticed was it was five thirty, the second was the avalanche of missed calls and texts appearing before her eyes. Faith’s heart almost stopped as she saw the number twelve next to Ty’s name.

Ty had tried to call her a
dozen
times? Finn almost as many. Ty had probably never called her a dozen times in his entire life. There were several calls from Zel and Dawn and Mercy too.

Pop.

There were texts as well from everybody with nothing other than,
call urgently
in the body.

Fuck!
Faith’s pulse hammered so fast in her chest it actually ached as dread circled inside her.

Something had happened to Pop.

A sharp twist of fear pierced the dread. Good God almighty, if he’d died while she was in the Waldorf screwing Raf, she’d never forgive herself.

She had to get out of here.

Frantic now, she stood, a tear spilling down her face as the worst case scenario played out in her head while she plucked up her strewn clothes, throwing them on as she went.

She had to get to Pop.

She couldn’t look at Raf lying on his stomach sound asleep, the sheet covering his lower half, the golden tan of his back a stark contrast to the snowy white fabric. She couldn’t look at him and know that as something bad was happening to her father she’d been here with him. She couldn’t look at him as she shoved her feet into her shoes and her arms into her coat and hurried for the door.

And she couldn’t think about this shitty goodbye as she eased the heavy door open and shut it quietly behind her. All she could think about now was pop.

Please don’t let him be dead.

Scrubbing at more tears streaming down her face with one hand she tapped on Ty’s number with the other as she strode down the corridor.

“Faith,” he answered on the second ring. “Jesus…where have you been?”

Oh God
. “Is he dead?”

“No. He’s alive. He’s stable. He’s at Lutheran Medical Center.”

The sudden rush of relief almost brought Faith to her knees. She sobbed and stumbled but she refused to buckle, pushing herself to take the last steps to the elevator bank.

“I’m coming now.”

*

Faith felt ridiculous
walking into the hospital in her ball clothes. She might as well have a scarlet letter attached to her chest but ultimately none of that mattered as she hurried to the ICU. Everyone stood as she burst through the doors of the waiting room two minutes later. They were all there looking haggard and weary and a red-eyed Mercy, who was being comforted by Seb, looked like she’d been crying for hours.

“Faith,” Ty said, moving towards her and she was torn between wanting to yell at him and breaking down. She almost chose the latter when he pulled her into a hug but she blinked back her tears, slamming a door shut on those emotions.

If she succumbed she wouldn’t be any good to Pop.

“What happened?” she demanded, pulling out of his embrace.

“It was just after close. We were all cleaning up.”

She shook her head in disgust. “He should have been in bed.”

Ty shook his head. “You should have seen him, Faith. He was in such good spirits, you couldn’t wipe the smile off his face.”

“It’s true,” Zel said, moving in to hug her too. “He was laughing and telling jokes.”

“Someone should have
made
him go,” she insisted.

“Oh for God’s sake Faith,” Ronan snapped, pushing himself out of his chair. “Don’t come in here after you’ve been out playing
Cinderella
all night when you don’t have a freaking clue what went down.”

“Easy, Ronan,” Casey said gently, putting a hand on his brother’s shoulder.

Faith sucked in a breath. Ronan’s words stung but he looked terrible and he
was
right, she didn’t know what they’d been through. Although it had obviously been a harrowing experience if the haunted looks on their faces was anything to go by.

While she’d been spreading her legs at the Waldorf.

“I’m sorry,” she said, “I’m sorry.” She pressed her thumbs into her eyeballs. “Then what happened?”

“Casey had picked up his fiddle and was playing something for us and Pop kind of rubbed his chest and said he didn’t feel very well and then he just…crumpled into a heap.”

Faith shut her eyes. She couldn’t begin to imagine the level of panic everyone must have felt.

“He had a pulse and was breathing and the ambulance was there in under ten minutes but he crashed in the truck on the way to the hospital. They got him back and once they had him stabilized he went straight for an emergency angioplasty. The cardiologist is pleased with the result but he’s still on life support. They hope to get him off it later this morning.”

Faith could barely take it all in. This was exactly what they’d been through before. Exactly what the doctors had warned Pop would happen if he didn’t have the surgery.

Could his heart take it again? A nearby chair provided relief as she sank into it on suddenly wobbly legs.

“I called you as soon as they put him in the ambulance, Faith, I swear,” Ty said.

“I tried Raf a few times,” Mercy said. She left Seb’s side and sat in the chair next to hers, slinging her arm around Faith’s shoulder. “And then we tried the front desk at the Marriott to ring up to your room but they said it wasn’t answering.”

“We stayed at the Waldorf,” she said. It seemed like a million years ago now.

“You okay?” Finn asked.

“Not really,” she said, her voice as wobbly as her legs.

“This isn’t your fault, Faith.”

She nodded her head. Logically she knew Finn was right and of course he would be the one to say it. But emotionally there was a crap ton of guilt pushing down on her now. If she’d been there she might have been able to get him to go upstairs sooner. She knew his signs, his tells, when he was hiding how tired he was.

If she’d been there she’d have…
been there
. For him. For
it
. And for this…the horror her family had endured without her. Watching their father collapse. They’d all been there for Pop and where had she been? Enjoying herself. Thinking of herself on the most important day of the pub’s year.

While she was busy trying to reclaim her life she’d forgotten she’d taken on the job of looking after Pop. And now this had happened.

“He’s right, Faith,” Dawn said, putting her arm around Finn. “No one could have foreseen this.”

Tears welled in Faith’s eyes because she knew that wasn’t true. “
I
could have,” she said, looking up at her friend, pleading with her eyes, trying to make her see. Trying to make them all see. Her brothers hadn’t taken Pop’s health seriously enough. “This is what his doctors had been warning him would happen again if he didn’t get the operation. That it would put extra pressure on his heart.”

“Maybe he’ll have it now?” Casey said.

Faith nodded, trying to be positive in the face of a deep well of negativity that flowed inside her. She was fairly sure Pop would take it as a sign that his end was nearer and that he’d welcome it to be with his darling Kathleen again.

But that was all moot if he didn’t make it through this episode. She needed to see him. She needed to see him for herself.

Her phone rang and she knew it would be Raf even before she looked at it. She couldn’t talk to him. She couldn’t deal with anything else other than this right now. Her head – her heart – couldn’t cope with divided loyalties. She’d thought she could have both but clearly that wasn’t the case.

Pop
needed her attention now.

She hit the cancel button and stood. Early morning light pushed in through the large windows as dawn broke over Brooklyn. “I’m going to see him,” she announced.

“I’ll go with you,” Finn said.

Faith nodded, more tears threatening. She would pull her father through this through sheer force of will if needs be and she
would
convince him to have the surgery.

*

Faith had seen
her father like this before – a tube in his mouth, a machine breathing for him – but it still didn’t make it any easier. He’d looked old these last few years but he’d never looked…small. Surrounded by a host of complex medical machinery, he looked diminished in every way.

Faith was so frightened for him she couldn’t leave his side. Wouldn’t leave his side. It didn’t matter that they took him off the ventilator and he’d roused a little and they’d moved him to the cardiac care unit, as long as he was in danger, Faith wasn’t leaving his side.

They made a decision to not open Sully’s until they knew what was happening with Pop and Ty and Zel went and dealt with that, for which Faith was grateful. Zel also brought her back some jeans and a shirt and clean underwear and Faith used Pop’s bathroom to divest herself of all reminders of the ball and Raf and any fanciful dreams.