Page 18 of Alien Dragon's Bride

Chapter 10

Levx

The knot that had bunched up Levx’s shoulder blades for months lessened some as he printed out Megan’s contract. He was one step closer to fulfilling his father’s wishes so he could return to Renjer and fight his enemy. Now he needed to contact the hospital and pay her debt. His heart gave a hard thump at the thought of her caring for her father so much to have him in one of the best hospitals in the state. Clearly, as a waitress, she couldn’t afford it. How had she managed to get him admitted in the first place?

From what he knew of the prestigious medical center, she’d have had to come up with a down payment to even get in the door. What had she done or sold to do so?

Many of the women he dated either were gold-diggers or wanting prestige or status. Megan seemed to only want to help her father. Her refreshing company made him want to know more about her…spend time with her. What would she say if she knew she had this effect on him? Levx couldn’t stop his smile as he dialed the hospital’s number Megan had given him.

“Memorial Hospital, how may I direct your call?” a woman asked.

“Billing. I need to settle payment for a patient.” He glanced at the clock. Four thirty. Didn’t Megan say that she needed the only before five or six today?

The line clicked over. “You’d like to settle your account with us?” a man answered. “May I have the number on the bill?”

Levx read off the twelve digit number on the paper.

“And how much will you be paying?”

“All of it,” Levx stated.

The man let out a startled cough. “Excuse me? Did you say the entire balance due?”

“Yes.” He paused, his thumb stroking over Megan’s handwriting. There had been a tremble in her lips as she wrote out the information for him as well as a determination in her soft eyes. Levx could tell that she wasn’t used to asking for anything. “In fact, how long will the patient need to be in the hospital?”

He’d no idea what was wrong with Megan’s father and felt it would’ve been rude to ask her when he didn’t really know her. But now that he was paying her bill, he wanted to ensure she didn’t dread the hospital bills mounting up again. The thought of her stressed or anxious made his gut twist.

“Let me see.” A keyboard click-clacked over the line. “He’s waiting on a kidney transplant but it doesn’t look good. There are dozens more above him in the list.”

Levx leaned back against the wall next to the printer. “All right. Send me an invoice covering his stay with you all for the next year for my records but I can pay the full amount now.” That should be enough time for Levx to locate a dedicated donor for the man. “And how much do you need to put him at the top of the list for a kidney transplant?”

“I-I’m not sure, I’ll let you know if you’d provide contact information for us to get back in touch with you.”

Levx rattled off his work email address and gave the guy his credit card information. “Charge for the full stay and bumping him up on the donor list.”

“Well, it all comes down to the list, we put emergency patients at the top.”

Money here paid for all kinds of things. “And how much of a donation would I need to make to move my friend’s father up?”

After they negotiated a hefty price, Levx completed the transaction.

“Thank you for trusting us with your family’s care,” the man gushed out.

“No problem.” Levx clicked the end call button on his phone. Since Megan was a waitress, he doubted she had much money. From what he knew about her, she probably lived on scraps and put all the money she could into paying her dad’s hospital bills. Admiration for her grew and he entered a wire transfer into her bank account of twenty-thousand dollars over his cell phone that was over and above the hospital bill. Once she was pregnant, he’d pay her thirty thousand more and sixty thousand after the baby was born. He shivered. Still, a weird concept for a babe to be born and not hatched. Done, he pocketed his phone.

Now to get Megan to review and sign the papers. He grabbed the newly printed contract and hurried back to his office. But when he got there, it was empty.

Where did she go? His breaths lodged in his throat. Did she change her mind? Overhear him paying her debt and decided to bail? He shook his head, no, he didn’t believe that. Doubt still nagged at him though as he walked the empty hallway.

Feet away, the triples argument about who had won their latest game sounded through the walls. Then one of the boy’s voices rose above the others.

“Yes, dragons are real but we’re called Renjerians. Humans changed our names.” The boy’s voice faded out again.

Levx raced toward them. There was no one here, except Megan, that wouldn’t know Renjerians were dragons. What if she connected the pieces between seeing an actual dragon and his family’s company?

His heart hammered in his chest as he whipped around the corner. There sat Megan with a dinosaur mask on top of her head with all three trouble-makers around her in a semi-circle spilling all their secrets.

“Whoa, what’s going on here?” he asked, trying to keep his voice calm even though he wanted to yell at the kids. His hope was that she didn’t take their stories seriously but then there was the pesky problem of her seeing an actual dragon recently…him.

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