Page 57 of The Billionaire and the Runaway

What. The. Fuck?

It can’t be. She’s Ariana Harlow. I mean, I know James Titan has a daughter. I’ve heard that somewhere, maybe from my friend Adam Wellington? But Ariana? No. There must be some other woman here.

“Sir. You’ll have to wait with everyone else,” the woman says, completely unphased. She motions to us.

“Do you know who I am?” James hisses, his face growing redder by the second.

The woman gives him a pointed look as if to say, “I don’t care if you are the ruler of the free world. Go sit down.”

“I’m on this hospital’s board. You will go find my daughter now if you like having a job,” he roars.

The woman gives him a deadpan look and turns, yelling, “Pauline, I have a…” She pauses and turns back to him, raising a single, well-sculpted eyebrow. And from the smirk on her face, I can tell she’s enjoying this moment.

“James Titan,” he says, his jaw clenching so much that I’m almost surprised he hasn’t crushed all of his teeth.

“James Titan here!” she yells back at a woman I can’t see because a door is blocking my view.

An older woman walks out and looks at James. “Sir, I need you to take a seat. I will personally go check on your daughter, but having you”—she looks behind him at what appear to be his bodyguards—“and your entourage back there are not going to help things. Our staff need to be undisturbed, so they can concentrate on providing her the very best care.”

She disappears before he can answer.

And then he’s walking toward me. His company has offered to buy my property, but I’ve never met the man nor spoken to him. I’ve been dealing with a real estate attorney on his staff who sends me endless letters and emails. However, the second he sees me, it’s very clear that he knows who I am.

I stand and he walks up to me. I’m not normally thankful for my height, but today I am. James Titan is not a small man, but I still tower over him by at least two inches.

He’s still a good-looking man for his age. And his suit tells me he likes to look powerful.

“What happened?” he asks without even introducing himself.

I sense Buck and Earl stand next to me. They are as old if not older than James, but I know both of them would kick his rich ass if he so much as touched a hair on my head. Hell, even Joy is standing alongside Kingsley. We must look a sight. All of us are covered in mud and dirt. I can only imagine what the other patrons of the emergency room think at this moment. We probably look like some sort of country folk standoff against the mob.

I take a deep breath, remembering that my family has billions also. That a billion dollars sits in my own trust fund. James Titan has nothing on me.

I hold out my hand to him. He stares at it and then back at me, making no attempt to shake it. “Are you going to tell me, or do I need to speak with the police?” he asks, his jaw flexing again. Jesus, this man is surly as fuck. I get he’s worried, but he could at least have manners.

“I’m Eric Windsor, sir. I take it Ariana is your daughter?” I ask the obvious question. As a million questions dance through my head, like, why did she lie to me about who she was?

“Yes. I hear she’s been slumming it at your little farm that I plan to purchase,” he says as he gives me a pointed look.

Now it’s my jaw that clenches. I decide to ignore his comment, if for nothing else, for Ariana’s sake. “Ariana is my social media marketing manager,” I state. “She decided to take our tractor out and misjudged a ditch. She flipped it and pinned her leg beneath it. The doctor just came out a bit ago and said she needed surgery. She has a broken femur and they have to repair an artery. She’s in surgery and they are supposed to send someone to get us soon so we can wait for her outside the surgical ward.”

His face starts to turn red again. “Why the hell was Ariana driving farm equipment? She can barely drive a car,” he says, his voice rising with each word.

“Sir, Ariana can drive a car, a manual car, and a tractor. She’s very competent. If she hadn’t been in a part of the farm where she’s never driven before, I’m confident she wouldn’t have flipped the tractor. It was an accident. It could have happened to any of us. It’s muddy out there.” I motion to my clothes. “We’ve had some rain recently.”

“Well, you can leave. She won’t be returning to your little country property where you play farmer. She has a position at my company,” he states. “Had I known what she was up to sooner, we would have come to collect her weeks ago.” I’m about to ask who “we” is, but then a woman who looks like she’s ready to attend a luncheon at a country club comes bustling into the ER as if she owns the place. Clearly, she’s with James Titan.

“Oh, good, you beat me here. How is she?” the woman asks. Her smile is tight and it’s almost as if it pains her to be here.

“Kimberly, she’s in surgery,” he says and for the first time I sense the smallest amount of concern in his voice.

“Oh dear. I do hope she’s alright. I just wish I had learned of this earlier so we could have avoided such a terrible accident,” she says as she glances at me with disgust. I already hate her, and she hasn’t even acknowledged me yet.

But before that can happen, a woman in scrubs walks out. “Mr. Titan?” she asks.

“Yes,” he replies as she steps toward her.

“I’m here to escort you to the surgery ward. Ariana’s surgery should be wrapping up soon. The doctor can debrief you shortly,” she says.

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