Page 59 of Suddenly Tempted
“What? No, that’s not right,” Devlin said. “I would have paid her fees. She should have been brought here with me.”
“We had no way of running that by you, Mr Storm,” the doctor said. “I’m sorry, but we have to follow protocol and the paperwork wasn’t signed.”
Devlin cursed himself for passing out in the helicopter. How could he have been so stupid? Now Darcy was in a different hospital, in a different town. What on earth would she think of him? He glanced at his watch, which sat on the bedside table. It was almost noon — he’d been out for hours. He lifted his sheet and sat up, ready to climb out of bed, but the doctor held up his hand.
“Please, Mr Storm,” he said. “Just give yourself some time. Your body has been through a gruelling experience, and you need to rest.”
“I need to find Darcy,” he argued, feeling his head lighten at the shift in movement. “Where is she? Which hospital?”
“Please sit back, Mr Storm,” said the doctor. “I’ll find out where Miss Wainwright is and let you know. You should have asked your fiancé before she left.”
“Myfiancé?” Devlin asked, bursting into a humourless laugh. “Not even close. She’s my ex-girlfriend.Veryex. Why would she know?”
“Because she’s the one who refused to sign the paperwork allowing Miss Wainwright to accompany you for medical treatment,” the doctor said. “She said that you wouldn’t have wanted her here.”
Devlin’s fury was volcanic. He wanted to rage from the rooftops, but his spinning head was stopping him. Besides, the poor doctor didn’t deserve it, though he must have seen it in Devlin’s eyes because he took a step back.
“Please don’t worry, all Swiss hospitals are world class. She will be in good hands.” The doctor looked stoic.
“Just find out where she is,” Devlin said, his voice low and powerful. “And get me a phone. Please.”
“Mr Storm, you need to rest,” the doctor urged again.
“I don’t need to rest,” he said. “I need to know that she’s okay. I need her to know I’m okay. It’s been over five hours — she’ll be worried sick.”
The doctor sighed, looking at the floor.
“What?” asked Devlin.
“It hasn’t been five hours,” he said. “You were badly injured, you had hypothermia, you were suffering from extreme exhaustion and a fever. I’m not sure you realise just how ill you are.”
“How long?” Devlin asked, leaning forward in the bed. “How long has it been?”
“I’m sorry,” the doctor replied, looking up at Devlin. “You’ve been out for two whole days.”
Chapter 31
DARCY
“Anything?”
Darcy looked over at Penny, whose nose was practically pushed up against her computer monitor. The lobby of the Royal Alpine was eerily quiet, its usual energy sapped after the ball. Most of the guests had flown out, their luxurious stays cut short after the excitement had died down.
According to Penny, half a dozen of them had stayed on to join the search for Devlin and Darcy — including Blake Fielding and Jackson Brodie — but even they had now departed since they had been found safe and well. The lobby, usually bustling with guests in chic winter gear, felt like a hollow shell, echoing with a silence that was pressing on Darcy from all angles, not least her phone which she was checking every few minutes for a message from Devlin. He might not have taken her number, but he was Devlin Storm and if he wanted it, he could have found it.
The whole resort was oddly quiet, so quiet that manager Abigail Lamb had told Darcy not to come back for a day or two. But the truth was that the silence at home was even worse, so she’d dragged herself to work that morning, hoping for a semblance of normalcy.
“Nothing,” Penny said, flatly. “Just the same official message from Claudia Romano.”
“I don’t believe it,” said Darcy, feeling her heart freeze over again. “I don’t understand.”
The last forty-eight hours had been nothing short of a nightmare — worse than crashing in the mountains. Way worse. After being flown to the base camp, Darcy had been transported by ambulance to the nearest hospital. It had all been a blur — the white lights overhead, the cool, efficiency of the doctors and nurses as they had poked and prodded her. Their conclusion had been a relief, pronouncing her surprisingly healthy if a little dehydrated. They’d kept her in for that first night anyway, just to be sure. Sleep had been elusive, and the sterile smell of the ward had done nothing to soothe her nerves. All she wanted to know was where Devlin was and how he was doing. But when she’d asked the hospital staff to contact the clinic where he was being treated, they had refused. She’d pleaded with them, begged them, but to no avail. Celebrity privacy was taken very seriously here, it would seem.
No matter how much she told them Devlin wouldn’t mind, they still refused. And the longer the silence went on, the more Darcy wondered if Devlin would, in fact, mind.
The drive back to her apartment had felt endless as she clung to the hope that there would be something waiting for her when she got there. A message, a phone call, something to let her know if he was alive or not. But there was nothing. It felt worse than anything she’d ever endured, worse than the days when she’d nearly died in the helicopter crash and then endured in the freezing cold snow.
At least, that’s what she had thought until she’d flicked on the TV.
