Page 44 of Nanny for My Billionaire

“Hey, Adam, what’s up? My brother been doing a good job out there for you?”

“Maybe a little too good, my friend,” I tell him. “He just took a bullet, I’m afraid. They’re prepping him for surgery right now. I just thought you’d want to know.”

“Holy shit!” he gasped. “Are you for real?”

“Unfortunately, yes. Don’t worry quite yet, though. Right now, his vitals appear to be stable, they’re just trying to do a bullet retrieval since the thing didn’t come out the back of him. They had him in ultrasound a bit ago trying to locate it. I haven’t heard the outcome yet. We’re still waiting on that result.”

“Is everyone else okay?” Elliot asks in a worried tone.

“Only one shot was fired,” I reassure him. “Another person in our party tore across the road and laid into the shooter. I guess he’s some kind of cop or spy or something. I’ll explain later. I assume you’re going to come out here?”

“I’ll be there as soon as possible,” Elliot agrees. “If he wakes up before I do get there, you let him know I’ll pulling for him, all right?”

“Sure, I’ll do that. We’ll just have to see how all of that goes.”

*****

I am the only one still at the hospital when Elliot finally gets there. I sent Sara and Megan back to my house to wait hours ago. My friend has a pilot on call, and they took his Gulfstream G280 from Colorado, where his primary office is set up. Fortunately, they beat out the impending snowstorm that would have left him grounded.

Now, though, the weather won’t be allowing him to return home anytime soon whether Kevin survives or not. I have offered to have him stay at my place, and he has agreed, but for now, neither of us has any notion of getting any sleep.

Not until we know if they’ve retrieved the bullet that is lodged just below Kevin’s left kidney. Which, as far as the doctor can tell, did not damage anything vital. That is a good sign. At least I think it is.

“Gentlemen, at last we’ve had success,” says the doctor as he steps into the room.

“You got it out?”

“We got out the bullet, and we managed to repair the flesh where the bullet passed through,” he clarifies. “Now, an injury like this one can cause some major pain to a patient, so we find it’s best to keep him heavily sedated for a few days to give the body a chance to heal more easily. So, you probably won’t be able to talk to him until after Christmas Day. You’ll be much better off if you just head on home, get some rest, enjoy whatever it is you do to celebrate, and we’ll see how Kevin is doing once the twenty-sixth rolls around. However, I can’t promise to wake him up even then. A whole lot will depend on him.”

“Come on, Elliot, we might as well take his advice,” I say to my friend, and he simply nods and falls into step as I head for the exit. We get into my truck and before I start the engine and begin to drive, I text Miss a message telling her that Kevin is stable and we’ll be home soon.

She texts me back that Margie, Megan and Sara are all there and all is well.

“So, your girl sounds pretty all right,” says Elliot in a sort of left-handed way. “That overhaul she did on the account I handed her to play with was total dynamite.”

“Yeah, she’s really something all right,” I agree, grinning. “Thanks for giving her a shot at it, by the way.”

“Do you think she could handle a bigger piece of the pie?” he asks cautiously. “I mean, I sure as hell wouldn’t hand her the whole thing, but she’s more than welcome to handle the dungeons.”

I smirk. “You mean, the part that’s mine anyway. I could see where you might think that would be ideal. I know you’ve got too many responsibilities these days to babysit my cut forever.”

Elliot gives me a wink. “Great, then, it’s a done deal. We can let her know as soon as we get there. And I can’t wait to finally meet your boys. And your sister.”

I snicker. “She sure wants to meet you. What the heck did you say to the girl?”

He laughs. “Uh, I don’t know. Hello?”

I grin wryly. “Hmmph. I guess your reputation must precede you. You don’t need to be worried if you do like her. She’s no gold-digger.”

Elliot nods. “Yeah? I didn’t think so. She sounds like a sweet lady. And you wouldn’t mind? I wouldn’t want to step on your toes.”

I shake my head. “If you want to date my little sister, I’ll give you the same speech as anyone else. Hurt her, and you lose a testicle.”

Elliot grimaces and grins at the same time. “Ouch! But anyway, let’s try to concentrate on enjoying the holidays, and waiting for my brother to get better, shall we? We can save all the romance stuff for some other time.”

Chapter twenty-eight

Melissa

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