Of course she did. Agatha Thornwood is like Stronghold itself. Immovable.
"Thank you, Mrs. Fairweather. I'll be on my way now."
"Demetrius?" The old woman sounds close to tears. "Will you keep me in the loop about your grandmother's health?"
"Of course, I will."
She hangs up. I press the intercom.
"Gertrude."
"Sir?"
"Ready the jet now and clear my afternoon." I think better of it a second later. "Clear tomorrow as well. Heck, clear my entire week. My grandmother is in an ambulance on the way to a hospital. Push the Rotterdam meeting to Patel. Don't let anyone bother me before I give you the green light."
"Yes, sir."
I get up and pick up my coat. No business deal, large or small, is as important to me as Agatha Thornwood.
Chapter Three
Maddie
Ineedthisjob.No, I want this job.
Probably. Maybe.
I know I should want this job, and in my situation, that's good enough. I know I nailed the interview. Well, the secondinterview, to be precise. The way the head nurse smiled at me when she shook my hand and told me they would be in touch shortly pretty much sealed the deal.
And I'm equal parts thrilled to go back to nursing and terrified that I won't be able to make it. The commute alone is enough to make my brain melt.
It will be a 2.5-hour drive to and from Portland in a car that already has opinions about its need for a timing belt replacement. My life will be officially over.
Ugh. Shit.
I sound like a brat, even to myself. I know why I'm doing this, and that's all that matters.
The bank will take my parents' house over my overly tired, cold body.
Whatever it takes.
Which is, apparently, the Down East Highway and a thermos full of the darkest, strongest coffee ever brewed by mankind. Or orc-kind, because Mom made it for me before I even dragged myself out of bed this morning.
She's awesome like that.
The elevator dings in the lobby of Elven Mercy and I step in. Two nurses are already inside, mid-conversation and completely absorbed in it. One is a troll, tall enough to take up most of the back wall, with pale blue skin and long black hair braided back in neat cornrows. The other is a pixie perched on the rail beside her, orange wings half-folded against her back, an absolutely alarming amount of curly orange hair doing whatever it wants around her face.
"...corner suite," the pixie is saying. "The room is absolutely smothered in flowers. You'd think she's hosting a florist conference or something."
"Marcie told me her grandson is actually coming in for a visit." The troll raises an eyebrow. "Imagine that?"
"That's what I heard." The pixie giggles. "If the famous Demetrius Thornwood actually walks through those doors to visit his grandmother, I will one hundred percent have a heart attack!"
My brain snags on the name and I whip around to face them.
"Sorry." I turn to them. "Are you talking about the minotaur, Demetrius Thornwood?"
The pixie locks gaze with me and shakes her head up and down with the kind of enthusiasm that borders on mania.
