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Heavenly struggled free from their grasp and grabbed her phone. It fumbled in her shaking hands as she answered it. “Dad, what’s wrong? Are you all right?”
Dad? Beck looked at Seth, who shrugged. He didn’t like being in the dark, but at least his competition was clueless, too.
As she paced out of the kitchen, holding the phone in a white-knuckled grip, he and Seth followed, shamelessly listening to her every word. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of Liam watching. The Irish bastard with the uncanny perception gave them a nod. This was the trouble Liam had warned them about, the threat that might tear her out of his life forever.
Like hell.
He didn’t need Liam’s urging to stay close. Until he knew that she and her father were all right, he’d be no more than half a step off her ass. The determination on Seth’s face said he felt the same. Beck had mixed feelings about that, but he couldn’t focus on those when Heavenly needed them.
“Did you already call 911?” She paused. “Good. Yes. I’ll grab the first bus and meet you there.”
“Bus?” Beck whispered.
“She takes it everywhere,” Seth supplied under his breath.
The city bus? That filthy, urine-soaked, rapist-filled mode of transportation? Beck felt like he’d been punched in the solar plexus. How had he not known?
“Hang on, Dad. Please…” she sobbed, shoulders shaking. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
Fuck, she was ripping his heart out.
“Give me the phone. Let me talk to your dad. Medical condition?”
She turned to him, tears rolling down her face in watery paths. “H-he already hung up.”
Beck stifled a curse and pulled her close. It said a lot that she wrapped her arms around him without a qualm. In fact, she gripped him so tight he could barely breathe.
As he held her, he shared a glance of concern with Seth, who whispered soft words of reassurance and caressed her back.
But nothing eased the anxiety pouring from her.
“Which hospital? We’ll take you,” Beck offered.
Heavenly sniffled. “Really? The VA. Please.”
As Beck wondered why the hell her father was going there for an emergency, she spun from his embrace and dashed to the door. Seth took off after her, ignoring the gawking partygoers.
Nearby, Raine struggled to her feet. “What’s going on?”
Liam eased his concerned girl back to the sofa. “Heavenly will be all right, love. They’ll call later.”
Beck didn’t hang around to hear the rest. He sprinted outside, after Heavenly, into the night.
“I’ll drive.” Seth yanked his keys from his pocket and hit the fob. The second the vehicle pinged, Heavenly ducked into the backseat and shut the door. “Get back there with her and be a doctor. And I don’t mean play doctor.”
“Fuck you.” Beck jumped in beside Heavenly and pulled her onto his lap as Seth climbed into the driver’s seat and turned over the SUV’s engine.
She curled against him, arms around his neck, and heaved in huge sobs as Seth peeled out of the driveway. As he shot down the road, Beck held her tight, wishing he could do something to take away her pain. She might not want him in her future and maybe he didn’t deserve her, but at least he possessed the skills to help her.
“Shh. We’ll get to him, little girl,” he crooned. “Tell me what’s wrong with your dad.”
“H-he’s had an autoimmune disease for eight years, but he wasn’t officially diagnosed until about three years ago.” She winced. “We’ve…talked about it before.”
Beck froze. So many things suddenly made sense. “Your dad has Guillain-Barré?”
She nodded contritely. “I’m sorry.”
For hiding? For lying? For hurting him? Or for sins he might not even know about yet?
“We’ll talk about that later.” He smoothed a soothing hand down her back when she fell into his arms again.
Months ago, Heavenly had begun peppering him with question after question about all things related to the disease, homing in on one “fictitious” patient in particular, which she’d claimed was a hypothetical case study for a research paper. My ass. Why hadn’t she bothered to tell him she was talking about her father?
While the autoimmune disease was serious, it wasn’t usually fatal. But her father had suffered for years, hadn’t gotten proper treatment right away, and his extremities were already weakened so much he was largely unable to walk without assistance. Heavenly had cause to be worried. Normally, with good care it was possible to recover, but being over forty was another negative factor. The man probably needed nearly round-the-clock help. Was Heavenly his primary caretaker?
Beck began sorting through his mental list of good neurologists.
Seth glanced over his shoulder as he headed toward the freeway. “Um…guy who’s only lived in LA for, like, five minutes driving here. Where’s the VA?”
“Here.” Beck plugged the address into the GPS on his phone, then tossed it onto the front seat. “Get us there in one piece, okay?”
