Читать книгу Millionaire in a Stetson - Barbara Dunlop - Страница 6

In a magnificently appointed private room at the Seabreeze Hospital in Washington, D.C., Niki Gerard held her sleeping mother’s pale hand.

The hospital specialized in discreet service for wealthy clients, so plush sofas replaced vinyl, institutional chairs, while the walls were painted in rich colors, adorned with original art and ornate crown moldings. An armoire held Gabriella Gerard’s designer nightwear and robes. And a forty-inch plasma screen, which was connected to a keyboard for email and internet access hung on the far wall. Beneath it, there was a comfortable day bed, should a relative wish to spend the night.

But nothing could completely hide that this was a medical facility. A heart monitor beeped softly next to the bed, green numbers counting off, sending up corresponding spikes on the little graph in the background. An IV bag dripped morphine into the back of that hand of Gabriella’s. She was too thin, only five pounds from her ideal weight, but Niki had discovered during these past two weeks that thin from a healthy diet and exercise looked different than thin from illness.

At forty years old, her mother had contracted a rare virus. She’d barely survived the high fever, and the ordeal had weakened her heart, also taking a toll on her aorta.

Gabriella’s brilliant blue eyes fluttered open.

“Niki?” She appeared both confused and fearful.

“I’m here, Mom.”

Gabriella convulsively squeezed Niki’s hand. “Protect yourself.”

“I’m fine.” Niki gave her mother’s hand a gentle stroke of reassurance. “You need to rest, not to worry about me.”

Gabriella’s gaze darted around the room, and she stage whispered, “You know where the money is?”

“You told me yesterday.” Niki nodded. “It’s in Switzerland.”

“You’ll need it.”

Niki knew the size of her mother’s investments here in D.C., so the statement didn’t make sense. Not unless Niki had plans to buy a luxury hotel or a cruise ship in the near future.

“Tell me,” Gabriella insisted.

“My birthday, your birthday and our building address.” Niki repeated the code to access the account.

She’d hoped the increased morphine would calm her mother, not make her more agitated.

“Don’t let them get it,” Gabriella gasped.

“Who would get it?”

“Don’t trust them. Don’t trust any of them.”

“Mom. It’s fine. Everything’s fine. Nobody can get the money.”

“I mean it, Niki. The diary is your only hope. It’ll keep you safe, keep them from …” Gabriella seemed confused again. “Wilton.” She sighed. “How I wish …”

The diary? Gabriella was worried about her diary? Though she’d never seen it, Niki knew her mother had kept a diary for many years. She’d joked about the power of its secrets, mocking the married men who’d had affairs with her.

Gabriella focused intently on Niki now, leaning up. “They know. Too many people know—” Her blue eyes suddenly went wide. She cried in obvious pain, collapsing back on the bed.

Niki rose from her chair. “Mom?”

“Don’t let them get the diary.” Gabriella sucked in a few sharp breaths, then her jaw clenched tight.

Niki’s throat closed over, and her chest ballooned with fear. She reached for the nurse’s call button, pressing it hard with her thumb. “Mom?”

Gabriella’s eyes blinked open, but there was something wrong. Her pupils were huge, and her brilliant blue irises had become translucent.

Two hot tears rolled down Niki’s cheeks. “The nurse is coming. Hang on, Mom.”

But the breath eased out of Gabriella’s lungs. Then, just like in the movies, the heart monitor screeched out a solid beep. The line went flat.

Within seconds, two nurses sprinted into the room.

They crowded the bed, firmly elbowing Niki out of the way. She barely remembered to breathe as Gabriella’s hand slipped from hers. Her brain fogged over in a daze.

An eternity seemed to pass, people coming and going, calling instructions to each other. But then, the urgency left their movements. Their voices went calm. Someone gently pulled the sheet over her mother’s face. And a nurse led Niki to a chair in the hallway.

Gabriella was gone. Niki’s beautiful, vivacious, irrepressible, fun-loving mother had died far too soon.

Niki felt a shiver run up her spine, and she had an eerie sensation of being watched. For a split second, Niki believed in ghosts. But then she glanced down the hallway to find a man in a business suit staring hard in her direction. Before she could react, he turned abruptly, banging his way through a set of double doors.

Gabriella’s words flooded back to her. There were secrets in a diary, money in a Swiss bank account and a mysterious them for Niki to worry about.

“Oh, Mom,” she moaned under her breath. “What did you do?”