The Billionaires Too (#2)

Hospitalised

The place smelled just as he had expected if not worse. The smell of disinfectants, meds, and death lingered in the air, every sweep of breath sending him on the verge of a nervous breakdown. The sounds of ambulances; the sight of nurses, doctors, and sick patients; and the colour of the walls, gowns, curtains, and sheets, filled his heart with hatred.

It reminded him of what Carmen did to him, and it hurt more when he remembered how MJ was involved. It reminded him of how she had succeeded in breaking him; she had fooled him from the start, and he fell for it without thinking twice. Being at the hospital was like a trigger, but there was no escape for him; it did not matter where he was, the memory of MJ Billings would always haunt his conscious.

He did not know whether it was the doctors, Jorge Billings, or the woman lying on the hospital bed; but Logan Parker felt like punching someone in the face.

This woman was the one who had dragged him to London first, and now they had to stay there for a few more days until she got better. When she insisted on seeing Jorge and left him alone, he was pissed; when she shared a hug with that strange man, he was confused; when he saw the disorientation the man caused her, he got angry; and then when she collapsed, he panicked.

He did not know anything about the woman or her past. Now he realised how foolish his decision of staying with her was. It helped because no one bothered him there, and she let him have his space. But now he was caught in a difficult situation. It would seem that perhaps she did not have a great past; the man she was talking to, looked dangerous. Logan wondered if he had put his life in danger by getting closer to her.

"How is she?" Jorge asked tiredly, and for a second; Logan contemplated ignoring him.

"She will live." He answered, staring down on Antonina's unconscious face. He sighed and turned to look at Jorge, giving him an impassive look. He was a mess; he looked like he had not slept in days, and he looked completely lost. But Logan could not bring himself to care, and that bothered and scared him. "Who was that man?" He asked.

Jorge sighed and took a seat. "It was Javier Mendoza." He said.

The name sounded familiar, but Logan could not remember where he had heard it before. "How does she know him?" He asked.

"I don't know. I was surprised to find out they knew each other, and more shocked to discover that they shared a bloody past."

Logan scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Come on. You can't put Antonina and bloody in the sentence, unless you are referring to the blood pumping through her veins."

"She was shocked that he was alive. How do you explain that?" Jorge questioned. "Javier Mendoza is a very dangerous man, he is not someone neither you nor Ants should mess with." He warned. "Do yourselves a favour and get her out of here as soon as she wakes up, because from what I saw; Javier Mendoza was more than ready to kill her."

Logan breathed in sharply and ran his hands over his bald head, and then puffed out. "You should probably leave too. I mean, it's already enough that your own sister put a hit on you; the last thing you need, is a Mexican mob after you too."

"Does that mean we are okay?" Jorge asked in shock.

Logan raised his eyebrow at him in question. "Excuse me?"

"I mean, you said MJ is onto me, but you didn't mention anything about coming after me for lying to you. Does that mean we are cool?" Jorge asked hopefully.

"Oh, yeah. Sure! We are cool; you know I can't stay mad at you for too long." Logan said in a sickly sweet voice.

Jorge sighed in relief and his body relaxed. "I'm so sorry, man. I promise I'll never forget anything to jeopardise our friendship again." He smiled.

"Don't worry, my friend; there won't be a repeat of the past ever again." Logan smirked and patted him on the back.

"Well, guess I will see you back in the Cape. I have an urgent Board Meeting in two days, and with Alastair gone; we are going to have to appoint a new chairman." Jorge sighed. "MJ has been hands off lately, she doesn't really care what goes on down there as long as she makes money."

Logan's eyes widened as his interested suddenly piqued. He did not know much about MJ Billings and how she operated her company, but he knew it was a huge establishment that generated billions each day. MJ Billings was stinking rich, perhaps a few billions richer than he was. He often wondered how she managed all the branches with their different corporates.

"I thought she cared about her business more than anything else," He said nonchalantly, although he really wanted to know what was going on with her.

"She did once. I don't know what changed over the years, but she became distant. One minute she was on the journey to grow her business, and the next, she was not."

"What happened?"

Jorge shrugged. "I don't live with her, so I wouldn't tell you."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Logan offered.

He knew his reasons were entirely selfish, and he did not regret it one bit; as much as he wanted to know about MJ's past, he also wanted to be a step ahead of her. A year seemed so long to wait for the answers, when he waited thirteen long years for the truth.

He also wanted to play one on Jorge, making him believe that everything was okay between the two of them, while he thought of the perfect payback. Gone were the days where he nursed Jorge's feelings, or anybody else for that matter. No one thought about how he would feel when they all lied to him; why should he care about how they felt?

From now on, it was all about him and getting whatever he wanted; even if it meant deceiving his best friend. Because for as long as this pain remained inside of him, there was no other way forward.

A nurse walked into the room. Logan's had barely paid attention to the previous nurse, but he knew this was not her. Something about her unsettled him, whether it was the steel in her eyes or her face, or the rigidity in her movements and how her face betrayed her emotions; whatever it was, was far beyond anything he could think of.

Her small body was wrapped in blue uniform, the size of her top and the pants emphasizing her curves. She had steel grey eyes and dark bronze hair reaching below her waist. Her steely eyes were set on Antonina's frail body, and a swarm of emotions crossed her face.

Logan and Jorge watched her, she seemed oblivious of their presence as she reached out to touch Antonina's pale face, her hand stilling mid-air as Logan's voice cut through the thick silence.

"Can we help you?" The woman spun fast and ran out of the room before any of them could catch on to her actions.

A sense of dread settled on the depths of Logan's soul as he felt an impending doom lurking around him. His eyes trained on Antonina, and the urge to protect her grew more than his desire to exert his revenge on MJ and Jorge Billings.