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?”
Flashing him a caustic smile, Seth veered onto the freeway and accelerated.
Beck settled Heavenly against him once more. He comforted her with a kiss on top of her head, at her temple, against her shoulder while he whispered soft assurances he didn’t feel. What would he find when he came face to face with her father?
Quick minutes later, Seth stepped on the brakes outside the emergency room. Beck would have grumbled at Seth’s not-so-gentle stop, but a glance out the window said the ambulance had already arrived. EMTs were wheeling out an older, frail-looking man on a stretcher.
Heavenly wrenched the handle as Seth unlocked the doors. An instant later, she lurched onto the pavement, her feet pounding as she ran after the prone figure. “Dad!”
A couple of hours later, ER doctors had managed to stabilize Heavenly’s father. His neurologist had never made an appearance, which pissed Beck off. At least the dipshit had sent instructions for a plasma exchange. With that underway and Heavenly’s panic dissipating, Seth had taken her to find some coffee. Beck stood across the room, tablet in hand, and stared at the frail man only ten years his senior. Dread thudded in the pit of his stomach.
“So, Mr. Young—”
“Call me Abel.”
“Right. Abel. Thank you for giving me permission to scan your chart. Like I said, I’m not a neurologist.” But since Heavenly had been obsessed with her “case study,” he’d researched the disease and talked to knowledgeable colleagues on her behalf. He knew more than he wished he did.
The dissecting stare Heavenly’s father sent him almost made Beck squirm. There was a lot wrong with Abel’s body…and nothing wrong with his mind. “You might not specialize in my condition, but if you were playing poker, I’d already know you had a lousy hand. My own doctor barely talks to me. Give it to me straight.”
God, he didn’t want to do this, and any decent lawyer would tell him this consultation had lawsuit written all over it. But he had to be honest with Abel. It was the humane thing to do. Besides, Heavenly would never forgive him if he wasn’t.
“First, it’s clear you need a better neurologist. I know some great ones, any of whom can tell you far more than I can about the optimal treatment and—”
“I’m dying, aren’t I?”
Beck hesitated, searching for the soft-shoe phrases he dished out to gravely ill patients and their families all the time. Nothing. He simply nodded.
Abel sighed. “I’ve suspected for a while. I’ve been trying to hold on as long as possible. Once I’m gone, Heavenly will be alone in the world.”
The man’s words knifed Beck in the fucking heart. Based on the mutual devotion he’d observed between Heavenly and her father tonight, Abel’s death would undo her.
“No, she won’t,” Beck vowed, no matter what she thought. “I promise you that.”
Abel scrutinized him with a glance. “I’m relieved, Dr. Beckman. You know, Heavenly talks about you all the time.”
That sent him reeling, especially since she’d never once mentioned her father to him.
“Oh?” Beck was dying to know what she’d said.
Despite all the IVs and tubes crisscrossing his body, the older man laughed. “She speaks very highly of you, and I can see why. Not
