The Billionaire Playboy's Regret (Lark and Max)

"This waiting is hard," Johan complained as he sat next to the bed holding Gracie's hand.

The woman pulled through her surgery but there had been a lot of blood loss, multiple touch-and-go situations and now she was in a medically induced coma, again. Now they were waiting for her to stabilize. It was now a full twenty-four hours since her surgery and they were all taking turns sitting vigil at her bedside.

"While we're waiting do you want to help us plot?" Ollie whispered conspiratorially.

"Plot what?" Johan looked between them. "What are you up to?"

The door pushed open, and they all looked over their shoulders as if scared at being caught and their mouths dropped open.

"What the hell are you doing?" Lark rose to her feet and hissed at Max who was pushing an IV pole and stepping into the

room.

"Hiding from Mom," he grinned. "The nurse was encouraging me to get walking around," he hugged a pillow to his chest," and I thought what better time to go for a walk than when Mom is coming for me." "Mom is at the hotel. Dad was making her sleep."

"Dad made her sleep. I think she got a full five hours of sleep," Max held his phone up to reveal messages. "She said she's on her way back. Dad is snoring or something and she can't sleep. She wants to make sure I'm not working."

"Were you?"

"Yes," he laughed as Lark furrowed her brow. "I have many businesses, Lark. I need to work. I'm sick but I'm not overdoing it. I'm reading emails, delegating tasks, and making sure any fires are being appropriately managed by the right people. I'm not stressing out. I promise. I thought I'd come down and see Gracie since I haven't been able to yet." He reached out and touched her foot under the blanket, "hey Gracie, it's your big brother-in-law. You need to wake up soon kiddo because your sister will want you as a bride's maid at our wedding."

Lark rolled her eyes at his words. "You're younger than her."

"Still bigger."

Johan shook his head, "putting the horse before the cart there, Max. I don't think Lark said yes to your inebriated proposal." "She also didn't say no," Max grinned at the trio, "are you going to tell me why the three of you looked guilty when I came in?"

"Charlotte is raising a stink. She found out Doug was the shooter, and he was Lark's ex. There was a story on the local news, and she saw it. She has been yelling at the Laredo guards how she's going to sue us all and tried to climb out windows and stuff to escape." Ollie grunted as she hopped up to sit on the counter near the side of the room. "She said she deserves to get paid for all the pain and suffering she's going through. As if she is the one laying in this bed, going through the surgery, worrying about Gracie living or dying. She doesn't care about Gracie. She cares only about making money off her."

The steady beating of Gracie's machinery filled the space as if punctuating what the young woman was going though. "She deserves so much better than her," Lark whispered.

"I heard Dad and Riggs talking and they don't want to do anything too drastic because they feel Gracie wouldn't approve." Ollie whispered as if worried Gracie could hear them. "She deserves drastic." "We can't kill her mother," Johan argued with Ollie.

"She's a leech." Ollie griped back.

Lark stepped closer to her sister and stroked her forehead, "I've not known her long, but I love her so much. She is my sister. There isn't anything I wouldn't do for Fallon I wouldn't do for her."

"I want to protect Gracie too," Johan said quietly, "but she is too nice a person to ever condone such conversation."

"She doesn't need to know." Ollie argued.

"I'm not keeping secrets from her." Johan shot back. "If she asks me if I know why her mother suddenly disappeared, I'm not going to lie and say no. It's a big secret!"

"Does she know we screwed?" Ollie asked bluntly.

"Oh god Ollie," Lark threw her hands over Gracie's ears as if the woman could hear her.

"No. Does Santiago?" Johan tossed the question back at her.

"Hell no." Ollie grunted. "Do you know how jealous he is? I noticed one of the nurses in the emergency room downstairs was a woman I screwed around with once and she tried to stop me and chat. He knew immediately I'd slept with her and cornered her and said I was off limits and if she wanted to keep her eyes she should remove them from me."

"Why even bring it up?" Johan jumped up from his seat, pacing nervously. "What is your problem? It was one and done. We scratched itches which meant nothing."

"Nothing?" Ollie put her hands on her hips.

"What? Did you feel a spiritual and emotional connection to defy the ages?" he countered angrily.

"No," she pursed her lips regretfully. "I told Lark you don't make my heart pitter-patter."

"Then what is your deal?"

"I'm only saying, you're sitting here spouting how you're never going to keep secrets away but you're going to keep this one. She told Lark she doesn't believe girls and guys can be friends. If you can keep this secret, then you can keep quiet about whatever happens to Charlotte."

"Are you blackmailing me?" Johan said his eyes bugging.

"No!" Ollie laughed at him, "I'm not. I'm taking what happened to my grave, buddy. I'm won't go so far as to call it a

mistake because I don't regret it but it's not anything I need or want to repeat, and I don't think it affects our friendship one way or the other."

"Fine then stop talking about it."

"Do you regret it?" Ollie asked him quietly.

"No." He shook his head seriously. "I do not regret a single moment of it but like you, it's not anything I

ever need repeat and I don't want Gracie hurt by it or spending her life second guessing what we're doing if we're alone."

"Then if you can keep it a secret, keep what happens to Charlotte a secret."

"I can't lie though. If Gracie asks me if I ever slept with you, Ollie, I'll have to tell her the truth. If she asks

me if I know whether or not you chucked her mother down an oil well or helicoptered her out to the Gulf of Mexico to be dropped off a rig, I want to be able to have plausible deniability."

"You can't tell her!" Ollie grunted furiously.

"If she asks."

"Then make sure she never does."

"We don't need to kill Charlotte," Lark grumbled as she pushed Max into the seat Johan vacated. "Why not?"

"Okay, Ollie, seriously. You've been spending way too much time with your fixer boyfriend and crazy great- grandfather. I get you relished the story of how Doug was found in his jail cell beaten to death by a drug crazed lunatic who was put in his cell in error. However, not everything needs to be death. There are other ways to make someone go away," Max said quietly. "Also, the two of you need to sort out your stories about what you want to talk about when you're not in the room with Gracie. I heard a lot of things happening around me when I was unconscious and I can tell you, I even heard part of the conversation between the nurses and doctors when they were talking about a party they went to. I hope she hasn't heard anything."

"I thought that was like a movie thing." Johan paled worriedly, his eyes drawn to Gracie.

"It's not, so stop your s**t, the pair of you," Max warned them quietly. He took a deep breath and then grunted clutching his pillow tight, "still hurts to breathe man."

"Max, what do you think? What should we do?"

"Charlotte needs to go back to Florida." Max sighed.

"You just want to send her home?"

"With money."

"All she's going to do is stuff it up her nose or inject it."

Max shrugged, "and if she does? She wants money. We want her gone. Lark, as my fiancée," he winked

at her, "you have access to my bank balance. Protect your sister, give her a lump sum of cash, and tell her to piss off. We'll put her back on a plane to Florida. What she does once she is there is her business. We'll make sure she knows she's not getting a penny more."

"Max, she'll come back for more."

"Present it as a one-time offer with the caveat she never reaches out to Gracie again. We never need tell Gracie her mother was here."

"It's not a good plan." Ollie grumbled.

"Why because she doesn't die?" Max retorted.

"Because she could come back and bug us."

"It's a bridge we can cross later but at least it gets us out of the way now so when Gracie wakes up, she's not faced with the drama her mom brings."

Lark sighed, "I like it, I guess."

The door pushed open, and Grady frowned at the four of them. "This feels eerily like the time we busted you four plotting s**t about the emo girl."

"We were talking about Charlotte."

"Why?" Grady was appalled at their topic.

"I don't want Gracie to be sad and have to face her when she wakes up." Lark shrugged.

"Don't worry about her. Olivier gave her a payday and she's on her way back to Florida as we speak. He's hoping she OD's on her new bank balance."

Lark gave a bark of laughter and pointed at Max, "that was Max's suggestion."

"Brilliant minds think alike." Grady squeezed Max's shoulder. "You should get your ass back down to your bed though before your mother finds out how far you walked. We came here together and when I say you have her scared half to death, I'm not exaggerating."

Max gave a groan and gave Lark a beseeching look, "come with me and play buffer?"

"Fine but I can't be there all the time, Max."

"When I underwent my surgery, I should have gotten them to stitch you to me." He grinned at her as he extended his hand for her to help him up.

"By the way guys, as a heads up, Mom's funeral is going to be in three days in Dallas. We'll fly home the morning of and spend two days in Dallas before coming back."

"Uh," Max started to protest.

"Your cardiologist approved you flying back to Dallas. Your mom already checked with him because a nurse is coming with us," Grady laughed at Max's eye rolling and then gave pause as he thought of his own mom, "It's killing me she's not been given the proper send-off she deserves yet."

"Who will sit here with Gracie?" Johan asked quietly.

"Olivier's grandparents Gael and Louisa have agreed to come sit with her as will Meri's younger sister, their other daughter. Louisa is unable to make the trip to Dallas. She's not doing very well herself, but she said she's good to sit here and pray for Gracie while we're gone."

The door burst open again and Bobbie stepped into the room, "Maximilian Villeneuve, back to bed now." The group laughed at Bobbie's stern expression and the wheelchair in her hands breaking the tension. Maybe things were slowly getting back to normal.