Paying Off Her Dad's Best Friend (Her Dad's Best Friend 2)

“You’re welcome to look at whatever you’d like.” Everything is in an underground warehouse a few miles away from here. I don’t take my work home.

They walk away. Kelly is still quietly coughing next to me.

“Are you going to jail?”

“Not today, sweetheart.”

An EMT is walking over to us.

“She was the only one in the house when the fire started.”

Kelly starts coughing again.

“Can you walk?”

Kelly nods, even though her eyes are watering.

The EMT guides her into the ambulance. She puts an oxygen mask over Kelly’s nose and mouth. I follow. I don’t want to get in her way, but I’m going with them to the hospital.

Chapter Fifteen

Hospital

Kelly

The sirens are incredibly loud as they take me to the hospital. Iacopo has his hand in mine. I close my eyes.

“Just breathe.” I don’t know if the EMT is talking to me or Iacopo. His grip is really tight, but I find it reassuring.

Traveling at top speed in an ambulance gets us to the hospital in record time. Then we’re rolling into the emergency ward.

“Smoke inhalation,” the EMT spits as I’m taken out of the ambulance.

Iacopo is behind the EMT and the nurses who are looking at me.

There’s a crazy flurry of activity. I didn’t realize that smoke inhalation was life-threatening, because they’re acting as if I’m on the verge of death.

It must be Iacopo. I can’t even keep track of everything going on, but I can see him behind all the medical professionals. There’s soot on him, but nobody has even tried to force him to clean up or get checked for smoke inhalation. I feel reassured with him there.

Then the medical professionals seem to be done, because they leave me in the bed with an oxygen mask over my face. I can’t talk like this.

Iacopo takes my hand.

“I’m sorry,” he says, squeezing my hand gently. “You shouldn’t have been there. What’s going on between Ariana and me…it has nothing to do with you.” His jaw clenches. “And you should go home.”

I try to pull my oxygen mask off so I can talk, but he keeps my mask on.

So all I can do is look at him. I can see the fear on his face. It’s naked. I think that he’s thinking about what it would’ve been like if I died.

What about my dad’s debt? He’s acting like I wasn’t there for a reason. Or maybe he thinks that inhaling some smoke is enough to pay it off.

But I’m exhausted. I wonder if they’ve given me an anesthetic. I can feel myself drifting off. Iacopo’s hand is still in mine as I fall asleep.

Chapter Sixteen

Nonna’s Ring

Iacopo