Chapter 106
Lake:
By the goddess! I could have sworn I would not make it out of whatever I had gotten myself into, alive. When I opened my eyes, I found myself confined in the white polished walls of a hospital room. I looked around me, there was nothing else in the room beside my massive bed and beeping monitor-like machines. I struggled to sit up and my head and chest felt like they would split into several unequal pieces.
I ignored the pain and pushed myself up. I rested my back against the wooden headboard of the king-sized hospital bed. I looked ridiculous in a white hospital gown, it was a good thing I still had my shorts under. When I turned to the bedside drawer at my right, I found the keys to Neil’s car. Slowly, I began to recall the events that brought me here. I could remember my chest splitting open and my heart being ripped out of it, I could remember my inability to breathe and feeling as though the clouds had gathered against me and decided to fall on my very head. Now, I was confined to a hospital bed and only the goddess knows what the doctors would say.
The metal door of the room creaked open and I saw Neil step in. He paused when he saw me like he had not expected to see me awake. I flashed him a wry smile as if saying “surprise!”. He chuckled and moved closer to me. His eyes scanned my appearance before he opened his mouth to speak.
“How are you doing, alpha?” His eyes were laden with concern and care. I could tell he had been genuinely worried about me.
“I feel like I just rose from the dead, fit as a fiddle,” I responded, and a fruity laugh followed my statement. Neil should have laughed along with me and started stories of how he had found me half dead on my office floor, but he did not. It was unlike him to be quiet and thoughtful, the man often said the first words that crossed his mind, and he released whatever thoughts rested at the tip of his tongue.
“If you’re going to keep on waiting for me to ask you things before you tell me, I might as well consider getting a new personal assistant, don’t you think?” I asked. His round eyes looked away from the lampstand and found mine. He stood straight and folded both arms behind his back.
“My apologies alpha. It’s just that a lot of things I do not understand have been happening. First, the news of the kidnap, and just now, I saw Jojo Wyatt coming to pick up her mother. She said her mother is to be discharged today. She’s in her mother’s room as we speak. I do not understand why she would want to put the woman through unwarranted stress.” As he spoke, I listened keenly. Yes! This was Neil, my assistant. Not the brooding man he had been some minutes ago.
However, everything he said piqued my interest.
Jojo’s mother was being discharged? Now that was an update I was not familiar with.
“Why is she getting discharged? Did you not send the money for her medical bills? Neil, I told you to make sure that you…”
“Alpha, I do not mean to interrupt, but I have done everything that you have asked me to do, exactly as you asked me to do them. Jojo Wyatt is just being difficult on herself. Just now, she met me and asked that we cease sending her money. In her words, whatever we sent to her would be returned personally, by her.”
I scoffed out loud. She would return whatever we sent? Who did she think she was now? Some kind of self-made millionaire?
“She’s a joke.” I spat out. It could have been myself or my bruised ego talking, but I did not care. It did not matter to me which voice of mine was speaking. All I knew was that I had to find out what Jojo was up to.
“I wish I could say same, Alpha. But she seemed very determined. She also said she would pay the debt that Rush Empire covered for her, she would return every cent to the company’s account monthly.”
My right brow arched on its own accord.
She would pay over eight million dollars monthly? Exactly how did she plan on doing that? By getting another job as a stripper?
My jaw stiffened at the thought. She would not dare; she did not have the guts to. I could not begin to imagine her dancing in a thong, twirling around a pole for other men to watch, and without my protection. Jojo could not do that, the job had only been an option and she did not have many.
“… I do not know how long she intends to pay back, but she seemed very determined.”
“Make sure you do not take a single penny from her, not even a cent,” I ordered. I struggled to hide the anger laced at the edge of my tone, but I could tell my voice had betrayed me.
“But alpha…”
My eyes darkened on his tall and lean frame, clad in an all-white Armani suit.Content © NôvelDrama.Org.
“Have I made myself clear?” I snarled. He heaved a sigh and rested his gaze on the white marble tiles.
“Yes, alpha.”
“Good,” I replied. “Now get me out of this silly gown, I have work to do.” I continued, pushing the duvet off my body and turning to my left. I was going to place my feet on the ground when he stopped me.
“About that…”
I paused and looked up at him. He ignored my glare and continued to speak.
“The doctors say your weakness was induced my stress… and the pain of rejection.”
I arched my left brow in attempt to feign surprise, but there was almost no way of knowing if it has truly worked on him.
“It got me wondering, alpha. The last time you rejected someone was Jade, and that was five years ago. How is it possible that the pain comes back five years later, strong enough to make you pass out?” He asked me. His keen eyes rested on my face, as though he was trying to pull out whatever secrets I had hidden in my eyes.
He was inquisitive, too inquisitive for his own good.
I heaved a sigh.
“I wish I knew. But last I checked, I was no specialist in issues of the mate bond.” I retorted, making a deliberate attempt to push his question away from his mind.
Jojo.
Rejecting her was what had put me in this much pain. Rejecting my mates was never easy, but neither Salome nor Jade had given me this much trouble.
I was still worried about her, despite rejecting her and telling myself that I wanted her far away from me.
“Neil,” I said out loud. He was quick to reply.
“Follow Jojo, keep an eye on her and let me know where she is taking her mother to.”
He stared down at me with a confused look in his brown eyes.
“You want me to stalk her?” He repeated my statement with a question.
Okay, it did sound strange when he put it like that. I brushed the thought off my mind and frowned.
“Do whatever you must. But report to me tonight. Again, get me out of this room this evening.”
He seemed skeptical, but he nodded in response. His job was to do my bidding after all.
“Yes alpha. I’ll talk to the doctors as soon as I get back.”
I sighed and pulled myself back into the bed. I did need rest.
“You had better.”
When he walked out of the room, I allowed myself melt into the soft mattress beneath me.
I had to know what Jojo was planning, I had to know everything.