Prologue

PROLOGUE

“ W hat do you mean you can’t get me the shipment next week?” Phoenix Westerly asked. He pushed his fingers through his brown hair, messing it up more than normal. How had life turned out this complicated when he thought everything was going to fall into place?

“Sorry, Phoenix,” Scott said on the line. “I have some staff out sick and other open positions. I can’t get it done on time.”

“Not my problem,” he snapped. “I’ve got a lot of money tied up in this. You signed a contract and you’re going to stick to it.”

“Now, Phoenix,” Scott said. “Don’t be that way.”

Scott was a salesman and trying to lay on the charm, but he’d long since built a solid wall against bullshitters. “It’s my money on the line and a lot of customers I could lose.” If he didn’t lose the online customers then he might lose the contract he’d signed with a department store and that might be the end of what he was just trying to build.

“I know,” Scott said. “But it’s hard to find workers.”

“Again,” he said, “not my problem. I supply you with the materials. All you need to do is make the damn product. I went out on a limb to give you this business when I could have gone elsewhere.”

This was what he got for trying to save a few bucks. Maybe he should have gone with a bigger outfit that charged more, but just getting started over a year ago, he was attempting to maximize his profits.

Guess he didn’t know as much about being a businessman as he thought. He should have stayed in the lab.

“I know,” Scott said. “And I appreciate it.”

“Have people work overtime,” he said firmly. “I’m serious. I’ll get the lawyers involved.”

He hated sounding like a dick, but he was starting to sweat over this. His business couldn’t fail when he’d put everything into it. He’d taken the risk and left his nice stable job when maybe he shouldn’t have.

“That’s your choice,” Scott said. “But it’s not going to solve the problem this week.”

He didn’t need Scott to point that out to him either. It’d be more money he didn’t have to fight this and it still could cost him customers and this contract in the end.

“Scott,” he said. “Get it done and get it done on time. I mean it.” He wasn’t going to add that he was looking elsewhere for future production. That would just make Scott drag his feet more.

“I have other customers too,” Scott said.

“You should be putting me in front of others. Make it a priority. If you don’t get this order done on time then I’m going to lose customers resulting in less work for you. You said I was one of your biggest customers, so think about that.”

There was silence on the other end. “Let me see what I can do and get back to you in a bit.”

“You do that,” he said, slamming his phone down. Guaranteed he’d get a call in an hour or two that Scott worked his magic and got staff to cover shifts and now his shipment would be on time.

It was like this game that happened every few months and he was tired of it.

Phoenix opened a few of his spreadsheets and started to look at the numbers some more. If he could come up with more money upfront, he’d be able to maybe get a different manufacturer. It’d be cheaper if he could get a larger order, but the last thing he wanted was inventory sitting around too.

It shouldn’t be this difficult.

When his phone rang again, he didn’t notice the number and was going to let it go to voicemail but decided to answer instead.

“Hello,” he said.

“Is this Phoenix Westerly?”

“It is,” he said. “Who am I speaking with?”

“This is Jennifer Skye, I’m a coworker of Maryn Stevens. She was just in a car accident on her way to a showing. She called me to take over but then asked if I could call you to get Elsie after school. They were taking her to the hospital and she isn’t sure how long she’ll be there.”

Maryn was his best friend from college. Elsie was Maryn’s five-year-old daughter. He looked at his watch and knew he had several hours before Elsie had to be picked up.

“I’m on my way. Text me the hospital they are sending her to.”

All his work stress had just vanished into thin air. Nothing was as important as this. He grabbed his keys and ran to his car, then tried to call Maryn, but it went to voicemail. That was odd if she was just talking to her coworker.

He got to the hospital twenty minutes later after calling his best friend numerous times with it all going to voicemail.

He parked quickly and ran in. “Maryn Stevens was just brought in. I need to know what is going on.”

“Are you family?” the woman at the desk said.

“To her I am,” he said. “She has no family. I’m her emergency contact. The guardian of her daughter.”

He was throwing out everything he could to get this woman to give him some kind of information.

“Let me see what I can find out if you can take a seat.”

“Yeah,” he said. “Sure.” No reason to get in the woman’s face when she was just doing her job.

Thirty minutes later he was still sitting there waiting. He’d texted his mother what was going on because he needed to talk to someone. Mom always seemed to be his go-to though he had plenty of siblings he could lean on.

They all had lives though.

Another thirty minutes went by and he got up to see if there was anything else to report. He’d seen the woman was swamped and had to wait in line behind a few people.

When he got to her desk, she said, “I’m sorry. I haven’t had a break to get to you, but she’s in surgery right now. Someone said they’d come out and get you when she’s in recovery. You can go back through those doors and the nurses will show you another area where you can wait.”

Phoenix moved through the doors and went to the nurse’s station on autopilot and stood there another twenty minutes before someone was available to talk to him. None of this was making sense to him.

“Hi, I’m looking for information on Maryn Stevens?”

The nurse started to type into her computer and then looked up at him. “I’m sorry, she’s in surgery right now. If you want to take a seat over there, someone will come out when they can with an update.”

“Surgery for what?” he asked impatiently. “Can you at least tell me that?” He looked at his watch. “I’m going to have to pick up Maryn’s daughter in a few hours from school, but I’d like to know what is going on.”

There was some more typing. “She sustained a head wound. It looks as if she lost consciousness in the ambulance. I don’t have any other details.”

“So she’s having surgery on her head ?” Brain surgery? Was that what he was being told?

“I believe they are trying to relieve the pressure,” the nurse said. “It’s common.”

Didn’t sound it to him. “So she’s going to be fine?” he asked, holding his breath.

“I don’t have any other information right now,” the nurse said. “I’m sorry.”

This day was going to hell fast.

When he got a text from Scott forty minutes later saying the product would be done on time, he couldn’t even think about work. It was meaningless and he just replied okay.

His mother was texting him, even his father. Some of his siblings too, as they’d heard about the accident.

What he hated the most in this world was not having answers.

As a scientist, he’d dealt with data and facts and right now he didn’t have them, raising his anxiety levels.

Finally, after almost two hours of waiting in this small room, someone came out to talk to him. “I’m Dr. Charleston. Maryn sustained a head injury in the accident. We relieved the pressure building on her brain and have put her in a medically induced coma while she heals.”

Phoenix shut his eyes to take a deep breath. “But she’s going to be fine?”

“We don’t know just yet,” Dr. Charleston said. “Not until the swelling is down and we try to wake her.”

“How long could that be?” he asked. This had to be a horrible dream he was desperately trying to wake up from.

“Could be hours, could be days. Maybe weeks.”

His head was swimming in a fog, but his mind focused quickly on one thing. “I need to get her daughter,” he said. “She has a five-year-old.”

“Is there someone that can watch her daughter?” Dr. Charleston asked. “I don’t know I’d advise bringing her here right now, but that isn’t my decision.”

“It’s me,” he said. “She’ll stay with me.”

“Your name is in the computer as the next of kin to receive information,” Dr. Charleston said. “We’ll keep you updated, but for now, it’s just a waiting game.”

“Can I see her?” he asked.

“Sure. I’ll have a nurse bring you back.”

When he was brought to Maryn, he didn’t even recognize her. Her face was swollen on one side. One eye was already black and red, there was dressing over her head where they’d shaved a section and drilled into it.

No way he could let Elsie see this. Not until Maryn was awake and could talk to her daughter.

“It’s always something,” he said to Maryn. “You just like to stress me out.”

He reached for Maryn’s hand and held it, but it felt so cold. He refused to let that thought stay.

“I’ve got to go get Elsie. Don’t worry. She’ll be fine with Uncle Nix until you’re on your feet again. Guess it’s a good thing you talked me into buying that house. More room than I need but a place for you both while you recover. I’ll take care of you two.”

Still no response to his words and then machines started to go off sounding as if the building was going to come crashing down. Little did he know it was his world that was going to collapse.