“No. Greer.”
Greer Parker was one of his cousins in Kentucky. She was in FBI Hostage Rescue here in New York. “What’s going on with Greer?”
“She’s taken a leave of absence from the FBI and gotten into something much more dangerous.” Ryker blinked. Why would Sebastian Abel care about that? Or whatever Greer chose to do professionally?
“Anyway, I heard you had to be rescued yourself. How are you feeling?”
Ryker took the cue and changed the subject. “A nurse saved me. I have to fly back tonight for a ceremony tomorrow to thank her.”
Sebastian grinned and Ryker looked questioningly at him. “Is she pretty?”
“Why do you ask that?”
“Because you smiled when you said the word nurse.”
“Like you frowned when you said Greer was doing dangerous things.” Ryker paused and took a deep breath. “It’s hard, isn’t it?” Ryker asked. He didn’t need to explain. Sebastian understood exactly what he was asking.
“Yeah, it is. You see everyone getting married, having kids, and then you look at the women around you and all you feel is suspicion. Shit. I need more friends if this is what we’re talking about.”
“Good thing you have the jammer because I’ll deny this conversation ever happened,” Ryker said as Sebastian laughed. “But yes. Exactly that.” Ryker quickly changed the topic.
The conversation was excellent, the food perfect, but Ryker found himself telling his driver to hurry as they drove to the private airfield. It was time to go home to see his nurse.
Ryker frowned as he thought that over. Kenzie wasn’t his. He didn’t even know if she was married. He could ask Kale to get him a complete background on her, but that didn’t feel right. Not only that, but the thought of her turning into a giggling gold digger upon finding out who he was felt like a weight on his heart.
Well, there was only one way to know. He’d find out tomorrow if it was time to close his heart forever or try opening it up after all these years.
5
“I hate this,” Kenzie whispered to Jen as they sat in the front row of chairs set up for the stupid recognition ceremony. She’d just done her job. As far as she was concerned, that was really all she’d done —her job. But Mark Conroy, the hospital’s medical director, told her the city and Ryker Faulkner had wanted to thank her for what she’d done. It would be good optics for the hospital was what he really meant.
“We finally get to see the elusive Ryker Faulkner. I heard he was here the other night,” Jen whispered.
“Here? Why?” Kenzie asked.
Jen shrugged. “Maybe he was here to check on his employees.”
Mark stood up as the cameras began to roll and the media snapped some pictures. Kenzie’s stomach churned. She hated being the center of attention. Mark welcomed everyone to the hospital and then quickly introduced the fire chief. The fire chief spoke about Kenzie’s impact on a horrible situation and then introduced the mayor, who called her a hero. It felt all very surreal to her.
The longer they talked, the more Kenzie’s leg bounced with nervous energy. Finally, the mayor called her up to the stage. Apparently, Ryker Faulkner wasn’t going to bother to attend. Kenzie rose and walked with shaking legs and a rolling stomach up the four steps to the stage. Every camera click made her nerves worse, but she tried to plaster on a smile for them.
“And here to present Ms. Carys with her award is the man directly affected by Ms. Carys’s heroics, Ryker Faulkner,” the mayor said after shaking her hand.
Kenzie plastered on her fake smile as her hands shook. Where was he? Then suddenly he was there. The man she’d pulled from the fire walked out from behind the curtain and Kenzie thought she’d faint for the first time in her life.
“I never got the chance to thank you for saving my life.” It really was the man she’d pulled from the fire. His voice still made her shiver and it wasn’t from nerves.
“You’re Ryker Faulkner?” It came out as a strangled whisper. “I thought you were Mr. Townsend.”
His lips twitched as he reached out and took her hand in his while holding a plaque in his other hand. “Olivia is my lawyer. Smile for the camera. Let me do a little talk and then come to my office on Bay Street tomorrow to collect your thank-you gift.”
Huh? Kenzie’s mind was still struggling with the fact the man she had dragged from the smoke, given CPR, and told to get his butt on a gurney was the Ryker Faulkner.
It also took a moment for her brain to compute that Ryker was telling the media what a brave and talented nurse she was and how one of the treatment areas in the new pediatric wing was going to be named after her.
“What?” she blurted out and earned another lip twitch from Ryker, who then winked at her on the side of his face where the cameras couldn’t see.
“You’ve earned it with your dedication to this hospital and the people of Charleston. Congratulations,” Ryker said, and then everyone was clapping. The hospital director and mayor stood and joined her in a line, but it was Ryker Faulkner who was standing next to her, saying, “Smile, angel.”
Kenzie smiled but was sure she looked like a deer in the headlights as she shook hands with everyone, posed for pictures, and answered a few questions from the media. She tried to tell them she was just doing her job, but the questions kept coming until Mark ended the ceremony.
Jen was by her side the second the cameras were turned off. “Oh my gosh! Ryker Faulkner is hot. I can’t believe he was the man you pulled from the fire. What did he say? Everyone saw him whispering to you.”
Kenzie shook her head and took a deep breath as if to clear the fog from her mind and bring her back to the present. “Thank goodness that’s over with. He said he has a gift for me. I’m going to pick it up tomorrow at his office.”
“Can he be your gift?” Jen whispered as Ryker strode toward them.
Kenzie nodded and gave a little laugh at the ridiculous thought that the powerful, rich, and ruthless Ryker Faulkner would want anything to do with an ER nurse with student loan debt and a twenty-year-old Honda.
“Kenzie,” Ryker said in that voice that made her shiver.
“Holy smokes,” Jen muttered beside her.
“Mr. Faulkner, you should have told me who you were.” Gone were the nerves as she fell back into her nurse's voice.
“You can lecture me all you want tomorrow.” Ryker handed her a business card. “See you tomorrow, angel.”
Kenzie and Jen watched him stride from the room with reporters, hospital execs, and government officials racing after him, all trying to get a second of his time.
Kenzie looked down at the card. On the back, 5:00 was written in bold handwriting that could only be Ryker’s.
“I think I might have had a mini orgasm. Don’t tell my boyfriend,” Jen said as they watched Ryker’s sculpted ass as he strode from the room.
“You and me both,” Kenzie agreed.
“Yeah, but he didn’t call me angel.” Jen fanned her face with her hand and they both laughed.
Kenzie had been given a week of paid vacation as a gift from the hospital for all the good press and for saving their biggest donor. She was making a run for it as soon as the ceremony was over.