Mr. King [Book 1]

Fifteen

Once they were in the parking garage elevator at the hospital, Katherine couldn't help but wonder how Mr. King got the information about her father during the phone call he received. She knew he was a pushy megalomaniac, but usually the hospitals only released information like that to immediate family.

"How did you find out so much about why my father was in the hospital? Surely they don't go around breaking protocol for just anyone," Katherine asked as she pursed her lips, looking over at him.

Mr. King turned his head, looking at her with the slightest of smirks on his lips.

"What?" She asked him, rather curious as to why his disposition brightened all of a sudden.

"I may have told them I was your husband," he said evenly as he looked ahead once again, the elevator coming to a stop and the doors opening.

Katherine stood inside the elevator car, her mouth agape as Mr. King stepped out into the hospital.

"Are you coming, Miss Mason?" He turned to ask her. Katherine took a deep breath and let it out hard. That man had serious nerve.

"We're not done with that conversation," she told him, her voice low as they walked up to the front intake desk.

"We're here to see Roger Mason," Mr. King told the front desk nurse.

"Are you family?" She asked, looking up, her mouth falling slightly agape as she took in all the beauty that was Mr. Harrison King.

"I am his daughter," Katherine told her quickly, wanting to roll her eyes at the effect he had on the female population. The woman was practically salivating over him.

"Roger Mason is through those doors and around the corner in bed two," the woman said, looking up at Katherine, pursing her lips together.

Katherine could tell a judgmental look when she saw one. Her father was no saint. Katherine paid it no mind though. She needed thick skin to be her father's daughter.

"Come," Mr. King said, putting his hand against the small of her back to lead her through the ER doors.

"I can go back by myself," she told him, shaking his hand off of her.

"Must you be so stubborn?" He breathed in her ear as he continued on next to her, opening the door for her.

"Must you be so stubborn?" Katherine retorted as the two of them turned the corner.

She stopped dead in her tracks as soon as she heard the sound of her father's voice, cussing out a nurse that was probably only trying to help him.

"God damn it," she growled and picked up her pace.

"Listen here, honey! I was paying my dues for this country before you were even born! Get out of here! Leave me alone!" Her father yelled at the woman trying to adjust his blood pressure cuff on his arm.

The two police officers that were stationed by his bed were just about ready to jump in as Katherine walked up.

"Dad!" She snapped, a scolding tone in her voice. His head turned quickly once he heard her, his hazy eyes searching for her.

"What are you doing?" Katherine hissed in a hushed tone as she swiftly walked up to the side of his bed he was handcuffed to.

"Katy. Oh, Katy Cat," he cooed, his demeanor going from angry to content in an instant.

"What happened? What did you do?" She asked him impatiently, her eyebrows furrowed in concern and anger as her eyes racked up and down his blanketed body.