Rota Fortunae (14/?)
Title: Rota Fortunae (14/?)
Author: ladysalieri
Warnings: WIP
Rating: PG-13 so far, but hopefully that will change!
Note: Second of two posts for the day. Hope you enjoy!
1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12 / 13 / 14 / 15 / 16 / 17 / 18
==========
Three days later, and Reid felt like he’d leapt out of one fishbowl and into another. John Dixon had asked very nicely if Reid wanted the hospital to assign a few guards to keep watch over him, as an extra precaution in case of other mysterious ‘accidents’-and when Reid had just as nicely said thank you, but no thank you, Dixon had just gone and done it anyway.
At least when Luke Snyder’s men were following him, Reid thought glumly, the men had taken great pains to keep themselves hidden, which meant that once Reid had grown used to the prickly sensation of being watched, they were easy enough to ignore. But Dixon’s team had clearly been instructed that a visible presence was a bigger deterrent to anyone who might pose a threat-which meant that Reid couldn’t take so much as a step inside the hospital without being accompanied by his new entourage of muscle-headed heavies.
And how exactly does Dixon expect me to get any actual work done like this? Reid fumed. Like the average patient wants to discuss surgical options with a man who’s surrounded by the Oakdale chapter of the Hell’s Angels.
The last straw for Reid had come earlier this morning, when a guard’s overzealous frisking of a harmless lab tech had destroyed an expensive piece of equipment for the new neurowing. Reid had marched the quartet of guards past Dixon’s protesting assistant and straight into Dixon’s office-where he informed the smirking Chief of Staff in front of the guards, the assistant, and the three Board members who’d apparently been meeting with Dixon that Reid would be damned if he’d put up with this nonsense any longer, that he was leaving for lunch, and that if Dixon hadn’t worked up a security protocol that was bearable by the time Reid returned, it wasn’t Reid’s gruesome murder he’d have to worry about.
Free for the moment, Reid had passed up his usual lunch stop and headed straight for the Java, eager to drown his sorrows with a supersized cup of caffeine and sugar. He scanned the bustling café for an empty table, only to scowl at the sight of the ubiquitous Luke Snyder, sitting at a small table with the squinty-eyed man who’d tried to warn Reid off the day of his close encounter with a ceiling light. Reid had already confirmed the man’s identity through his doppelganger’s patient files-but even if he hadn’t read the case file, Reid thought that the hint of awkward good will in Luke Snyder’s expression as he chatted with his tablemate would have identified the other man… this was the infamous blind boyfriend. Ex-boyfriend, Reid corrected himself, though he’d be surprised if the thought of reconciliation wasn’t on at least one of their minds at this very moment.
Almost as if he’d felt the eyes upon them, Luke Snyder looked up from his conversation and caught Reid in mid-stare. Reid’s scowl deepened, but he nodded a curt greeting at the blond and moved on.
He was almost at the door when he felt a warm hand gripping his elbow. “Dr. Oliver?” Luke asked, tugging lightly on Reid’s arm, as if to steer Reid away from the door. “What are you doing here?”
Reid looked down at his coffee, then raised a sardonic eyebrow at the other man. “When I said I thought you had a few brain cells in your head, Mr. Snyder, I wasn’t expecting you to use it as a chance to prove me wrong.”
Luke made a menacing face at Reid, but explained pleasantly enough, “I meant, what are you doing out here unprotected? If somebody really is trying to kill you, seeing you alone in a crowd like this is the perfect opportunity to try something…”
Reid rolled his eyes disdainfully. “I’ll be sure to keep an eye out for falling light fixtures, okay?”
But Luke was already shaking his head. “Let me call the hospital, see if they can’t send…”
“Huh-uh,” Reid said definitely; then, for further emphasis, “No way in hell. None of you has any proof that someone’s out to get me, and I’ve already spent way too many hours with that team of giant gorillas staring at the back of my head. All I want is one damned coffee break away from it all, and then you can send for as many professional stalkers as you like.”
Reid attempted to move on, but Luke’s grip quickly tightened on Reid’s elbow. “Dr. Oliver, wait!” Luke said hurriedly. “Just… Listen, I-we’ve got a table over there in the corner, away from the windows. Why don’t you come sit with us?”
“Why don’t I what?” Reid repeated blankly, goggling at Luke.
“Come sit with us.”
To say the invitation was a surprise was a bit of an understatement, and from the uncertain look on Luke Snyder’s face, Reid suspected the offer had been just as startling to the blond. “You… want me to have coffee with you and your boyfriend,” Reid stated, just for clarification.
“Oh, Noah’s not my boyfriend!” Luke exclaimed quickly. “I-I mean… he was, once, but that was before I…” Luke cut off his words with a frustrated grimace. “Look, I know you’ve never met him, but my Reid restored Noah’s eyesight when no one else would even consider surgery, so in a way, he owes a lot to your surgical skills. Why not come sit with us for a while, and you can… you can ask Noah about his case, maybe, and then afterwards we’ll walk you back to Memorial. Does that sound okay?”
Reid shook his head, but before he could speak, Luke went for the knockout. “Please?” he added, large chocolate eyes looking imploringly into Reid’s own. “I know you don’t believe someone’s trying to kill you, but I’m not so sure, and I won’t be able to rest easy until I know you’re back at the hospital and out of danger. Please? Even if you’re just humoring one of the mad Oakdale crowd?”
Reid was tempted to comment that a) humoring crazy people only made them that much crazier, and b) if he was in any kind of danger right now, it was from the dark-haired Neanderthal glaring daggers at him from across the coffee shop. But he found himself strangely unable to deny the pleading look in Luke Snyder’s liquid brown eyes, so with a defeated nod, he allowed the spoiled rich kid to lead him back to his corner table.
“Dr. Oliver,” Luke said brightly, gesturing at the visibly unhappy young man waiting at the table, “this is Noah Mayer. Noah, you already know about Dr. Oliver, right?”
“I’ve heard,” the other man replied stiffly, giving Reid a curt nod.
“Yes, I’m quite a big story around here,” Reid remarked coolly. “I hear people are coming in from all parts of the globe just to check me out for themselves.”
Luke gave a small chuckle as he steered Reid to a chair and then dropped into his own seat, blissfully unaware of the undercurrent between the two other men. “Funny you should say that, because Noah’s actually visiting from L.A. right now. He had to work over Christmas, so we invited him to stay for a while this month. Kind of a belated holiday, you know?”
“Luke and the rest of the Snyders have always treated me like a part of their family,” Noah said, the emphasis on the word ‘me’ only barely discernible.
Reid gave the man his best crocodile smile. “Glad to hear it,” he said pointedly. “I wouldn’t want to think Mr. Snyder here had a particular knack for making trouble for the people around him.”
“Only for people who really deserve it,” Luke replied, grinning at Reid with a transparently false sweetness.
Reid gave Luke an equally fake grin in return, before taking a long swig of his coffee.
“So, Dr. Oliver,” Noah said, pleasantly enough, “have you decided what you’re going to do, now that you have your medical license again?”
Reid glanced over at Luke, and found himself uncharacteristically stumbling for an answer. “Uh… I haven’t… I told Dixon I’d stay till he finds a neurosurgeon to run the new wing, but I haven’t made plans beyond that.” He shrugged, finding his usual measure of self-confidence. “There’s not a hospital in this country that wouldn’t leap at the chance to add me to their staff; I just have to pick a location and go.”
Noah’s lips curled unpleasantly. “I’m sure you won’t want anything to hold you back once you’ve made your decision, so it’s fortunate you don’t have any friends or family here in Oakdale.”
“Errr,” Luke rushed to speak, “he means, we know you don’t want to stay here forever, but we appreciate you staying long enough to help us find staff for the new facility. That wing means a lot to this town and to me personally.”
“You certainly put enough money into it,” Noah said under his breath.
As he took another sip of scalding coffee, Reid eyed the dark-haired man narrowly. It was never any great surprise for Reid to find someone unbearable-and yet there was something about Noah Mayer in particular that made Reid’s fingers curl with an almost physical sensation of contempt. Was it the man’s sour expression? His air of offended righteousness? The gossip he’d heard from Katie? Or all of these, plus his squinty eyes and the fact that Mr. Snyder still moronically seemed to value the connection? Whatever the case, Reid wasn’t generally one to hide his low opinion of another. He set his drink down and turned his full attention to the man.
“So!” Reid said brightly, leaning forward to rest his elbows on the table. “I hear you like to play with fireworks.”
The other man bristled with indignation. “I don’t like to play with fireworks,” he sniffed, “I was using them for a scene in my senior film project.”
“Noah’s going to be a big Hollywood director one day,” Luke put in helpfully. “In fact, that’s why he’s in L.A. right now; he got a grant to do work on a film project.”
Reid hmm’ed at that. “Isn’t that why people go into the film business in the first place,” he asked wryly, “as an excuse to blow stuff up? That’s why they make films about drug dealers and bank robbers and terrorists, not brilliant neurosurgeons and the medical miracles they perform.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Noah snapped, his face tight with disdain. “The role of the filmmaker is to serve the story, not to live out some stupid childhood fantasy! No director with an ounce of integrity would even think of compromising his…”
“Noah,” Luke warned, pinning him with a reproachful glare. The other man gave Luke a wounded stare, but obediently shut his mouth.
Reid buried a smile in his coffee cup.
“I’m sure there are filmmakers who prefer making big action films,” Luke began diplomatically, “but certainly not ev-…”
“Hey, no objections from me,” Reid cut in, leaning back again in his seat and directing a gracious smile at Noah, “I think it’s ingenious. One day you’re lighting bottle rockets and setting off firecrackers to scare the neighbor’s dog, and the next you’re wiping out entire city blocks with staged pyrotechnics. It’s not everyone who manages to take a pointless childhood hobby and build it into a viable career.”
“I’m not taking a…” Noah sputtered, his voice growing almost shrill with anger. “I’ll have you know, I never even touched a string of fireworks until that day on the set!”
“Oh,” Reid said, blinking a few times at the revelation. He took another sip of his drink. “Pretty stupid, then, trying to set up a big explosion, if you’d never used fireworks before. No wonder they blew up in your face.”
“You shut up right now!” Noah cried, launching himself up on his feet. Luke gave a startled yelp and leapt to his feet also, laying a calming hand on Noah’s shoulder that the other man was quick to shrug off. “You know, you’re every bit as smug an asshole as the last Reid Oliver was, only this time I don’t have any reason to sit here and put up with it! Luke, I’ll see you back at the Farm! And you can just go to hell!”
Reid’s eyes glittered triumphantly as the dark-haired man stormed off, jostling more than a few elbows as he pushed through the crowded shop. His smile held even as he sneaked a glance up at Luke Snyder, whose face bore the stunned expression of someone who’d witnessed a sudden accident and wasn’t quite sure how to react. Reid stiffened, ready to brave the inevitable explosion of Luke Snyder’s hot temper-only to be surprised himself when the blond gave a shout of laughter.
“You’re such a jerk!” Luke laughed, dropping back down into his seat. “God, I almost forgot how much of a complete jerk you…” Luke broke off, still smiling as he looked down at his drink and shook his head.
Reid shrugged unrepentantly. “Sorry if I upset your coffee buddy.”
Luke shook his head again. “Well, now you’re stuck walking back to the hospital with just me for company, so tell me, who really got the worst end of this deal?”
=====
“So most of the money for the wing came from the Stenbeck fortune, which belonged to an insane, murdering criminal, and the rest came from you, which you inherited from your father, the international crime lord?” Reid looked at his companion in bemusement as they strolled down the street toward Oakdale Memorial. “Tell me, is there anyone in this town that’s on the up-and-up?”
“My grandmother Lucinda made her fortune honestly,” Luke answered; then his face wavered with uncertainty. “Er, for the most part, anyway.”
“Oh, please,” Reid scoffed. “Your grandmother makes Lucretia Borgia look like a big creampuff.”
The blond’s smile widened. “Well, you don’t get as far as my grandmother has without knowing how to get what you want. She’s as tough as nails, and I admire her for that.”
“You know, you’re not exactly a pushover yourself, Mr. Snyder,” Reid said, giving the man a rueful smile as their steps came to a halt across the street from the hospital entrance. “And I’ve got the battle scars to prove it.”
“Yeah?” Luke asked, looking oddly tickled by the sentiment. His eyes glowed as they met Reid’s.
Staring into Luke’s fathomless eyes, Reid felt his own smile falter and die.
He knew he should say something, but the thread of their conversation had been completely lost to him. His mind was consumed with the sudden, aching desire to reach up and feel the rough skin of Luke’s jaw, the warmth of the hair at the nape of his neck. Luke’s lips were so goddamn lush and full, it was all Reid could do not to take that tiny step forward to sample them. A distant part of him noted how incredibly bad this was… bad and wrong and impossible in so many ways, and how, with so much knowledge of how easily his alter ego had fallen, could he have been so unprepared for the danger himself? Step back, Reid, he told himself. You’ve already had more than enough of a taste of the trouble Luke Snyder brings.
Belatedly, he realized Luke Snyder was talking. Reid dragged his scattered wits back to the present. “…should let you go. You’ll be safe from here?”
“I certainly hope so,” Reid said hoarsely, finally summoning the strength to back up. He took a few steps toward the hospital, then turned back to grin at the blond. “Guess you weren’t such a bad bodyguard, after all,” he said.
Luke grinned. “I’ll keep that in mind, if the Foundation thing ever goes….REID!”
At the urgent cry, Reid turned in the direction of Luke’s gaze to see an immense white van barreling down the street toward him. He dove to the side and threw himself over the low cement wall lining the side parking lot of the hospital, landing painfully in the decorative rock and gravel landscape on the other side. An awful crash split the air and sparks flew as the van hit the cement wall, its side scraping along the cement before swerving back onto the road and speeding off in a screech of abused tires and diesel fumes.
Luke was there in an instant, leaping over the wall and grabbing Reid’s arms desperately. “Are you hurt? Did it hit you? Are you hurt?” he cried.
“Ow,” Reid answered brilliantly, wincing as he felt the pang of scrapes and bruises from at least a dozen different spots on his body. He pushed himself slowly to his feet, silently grateful for Luke’s supporting shoulder, as the shock of the encounter threatened to weaken the structural integrity of his knees.
Luke gave an unsteady laugh as he brushed the dirt from the front of Reid’s coat. “Now do you believe that somebody's trying to kill you?”
===
Author: ladysalieri
Warnings: WIP
Rating: PG-13 so far, but hopefully that will change!
Note: Second of two posts for the day. Hope you enjoy!
1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12 / 13 / 14 / 15 / 16 / 17 / 18
==========
Three days later, and Reid felt like he’d leapt out of one fishbowl and into another. John Dixon had asked very nicely if Reid wanted the hospital to assign a few guards to keep watch over him, as an extra precaution in case of other mysterious ‘accidents’-and when Reid had just as nicely said thank you, but no thank you, Dixon had just gone and done it anyway.
At least when Luke Snyder’s men were following him, Reid thought glumly, the men had taken great pains to keep themselves hidden, which meant that once Reid had grown used to the prickly sensation of being watched, they were easy enough to ignore. But Dixon’s team had clearly been instructed that a visible presence was a bigger deterrent to anyone who might pose a threat-which meant that Reid couldn’t take so much as a step inside the hospital without being accompanied by his new entourage of muscle-headed heavies.
And how exactly does Dixon expect me to get any actual work done like this? Reid fumed. Like the average patient wants to discuss surgical options with a man who’s surrounded by the Oakdale chapter of the Hell’s Angels.
The last straw for Reid had come earlier this morning, when a guard’s overzealous frisking of a harmless lab tech had destroyed an expensive piece of equipment for the new neurowing. Reid had marched the quartet of guards past Dixon’s protesting assistant and straight into Dixon’s office-where he informed the smirking Chief of Staff in front of the guards, the assistant, and the three Board members who’d apparently been meeting with Dixon that Reid would be damned if he’d put up with this nonsense any longer, that he was leaving for lunch, and that if Dixon hadn’t worked up a security protocol that was bearable by the time Reid returned, it wasn’t Reid’s gruesome murder he’d have to worry about.
Free for the moment, Reid had passed up his usual lunch stop and headed straight for the Java, eager to drown his sorrows with a supersized cup of caffeine and sugar. He scanned the bustling café for an empty table, only to scowl at the sight of the ubiquitous Luke Snyder, sitting at a small table with the squinty-eyed man who’d tried to warn Reid off the day of his close encounter with a ceiling light. Reid had already confirmed the man’s identity through his doppelganger’s patient files-but even if he hadn’t read the case file, Reid thought that the hint of awkward good will in Luke Snyder’s expression as he chatted with his tablemate would have identified the other man… this was the infamous blind boyfriend. Ex-boyfriend, Reid corrected himself, though he’d be surprised if the thought of reconciliation wasn’t on at least one of their minds at this very moment.
Almost as if he’d felt the eyes upon them, Luke Snyder looked up from his conversation and caught Reid in mid-stare. Reid’s scowl deepened, but he nodded a curt greeting at the blond and moved on.
He was almost at the door when he felt a warm hand gripping his elbow. “Dr. Oliver?” Luke asked, tugging lightly on Reid’s arm, as if to steer Reid away from the door. “What are you doing here?”
Reid looked down at his coffee, then raised a sardonic eyebrow at the other man. “When I said I thought you had a few brain cells in your head, Mr. Snyder, I wasn’t expecting you to use it as a chance to prove me wrong.”
Luke made a menacing face at Reid, but explained pleasantly enough, “I meant, what are you doing out here unprotected? If somebody really is trying to kill you, seeing you alone in a crowd like this is the perfect opportunity to try something…”
Reid rolled his eyes disdainfully. “I’ll be sure to keep an eye out for falling light fixtures, okay?”
But Luke was already shaking his head. “Let me call the hospital, see if they can’t send…”
“Huh-uh,” Reid said definitely; then, for further emphasis, “No way in hell. None of you has any proof that someone’s out to get me, and I’ve already spent way too many hours with that team of giant gorillas staring at the back of my head. All I want is one damned coffee break away from it all, and then you can send for as many professional stalkers as you like.”
Reid attempted to move on, but Luke’s grip quickly tightened on Reid’s elbow. “Dr. Oliver, wait!” Luke said hurriedly. “Just… Listen, I-we’ve got a table over there in the corner, away from the windows. Why don’t you come sit with us?”
“Why don’t I what?” Reid repeated blankly, goggling at Luke.
“Come sit with us.”
To say the invitation was a surprise was a bit of an understatement, and from the uncertain look on Luke Snyder’s face, Reid suspected the offer had been just as startling to the blond. “You… want me to have coffee with you and your boyfriend,” Reid stated, just for clarification.
“Oh, Noah’s not my boyfriend!” Luke exclaimed quickly. “I-I mean… he was, once, but that was before I…” Luke cut off his words with a frustrated grimace. “Look, I know you’ve never met him, but my Reid restored Noah’s eyesight when no one else would even consider surgery, so in a way, he owes a lot to your surgical skills. Why not come sit with us for a while, and you can… you can ask Noah about his case, maybe, and then afterwards we’ll walk you back to Memorial. Does that sound okay?”
Reid shook his head, but before he could speak, Luke went for the knockout. “Please?” he added, large chocolate eyes looking imploringly into Reid’s own. “I know you don’t believe someone’s trying to kill you, but I’m not so sure, and I won’t be able to rest easy until I know you’re back at the hospital and out of danger. Please? Even if you’re just humoring one of the mad Oakdale crowd?”
Reid was tempted to comment that a) humoring crazy people only made them that much crazier, and b) if he was in any kind of danger right now, it was from the dark-haired Neanderthal glaring daggers at him from across the coffee shop. But he found himself strangely unable to deny the pleading look in Luke Snyder’s liquid brown eyes, so with a defeated nod, he allowed the spoiled rich kid to lead him back to his corner table.
“Dr. Oliver,” Luke said brightly, gesturing at the visibly unhappy young man waiting at the table, “this is Noah Mayer. Noah, you already know about Dr. Oliver, right?”
“I’ve heard,” the other man replied stiffly, giving Reid a curt nod.
“Yes, I’m quite a big story around here,” Reid remarked coolly. “I hear people are coming in from all parts of the globe just to check me out for themselves.”
Luke gave a small chuckle as he steered Reid to a chair and then dropped into his own seat, blissfully unaware of the undercurrent between the two other men. “Funny you should say that, because Noah’s actually visiting from L.A. right now. He had to work over Christmas, so we invited him to stay for a while this month. Kind of a belated holiday, you know?”
“Luke and the rest of the Snyders have always treated me like a part of their family,” Noah said, the emphasis on the word ‘me’ only barely discernible.
Reid gave the man his best crocodile smile. “Glad to hear it,” he said pointedly. “I wouldn’t want to think Mr. Snyder here had a particular knack for making trouble for the people around him.”
“Only for people who really deserve it,” Luke replied, grinning at Reid with a transparently false sweetness.
Reid gave Luke an equally fake grin in return, before taking a long swig of his coffee.
“So, Dr. Oliver,” Noah said, pleasantly enough, “have you decided what you’re going to do, now that you have your medical license again?”
Reid glanced over at Luke, and found himself uncharacteristically stumbling for an answer. “Uh… I haven’t… I told Dixon I’d stay till he finds a neurosurgeon to run the new wing, but I haven’t made plans beyond that.” He shrugged, finding his usual measure of self-confidence. “There’s not a hospital in this country that wouldn’t leap at the chance to add me to their staff; I just have to pick a location and go.”
Noah’s lips curled unpleasantly. “I’m sure you won’t want anything to hold you back once you’ve made your decision, so it’s fortunate you don’t have any friends or family here in Oakdale.”
“Errr,” Luke rushed to speak, “he means, we know you don’t want to stay here forever, but we appreciate you staying long enough to help us find staff for the new facility. That wing means a lot to this town and to me personally.”
“You certainly put enough money into it,” Noah said under his breath.
As he took another sip of scalding coffee, Reid eyed the dark-haired man narrowly. It was never any great surprise for Reid to find someone unbearable-and yet there was something about Noah Mayer in particular that made Reid’s fingers curl with an almost physical sensation of contempt. Was it the man’s sour expression? His air of offended righteousness? The gossip he’d heard from Katie? Or all of these, plus his squinty eyes and the fact that Mr. Snyder still moronically seemed to value the connection? Whatever the case, Reid wasn’t generally one to hide his low opinion of another. He set his drink down and turned his full attention to the man.
“So!” Reid said brightly, leaning forward to rest his elbows on the table. “I hear you like to play with fireworks.”
The other man bristled with indignation. “I don’t like to play with fireworks,” he sniffed, “I was using them for a scene in my senior film project.”
“Noah’s going to be a big Hollywood director one day,” Luke put in helpfully. “In fact, that’s why he’s in L.A. right now; he got a grant to do work on a film project.”
Reid hmm’ed at that. “Isn’t that why people go into the film business in the first place,” he asked wryly, “as an excuse to blow stuff up? That’s why they make films about drug dealers and bank robbers and terrorists, not brilliant neurosurgeons and the medical miracles they perform.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Noah snapped, his face tight with disdain. “The role of the filmmaker is to serve the story, not to live out some stupid childhood fantasy! No director with an ounce of integrity would even think of compromising his…”
“Noah,” Luke warned, pinning him with a reproachful glare. The other man gave Luke a wounded stare, but obediently shut his mouth.
Reid buried a smile in his coffee cup.
“I’m sure there are filmmakers who prefer making big action films,” Luke began diplomatically, “but certainly not ev-…”
“Hey, no objections from me,” Reid cut in, leaning back again in his seat and directing a gracious smile at Noah, “I think it’s ingenious. One day you’re lighting bottle rockets and setting off firecrackers to scare the neighbor’s dog, and the next you’re wiping out entire city blocks with staged pyrotechnics. It’s not everyone who manages to take a pointless childhood hobby and build it into a viable career.”
“I’m not taking a…” Noah sputtered, his voice growing almost shrill with anger. “I’ll have you know, I never even touched a string of fireworks until that day on the set!”
“Oh,” Reid said, blinking a few times at the revelation. He took another sip of his drink. “Pretty stupid, then, trying to set up a big explosion, if you’d never used fireworks before. No wonder they blew up in your face.”
“You shut up right now!” Noah cried, launching himself up on his feet. Luke gave a startled yelp and leapt to his feet also, laying a calming hand on Noah’s shoulder that the other man was quick to shrug off. “You know, you’re every bit as smug an asshole as the last Reid Oliver was, only this time I don’t have any reason to sit here and put up with it! Luke, I’ll see you back at the Farm! And you can just go to hell!”
Reid’s eyes glittered triumphantly as the dark-haired man stormed off, jostling more than a few elbows as he pushed through the crowded shop. His smile held even as he sneaked a glance up at Luke Snyder, whose face bore the stunned expression of someone who’d witnessed a sudden accident and wasn’t quite sure how to react. Reid stiffened, ready to brave the inevitable explosion of Luke Snyder’s hot temper-only to be surprised himself when the blond gave a shout of laughter.
“You’re such a jerk!” Luke laughed, dropping back down into his seat. “God, I almost forgot how much of a complete jerk you…” Luke broke off, still smiling as he looked down at his drink and shook his head.
Reid shrugged unrepentantly. “Sorry if I upset your coffee buddy.”
Luke shook his head again. “Well, now you’re stuck walking back to the hospital with just me for company, so tell me, who really got the worst end of this deal?”
=====
“So most of the money for the wing came from the Stenbeck fortune, which belonged to an insane, murdering criminal, and the rest came from you, which you inherited from your father, the international crime lord?” Reid looked at his companion in bemusement as they strolled down the street toward Oakdale Memorial. “Tell me, is there anyone in this town that’s on the up-and-up?”
“My grandmother Lucinda made her fortune honestly,” Luke answered; then his face wavered with uncertainty. “Er, for the most part, anyway.”
“Oh, please,” Reid scoffed. “Your grandmother makes Lucretia Borgia look like a big creampuff.”
The blond’s smile widened. “Well, you don’t get as far as my grandmother has without knowing how to get what you want. She’s as tough as nails, and I admire her for that.”
“You know, you’re not exactly a pushover yourself, Mr. Snyder,” Reid said, giving the man a rueful smile as their steps came to a halt across the street from the hospital entrance. “And I’ve got the battle scars to prove it.”
“Yeah?” Luke asked, looking oddly tickled by the sentiment. His eyes glowed as they met Reid’s.
Staring into Luke’s fathomless eyes, Reid felt his own smile falter and die.
He knew he should say something, but the thread of their conversation had been completely lost to him. His mind was consumed with the sudden, aching desire to reach up and feel the rough skin of Luke’s jaw, the warmth of the hair at the nape of his neck. Luke’s lips were so goddamn lush and full, it was all Reid could do not to take that tiny step forward to sample them. A distant part of him noted how incredibly bad this was… bad and wrong and impossible in so many ways, and how, with so much knowledge of how easily his alter ego had fallen, could he have been so unprepared for the danger himself? Step back, Reid, he told himself. You’ve already had more than enough of a taste of the trouble Luke Snyder brings.
Belatedly, he realized Luke Snyder was talking. Reid dragged his scattered wits back to the present. “…should let you go. You’ll be safe from here?”
“I certainly hope so,” Reid said hoarsely, finally summoning the strength to back up. He took a few steps toward the hospital, then turned back to grin at the blond. “Guess you weren’t such a bad bodyguard, after all,” he said.
Luke grinned. “I’ll keep that in mind, if the Foundation thing ever goes….REID!”
At the urgent cry, Reid turned in the direction of Luke’s gaze to see an immense white van barreling down the street toward him. He dove to the side and threw himself over the low cement wall lining the side parking lot of the hospital, landing painfully in the decorative rock and gravel landscape on the other side. An awful crash split the air and sparks flew as the van hit the cement wall, its side scraping along the cement before swerving back onto the road and speeding off in a screech of abused tires and diesel fumes.
Luke was there in an instant, leaping over the wall and grabbing Reid’s arms desperately. “Are you hurt? Did it hit you? Are you hurt?” he cried.
“Ow,” Reid answered brilliantly, wincing as he felt the pang of scrapes and bruises from at least a dozen different spots on his body. He pushed himself slowly to his feet, silently grateful for Luke’s supporting shoulder, as the shock of the encounter threatened to weaken the structural integrity of his knees.
Luke gave an unsteady laugh as he brushed the dirt from the front of Reid’s coat. “Now do you believe that somebody's trying to kill you?”
===