The Billionaire’s Hidden Heiress
Chapter 118

Grayson

POV

A father, I was going to be a father. Since Flair's announcement, I hadn't been able to stop smiling. The image of a baby, growing inside her womb caused my throat to constrict and I swallowed hard, the excitement growing. "Congratulations again sir," Timothy said warmly, shaking my hand as I grabbed my coat and briefcase, done for the day. "Thank you, Timothy. Safe drive home" I told him "and tell Rachel a good night from me" I added. He grinned and nodded, beginning to lock up as I headed downstairs. I was filled with anticipation at heading home to my wife.

The driver opened the door to the limousine and I slid inside. "Where to Sir?" he asked respectfully as my silent bodyguard slid in beside me.

I narrowed my eyes. I wanted to do something special for Flair. But what? What did you get for the woman who had transformed your life? I was beginning to ponder the dilemma when there was a phone call.

"I have security footage of paramedics entering your home Grayson. The bodyguard I assigned you is not answering my calls. What is going on?"

It was Knox's voice and he sounded panicked.

"I don't know" I stammered, motioning for the driver to go straight home "Have you tried calling Flair? Nobody has called me" I said glancing at my phone "Knox I'll call you back, I have to try Flair."

I hung up before Knox could say another word, knowing that would cost me later. I frantically dialed Flair's new number, the one she had gotten after losing her previous phone thanks to Ronaldo's thugs. It rang and rang. I cursed under my breath. "Come on Flair, answer the blasted phone" I shouted, losing my composure, "what the hell happened?"

She had only been gone for a few hours. What could have happened in that short amount of time? The driver made it to the house and I saw the ambulance parked out front. I burst out of the limousine and shoved past the startled

paramedics, to find a pale-looking Flair sitting on the couch while paramedics worked on the bodyguard lying prone on the floor.

"What happened?" I asked dumbly.

"He just fell" Flair stammered "One minute I was talking to him and the next second he was falling."

"We think he's had a heart attack but he's non-responsive, all attempts to revive him have failed and we have to declare him deceased," the paramedic told me reluctantly.

"Are you telling me he just died, out of the blue?" I asked in disbelief.

That didn't just happen. This wasn't a coincidence.

"It does appear to be suspicious" the paramedic allowed, while the other one began to put a sheet over the bodyguard and Flair's eyes shimmered with tears "so we're going to request that an autopsy gets done by the coroner. I'm sorry for your loss," he said gravely.

I moved to put an arm around Flair. "Where's Roscoe?" I asked.

She looked blankly at me. "Who?"

"Roscoe? I would have thought he'd be barking like crazy by now" I said frowning.

The dog had failed to greet me. Had Flair locked him up? Flair's eyes widened for a moment "He's in the laundry" she mumbled "I had to put him there so that they could work on him..." She broke down in tears.

"It's okay honey" I shushed her as she clung to me "We'll find out what happened to Sam" That was the name of the bodyguard which coincidentally was the one Knox had assigned to us.

"Can't you take him out of here?" I asked the paramedics desperately.

They shook their heads "We have to wait for the coroner to come and take him."

My phone rang. A quick glance showed it was Knox again. I answered impatiently.

"What in the blasted hell is going on? Sam won't f*****g answer my calls" he shouted down the line, his frustration clearly heard on the other end "and you hung up on me. Did something happen to my sister? All I can see is the blasted ambulance in the driveway" he snapped.

"Flair is fine," I told him when he paused to take a breath.

He exhaled sounding calmer "But Sam isn't. He's, well he's dead Knox" I said apologetically.

"f**k" he shouted "How? That man was the healthiest son of a b I could have assigned to Flair."

"According to my wife, he just dropped right in front of her. There's no explanation" I said quietly.

"Well something had to have happened," Knox said tightly "I'm going to go back over the security footage. Maybe we missed something."

"Knox this could just be a freak accident" I pointed out "This doesn't necessarily mean something is at play. Sometimes bad things happen to good people."

But even I didn't believe my own words. Sam had been healthy and a father, not to mention a good man.

"Are they doing an autopsy?" he asked.

"Yes," I confirmed.

"Good then I'll hack into their report when they've finished," he said lowly.

I gathered that he needed answers. He was still struggling to comprehend that one of his men was gone. For all I knew they might have been good friends. "Is there anything you need Knox?" "No, I just want answers" he spat out "Tell Flair I'm glad she's okay."

He hung up the phone.

I held Flair's hand. "He's just upset," I told her quietly "he's glad you're okay."

She sniffled "But it came out of nowhere" she sobbed "There was nothing I could do. I didn't even know how to perform CPR properly" She continued to cry as my heart broke for her. "Flair, you couldn't have anticipated this. You need to stop blaming yourself."

"Maam with all due respect, even if you had known CPR and the proper protocols for performing it, there was no guarantee it would have been enough to revive him or keep him alive long enough for us to get here. The statistics of a person living from CPR being performed is relatively low" one of the paramedics interrupted, a sympathetic look on his face.

Was that true? I frowned and then decided it didn't matter as it was giving a little comfort to Flair. Another person entered the room dressed in official clothing. The coroner. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. I held Flair as the body of Sam was wheeled away in a black body bag. I could hear Roscoe barking distantly from the laundry. The coroner took statements from the paramedics and confirmed Flair's story again. Soon the room was empty and Flair put her head in her hands. "I feel sick" she breathed.

"Stay here honey, lie down," I told her, helping her to lay down on the sofa and tuck her feet underneath herself.

A distant ringing of the doorbell. I swung around but Knox was already striding in. "Where are they?" he asked as I looked at him confused and Flair eyed him dully.

"You're not making any sense Knox," I said, as the bodyguard shut the door behind him.

"I looked through the surveillance tapes," he said exhaling "and it's small, relatively harmless looking but it could explain a lot. Did you get a delivery today Flair?" he asked.

She paused. "Yes we did but I" she hesitated, tears coming to her eyes "I told Sam to put them in a vase because the smell was making me sick," she said tearfully "I couldn't stand to touch them because the smell was so strong." "You got flowers," Knox said, "was Sam the only one to touch them?"

Flair wiped her eyes as she sat back up and thought about it. "Other than the delivery driver I guess," she said frowning "Why?"

Knox scowled "The delivery driver keeps his face turned away from the cameras. The bodyguard who took the delivery, which was Sam, would have checked his I.D. and found nothing suspicious but if he was the only one to handle the roses that you got and the only one to die then that leads me to make an assumption."

"You think there was something in the flowers or on them?" I said incredulously.

"Where are they, Flair?"

"In, in the kitchen" she stammered.

"Was there a card?" he asked.

Flair flushed "It said it was from Grayson. I just assumed because of what we talked about at lunch that he sent them."

She didn't elaborate but I understood why she would have believed that. Not to mention the roses were her favorite, rainbow ones. We walked into the kitchen and Flair pointed at the vase which was unnecessary, as they were right in the middle of the kitchen counter. Knox examined them carefully "They still have their thorns attached" he murmured "The ones we send and the ones Grayson gets normally have them removed so that you won't prick your fingers," he told Flair who looked stricken.

"I never even thought," she said bleakly.

He didn't get too close. "I also noticed the delivery driver was wearing gloves," he said tightly "the thick good quality kind, not the kind that most flower deliverers wear."

He sniffed but the aroma of the roses was quite pungent. Flair stepped back looking pale.

"Why is the smell so repugnant to you?" Knox asked puzzled "Is it different from its usual perfume aroma?"

Flair shook her head "No, I don't think so but it's hard to tell" she said quietly.

He looked further puzzled but I jumped in before he could ask anything more. "So what do you think? The roses might have something on them or..."

"I think they might have been dipped in some kind of toxin or chemical," Knox said calmly, still eyeing them.

"That's, that's what killed Sam?" Flair said, looking sick.

I held her upright, quickly moving her back into the living room.

"It's one theory. I could be wrong" Knox said "but I'm going to send a team to the house to retrieve this. Don't let anybody else touch this, not even the dog. I'll have them clean down the counter as a precaution as well" he added while Flair nodded shakily. "What about the delivery driver?"

"I'll check him out but the company was legit as a courier. He might have just been informed to wear heavy-duty gloves when delivering or might even have been thought of as collateral. It's difficult to know. I'll try and track down the real sender" Knox said with a grim expression "but maybe you should come and stay back at the Grant mansion until this blows over? Father would be ecstatic to have you" he added as Flair bit her lip.

"Can we bring Roscoe?" she whispered.

"Just bring him, Dad's a softie, he's hardly going to tell you no when you get there," Knox said with a laugh.

It was settled, we were taking the dog and heading back to the Grant mansion.