John & Mattie Texas Kings MC, Book 8 - Cee Bowerman

1.

Loud Pipes Save Lives (Vegetarian)

Black bean burger on a toasted onion bun, topped with greens and fresh tomato with our basil pesto mayonnaise

MARIA

“Don’t forget that tomorrow you have a meeting at nine with the fundraiser planning committee, one at 10:30 with the other mid-level executives, lunch with a client, and then three meetings in the afternoon. You’ll need to be on top of the reading material I emailed you for the afternoon clients.” My assistant, Cherry, took a deep breath before she continued. I felt my stomach churn again and my heart started to race, so I swallowed quickly a few times to hold my nausea at bay. “The budget report for the senior partners is due by nine in the morning, so I’ll need you to go over the corrections I made and send it to me so I can get it to the printer and pick up the copies on my way into work in the morning.”

I nodded my head at Cherry and she nodded back before the elevator doors closed to take me upstairs to my final, most important appointment of the day. I focused on my breathing and tried to slow down my heart rate as the elevator car rushed me up to the momentous occasion I had been focused on for the last five years: my executive partnership meeting with the five men who had started Chalmers, Prescott, and Adams, Inc.

The three Chalmers brothers, along with Mr. Prescott and Mr. Adams had started this company in the 1970s and built it up to be a national success that most companies could only dream about. With branch offices on both coasts, the corporate headquarters was still located here in New Orleans, the home of the founding members of the firm.

The doors whooshed open and I calmly strode out into the waiting area that led to the executive suites and conference rooms. The receptionist smiled at me and waved me toward our meeting room with a tight smile. I swallowed the bile down again as I looked toward the thick wooden doors that would swing open to my future.

It was a future I wasn’t even sure I wanted anymore.

◆◆◆

“Mrs. Roland?” I heard a voice that sounded like it was coming through a long tunnel. “Are you okay?”

I shook my head and tried to clear it, the black spots in my vision making it hard to focus on the hall around me. I took a deep breath and swallowed, once again using every ounce of willpower I had to stop myself from puking on the expensive rug under my feet.

I lifted my head and tried to focus on the source of the shrill voice that was calling my name, but the room tilted, and I felt myself falling slowly right before everything went black.

◆◆◆

“Ms. Roland, I’m Dr. Myers, the resident gastroenterologist here at Tully-Beaux Medical Center.” The doctor, a man who looked like he was about 15 years old, smiled at me as he pulled the rolling stool over to sit beside my bed. “They gave you some medicine when you arrived here in the emergency room. Are you feeling better?”

“Yes.” My voice cracked and the doctor leaned over and picked up the cup of ice chips that the nurse had brought in a few minutes ago. I took the cup from him and tilted it up to my mouth, holding a piece of ice on my tongue as it melted rather than chew on it and make that horrible sound that drove me nuts.

“You’ve been here for almost two hours and in that time, your blood pressure has come down considerably. It’s almost down to a normal reading, but that might change as we talk, so I’d like you to try to remain calm.”

“Calm?” I heard the monitor beside my bed beep and the doctor’s eyes slid to the side to stare at the numbers for a second before he looked back at me.

“Couldn’t even hold onto it for five minutes, I see.” Dr. Myers shook his head as he looked down at the clipboard in his hands. “What do you do for a living, Ms. Roland?”

“I’m a lawyer,” I answered.

“I’m going to assume that your position is a high-stress job,” the doctor stated as he looked over my chart’s details. “You vomited in the ambulance and the paramedic saw that there was blood in the fluid. While you were unconscious, we did a few quick tests and the results I have so far show that you most