Billionaire Takes All Read Online Free

room. I had to get out of there before the damn memories ate me alive.
    “Ah, shit,” I muttered under my breath, entering Dad's new bedroom.
    It was the IV stand and the EKG machine I saw first, then I was hit with the scent of lemon pledge and a concoction of chemicals that I'd never be able to name. A nurse stood next to his new deluxe hospital-style bed and marked down his vitals on a clipboard.
    All of the new sensory information smashed together creating a gray sludge in my head. None of it made any sense. The room and the experience of coming home was more or less familiar, but completely alien at the same time. It was like when a character was suddenly replaced by a different actor on your favorite TV show.
    I knew it was bad, but I didn't know it was this bad.
    “Lucas, come on in.” Dad was bare to the waist and looking tired. He usually kept a figure whose jolliness rivaled Santa Clause and now…  Well he was thinner than I'd ever seen him, and it scared the hell out of me.
    “Hey, Dad.” I slowly stepped into the room; careful not to knock any wires lose. The nurse flashed me a respectful smile as she walked past. No doubt to give us a moment to ourselves. “How're you feeling?”
    “With both hands.” He smiled, slowly pushing himself off the bed. For being an industry giant he was always surprisingly quick with a few bad Dad jokes. He put a shirt on, then clasped his hands over my shoulders and looked me over as if seeing me for the first time in a decade.
    Dad and I weren't super close, but we still talked occasionally. After Mom died we all stopped doing the holiday get-togethers. It was amazing how much she held the family together.
    There was never any reason to come home anymore, but I'd still see Dad a few times a year whenever we both happened to be in the same cities. He'd usually take me out to dinner and tell me about some new breakthrough in medicine or technology his company was working on.
    “How have your jokes gotten worse over the years, Dad?”
    “Practice, my boy.” He patted my shoulder. “If it's worth doing once, it's worth doing—”
    “A thousand times.” I smiled cutting him off. He'd probably told me that around a thousand times too. It used to annoy the crap out of me, but this time I was glad to hear him say it. It made this whole experience feel more normal.
    “It's good to see you, Lucas.” He hugged me and I hated how far my arms were able to wrap around him.
    “You too, Dad.” My voice broke off at the end. My eyes started to water like I’d been punched in the nose. Again.
    Shit. I wasn't prepared for any of this. I thought I was coming back to hear that he was getting remarried or something. I should've known better. Mom was the only one for him. I'd never seen him with any other women after she died.
    King men only ever fall in love once, and when we do, we fall hard.
    The only exception to that was Richard. He’d never fallen in love, at least not to my knowledge. I wasn’t even sure the corporate robot knew how to spell the word love .
    We broke apart when the nurse came back in with a tray of steaming food. Dad made his way to the wall of windows, dragging the wheeled IV stand behind him like he was leading a child, then put a hand on the glass.
    It was only then that I realized why it was this room instead of any of the others. From here he could see all of Caldwell Hope.
    With his factories and his charity work; a lot of families depended on him. It was more than just that though, he put this place on the map and had the biggest hand in its growth. It was obvious that he cared a great deal about the people here.
    He still thought of it as his city.
    He was their protector.
    “How bad is it?” I asked the nurse. She hesitated, drew in a deep breath, considered her words, then just frowned. Dad didn't bother to turn back around.
    Jesus... my stomach twisted. I had spent so much of my life actively trying not to give a damn about anything and all that