Chapter 9
Jér?me
We’ve been in Lake Renegade for a few weeks now. And I love it. Lucciola Memorial is the top hospitals in the area. I can’t believe I’m the head of a department and the ER department at that. This is the job I’ve been dreaming of since I did my residency. My sister Giovanna was doing a surgical residency. But she put it on hold when she met her husband, Declan. She wanted to be able to travel with him. Then she got pregnant and she didn’t want to miss any part motherhood. I can’t say I blame her. Even though I was looking forward to working with her. I’m so excited to be able to spend time with them and baby Rowan.
Papa is still seeing Tanya and he’s even hinted that he wants to ask her to move in with him. He’s moving just as fast as we are with Renee. And I love it.
“I’ll see you all tomorrow. I’m on my twenty-four hour shift.” I yawn.
Renee rolls over towards me and I wrap my arms around her.
“I’m getting spoiled by all of you. I don’t know if I can sleep alone ever again.” She giggles.
“You’ll never have to sleep alone. One or all of us will always be with you.” I say as I kiss her. “What are your plans for today?”
“I think Christophe, Fran?ois and I are going to walk around the town. I still want to find a job, I need to contribute to our family somehow.”
“You’ll find something.” I stretch and sigh. “I hate that I have to leave you. Maybe you guys can come and say hi to me. If it’s not busy, I can even have lunch with all of you.”
“I’ll tell Christophe and Fran?ois, we’ll come and see you.”
Everyone at the hospital knows about our lives. And not one looks at us differently. It’s really nice not to have to defend how we live.
Today has been somewhat calm compared to most Fridays. It’s a nice change. I got to eat lunch with my brothers and our love. And now I’m making my rounds to make sure everyone okay. We hear over the radio that an ambulance is inbound. Car crash from the highway outside of our town. Most major accidents get routed to us because we’re a level one trauma center. We used to be a level three, but because most of the level one trauma centers are in the city, we converted ours. It took a year to make all the changes Lucciola needed to become a level one. They contacted me before the changes and that’s when I knew this is where I wanted to be.
I wait in the ambulance bay, I can hear the sirens getting closer.
“What do we have?” I ask as the paramedics jump out.
“Male, 45. Coded once, brought him back. We found a bullet wound to his right chest, through and through.” The first paramedic tells me as they pull him out.
“The second ambo has a female, 45, airbag trauma, and a bullet wound to her arm. She’s conscious, but her breathing is shallow.”
I nod as I look at the man on the gurney. God no.
“Get him into the trauma bay now!” I yell at my interns.
I turn to Scott Pearson, the other doctor working with me today.
“That’s my papa. You take the second ambo, I’m guessing that’s his girlfriend. Her name is Tanya Morrow.”
“Jér?me, maybe I should take your papa.” Scott says as he touches my shoulder.
I shake my head no. “I got him. You take care of Tanya.”
We can hear Tanya yelling for my papa as her ambulance doors open. I turn and follow the gurney my papa is on. Car accident I get. But a fucking bullet would? Obviously he was close to Lake Renegade so who would shoot him?
“Papa, can you hear me?” I say to him.
I need him to wake up. I’m not a surgeon so I’ll have to hand him off and I hate that.
“Jér?me?” my papa whispers.
“I’m here, papa. We’re going to get you fixed up. Get Doctor Matthews down here.” I say to the head nurse, Terri.
She nods and runs back to the nurses station to call for him. I start to check his vitals and the bullet wound. It’s not bleeding as much as before. But I don’t know what internal injuries he has. They’ll take him up and get some scans before they start surgery.
“What’s going on?” Garrett Matthews, our head surgeon, asks me.
“This is my papa, Dorian Laurent. The paramedics said car accident with a bullet would to the upper right chest. He coded once in the ambulance. I don’t know if he has internal —”
Just as I’m telling him papa’s info, papa spits up a mouthful of blood.
“We need to get him up now. I’m guessing you want to be in the room. I need to get some CT scans first. Don’t worry, I’ll do everything as if he was my papa.”
I nod at Garrett, I know he’s the best and papa is in great hands. But he’s my papa. I can’t lose him. I watch Garrett and his team take my papa up to the surgical wing. Then I head over to check on Tanya.
“How is she?” I ask Scott.
“Taking her up to do a CT, her oxygen is at 89% and I don’t like that.”
“I want to talk to her. I can do it while we head up for the CT.”
Scott nods and calls upstairs. So they know we’re coming up for a second CT scan.
“Hey Tanya.” I say softly to her. Her eyes fly open and focus on me. “Do you know who shot you and my papa?”
Tanya’s eyes fill with tears as she nods.
“Please tell me who did this.” I take her hand. “Whoever it is will never hurt you again. I promise you that.”
She sniffles as she takes a deep breath.
“My ex-husband. Roger Pearson. I saw his face as the car came straight for us. Your papa tried to swerve away but he couldn’t. Then Roger and another man came out and shot us. I’m so sorry. I can’t lose your papa.” She sobs.
“You won’t lose him. My papa is a fighter and he would never give up. Doctor Matthews is going to take you up for some scans. I’ll come and see you when you’re done.”
“Thank you, Jér?me.” She cries more as she hugs me.
I turn to Scott. “Can you do some x-rays on her? I have a feeling she’s been abused.”
“Definitely. I’ll come find you when we’re done.”
“Thank you.” I say to him as I head to the surgical unit.
I say a silent prayer that my papa will be okay. I pull my phone out to call Christophe.
“Hey bro, you lonely.” He answers, chuckling.
“Christophe. You all need to get down to Lucciola now.”
“What’s going on?” He asks. I can hear him moving around and yelling for Fran?ois and Renee.
“I’ll tell you when you get here. But please drive smart. I’ll be in surgery when you get here so wait in the surgical waiting area. I’ll come and find you.”
“Okay, we’re coming.” He says as he hangs up.
Christophe
The panic I heard in my brothers voice is one I don’t hear often. He’s always the calm one of us, so whatever’s happened, it’s bad.
“Come on! Let’s fucking go!” I yell at Fran?ois and Renee.
“Why are you rushing us and yelling?” Fran?ois snaps back at me.
“Jér?me called and said to get down to Lucciola. He wouldn’t tell me what happened. Only said to wait in the surgical waiting area.”
“Fuck. Do you think it’s Lorenzo or Giovanna? Rowan?” Fran?ois sounds panicked now.
“I don’t know. But we need to get there now.”
We get into the car and it takes every ounce of restraint in me not to speed through Lake Renegade to get to the hospital. I park in the first stall I see, I don’t even care if it’s not a real parking space. Fuck it, they can tow my car.
We run inside and head up to the surgical waiting room. It feels like we’ve been waiting for hours, when in reality it’s only been fifteen minutes.
“I can’t stand this waiting. Fuck!” Fran?ois slams his hand on the wall.
I go over and hug my brother. I feel the same way he does, but I’m trying to keep my shit together for everyone. Renee comes over and gets between us so she’s the middle of our hug. I can feel the tension from Fran?ois start to come down as he hugs her too.
“Whoever it is on that surgery table will be okay.” Renee whispers to us.
“I just wish we knew who it was.” Fran?ois says softly.
The next time I look at my watch, an hour has gone by. We finally see Jér?me coming out of the doors.
“Who’s dead?” Fran?ois blurts out.
Jér?me frowns at Fran?ois, “No one’s dead.”
“Then what the fuck’s going on?” I say to him.
“Papa was in a car accident with Tanya —” Jér?me puts his hand up as Fran?ois opens his mouth. “He’s going to be okay. He had some internal bleeding but they got it stopped. He also had a bullet wound to his upper chest. It didn’t do too much damage. Tanya has airbag and seatbelt trauma and a bullet would to her arm. I talked to her and she said the person who shot them is her ex-husband. His name is Roger Pearson.”
“Roger Pearson is a dead man.” I say quietly.
“I think Tanya was being abused by her ex.” Jér?me tells us.
“I told you all I felt like something was wrong when she talked. She didn’t really want to say anything about her ex. And she did flinch sometimes at noises.” Fran?ois says.
We all nod.
“I remember. And if this shitfuck ‘Roger’ hit her? He’s going to suffer before he dies. I’m going to call Salvatore and ask him if he can help me track Roger down.” I say to everyone.
Salvatore Mancini is the oldest of the Mancini kids. He’s the cousin of Lorenzo and Giovanna and a Chicago police officer. I admire Salvatore a lot, he’s grown up in a mafia family. Yet he’s a cop. And his family supports him no matter what.
“Papa is in a recovery room right now. Once he’s cleared, I’ll have him and Tanya put into a private room together. Maybe Salvatore can send a guard over to make sure Roger doesn’t show up here?” Jér?me asks.
“I’ll call him now.”
I step away to make the phone call to Salvatore.
“Hey Christophe. How are you doing?” Salvatore answers.
“I’m okay. I was wondering if I could ask you for a couple of favors?”
“Sure. If I can help, I will.”
“Thanks. The first is I need a guard for my papa and his girlfriend.”
There’s a pause on Salvatore’s end. I get the hesitation, there’s no love between any of the Mancini’s and my papa.
I hear him sigh.
“Why does your papa need a guard?”
“He was in a car accident. The guy who ran him and his girlfriend off the road is her ex-husband. He also shot them.”
“I’ll send an officer over there. I can have them do eight hour shifts. So I’m going to venture a guess and say that the other favor is that you want me to find this scumbag?”
I chuckle. “Yes. His name is Roger Pearson. The only thing I know is that he’s Tanya’s ex-husband.”
“Okay, i’ll run his name and see what I come up with.”
“Thank you, Salvatore. I really appreciate this.”
“No problem. No one messes with family. I’ll call you when I have some information. And I’ll get the first guard over to you within the hour.”
We hang up and I let everyone know what we talked about.
Renee
I woke up feeling crappy today. My tummy has been feeling queasy for a few days now. I haven’t told my boys yet because I don’t want to worry them. I think it’s just all the moving we’ve been doing. And now I’m worried about papa Dorian and Tanya. Jér?me says they’re going to be okay and that’s a relief. But now we have to worry about Tanya’s ex. If he’s gone this far, who’s to say he won’t come back and try again?
Suddenly I feel really nauseous and I feel myself falling to the ground. I hear all of them calling my name as I black out.