Chapter 21
MEGAN
I stand in the hushed corridor, the dimmed lights of the empty waiting room and the soft glow of the drink dispenser providing an eerily silent backdrop to my whirling thoughts.
Nikki is alive.
Nikki is here in the same hospital that Amber was admitted to.
Nikki is currently on the floor with Demi shielding her body as if she’s waiting for something bad to happen.
Time seems to freeze while I try to wrap my head around what I’m seeing, and then speeds up again when Demi hisses, “Get back inside the room, Meggie.”
She is expecting something bad to happen. But that can’t be right, because Amber’s father is dead, and we don’t have to worry about him anymore. That’s what Gio said.
It’s all over. We’re safe.
I must say the words out loud because Demi can’t meet my gaze. “Please, Meggie. Wait in the room until I come and get you.”
I hear the urgency in her voice, but this is all wrong. This shouldn’t be happening now, he can’t hurt us. And I left Nikki behind once before; it won’t happen a second time.
She hasn’t moved. Nikki watches me with eyes that are too dark, and skin that’s too pale, and hair that has lost its shine. A shudder travels through her, making her teeth chatter, and that settles it.
Crouching beside her on the floor, I smooth her hair away from her face and find her hand, squeezing it so tightly I’m afraid I might break her fragile fingers.
“It’s alright, Nik, I’m not going anywhere.” I peer at Demi, watching us intently with frown lines between her eyes. “What happened?”
I’m surprisingly calm. Whatever is going on here, it has nothing to do with Amber’s father, and anything else is a doddle in comparison. Or perhaps I’m running on adrenaline while my brain takes some time out to process Nikki’s resurrection.
“Someone tried to shoot her.” Demi glances over her shoulder.
There’s no sign of Bruno, who has been guarding Amber’s room since we arrived. The hospital is slumbering, the only sounds are the subaudible hum of the dispensers and the medical equipment monitoring the sleeping patients.
Someone tried to shoot her. My brain is a few seconds behind while it plays catch-up.
“I didn’t hear a gunshot.”
“Silencer.” Demi must realize that I’m not going anywhere without Nikki. She pockets her gun. “Can you stand?” she asks Nikki.
“I-I think so.” Even her voice sounds different, less … Nikki.
Demi and I take an arm each and ease Nikki onto her feet.
She’s unsteady, wobbly, her arms thinner than I ever remember seeing her, and I quickly take in the basic hospital gown, the IV in the back of her hand, her bare feet.
She shouldn’t be out of bed. The last time I saw her, she was bleeding out through a hole in her chest, and that kind of injury doesn’t heal overnight.
It makes the wound on my foot pale into insignificance. How could I possibly complain about a sore foot when my best friend nearly died.
I thought she did die!
“In here.” I open the door to Amber’s room with my elbow, and guide Nikki inside. “You’re staying here with me.”
While Demi eases Nikki gently into the visitor’s seat, I roll out the cot from underneath Amber’s bed. I slide a pillow out from underneath Amber’s head and put together a makeshift bed for Nikki to use.
Then I kneel beside my friend, rubbing her hands to warm her up because she’s shivering, her teeth click-clacking together, her arms squashed against her sides, as tense as tripwires.
“Shall I call the nurse?” I don’t want her to be in trouble for getting out of bed and wandering around in the middle of the night, but I can’t bear to see her like this.
“No.” She shakes her head. “I’m fine.”
She’s a million fucking miles away from fine, but I keep this to myself.
I have so many questions, I hardly know where to begin.
“What were you doing outside Amber’s room?”
Her eyes drift to Amber who is still sleeping soundly, curled up like a hedgehog, the unicorn tucked under her arm, and her thumb in her mouth. I don’t want her to grow out of this habit because, when she does, I’ll know that she’s no longer a baby, and that’s a scary thought.
“I saw you earlier.” There’s something apologetic in her tone, like she just confessed to stalking us. “I couldn’t believe it was you.”
“You were in the wheelchair.” My instincts were right; it was Nikki I saw.
“I wanted to check that you and Amber were alright. I…” She sniffs loudly and blinks hard several times. “I wasn’t sure if you would want to see me.”
I gasp. “Why wouldn’t I want to see you? I thought—” I stop myself from admitting out loud that I thought she was dead. She seems fragile enough without me throwing her murder into the mix.
“After what I did,” she whispers. “It was all my fault. I tried to stop him. I tried to keep him away from you, but there was a bang, and pain, and…” Tears spill from her eyes and she snatches her hand away to cover her face.
Demi, ever practical, fetches a box of tissues from the mobile bedside table, and hands some to Nikki who takes them with another loud sniff.
I wait for her to dry her face and blot the tears clinging to her lashes. “It was no one’s fault, Nik. He would’ve found us regardless. I’m just so glad that you’re here now.”
Her lips twitch as if she has forgotten how to smile. “Did he… What happened?”
“Long story. He kidnapped Amber and hid her in the bunker, but he didn’t hurt her. She’s going to be alright, Nik.”
There will be plenty of time to talk about what happened. When Nikki is stronger, and when we’ve all had time to come to terms with the events of the past couple of weeks.
The door opens then, and Bruno’s face appears, checking that everyone is accounted for. “Anyone hurt?” His eyes linger on Nikki who shakes her head.
Demi is already on her feet. “Did you catch them?”
Bruno’s face becomes animated like he has a lot of pent-up energy oozing through his pores. He gestures for Demi to follow him outside.
“No, wait. Please,” I interject. “I want to know what’s going on.”
The bodyguard hesitates before crossing the threshold and closing the door behind him. “A gunshot was fired. Someone tried to kill your friend. I lost them on the stairwell.”
“Someone tried to kill Nikki?” It makes no sense. Why would anyone want to kill her, unless she knows something about them that they’d rather keep secret? “Did you see them?”
“Their face was covered. I’ll find out who sent them, but it will take time.”
“I don’t understand.” I’m thinking out loud. “Who would try to kill her in a hospital? And why?”
“Meggie.” Demi interrupts my thoughts. “Maybe it wasn’t Nikki they were trying to kill.”
I swallow, understanding crawling under my skin and raising goosebumps. “But he’s dead.” I shake my head and turn to Bruno. “He’s dead, right? He can’t hurt us now.”
Bruno doesn’t answer the question. “You can’t stay here. It isn’t safe. I’ll give you a moment while I organize an ambulance, and I’ll let Mr. Sabatelli know what’s going on.”
The feeling of deja-vu is back. Gio moving my hospital bed in the night, being lifted into the back of an ambulance, the sound of gunfire.
“Nikki is coming with us.”
Nikki’s eyes widen. She shakes her head, shrinking back against the seat. “No, Meg, I can’t go.”
“Why not?” I blink, trying to work out why she’s so afraid when Bruno is trying to help us. Then I realize that she has no idea who he is, or what the hell happened back at the mountain resort. “It’s okay. Bruno is with Gio. He’s been helping us to find Amber.”
He is mafia.
He has a gun in his pocket, that I know of.
He might be the one who killed Amber’s father, something I’ll probably never know, but I do know that he will kill a man if our lives are threatened.
“It isn’t that,” Nikki whispers. “I’m not ready to leave.”
I glance at the shapeless hospital gown covering the bullet wound in her chest. “Do you need more treatment, Nik?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think so.”
“We’ll take you somewhere safe. Gio will organize the medical care that you need.”
“No, Meg, I can’t leave. I just … I’m not ready to face what’s out there.”
What’s out there.
She almost died, of course she’s fucking terrified.
She has no idea who shot her or if the same person was here in the hospital tonight, coming back to get the job done.
She has no idea that Tommy Romano is dead.
Until today, she had no idea if I was alive or dead, or what had happened to Amber, and all the while she was blaming herself.
It’s a lot of crap to deal with, especially when you’ve got a hole in your chest, and I understand what it is about her that is fundamentally different. The confidence has been sucked out of her, leaving behind a wisp of the woman I’ve been friends with for as long as I’ve been making memories.
“We’re staying.” I address Bruno. “Nikki can share this room with me and Amber.”
I realize that it’s unconventional to have two patients in the same room, but almost being killed in a hospital isn’t exactly conventional either. Something tells me that Bruno can pull any strings we need him to pull. He was going to find an ambulance to get us out of here, for God’s sake.
I can tell that Bruno wants to argue, but Demi steps in. “We’ll take shifts guarding the room. Can you get more men here?”
He nods and takes a deep breath, mentally dismantling his plans and reassembling them to fit around protecting us here in the hospital where the killer has already found us once.
“Thank you.” I’ll never be able to repay Bruno for what he has already done for me and Amber; this is just another debt to add to the ever-growing list.
I thought this was over.
I can only hope that someday, soon, it will be.
Demi takes the rest of the night shift standing guard outside Amber’s room, while Bruno puts out the feelers to track down the killer.
Ignoring Nikki’s protests, I help her into the low pull-out bed and climb in beside her. She’s still shaky, but gradually, she calms down and my heart soars when she smiles at me for the first time.