Chapter 25
LEGION
The sliding glass doors of St. Vincent’s Hospital hissed open, but I didn't wait for them to finish. I slammed my shoulder into the frame, charging into the lobby. My boots thudded against the polished marble as I scanned the room.
"Where is she?"
I reached the front desk in three strides. The receptionist, a woman with glasses perched on the tip of her nose, blinked up at me. She took in my leather cut, the patches of the club, and the blood staining my knuckles.
"Sir, you need to sign in first," she stated, completely unmoved by my deadly appearance.
"I don't have time for that. Give me the room number for the girl brought in twenty minutes ago. Her name is Lantana Cruz.
The woman shifted, her fingers hovering over the keyboard. "I can't give out patient information. Are you family?"
I leaned over the desk, my shadow swallowing her. "I'm the only thing she's got. Now tell me where she is before I decide this desk needs to be part of the flooring."
"I... I can't. It's hospital policy. Please step back."
A security guard stepped in, his hand resting on his belt. He had a buzz cut and a face that suggested he enjoyed his job a bit too much.
"Problem here?"
"The problem is this woman is playing hide-and-seek with a dying girl," I snapped.
"Step away from the desk, sir. Now."
I didn't step away instead, I stepped toward him. I was itching for a fight and without thinking, I grabbed the the guard by the collar of his polyester shirt and yanked him toward me. The air left his lungs in a sharp wheeze.
"Listen close. I don't care about your policies. I don't care about your rules. I want to know where she is, now!"
The guard swung at me but I caught his wrist easily, twisting it until the joint popped, and then I shoved him backward into a row of plastic chairs. They clattered across the floor.
"Get him a doctor," I told the receptionist as I walked past the desk.
"I'm calling the police!"
"Call the governor for all I care.”
I didn't wait for the answer. I saw a set of double doors leading toward the surgical wing and sprinted toward them, ignoring the shouts behind me. I burst through them, nearly knocking over a nurse carrying a tray of vials. Glass shattered. Liquid splashed across the floor.
"You can't be back here! Sir.Sir!"
The nurse screamed to stop me but I didn't look back. I turned a corner and saw a sign for the Intensive Care Unit. I pushed through the final set of doors, my heart beating wildly as that subtle fear of losing something so important to me.
I found her in room four.
The sight of her stopped me cold in my tracks.
She lay in the center of the bed with a ventilator tube slid down her throat, the machine wheezed in a steady, mechanical rhythm.
She was so pale I got scared instantly, hoping I wasn’t looking at a corpse.
The beeping of the heart monitor reassured me otherwise.
A bandage wrapped around her head, and she had a metal clamp over her nose where they must have broken it.
I approached the bed, my footsteps heavy. The room felt small and the air tasted of hospitals rooms and medicines. I reached out, my hand trembling, and slid my fingers into hers. Her hand felt cold in mine.
"Hey," I whispered.
I sank into the plastic chair beside her, leaning close.
"You really know how to get my attention, don't you?”
I squeezed her hand. She didn't move. Her eyelids didn't even flicker.
A nurse walked in and stopped short. “You are not supposed to be in here.”
“So I’ve been told. Please, I just want to know what’s going on with her.”
The nurse hesitated but she was much more empathetic than the other fools I’d come across. " The doctors have placed her in an induced coma, it was to save your organs from the shock. It gives the body a chance to stop fighting the trauma and start fighting for itself."
“Will she live through it?” I stared at her bruised face, still beautiful.
“If she gets the care and rest she needs, she will be.”
I let out a ragged breath. I pressed her knuckles against my forehead.
“I’ll give you a few more minutes but then you must go.”
I waited for her to leave and then turned to Lantana. "I thought I lost you. It was a fucking nightmare. I can't go back to that. I won't."
I looked up at her face as she slept. "Listen to me. I'm not going back to Louisiana. I'm staying here. Right here. Close enough to hear you breathe."
I closed my eyes as I squeezed her hand in mine.
"I didn't tell you this. I didn't want to say it while you were awake because you’re right, I'm a coward. But I've fallen for you. I've fallen hard. It's the kind of fall that breaks every bone in your body, and I'm just lying here in the wreckage, loving every second of it."
I kissed her knuckles.
"Don't leave me. Do you hear me? You don't get to quit now. We have too many things to do. We have a life to build. You can't just take my heart with you and leave me without yours."
I felt a tear track down my cheek. I wiped it away with a rough shoulder.
"I love you, Lantana. I love the way you challenge me. I love the way you look at me. Just wake up. Wake up and tell me I'm a motherfucker. Tell me I'm too arrogant. Just say something. Anything."
I stared at the monitor. The green line spiked and dipped. I leaned in, my forehead resting against hers.
"You're the strongest person I know. You've survived things that would have crushed anyone else. This is just another fight. You win this one. You fight the coma. You fight the blood loss. Just come back, I’ll be waiting for you.”
A soft knock sounded at the door. I didn't turn around. I didn't want to let go of her hand.
"I believe you should repeat all that to her when she wakes up."
It was Roulette. Her voice was low and steady, a slight hint of amusement to it. I felt her calming presence enter the room and I felt a slight hint of relief.
"She's still out," I said.
"I know. The doctor just let me know that she;s stable. They also let me know a crazy man came in asking for her and breaking their security guard’s wrist. He wants to press charges."
“I don’t give a fuck.”
I finally looked at her. Roulette stood by the foot of the bed. Her eyes were hard, her jaw set. She looked at Lantana, then back at me.
"Legion, they need to prep her for the main surgery now. There was some internal damage in her sternum and they need to go in. You need to let them do their job."
"How long?"
"A few hours. Maybe more. They'll be moving her soon but you have to come with me."
I looked down at Lantana as one of the nurses entered the room. They began to prep her for surgery.
"Get out of the way, please, Sir" one of the nurses said.
I didn't move for a second and then I leaned down and whispered in her ear.
"I'll be waiting. Fight for me. I love you."
I stepped back, allowing them to wheel her out, watching the doors swing shut behind her. The room suddenly felt empty without her presence.
Roulette stepped closer. She placed a hand on my shoulder. Her grip was firm.
"She's a fighter, Legion. She's the toughest bitch I've ever known. She'll make it through."
"I can't just sit here, Roulette. I can't sit in a waiting room and read old magazines while she's under a knife. I can't handle the waiting.”
"I know. Neither can I."
"We can't leave her alone."
"She's in the best hands the city has to buy. The doctors are the best. But the one who did this? They're still out there. ANd we need your help to find them."
I felt the rage ignite in my gut as the adrenaline began to kick in.
"The best thing we can do for her right now is to finish what she started."
I looked at Roulette. "I'm going to kill that bitch," I stated.
"You and me both, brother," Roulette replied. “Just remember we can’t technically kill her. But we can hurt her a lot.”
She tapped my shoulder. "Let's go."
We turned together and walked out of the room. As we hit the lobby, the security guard from earlier was waiting, his hand wrapped in a cast. He had two other security guards with him. They looked confident. They thought they had the upper hand because they had badges.
"You're not leaving until the police arrive," the guard said.
I stopped. I looked at him. I didn't feel anger anymore, I just felt exhaustion.
"You're in my way."
"I'm doing my job."
I stepped toward him. The other two guards moved to flank me. I didn't blink.
"My job is to protect what's mine," I said. “So unless you want your other wrist broken, move out of my way.”
Roulette stepped in. “All will be handled with the doctor and your medical bill will be paid, but he’s right. I would step out of his way.”
The security guard looked at her, and after a brief hesitation he stepped aside.
“Thank you,” she smiled at him as she tugged me away by the arm.
"You're getting sloppy," she remarked.
"I'm getting impatient."
"Good. Impatience leads to speed. Speed leads to results."
We stepped back out into the city. Horns blared and people rushed past us, oblivious to the blood on my knuckles.
"Where do we start?" I asked.
"I've already got a lead. We head to the safe house and gear up. We don't go in blind."
I climbed onto my bike, the engine roaring to life beneath me. The sound drowned out the noise of the city. It was the only sound that mattered.
"Nobody is safe."
Roulette mounted her own machine. She kicked up the kickstand and looked at me.
"Ready?"
"I've been ready since the moment she bled."
I twisted the throttle, the bike leaping forward. We tore away from the hospital, the white building disappearing in the rearview mirror, leaving behind the fear and replacing it with a singular, murderous purpose.