15. Staten
Staten
“ W here you taking her?” I demanded as soon as the medics wheeled Tavi off that ambulance and through the entrance doors to the ER at Oak Bluffs Hospital.
My mind was reeling, and the whole way I held my baby girl’s hand as the medics worked on stabilizing her.
“We need to get her a CT scan as well as an MRI. Follow me so we can get her admitted,” one of the nurses instructed.
Cambrie was right behind me, just as concerned and praying over my daughter like she was her own.
She had to be OK. We rushed behind the gurney as they moved through the halls into the trauma unit.
The doctor on duty, Dr. York, looked over her chart and immediately agreed with the nurse on getting Tavi’s internal system checked.
She hadn’t woken up the entire ride, and that had a nigga’s heart clenched in his chest.
“What’s her name?” Dr. York checked with me as they hooked Tavi into IVs and started running fluids.
“Tavi. Octavia Marek,” I responded.
“How old is she?”
“Eleven and a half,” I answered.
“Okay, do you know what happened?”
“No.” I shook my head and fought the urge to let the tears slip.
Instead, I inhaled and sucked them up before looking the older woman in the eye.
“We found her in the stables where we keep our horses. One of them was missing, and she was on the ground beside it with the saddle. I think she might have been thrown off the horse. I can’t be sure because she snuck off.”
“Okay. We’re going to do everything we can to make sure she’s OK. Thank you for the information. The nurse is going to get you the forms so you can get her admitted. You are her father, correct?”
“Yes.”
“Okay then. We’re going to go run a few tests, check for internal damage, and once we have all her scans, we can discuss treatment.”
“How long is that going to take?” Cambrie chimed in.
I had lost my voice. All I kept thinking about was my baby girl in there alone and scared.
Tavi acted tough, but that was all just her shield.
She was one of the sweetest people in the world when she cared.
She’d been so busy trying to be hard these last couple of months that I almost forgot about that side of her.
With Cambrie in the picture, she was combative about everything.
I didn’t want that to taint her the way it had Nadia.
Her negativity was rubbing off on our daughter, and I wanted to nip that shit in the bud.
“Thirty to forty-five minutes,” Dr. York answered. “We’re taking her up to the sixth floor. You can take the elevator up and wait out in the waiting area.”
“Thank you, Dr. York.” Cambrie sighed and faced me. “Hey.” She grabbed my face, forcing my eyes into hers. “She’s going to be fine. She is one of the most stubborn people I know.”
Grabbing her arms, I pulled her into mine and held her tight.
Her soft hands stroked my back, and I took a deep breath as an ambulance pulled up out front.
We were just a few steps from the entrance.
The rushed, alarmed voices caused me and Cambrie to move swiftly when the doors to the red truck popped open and the medics hopped out.
I watched them move just as quickly as they did with Tavi, pulling the gurney out as a team.
When they rushed past us, I just knew I was tripping, but Cambrie’s gasp as her hand fell over her mouth let me know I wasn’t seeing things.
“Oh my God . . . is that?—”
“Ivo,” I muttered, as they wheeled my brother’s bloody body across the hall.
“Staten!” Emerald’s strained voice called out from nearby.
With tears in her eyes, she raced toward us out of breath.
“Where is he? Where’s Ivo?” She looked around in a panic.
“They just took him back there.” I pointed ahead. “The fuck happened?”
“I don’t know!” she whimpered. “He texted me from the party and said that he was going to pack a bag and come stay with us at my place. I fell asleep waiting on him, but I heard the gunshots go off outside. By the time I got out there, whoever it was had sped off, and Ivo was laid out next to his car.”
This was some bullshit. All the anguish and worry I harbored for Tavi had slowly morphed into pure rage when I thought about somebody catching Ivo slipping. Looking up, I spotted Brick and Six rushing in through the sliding automatic doors.
“What’s up? How is she?”
“Who?” Emerald frowned, then something lit up her eyes like she had just recalled something. “Wait . . . if you didn’t know Ivo had been shot, what are you doing here?”
“What!” Brick belted. “The fuck you mean Ivo been shot?”
“Brick, calm down.” I swiped my beard. “My daughter had an accident. She’s upstairs getting some scans.”
“Oh my God. Is she going to be OK?” Emerald wondered.
“We don’t know yet. I have to get up there and wait for them to come out with her results,” I told her.
“Go. I’ll stay here,” Emerald insisted. “I’ll call you when they tell me what’s going on.”
“What she mean Ivo been hit? The fuck is going on?”
“Call Moniece. Tell her to run the surveillance on Emerald’s block for the last two hours. Let her know what’s going on and tell her we need to know who the fuck did this,” I ordered.
Nodding, Brick went into his pocket for his phone.
“What about Rossi and Cella?”
“Call them. Tell them and Sol to be cool and stay with the kids. We don’t need everybody spread out right now when we don’t know what the fuck is going on.”
“Aight.” Brick nodded and moved away from us to make those calls.
“Cam, let’s go.” I grabbed my girl’s hand and pulled her toward the elevators.
The thirty minutes or so it took for the doctors to examine Tavi seemed like an eternity.
Cambrie sat in one of the waiting chairs, anxiously tapping her feet while I paced and nearly wore a hole in the floor.
By the time Dr. York emerged through a set of double doors, I couldn’t quite read the expression on her face.
She tapped at the tablet in her hand and sighed when she paused in front of me.
“How is she?”
“She suffered a concussion, and she broke her leg, along with two of her ribs. The good news is that there is no internal bleeding, but she is still out. We do have to set her up with ortho so that they can take care of that leg and get it set in a cast, but we want to wait until she wakes up to do so. We’ll move her to a room for now to admit her and schedule the surgery for after she wakes up. She’ll be here for a few days though.”
“Can we see her?” I asked, rubbing my hands together as Cambrie appeared at my side.
“Once she’s settled in her room, you can sit with her. I have a few other patients to check on, but the nurses have instructions to page me the minute she wakes up.”
“Thank you.” I nodded as she turned to go and faced Cambrie, who also seemed relieved.
“She’s going to be OK.” I pulled her into a hug, and she held on to me tight.
“I told you. She’s strong.” Cambrie nudged away, and this tight frown flickered over her pretty face.
“What’s wrong?”
“You should call Nadia and let her know what’s going on,” she encouraged.
In all the chaos, I had completely forgotten about her. Cam was right though. As her mother, she deserved to know. Going into my pocket for my cell, I dialed her number, and she picked up after a couple of rings, sounding groggy.
“Hello.”
“Nadi, it’s me.”
“Staten?” she grumbled. “What’s going on?”
“There was an accident. Tavi’s in the hospital.”
“What!” she shrieked, and I could practically see her shooting up like a rocket wherever she was. “Is she OK? What happened?”
“I don’t know everything. She snuck off during Marcella’s party at the house. We think she might have tried to take one of the horses and got thrown off.”
“Oh my God!”
“The doctor just came out and said she’s going to be OK, but she has a concussion, a broken leg, and a couple of broken ribs too. She’ll need surgery on the leg, but they want her to wake up first.”
“She hasn’t woken up?”
“Nah. They’re moving her to a room now though, and we’re going to sit with her until she does.”
“We?”
“Don’t start that shit, aight. Yes, we. Cambrie is here with me. She’s the one who found her.”
“I can’t believe this!” Nadia hissed. “I’m booking a red eye. I’ll be there ASAP.” She hung up without another word, and all I could do was shake my head.
I knew one damn thing, she bet not come here on no bullshit.
I had no problem allowing Cam to beat the brakes off her this time.
Once Tavi got settled in her room, Cam offered to go grab us some coffee and snacks while I went to hold vigil at my daughter’s side.
They’d cleaned up the bruise on her forehead, and her leg was wrapped tight in some bandaging along with her middle section, but she was still out like a light with her monitors beeping steadily.
“Come on, baby girl, wake up for me,” I pleaded, grabbing her hand and resting my forehead against it while saying a silent prayer.
I sat there so long I ended up dozing off. I hadn’t heard Cambrie come in, but the soft voices caused me to stir. Instead of opening my eyes right away I decided to just listen.
“You scared us to death.”
“Yeah right,” Tavi grumbled.
“Girl, you had the whole house searching the grounds. I remembered how much you loved going to the stables, though, and watching the horses, so I decided to check for you there. What were you doing?”
“Running away.” Tavi winced.
“Why?”
“Look, you don’t have to pretend to care about me just because you’re my daddy’s girlfriend.”
“I care because you’re his daughter, and I know that he loves you. Like he loves your brothers and your sister too, Tavi. I can’t help that. You kids are a packaged deal with your daddy. I might not like you, but . . . that doesn’t mean I don’t care,” she confessed.
“I don’t like you either,” Tavi muttered.