Beginning of an Eclipse (SIN CITY HEAT SERIES PREQUEL) (15 page)

    
Hours had gone by before the doctor came to talk to them. Several of her friends had rushed to the hospital when they heard the news and insisted on waiting until she came out of surgery.
    
Marcus stepped forward when he saw the doctor approaching. “Dr. Garcia, this is Darrell Monroe and this is Bryan and Sylvia Hargrove.”
    
“Dr. Garcia, please. How is she?” Darrell demanded. “How did the surgery go?”
    
Dr. Garcia sighed. He always hated this part, but it was the nature of the job. “Mr. Monroe, she made it through the surgery….” Darrell’s eyes closed in relief, and sighs and prayers of thanks went through the waiting room. “….but I’m sorry. There’s extensive internal damage. She may make it through the night, but it’s doubtful. I’m sorry.”
    
Cries and tears were heard from all directions. Darrell looked at the doctor as if he couldn’t comprehend what he’d said.

    
“Wait, wait, wait. There has to be something you can do. Marcus said you’re the best in your field. If you can’t help her, then find somebody who can.” Darrell’s voice was cold and harsh.
    
“D…”
    
“No, Marcus! I mean it! Somebody’s gonna help her! I don’t give a fuck what they have to do, but she’s not gonna die!” He shook his head. “I’m not gonna let that happen.”
    
Marcus tried to pull Darrell to him, but Darrell pushed him away. “Nah, nah..! Don’t, just... don’t!”

    
Marcus saw and felt Darrell’s pain as if it were his own. Ignoring Darrell’s protests, he pulled Darrell to him and held him as he struggled to get away.
    
“Got…
dammit.
Marcus, don’t let her
die!”
    
Unable to deny the truth any longer, Darrell broke down. The sounds coming from him could only be described as ones of excruciating anguish. Bryan was inconsolable as well.
    
Finally, Darrell lifted his head and took deep breaths. “I have to see her.” His voice had a resigned tone to it.
    
“Of course. Come on. You too, Bryan.”
    
The three men trudged the grave path in silence that would take them to Roni’s bedside. Darrell dried his tears as best he could. Whatever time Roni had left, he wanted to remember each and every precious second of it. He could almost hear her voice telling him to be strong, and just that thought made him square his shoulders.
    
He’d have time to grieve later. He promised her he’d never let her down. He wasn’t about to start now.

Chapter 15

    
For the next three days, the three men kept a vigil by Roni’s side. Although the doctors warned them not to become too optimistic, Darrell felt a glimmer of hope with each day that passed. His baby was a fighter. He knew she wanted to live.

    
Darrell refused to leave her side. He stayed in a chair beside her bed and held her hand. He
needed
to have some type of physical contact with her. There was no way he could reconcile the fact that just several days ago, she was healthy and full of life, but in a matter of minutes, it was all snatched away.
    
Did she know how much he loved her? Did she know he couldn’t breathe without her? Did she know he loved her more than life itself?
    
He hoped so. He liked to think so because that was the only thing that was holding him together. Darrell turned his attention back to Roni. Wires and tubes were everywhere. She looked so vulnerable and frail, especially with her head swathed in thick bandages. Aside from internal injuries, a bullet remained lodged in her head. The neurosurgeon explained that even though the bullet appeared to have only grazed the surface and not traveled through the brain itself, it was still in a
precarious position. On the slim chance that Roni survived, she would more than likely suffer some sort of brain damage. To what extent, they didn’t know.

    
Darrell pressed his lips together and softly caressed the side of her face.
Remarkably, it was smooth and unscathed. Such a beautiful woman.

    
Sighing, he stood up and climbed in the bed with her. He gently put his arms around her and kissed her hair. “I love you, Roni. Always know that,” he whispered.
    
He lay there staring at her, and when her lashes fluttered, he tensed. The nurse told him that the movements were involuntary and normal for patients in a coma, but Darrell preferred to think she was aware of what he was saying.
    
“Roni? Baby? Can you hear me?”
    
Roni’s eyes moved beneath her closed lids again.
Yes. Yes I can hear you
. She thought she said the words out loud, but apparently she didn’t because Darrell continued to softly talk to her.

    
Why was she in a hospital? What was wrong with her?
     

    
Suddenly, Roni felt a warmth invade her body. Slowly, she managed to open her eyes. She weakly looked around the room. Hearing Darrell call her name again, Marcus and Bryan hurried to the side of the bed. Roni’s lids felt so heavy, but she forced her groggy eyes to slide to each of them before her gaze settled on Darrell. A tear slowly trailed down the side of her face. Although his own eyes welled with unshed tears, Darrell kept a confident smile on his face and told her he loved her.
 

    
I love you too…
   

     
Roni tried her best to convey that to him. Then her eyes fixated on a light mist forming at the end of her bed.
 
What…? She had to be hallucinating.

    
Frank??

   
But as she continued to stare at it, she was able to make out the translucent image of the husband she’d loved so much. Although his form was not solid mass, she knew it was him. The burly outline of his body looked the way it had before the cancer appeared and ravaged his once robust frame. By the time death claimed him, he’d been little more than skin and bones. He smiled at her and held out his hand.

    
Roni tried to shake her head. She wasn’t ready, but all of a sudden, her eyes rolled back and her body violently and uncontrollably began to convulse.

    
Darrell’s arms tightened around her. “Roni…! Roni!” He looked at Marcus with an expression of pure fear. “Marcus, what’s wrong?!”

    
Several doctors and nurses rushed into the room, pushing Darrell out of the way and ignoring his shouts and demands to know what the hell was happening. Suddenly, the heart monitor flatlined.

    
"Code blue! We have a code blue! Get the crash cart over here!! Now!"

    
 
Instructions were rapidly tossed out as the emergency staff frantically worked to keep Roni alive. CPR was administered for several minutes before defibrillator pads were placed on her chest area.
      
    
“Clear!” the doctor yelled out. Seconds later, an electronic impulse was sent through her body. After the shock was delivered, the doctor checked Roni’s pulse and breathing. Shaking his head in frustration, he eyed the monitor
 
then delivered another shock.

   
  
Darrell stood helplessly to the side, hands resting on top of his head as he looked on in shock and disbelief. This had to be a dream. But it wasn’t because the last words he heard the nurse mutter before Marcus pushed him out of the room destroyed his world.

    
“She’s gone.”
    

    
Per her wishes, Roni’s body was cremated and a small, private memorial was held because she hadn’t wanted a large, drawn out service. She always said she preferred a celebration and wanted her friends to remember her the way she was in life. Not death.
    
Darrell arrived at the church early. He stood in front of the hand-cut mother of pearl urn which held her ashes. A large photo of her rested on a stand beside it. One of Darrell’s favorites. Slipping his dark shades off his face, he couldn’t help but smile as his eyes studied every inch of the picture.
    
“You have to be one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen in my entire life, Veronica Simone Winston.”
    
Swallowing hard, he reached inside his pocket and pulled out the engagement ring he’d bought but never got a chance to give her. Lifting the lid of the urn, he dropped it inside. After several long minutes, he brought two fingers to his lips then touched the plaque which had her name inscribed on it along with a prayer.
    
“Goodbye, baby. Rest in paradise. I love you.”

    
As with her memorial, Roni had left instructions that the execution of her will be done quickly. Two days after her service, Darrell and Bryan sat in front of her lawyer’s desk as he went over the terms of her will.

    
Darrell’s body was there, but his mind was not. He’d initially refused to come, but Bryan had convinced him to honor
 
Roni’s last request.

    
Her last request??
He still hadn’t processed the fact that he would never see her again, never hold her. Touch her. Darrell shook his head. He couldn’t do this.
   

    
“Aside from various charities, the bulk of Veronica’s sizable estate was left to Bryan. However, Bryan has asked that three-fourths be signed over to you, Darrell.”
    
Barely listening, it took a moment for the lawyer’s words to register. “What?” He looked at Bryan and shook his head. “No.”
    
“Darrell, she would’ve wanted-”
    
“I said no. I don’t want it. Donate it to charity, give it away, do whatever. But I don’t want it.”
    
“Darrell, just listen-”
    
Cutting him off, Darrell turned to the lawyer. “Is there anything else you need from me?”
    
The lawyer appeared to be taken aback and a little flustered by Darrell’s reaction. “Well, did you want to know how much…”
    
Darrell leaned forward. “Did you not hear me?” He slowly enunciated his words so that there would be no doubt as to what he was saying. “I said I don’t want it. Now if that’s all…”
    
“Darrell…”

 
   
Bryan called his name, but Darrell stood up and walked out without acknowledging him or the lawyer. Once in his car, he started the ignition, but before he could pull off, his cell phone rang. He knew it was Marcus. Bryan had probably called him the second Darrell walked out. Since Roni’s death, the two of them had made it a point to see that he wasn't ever alone for very long.
    
Well, the task ahead of him would
have
to be done alone. He didn’t want to involve either Bryan or Marcus in what he was planning. Darrell threw the cell phone in the seat when it stopped ringing.
    
The moment Roni died, he said goodbye to the man he was. He knew he’d only become that man because of Roni anyway, and she was no longer here. It was time to deliver on the promise he’d silently made to her when he sat by her bedside during the final hours of her life. It was time to take care of the people responsible for her death, and who had now turned his existence into an empty, living nightmare.

Chapter 16

 
   
Luther turned the collar of his coat up and ducked his head as he walked past the motel clerk. He looked the other way and pulled the bill of the black baseball cap low about his brow. The clerk kept his eyes on the television until after Luther passed then picked up the phone and dialed a number.
    
“He’s on his way up.”
    
He disconnected the call and reached into his pocket to pull out the wad of green bills. Smiling, he counted out the Benjamin’s again, one by one.
    
More than I make in six months,
he leered.
Not bad.

    
Stuffing the money back into his pocket, he turned back towards the television. Whatever happened in room 433 was none of his business. He’d been paid very well not to see shit, speak about shit, or hear shit. He spared a brief thought regarding Luther’s fate.
    
Poor bastard.