Laying a Foundation: Bonus volume: Includes series prequel, The Groundbreaking (The Love Under Construction Series) (75 page)

“No – the ones all over her chest. They’re horrible, aren’t they?” The nurse shuddered. “Wonder how that happened.”

“I believe she said it was a car accident,” Vic bluffed, trying to bait the nurse into saying something else.

“Wow. I’ve never seen accident scars like those. They’re crazy.” She shook her head and made a face. “Call us if she wakes up while you’re here,” the nurse added, leaving the room.

Vic looked at the pretty brunette lying so still in the hospital bed. Scars all over her chest? He wondered why she never talked about what had happened. How bad could they be? Hopefully she would be okay so he could ask her someday. Maybe that was why she was such a loner; something horrible had happened to her, and she wouldn’t open up.

If Laura were awake, she’d jerk her hand away, but she was unconscious, so Vic could hold it and there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it. He took it in his, and marveled at its warmth and softness. It was tiny compared to the hugeness of his hand, and he held it for at least ten minutes, hoping she’d wake up. When she didn’t, he stood, leaned over her, and kissed her on the forehead before he left. “Bye, sleeping beauty,” he whispered to her. “I’ll be back later.”

“When will you be taking the tube out?” Bryson asked the nurse.

“Probably in a couple of days if she does well,” she replied.

“I really want to ask her some questions, but she can’t answer.” He stopped and looked down into Nikki’s face. “Nikki, be thinking what you’d like to tell me. I know you saw everything. And I know you were the one who shot the shooter. You were really brave, and you’re lucky to be alive. You saved yourself, and you probably saved Laura’s life too.”

Nikki’s eyes went wide, and she sounded like she was choking, even with the tube in. “Calm down, baby; you’ve got to stay still so you’ll heal,” she heard Tony say. But instead of calming, Nikki looked like she was in a panic. She made a gesture Tony couldn’t understand; she pinched together the first two fingers and the thumb of her right hand and pounded them into the palm of her left, rubbing them back and forth.

“We don’t understand, Nikki,” Bryson said.

“Honey, calm down. We don’t understand. You’ll be able to talk in a couple of days,” Tony kept telling her. But Nikki got more agitated and kept making the gesture. “Please, baby! We don’t know what that means.” Tony turned to Steve and Peyton, who were standing in the doorway. “Did you guys find anything in her things? Or anything missing?”

Steve shook his head. “No, nothing. All she had were her keys. She’d left her purse in the Yukon.”

Nikki kept frantically making the gesture, and they all looked at each other, bewildered. Clayton walked up to the doorway and asked, “What’s going on? Why’s she so worked up?”

Tony pointed at her gestures. “She’s doing this and we don’t know what it means.”

Clayton took one glance, shot them a look, and said, “Seriously, guys?” They shook their heads. “Oh, good god, that’s easy.” He left the doorway, then returned in less than a minute with a note pad and a pencil. “She’s trying to tell you she has something to write down. Here, Mom.” He put the pencil in her right hand and the notepad in her left. “Write away.”

Nikki grew visibly calmer, then held the notepad up and tried to make the pencil work. The pain in her chest made it hard to move her left arm, but she was determined. After a couple of false starts, she scribbled something and waved the pad toward Tony. When he took it and looked at it, cryptically scrawled on the pad was one word: GUM.

“What is it?” Steve asked.

“It says ‘GUM,’” Tony said, puzzled.

“Hey, she whispered that to me at the scene before she lost consciousness!” Peyton told the group. “I have no idea what it means though.”

Nikki waved a hand, and Tony handed the pad back to her. She tried to focus her eyes again and scribbled something else, then handed it back.

“TABLE,” Tony read. “I don’t get it, honey. I’m sorry.” Nikki grew agitated again and motioned for the pad, so Tony handed it back. She started scribbling again, then waved it at him. “FLASH.” He stared at the pad, trying to make some sense of it. “‘GUM, TABLE, FLASH.’” He shook his head. “Baby, it’s just going to have to wait until you can talk. It’ll only be a couple of days.”

At that, Nikki got really worked up and started pulling at the tube; Tony jumped up and grabbed her hands and tried to hold them, and Clayton darted to the nurses’ station to get someone to come and sedate her so she’d be still and quiet.

Suddenly, Bryson yelled, “Wait! I get it!” Nikki fell perfectly still, and Tony noticed there were tears running from the corners of her eyes. Bryson stood and walked to the bed so he could look down into her face. “Nikki, look at me. Gum, table, flash. When you say flash, do you mean a flash drive?” Nikki nodded vigorously. “There were tables at the scene. Was there gum under one of the tables?” Nikki was nodding even more vigorously.

Everyone looked lost except Bryson. Then he turned and looked at Steve. “McCoy, I need you to come with me. We’re going back to the scene.” Bryson looked back down into Nikki’s face, and he saw relief wash across it. “We’re going to find it, you hear me, hon? It’s going to be okay.” He looked at everyone else. “That girl gave her a flash drive, and she stuck it in some gum under a table to keep it safe. Our job now is to find it.”

“See anything?” Bryson asked Steve as they looked around the scene.

“No, looks like the techs picked it clean.” Steve looked at the underside of every table as they went along. Bryson was looking too.

“Where exactly were they?” Bryson asked Steve.

“Back here,” Steve told him from behind the old counter. “Wait!” He pushed a table over and pointed, and Bryson walked over to look. In a wad of gum on the underside of the table was a perfect impression of a small, rectangular object. “It was stuck here. But it’s not here now. Think the techs found it?”

“Not a chance or we would’ve heard. It’s here somewhere . . .” Bryson said, dropping to his knees.

The two men looked for several minutes, then Steve pulled out a small flashlight and shined it under the edge of the old counter. Bryson heard Steve say, “Ah, come to papa!” as he reached under the edge of the counter and pulled out a small royal blue and black flash drive. “Let’s take this back to the office and look at it.” Steve held it up like a prize.

“Office?” Bryson shook his head. “Hell with that! I’ve got my laptop in my car – let’s look at it right now!”

“Who the hell is that?” Bryson asked as they watched the video for the tenth time. They stopped it every time, staring at the little man running toward the front of the truck.

“I don’t know who it is, but it sure as hell isn’t Tony.” Steve squinted at the screen, trying to make out the figure. “I think it’s time to drop the charges against him, wouldn’t you say?”

“Yep,” Bryson nodded. “Now we’ve got to figure out who that little guy is. But it definitely isn’t Tony.”

“R
eady to go?” Tony asked Nikki as Clayton and Annabeth packed up the last of her things. She’d only been in the hospital for six days, but it seemed like a lot longer. Strange how things piled up so fast. She’d come into the hospital empty-handed, and it was taking three of them now to carry everything home.

“Yep, let’s go” she whispered. Her throat was still sore from the breathing tube; she’d only had it out for a couple of days.

“I’ve got a surprise for you.” He squatted down in front of her wheelchair to meet her eyes. “Steve, Bryson, and Detective Fox are coming to the house when we get home. We’ve got a lot to tell you, honey.”

Nikki wondered what it could be. She could recall going to the old restaurant and a little bit about what had happened, but not much more. Tony had asked her what she remembered, but it was all so fuzzy. What she did remember clear as a bell was the girl with the bullet hole in her forehead; she’d been having nightmares about that.

On their way out, Tony wheeled her into another room. Nikki looked at the bed and smiled – Laura. She turned to look at Nikki and Tony as they came up to her bed.

“How are you, little lady?” Tony asked her, taking her hand.

“They tell me I’m doing pretty well, but I feel like I got stepped on by an elephant,” Laura replied, her voice sagging with weakness. “How are you doing, Nikki? You look pretty good.”

“Thanks,” Nikki whispered hoarsely. “I don’t remember a lot about what happened. But if the little I know is true, I need to apologize to you.”

Laura smiled and pointed at Tony. “I still don’t believe in love, but if I had a man like that one I would’ve done the exact same thing. And it’s good you don’t remember much. It was pretty awful, but you were a trooper. I hear you’re also pretty much a hero, at least to this guy.”

“We’re going to talk about all of that when I get my baby home. And you,” he said, pointing at Laura and pretending to be stern, “you take care of yourself. We’ll be checking on you. If you need a place to stay when you get out, where somebody can help you, you’re welcome to come and stay with us.”

Laura gave him a tired smile. “Thanks, Tony. You know, I just might take you up on that.”

“Good. You’re always welcome. See you soon!” Tony called back as he wheeled Nikki out into the hall.

“Hero?” Nikki whispered.

“All in good time, sweetie, all in good time,” he answered her as Clayton and Annabeth held the elevator car and they all got in.

“What floor?” a lady already in the car asked.

Tony laughed. “Home!” The lady smiled and pushed the button for the first floor.

Nikki’s chest hurt. It felt like a hot poker had been thrust into it, but she fought the urge to swallow pain medication and decided to tough it out. She’d just managed to get comfortable in the den when the doorbell rang. Getting up took too much energy and she couldn’t.

Tony caught a glimpse of her struggling to rise and barked, “Oh, no! You sit right there! Don’t you dare try to get up!” He rocketed past through the den and to the front door.

There was a muddle of voices, and then Steve, Bryson, Detective Fox, Peyton, and José filed into the room. Steve, Peyton, and José hugged her; Bryson took her hand and asked how she was. Detective Fox merely nodded at her.

After everyone was seated, Tony said, “Well, let’s get started. Baby, you went through a lot. Are there any questions you need answered? I know things are kind of spotty for you.”

Nikki had a question that had worried her ever since she woke. “Are you going back to jail because you came to the hospital?” She started to tear up, afraid of the answer.

Tony reached over and took her hands. “Honey, I’m never going to jail again. Don’t you know?” He looked at Steve and told him, “She doesn’t know. No one told her.” Steve smiled, and Tony turned back to Nikki. “Baby, the flash drive you got from that girl had video footage on it of Dottie’s killer, and it’s not me, plain as the nose on your face. The charges against me have been dropped.” He took her face in his hands. “You did that. You risked your life to get me out of this. There’s nothing I could ever say or do to thank you. I owe you my life.” He took her hands in his again and kissed them.