Tearing Down Walls (Love Under Construction Series Book 2) (44 page)

“Aren’t you going to start chest compressions or something?” she begged.

“Honey, they won’t do any good if his heart doesn’t have anything to pump,” he answered her, his eyes still closed. When he opened them again, he saw Laura sitting there, Vic’s hand pressed against her face, and she rocked back and forth absent-mindedly, almost like she was in a trance. He remembered how Vic had done the same thing with her as he sat beside her in the street that day. “Hey, buddy,” he said to José, “get that blanket over there and wrap her up.” He nodded toward Laura, and José realized she was slipping into shock.

The blanket had fallen on the floor when Laura and Vic had climbed out of the back seat, and José wrapped Laura in it, then pulled her onto his lap as he sat down on the concrete. They waited as the sound of the sirens got closer and closer.

The waiting was agonizing. Nikki wanted to hit the road, but Tony reminded her that they had no idea where to go or what to do, so they should stay put until they heard something. When Tony’s phone rang, he looked down: Steve. His stomach lurched.

“Boss man?”

“Yeah. Please, tell me . . .” Tony pleaded.

“Get in the car and head to UK. That’s where they’re taking him. And don’t waste any time, hear me?”

“Steve? How bad . . .”

“Just get there. Peyton’s with him. It’s not good.”

“Thanks. On our way.” He looked at Nikki, and she knew from his expression that he was terrified.

“Where are we going?” She was afraid of the answer.

“UK. The medical center. I hope we make it in time to say goodbye.”

Nikki couldn’t cry; she couldn’t scream. She went completely numb. Her brain wouldn’t work, a buzzing set up in her ears, and she couldn’t see where she was going or hear anything Tony said. He caught her just before she hit the floor and carried her to the Mercedes, buckled her in, and took off without waiting for her to come to.

When her eyes opened, they were halfway to Lexington. There was some hope in her waking mind that she’d dreamed the whole thing until she looked over at Tony and saw the pain in his face. “Who’ve you called?”

“I got Clayton, Bart, and Freddie. I haven’t called Annabeth yet. Can you do that? I don’t think I can handle how that’s going to go, not if I have to drive too.”

Nikki dialed Cheryl, told her what was going on, and asked her to go and get Annabeth and bring her to the office from the business complex. In seconds her phone rang, and she cried silently as Annabeth screamed on the other end, calling out Vic’s name over and over. When Annabeth finally quieted, Nikki told her where Vic was and to come with Clayton. Then she thought to call Molly, who said she’d rush to the hospital and be there when Vic got there.

“Who calls your mom?” she asked Tony.

“No one. We leave her alone until we know what we need to tell her.” Tony’s jaw tightened, and Nikki choked back sobs. She reached across for his hand, and his grasp on hers was so tight that it almost hurt. He cried silent tears along with her as he drove, afraid of what they’d find when they got where they were going.

N
ikki and Tony walked into the emergency room waiting area to find José sitting with his arm over the shoulders of a shaking Peyton, who was dressed in a pair of scrubs that someone at the hospital had mercifully given him because his own clothes were soaked with blood. And he looked exhausted. Because he’d taken over the compression of Vic’s wounds, the EMTs had made him ride in the ambulance, his hands still pressed into Vic, all the way to the medical center.

“Where’s Laura?” was the first thing out of Nikki’s mouth.

“They had to sedate her. She’ll be okay in a few minutes,” José told her.

“Do we know anything yet?” Tony asked, hoping against hope that they’d say something positive. Peyton just shook his head without looking up.

A nurse appeared at the waiting room door and called out, “Cabrizzi?” When Tony jumped up, she asked, “Are you family?”

“Yeah. I’m his brother.”

“Come with me. Be quick. They’re taking him to surgery.”

Tony kissed Nikki’s cheek and ran down the hallway. When the nurse pointed him through the doorway, he felt faint.

Vic lay on a gurney, eyes closed. He was beyond pale, almost gray, and there were tubes, wires, and cords everywhere, and medical personnel of every kind were yelling back and forth, tossing supplies to each other in their frantic efforts. Tony took Vic’s hand, but he didn’t move and his eyes didn’t open. The nurse knew what Tony wanted to hear when he turned to her.

“He’s lost a lot of blood. They’re hoping they can save him,” Tony knew what she was trying to say. He leaned over and put his forehead against Vic’s just as the team working on him hustled him out to surgery. Tony stood in the hall and watched as the man closer to him than any other disappeared through the double doors at the end of the hallway, and he was alone in the trauma room. “The surgical waiting room is, well, let me show all of you,” she said, walking with him back to the waiting room.

As they made their way up the hallway, Tony heard a familiar voice yelling, “No! Let me up! I have to go! I have to find him, please!” Tony turned and ran back through the doorway to find Laura sitting up in the middle of a bed, slapping at nurses’ hands and fighting to pull out her IV line.

“Hey! Hey, honey! It’s okay!” he said and grabbed her hands, trying to quiet her. “It’s okay! We’re all here. Get those lines out of her and get her out of this bed so she can go with me,” he barked at the nurse. “She needs to be down in the waiting room with us.” He turned back to Laura and put his hands on her face to hold her gaze. “It’s okay. I just saw him; they’re taking him to surgery. We’ll go down to the waiting room together, okay?” She quieted and nodded, and the nurse led them both into the waiting area to get the rest of the family, and they all let the nurse lead them to the surgical waiting area.

When Clayton and Annabeth got to the hospital, an hour had passed and they’d heard nothing. Two hours later, a nurse walked in and said, “Cabrizzi?” When they all looked up, she said, “He’s still in surgery. He’ll be there for awhile. His injuries are severe, and they’re working hard to get the bleeding stopped. So far, no luck. We’ll keep you posted.”

“Let us know if we need to give blood?” Tony asked her.

“Yes, sir, we sure will. Hang in there,” she told him, and Tony nodded.

Nikki sat with her arm around Laura. The brunette had been silent the whole time. Finally, she said in a near-whisper, “This is my fault.”

“No, honey,” Nikki said, while everyone else shook their heads. “This is Wagner’s fault. He did this.”

“No, I did.” Laura looked down at her hands, her nails black with Vic’s blood. “I sneezed and Vic looked at me. That’s how this happened. It’s my fault.”

Nikki put her palm to Laura’s cheek. “Oh, honey! No! You couldn’t help it. You didn’t do it on purpose. It’s not your fault. Nobody thinks it’s your fault.”

“I do.” Laura folded her arms across her knees and buried her face in them. Nikki stroked Laura’s back and started to cry again. Annabeth had sobbed until she was hoarse. By then, Brittany and Katie had managed to get there, and their tear-stained faces did nothing to help the little group.

Two more hours passed. Laura half-sat, half-lay with her head on Nikki’s thigh in a near-stupor as Nikki leaned into Tony’s chest on her other side, his chin resting on Nikki’s head. Peyton had taken to pacing, and Katie held the still-sobbing Annabeth. Clayton and Brittany whispered to each other in the corner, her hand stroking his, and a tearful Molly listened while José tried to describe to her the horror they’d found when they walked into the warehouse. The room went silent when a nurse walked in and said, “Cabrizzi?”

Tony bolted upright. “Yeah?”

“The doctor will be in to see you in just a minute.” She walked away. Within a couple of minutes, a young doctor, his scrubs bloody, walked into the waiting room.

“I take it you’re Mr. Cabrizzi’s family?” he asked.

“I’m his brother,” Tony said. “Is he . . .”

“He’s still with us, but he’s very weak. The next twenty-four hours will tell the tale. If he makes it that long, he’s got a good chance. But I’ll warn you; I’m not very optimistic. They’ll be taking him to ICU in a little while, and one of you can go in to see him. We’ll let you know when. So take a deep breath and try to think positively.”

Everyone settled back in to wait. In forty-five minutes a nurse came and asked Tony to follow her. They went down one corridor after another until they came out into the ICU area. She led him to a cubicle and told him, “Five minutes.”

Tony couldn’t have been prepared for what he saw. Vic was on a ventilator, and there were wires and tubes everywhere, every kind of monitor going, and the room was packed with gauze, tape, and all kinds of medications. But what struck him was how small and fragile his huge cousin looked in that bed, how quiet and still he was. He remembered what the nurses had told him when Nikki was in the hospital unconscious, and he stood by the bed and took Vic’s hand to talk to him like they’d told him to do with Nikki.

Tony hoped that if Vic could hear him, he couldn’t hear the pain in Tony’s voice. “Hey, buddy, you might be able to hear me, so I thought I’d tell you that we’re all here. Me, Nikki, the kids – all four of them – Laura, Peyton, José, and Molly. John Henry, Freddie, and Bart on are their way. Steve said he’d be here in about thirty minutes. He had to close everything up before he could leave.” He felt a tear roll down his cheek, and he told Vic, “Everything’s going to be fine. They say you’re good. So get some rest, okay? We’ll be here when you wake up.” He stood and held Vic’s hand until the nurse told him he had to go.

When he made his way back to the waiting room, everyone looked up at him, but he just shook his head, and no one made a sound. As he sat back down, Nikki asked him, “Do you have keys to Vic’s house?”

Before he could answer, Laura said, “I have his keys.” She’d had the forethought to lock up the car and take the keys before an EMT had forced her into an ambulance.

“Honey, give Molly your sizes. Molly, can you go and get Laura some clothes? Nothing fancy, just some sweats or something, a bra, some panties, some socks? Just bring them to Vic’s.”

“Sure.” Molly got a notepad out of her purse.

“I’m taking you to Vic’s so you can get cleaned up. It’ll make you feel better,” Nikki told her. Until that moment, Laura hadn’t realized that she was still covered in blood and brain matter.

It took Nikki a couple of tries to find the right key and unlock the door. Vic’s house was neat as a pin, and she took Laura to Vic’s room so she could use his shower.

Until the hot water hit her skin, Laura hadn’t noticed how tight and knotted up she was. As she stood and let the water wash over her, she looked for whatever it was that Vic used and found a big bottle of body wash that looked like it had come from one of the high-end stores in town. She opened it up and, sure enough, it was that salty pine scent she’d noticed when she lay against him in the warehouse. She poured it out and lathered her body, her hair, washed her face, anything to get the smell of him on her, around her, soaking into her, taking her back to those quiet hours when she’d felt comfortable with a man, the only man she’d felt comfortable with in years.

While Laura showered, Nikki wandered Vic’s house. She drifted into the den, sitting in the chair where he always watched ballgames when they came over, then wandered into the kitchen and smiled at the coffeemaker, the one with only two buttons – Vic said hung-over people should never have to read an owner’s manual to make coffee. She pulled his leather jacket out of the closet in the foyer and put her nose into it. It smelled so much like him that she was sure he’d walk in the door any minute.

She meandered back into the bedroom to wait for Laura to get out of the shower, and she sat down on the bed, looking around the room. The nightstand drawer was open just a crack, and she only pondered the violation of his privacy for a second or two before she opened it. And there it was.

She hadn’t been sure what she was looking for, but she knew it when she saw it. Lying on top of all the junk, a flashlight, a deck of cards, extra shoelaces, and a magazine or two – Playboy and Hustler, of course – was a small frame, kind of worn from handling. In it was a photo, and she recognized it immediately. It had been taken the previous fall during all of the bullshit that had gone on with the vandalism and threats on their lives. Her own face looked out at the camera, wearing a surprisingly sunny smile, and Vic was in it too. She sat on his lap, her arms around his neck, and while she looked at the camera, he didn’t; he was looking at her, and the expression on his face took her breath away. It was pure adoration and devotion – pure love. Nikki clutched the little frame to her chest and began to cry all over again. After all the months of hoping neither of them would look at the other that way again, all Nikki could think about was hoping that she’d get a chance to see Vic look at her like that just one more time.