Total pages in book: 56
Estimated words: 54572 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 273(@200wpm)___ 218(@250wpm)___ 182(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 54572 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 273(@200wpm)___ 218(@250wpm)___ 182(@300wpm)
I exhaled shakily. “And Char?”
“She’s stable,” the nurse explained “For now. They had to shock her back. She’s in ICU. They had a bed open and needs that level of care because we are overwhelmed in the back. Once we confirmed they had room, they moved her on upstairs. We’ve ordered labs, but the doc in ICU will be handling her care now. For your report, though, there’s a tox screen pending.”
Tox screen. I closed my eyes. Images flashed, powder exploding in the air, the ex’s glassy stare, the chemical bite in the apartment air.
“What drugs?” I asked.
“We don’t know yet,” she shared what I subconsciously knew but obviously wasn’t clear-headed enough to think about. “That’s what the screen is for.”
My phone buzzed in my pocket for the third time in a minute. I hadn’t heard it over the pounding in my ears. I pulled it out and saw Nita’s name lighting up the screen.
I answered on instinct, voice low. “Nita.”
“Where are you?” she blurted, words tumbling out like she couldn’t catch her breath. “Where is she? Lamonte said, he said he was going to check and then he didn’t call back, he hasn’t answered. Dante, are you at her place? I’m on my way, I’m stuck in traffic.”
“Hospital,” I shared. “Washington Memorial. ER entrance.”
There was a choked sound on the line. “Is she—”
“She’s alive,” I cut her off quickly, because I couldn’t make her wait for that word. “They shocked her back. She’s in ICU. She’s stable right now.”
Nita made a sound like she was trying not to sob while driving. “Oh my God.”
“And Lamonte,” My voice broke because I failed him. “Lamonte’s in surgery.”
“What?” she whispered.
I gripped the phone tighter. “Shot. He’s in emergency surgery.”
“No, no, no—” Her voice fractured. “Lamonte was with you. How?”
“Just get here,” I said, because I couldn’t explain it over a phone, not without reliving the sound of the gunshot. “Please.”
“I’m coming,” she replied, and then the line went dead. That was Nita, though, it wasn’t meant to be rude or harsh even if I felt like I deserved the world to turn their backs on me because I didn’t protect my partner. Nita was just a to the point woman who didn’t waste words.
I sat there for a long time after that, staring at the blank phone screen, trying to understand how the night could shift so fast. How a routine shift could turn into the kind of call you never washed off, no matter how many showers you took. It seared a man’s soul.
A doctor walked past, glanced at the blood on me, then kept going.
I wiped my palms on my thighs. It didn’t help ease any of my tension.
In moments, Nita burst through the ER doors like a storm. Hair pulled back, face bare, eyes wide and wet. She scanned the waiting area until she found me, and then she was moving fast, almost stumbling in her haste.
“Where is she?” she demanded, voice shaking. “Where is Char?”
I stood up too quickly and swayed. My legs felt like they’d forgotten how to hold me. “ICU.”
She grabbed my forearm like she needed something solid to anchor to. “Take me to her.”
“They won’t let you in,” I explained, because the words were a knife and I had to make them cut quickly.
Her grip tightened. “What do you mean they won’t—she’s my sister.”
“They’re limiting visitors,” I stated. “She coded. They’re running labs. Tox screen. They’re trying to figure out what’s in her system. They put her in ICU because the ED is crammed to the hilt. No room for her and better care upstairs.”
Nita blinked hard, her throat bobbing as she swallowed a sob. “Where’s Lamonte?”
“In surgery,” I said. “Trauma unit down the other hall. Bullet near an artery. I was waiting for you.”
Her face went white. “Oh my God.”
“I’m trying to get updates,” I said. “They’re moving fast for both of them.”
Nita’s gaze dropped to my sleeves, to the dried blood smeared along the cuff. Her hand flew to her mouth. “Dante.”
I looked away. I couldn’t handle the look in her eyes, like she was seeing the aftermath stamped onto me.
“How bad is it?” she asked, voice small now. “Are they going to make it?”
I stared at the floor, jaw clenched so hard my teeth hurt. “Bad enough.”
Nita’s breathing turned ragged. “Was it him?”
I didn’t have to ask which him. She knew and so did I. “Yes.” I nodded.
A sound came out of her that didn’t even feel human, more wounded animal than woman. “I knew it,” she whispered fiercely. “I knew he wasn’t done. Char said he’d been coming around again, showing up places—she downplayed it. She always downplays it like if she says it small enough, it won’t be real.”
Anger flared in my chest, hot and sharp. Not at Char. Never at Char. At the man who kept crawling back into her life like a parasite.