by Sean Michael
But from one growly report from Max, Gordon was making the nursing staff’s life a misery, even as weak as he was. It was a worry, but one that could wait….
He had no clue how the kids who had taken Josie were doing, but frankly, he didn’t care beyond wanting them in a jail cell for a good, long time. He sighed and tried to push it all away. He needed to get some sleep because tomorrow was promising to be a bear.
“Brock? Brock, I’m here. You can go home, now.” Oh, God. Ellora.
He got up and made his way quickly out the door to where Ellora was being held back by the cop assigned to keep Josie safe.
“Would you be quiet—she’s sleeping!”
“I talked to Mom. We’ll just take her to my house until….” She started fluttering, tearing up.
He patted her back awkwardly and pulled her over a few feet away from the uniformed cop. “Eric asked me to take her.”
“Why?” The word was immediate, suspicious, and remarkably unfriendly.
“Because that’s what he wanted.” He figured that would go over better than “because he didn’t want you to take her.”
“He’s in a coma. She needs her family.”
He folded his arms across his chest. It was the last thing Eric had asked him to do—he was going to make sure it was done. “With his last conscious breath, he told me he wanted me to take her, not you.”
El’s eyes went wide. “You bastard!”
“Hey, I tried to be nice about it—you weren’t going to let it go.”
“She needs her family!” El was about to lose it.
He grabbed her arm and dragged her off down the hall. “Would you keep your voice down? Right now she needs her sleep.”
“He’s not conscious. What if he doesn’t wake up?” Jesus.
“You would go right there, wouldn’t you? What if he does, El? What if he wakes up tomorrow and finds out you stormed in here and started upsetting Josie?”
“That’s not what I meant… I meant….” Her eyes filled with tears.
He sighed and patted her back—he was going to be an old hand at this soon. “Look. She’s fine. Go home and get some sleep, okay? There’s nothing anyone can do here.”
“Mother is in with him. Did… do you want to go over and see him?”
His jaw tightened, his teeth clenching. Did he? Yeah, he probably did. But he’d made Eric a promise. “I have to stay with Josie.”
“I’ll go to the house and get her some clothes and a toy, if you have a key….”
Why wouldn’t she have a key? He had Eric’s wallet, keys, phone. The EMT had made sure he had it. He found the house key and took it off the ring, handed it over, trying to ignore the drop of blood staining the metal.
“Okay. You should pack a suitcase for her, clothes, toys, things she’s gonna need for a few days, then bring it back here.”
“I will.” She nodded, tried to smile. “I need your cell number, huh?”
He rattled off the number. “Just don’t abuse it, hmm?”
“Fuck you.” Now, that was blunt.
“You’re not my type.” God, no. In fact, she made him a little filled with rage.
A nurse stopped at the door to Josie’s room and spoke to the cop, who stepped aside, letting her in.
“I have to go,” he told El, not waiting for an answer before turning on his heel and heading back into Josie’s room.
The nurse was tiptoeing around the room, checking on the little girl without waking her, nodding to him silently. Thank God.
She seemed happy enough with the things she checked, and she left quietly.
Brock sat again, but he couldn’t close his eyes, couldn’t make himself relax. He could see Eric, covered in blood, struggling to breathe. Looking at him like he could fix all this, make it all better.
Jesus, he didn’t even know if they’d caught the kids who’d done this.
Then there was Gordon. The last he’d seen of the man, he was bleeding all over his white shirt.
If he could get ahold of Max again, he’d bet Max could much update him on everything; the big cop was Gordon’s lover. He stood up, headed for the door, dialed Gordon’s cell.
Surprisingly, Gordon himself answered. “Boss.”
“Hey, you’re still conscious.” That was a good sign. Although Gordon was so stubborn, the man could have been at death’s door.
“Yeah. I had two through-and-throughs. Shoulder and thigh. You?”
“Not a scratch.” He’d been winded when he’d fallen rescuing Josie, but that was the worst of it for him. Aside from suddenly having to play Daddy. “You know what’s going on?”
“Yeah. How much you want?”
“Everything. Start with Eric.” He didn’t want to spend the entire conversation dreading the news.
“He’s in a coma. They think he’ll wake up soon. He’s…. Well, he’s torn up, but he’ll live, they think.”
He didn’t realize quite how tense he’d been about that until he heard the words and every bone in his body disappeared. It was a good thing he had a chair handy. As it was, he nearly dropped the phone.
“That’s good news,” he finally managed.
“Yeah. The one kid didn’t make it, Boss. The one shooting. The one on the four-wheeler is still at large.”
“Who took the kid out?”
“Max.” Gordon’s voice was flat.
Shit.
“It was a good shooting, though, right?” The kid had been shooting at everything that moved.
“Yeah, but you know how it is. He was fifteen. It’s gonna be… an issue.”
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m sorry, man. Max saved all our lives, though. They got the girl in custody?”
“Both girls, yeah. The one girl worked at the day care part-time. No one ever questioned her when she took the little girl out.”
He shook his head. “Why, Gord? Why’d they do it? They know teachers don’t make jack shit.”
“The little redhead said that they were mad about some paper that was coming due. They wanted more time.”
“So they kidnap the teacher’s kid and ask for a hundred thousand dollar ransom? They fail at life, let alone a paper.”
“I know, Boss. It’s something else.”
“There anything else I need to know?”
“There’s one still out there. Your man’s going to need some help when he gets out of here, and I’ll probably need two weeks off.”
“Whatever you need, Gordon—in-home nursing, whatever, it’s yours.” He’d do the same for Eric. In fact, he was moving Eric and Josie in with him, where there was proper security, until the lunatic still out there was caught.
“Thanks, Boss. You need help, holler.”
“I know. Thanks. Go see your man and let him take care of you.”
“Yeah.” The phone went dead, and he tried to breathe again.
He started making a list of things Stephanie needed to deal with for him. Kidproofing his place. A bed and nursing care for Eric. Extra security.
When all else failed, work.
BROCK COULD hear someone crying. It was annoying, and he put his arm over his ear. Whatever it was, he didn’t want to have to deal with it.
He was still tired, damn it. He’d been up late.
“Daddy! I want my DADDY!”
He jerked wide-awake. Some things were impossible to sleep through. “Josie.”
“Daddy!” She was standing up on the bed, clinging to the bars, crying and screaming, her black hair wild around her. He remembered pictures at his nonna’s house of himself with his hair looking very much the same way. Weird.
“Josie!” He stood and went to pick her up. “Hey. Hey, it’s okay. It’s okay. I’m Brock.”
“Daddy. Daddy. Daddy.”
“I was good enough last night,” he pointed out, hand patting her back.
She sniffled, snuggled in. “Daddy. Daddy.”
Maybe Brock was hard to say. “I’m your daddy’s friend, B.”
“B?”
This was quieter at least. “Daddy. B.”
“Yeah, we’ll see if we can find out how he’s doing, hmm?”
Tiny little arms wrapped around his neck, holding on tight. Oh, that was sweet.
He carried her out into the corridor.
The police officer looked up at him, eyebrow rising. “Everything okay, sir?”
“Yeah, we just need to find out what’s going on with her daddy.” He wasn’t sure if seeing Eric hurt would be a good idea, but they both needed to know how Eric was.
“Would you like an escort, sir?”
“Do we need one?”
“Probably not, but it’s my job.” The guy winked, smiled.
Brock actually chuckled, and he was surprised by how good that felt. “Let’s go, then.”
“I’ll radio over.”
They hit the nurses’ station first and got a tight-lipped look. “I’m taking her. I just wanted to let you know where she was.” Brock was not taking no for an answer. The nurse finally gave them a terse nod and he started walking, moving across the hospital corridor.
“Are you hungry?” he asked Josie. Had she had anything to eat aside from that cookie since yesterday afternoon? Hell, had he?
She looked at him, frowned. “Bekfast?”
“Yeah. Yeah, eggs and bacon and toast.” A cup of fucking coffee or four.
“Eggies.” That was a very definite nod.
“Cool.” He’d bet the cafeteria could handle eggies.
“Any news on Eric?” Brock asked the officer as he finished on the walkie-talkie.
“No change, sir. Stable but unresponsive.”
“What if we have eggies before we go see your daddy? I bet you’re hungry.”
She nodded hard and gave him a beautiful smile. He could see why Eric had fallen in love with her. He smiled back and they turned right at the next corridor, following the signs for the cafeteria.
“Oooh… muffies.” She pointed to the danishes in the display case. “Please.”
He nodded and shifted her to one arm. He put a tray on the metal bars and grabbed a strawberry one. “This one good?”
She looked, nodded, then pointed. “O juice.”
“Orange juice, okay.” He grabbed a blueberry danish for himself, and then the container of orange juice. “How do you like your eggies?”
She looked at him, utterly confused.
“Um… you like your eggs with runny yellows or hard yellows?”
“No goo.”
“Ah.” He turned to the lady behind the counter. “Two egg specials, one over hard, the other over easy, one with bacon, one with sausage, please.”
“Yes, sir. Would you like coffee?”
“God, yes.”
She chuckled and pointed to the carafe next to the cash register.
It didn’t take long for their breakfasts to be ready, but with the full tray, there was no way he could carry it and her. “I’m going to have to set you down.”
She blinked at him. “Chair?”
“Yeah, in a minute. We need to pay first, okay?” He set her down. Her arms wrapped around his leg. He looked down at her and chuckled. “Well, you’re a little monkey, aren’t you?”
Those black eyes looked up at him and went wide. “Not a monkey! A Josie!” She looked at him and laughed.
“Yeah, you are.” He smiled down at her. She was cute, all right.
“That’ll be twelve-fifty.”
He looked up and paid the cashier.
“She’s beautiful. How old is she?”
“Uh… three. She’s just turned three.”
“Oh, she’s a doll. The booster seats are over in the corner.”
“Booster seats?” What the hell?
“Yes, sir. For your little girl?”
“Okay, thanks.” He wasn’t sure what a booster seat was, but he guessed Josie could live without one. He gave the cashier another nod and gathered up the tray.
The uniform gave him a smirk. “I’ll get it while you find a table, sir.”
He growled a little under his breath, Josie clinging to his leg while he walked. Step. Drag. Step. Drag. He picked a table close to the cashier’s stand.
Once he got the tray on the table, he picked her back up and sat with her in his lap.
“Want Daddy.” She looked about as confused as he felt.
“I know. I want him, too, huh?” He squeezed her a bit. “Let’s eat breakfast and then go find him, huh?”
“’Kay. Find.” She grabbed the danish, little fingers pushing in.
“Yeah. Here.” He took the pastry from her. “You split it in half, see? Like this.”
He cut the danish in half and put some butter on it. She ate about half of the muffin and four bites of eggs before she started to flutter.
The officer finally came back with what had to be the booster seat.
“Oh, man—she’s not going to sit in that.” So far she hadn’t been interested in not being held.
“No?”
Josie shook her head. “No. Stay with… with… with the man.”
“Brock. My name is Brock.”
“Rock?”
“Close. B-B-Brock. With a B.”
“B. B. B.” She leaned in, fingers playing with the buttons on his not-too-terribly-fresh shirt.
“Yeah, like buttons.” God, he needed to go home. Change clothes.
“Brock Vencenza. What are you doing with my granddaughter?” God, Eric’s mother looked like shit.
Josie clung harder. He slid his arm around her. “Feeding her breakfast.”
Maybe Ann had news about Eric.
“I know Eric hasn’t talked to me in a long time, but I can’t believe he’d want you to have her!”
Josie whimpered, pressing closer to him. What? Okay, he needed Eric to wake up and give him some history here.
“I’m looking after her until he’s better. He’ll be staying with me, too.” He could afford the care Eric was going to need. Not to mention the security.
“Not if I can help it, no matter what his goddamned will says! I’m his mother!”
“He’s not dead, Ann!” Damn it, Eric had better wake the fuck up and soon.
Josie started to cry, fingers in his shirt. “B. B. B.”
“Okay, Josie, don’t cry, please.” He patted her back and glared at Ann. “We’re going now.”
“See? You made her cry!” She reached for Josie and Josie squealed in panic, holding on to him.
“No, ma’am—that one’s all on you.” He got up and stepped away from the table, away from Eric’s mother.
“Daddy.” Josie sounded very sure of herself.
“That’s right; we’re going to go find your daddy.”
He caught sight of himself, walking by the window. Holding a child. Weird.
He could see the officer trailing them, but he couldn’t see Ann. Thank God. He didn’t want a scene in the hospital. He had a hunch he should call Devon, his lawyer, sooner rather than later to get this all sorted.
“Turn right here, sir. Then we’ll take the elevator to three and cross the skyway.”
“Thanks.” It was nice having someone not wanting to know why he had Josie. “Do you have kids?”
“Yes, sir. I have four.”
“Four? Wow.” Four. That was a lot of rug rats running around. “Then maybe you can tell me—do you think it’s a good idea to bring her in to see her f-a-t-h-e-r if he’s still in a coma?”
The officer took a deep breath. “You need to see how extensive the medical equipment is. If it’s not too bad, say he’s a-s-l-e-e-p.”
“Okay.” He nodded. He could do that. He hoped that was the way he could go. She was going to freak out if she couldn’t see Eric—as it was, Brock was surprised she’d taken to him so well.
“She loves you. It’s good to see.”
He drummed up a smile for the officer, but it wasn’t real. How could she love him already? She’d only just met him.
They headed up in the elevator, Josie
clinging and holding on. She was certainly attached to him. He held her a little tighter. He’d do right by her and Eric, make sure Eric had plenty of time and room to recover.
“Would you like to come down the hall with me and find some juice?” The police officer pointed out the door that said “Eric Wilson.”
Josie looked at him.
“That would be good, honey. Then the nice policeman will look after you while I check with the doctors and find out where your daddy is so we can see him, okay?”
Josie frowned but went with the officer, looking tiny.
Brock took a deep breath and turned to the room where Eric was. Steeled, he went through the door.
God, Eric looked pale. Pale and drawn and bruised. There was a tube in his mouth, one in his nose. How could he bring Josie in to see her daddy when he looked like this?
A nurse came in, smiled at him. “Can I help you?”
“I’m Brock Vencenza, Eric’s partner. How’s he doing?”
“They’re going to wake him up today, I believe. Dr. Marshall thinks he’s ready.”
“Good, good. When can I bring his daughter in to see him? She’s three and she’s been asking for him.”
“I don’t know when he’ll come out of the coma. But you can go ahead and bring her in. Hearing her voice just might help.”
“Okay, let me get her.” He spent a moment looking down at Eric, fingers sliding over the back of one pale hand.
“He’s very strong. He’ll make it.”
Brock nodded. Eric was stubborn, anyway. And the man knew what he wanted, went for it even if it meant sacrificing the things he loved.
He headed out to find Josie. She was still holding on to the officer’s hand, jabbering away.
“Hey, Josie. You want to come see your daddy now?”
“Daddy!” She squealed and ran for him.
He panicked for a moment before he realized she was still little, and he braced himself for the impact.
Tiny arms wrapped around him. “Daddy. Daddydaddydaddy.”
“Yeah, we’re going to go see him. You have to be gentle, though, because Daddy is very tired and is sleeping, okay?”
“Seeping? I wake!” She clapped and laughed.
“Maybe, honey. But he needs his sleep, okay? He’s really, really tired. Can you go in and see him even if he doesn’t wake up?” He didn’t want her to be upset if Eric didn’t wake up for her.