I swept her hair from her face and looked her in the eyes. “Don’t cry. She’ll wake up soon.”
“Five minutes,” she said through the tears. “If I could have just got there five minutes earlier.”
I traced my fingers along the outline of her jaw. “Shhh. I’m proud of you, baby. You saved her life.”
She bit into her lip and nodded an ever so slight repeated nod. Then, her eyes fell closed.
Mine soon followed.
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
Chapter One Hundred Fifty
Sandy
Eddie wasn’t my child, but after what I’d been through, I certainly looked at her no differently than if she were. I’d come to realize in the 36 hours following the events of that night that I wasn’t falling in love with Smokey, I loved him.
It may have been slight, and over time I was sure that it might grow, but it was love. I was sure of it.
Everything I wanted in a man, he possessed. It was seeing him as a caring father, however, that seemed to cause me to realize that my love for him was real.
The fact that he was kind, passionate, caring, sexy, humorous, and intelligent mattered, but they were not all that mattered. His ability to be an outstanding father was much more important than any of his other qualities.
Smokey folded his arms over his chest. “Let me ask you a question, Doc.”
The doctor, man in his early forties, and not the doctor from the previous day, let out a sigh.
Smokey shot him a shitty look. “You bored, Doc?”
“No.” He glanced at his watch and then looked up. “You had a question?”
Smokey’s eyes narrowed. “You need to be somewhere?”
“I’ve got…I have several patients that I need to--”
Smokey motioned to the loveseat with his eyes. “Have a seat Doc.” He looked at me. “Shut the door, Sandy.”
Oh shit.
“I really…I need to--” the doctor stammered.
I pushed the door closed and walked back into the room.
“Have a seat, Doc,” Smokey said in a stern tone.
Nervously, the doctor sat down.
Smokey dropped his voice to a calm tone. “Talk to me, Doc. Do you have kids?”
“I do.”
“If this was your daughter, what would you do?”
“As parents, we’re forced to make decisions for our minor children. The decisions we make--”
“Stop the textbook bullshit, motherfucker. You gave me two options. Keep her on the meds, or take her off them. What would you do? Honest fucking response is all I want. Your daughter is in that bed. You need to make a decision, and you’ve got five seconds to do it.”
“One.”
“Two.”
“Three.”
The doctor cleared his throat. “I’d take her off the medication.”
Smokey’s head cocked to the side. “Why’d you recommend we leave her on them?”
“It’s the safest thing to do, but there are risks inherent to--”
“Stop. If we take her off, what happens?”
“She may wake up. She may not. In the drug-induced state, however, we can only monitor what we believe to be her conditions. In this state, one would never know the improvements that might be made without the medication. It’s simply impossible to tell.”
Smokey looked at me.
I shrugged.
“Help me out here, baby.”
“I think. She’s strong. She’s just like you, Smokey. She’s a little bitty you. She’s a fighter. I say take her off and let her come out of it. I think she’ll--”
He looked at the doctor. “Take her off the meds.”
“Smokey,” I gasped. “I don’t want you to do anything--”
“We made this decision, baby. You and me.” He shot the doctor a look. “Can we get this done sometime today, Doc?”
Smokey’s sarcastic tone caused the doctor to jump from his seat. “I’ll. We’ll get that process underway.”
“Thanks Doc.”
As the doctor fled the room, Smokey took me in his arms.
I’d made a parental decision, and as much as I wanted it to, it didn’t feel good.
In fact, it hurt.
As we stood in each other’s arms at the foot of the bed, he began to hum. The dull drone from his chest provided a comfort I hadn’t felt in days. I closed my eyes and allowed myself to drift away.
Soon, the swaying turned into a slow dance.
It was the slowest of dances, but it was a dance nonetheless.
Eddie’s medication stopped, but the dancing continued. Driven by a tune that only Smokey was hearing, we shuffled gracefully across the floor.
And, I fell a little further in love with Grayson Wallace.
Chapter One Hundred Fifty-One
Smokey
My eyes shot open.
I glanced around the room, certain something had happened.
I could feel my heart beating in my throat.
“Sandy,” I whispered. “Wake up.”
She opened her eyes. “What happened?”
“I don’t know. I thought I heard something.”
She looked in either direction, and then at me. “There’s nobody here. It was probably a dream.”
I looked at the monitor. Everything looked the same. It hadn’t changed in three days.
Frustrated, I stood.
“It’s late, get some rest,” she said.”
I shook my head. “I can’t sleep. I need a cup of coffee.”
Beep.
Beep. Beep.
Beep.
I spun around.
Beep. Beep.
Beep.
Beep. Beep.
I rushed to the side of the bed and looked at her.
She opened her eyes, blinked, and then opened them again.
My heart shot to my throat. I rushed to the edge of the bed and took her hand in mine. “I’m here, Lumpy. Daddy’s here.”
Tears came, flowing down my cheeks like a river. My bottom lip quivered uncontrollably.
“Sandy,” I said, my voice nothing more than a gasp for breath. “She’s,,,she’s awake.”
“I’m here,” she said from the other side of the bed.
I looked at her and then at Eddie.
With her face still bandaged, and nothing but her swollen eyes, and the tops of her cheeks exposed, she looked like a mummy.
A beautiful mummy.
A tube in her throat prevented her from speaking.
“I…I love…you,” I said.
She blinked.
“Eddie? I love you, too,” Sandy said.
She blinked again.
As the doctors and nurses rushed in, I reluctantly stepped aside. Sandy rushed to me, and wrapped her arms around me.
Together, we shed a tear.
But this time they were tears of joy.
Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Two
Sandy
They had just taken the tubes out of her throat, and although her bandages hadn’t changed, she could at least speak. According to the doctors, she would be taken out of ICU by the end of the day. Eager to hear everything she had to say, Smokey and I stood on opposites sides of the bed and waited with baited breath.
He fed her a few more ice chips. “Does it hurt?”
She blinked.
“Can you talk?”
She widened her eyes.
“Maybe,” she whispered. “I love…” Her eyes rolled in my direction. She blinked and then looked at Smokey. “Both of you.”
“We love you, too.”
“I uhhm. I can’t remember…”
Smokey looked at me, and then at Eddie. “Don’t worry about what happened that night. You need to get better so we can get you out of here.”
I hoped she’d never be able to remember what happened. I feared I’d never forget it, but to think of her recalling the events of that night made me feel ill.
“My ar
m hurts,” she whispered.
Smokey sighed. “It’s broken.”
“That sucks.”
“Could be a lot worse.”
She blinked a few times, and then looked at the cup of ice. After Smokey gave her a few more ice chips, she continued.
“I want pie. Apple pie.”
Smokey laughed. “I’ll check with the doctor. Maybe in a few days.”
“Someone was. A guy tried to. Where’s my ring?” she stammered.
I held up my hand. “Right here, waiting for you to wake up.”
She blinked.
Smokey looked up. “Jesus fucking Christ.”
I turned toward the door. Dressed in a burgundy set of scrubs and a new pair of tennis shoes, P-Nut sauntered into the room.
“Someone order a sexy nurse?” he asked.
“What in the absolute hell are you doing, Nut?”
“They wouldn’t let me up here for three days. Fellas downstairs said she woke up, so I went and bought these. Had to do something.”
“You crazy prick.” Smokey looked him up and down, and then shook his head. “What’s covering your tattoos?”
I hadn’t noticed until Smokey said so, but the tattoos that covered P-Nut’s forearms were gone.
He peeled a flesh-colored sleeve up his arm and exposed the tattoos. “TatJacket. Got it at the same place.”
Smokey shook his head and laughed, honestly out and out laughed, for the first time in days.
P-Nut wedged his way between me and the bed. “What’s up, Ed?”
“Just chillin’,” she whispered. “You?”
“Same. You’ve got a pretty big fan group downstairs, kid.”
“Do I?”
He nodded. “I don’t know. Maybe twenty or thirty. Sometimes more, sometimes less.”
She looked at Smokey.
“Don’t look at me,” he said. “I haven’t so much as left this room.”
She looked at P-Nut. “Who?”
“Most of the time, Richard’s down there. His parents came a few times. Some of Red and White’s best. The FFMC. Their Ol’ Ladies.”
He looked at Smokey. “And, that piece of shit Tank kept comin’ by and askin’ questions. I told him to kick rocks, and he hasn’t been back since.”
“Red and White?” she asked.
“Hells Angels.”
She nodded.
He looked at Smokey. “That Bama fucker’s been here three days.”
“He’s good people,” Smokey said.
“Don’t know about that. The fucker kept tryin’ to talk to me, so I went and sat by some family that was waiting on grandma to get out of hip surgery for a while. Then, I sat with some sexy bitch while she waited for her husband to get out of heart surgery. Bitch was a MILF, I’m tellin’ ya. Pretty much been bored to death waitin’.”
P-Nut was weird, but I really liked him. Having everyone together, as strange as it seemed to admit, made me feel like we were a family. The thought of a room filled with people who cared enough about Eddie’s welfare to stay and wait for the three days was comforting. It proved just how sincere Smokey’s friends were. They were an extension, so to speak, of our immediate family.
While P-Nut talked to Eddie, I held her hand in mine. Within no time, I was daydreaming about living a life that also included the child Smokey and I shared. After getting through the situation we were in, we’d undoubtedly be able to handle anything that life tossed our way.
Anything at all.
Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Three
Smokey
Eddie was finally home, and short of a few stiches and a cast on her arm, she appeared unchanged. I couldn’t help but wonder how the trauma she had been through might affect her, but as she had yet to discuss the events of that night, I had no idea what to expect.
It seemed all she remembered was a man trying to take her ring, and short of asking about it once, that night was never spoken of again.
While Sandy worked her shift at the seafood restaurant, Eddie and I sat at the kitchen table and ate apple pie.
She took a bite of the pie, and then a drink of milk. “It feels good to be home.”
“I bet. I can’t stand hospitals. Places creep me out.”
“I don’t think I like them, either.”
I admired her for a moment, and then cut a piece of pie with the edge of my fork. “Pie’s good. It was nice of Richard’s mom to send it.”
She looked up. “Do you think you and Sandy will get married?”
Her question caught me off guard. I stared at the pie for a moment, and then looked up. I knew how I felt, but had no idea how Eddie would feel knowing.
One thing I couldn’t do, however, was lie to her.
“I think we will, eventually, why?”
She shrugged. “I really like her.”
“What would you think if we did?”
She poked her pie a few times, and then looked at me. “I’d like it.”
“Would you?”
Her eyes lost focus and she gave a slow nod. “Yeah. I would.”
While I fidgeted with my pie, my questions about that night were answered.
“I uhhm. He came up behind me, and grabbed my shoulder,” she said, her voice without emotion.
I looked at her. Seeing her go through the hell of reliving that night would kill me. “Eddie, I don’t think it’s a good idea--”
“I’m okay. Let me tell you what happened.”
I wanted to know, I just didn’t want her to tell me.
“Are you sure?” I asked.
“Yeah. I’ve been thinking about it a lot.”
I let out a sigh and pushed myself away from the table. “Okay.”
Her eyes dropped to the table. “He asked for my ring, and I told him no. Then, he grabbed my arm. I uhhm. I hit him a few times, but it’s different. It’s not like kyorugi or shihap.”
She let out a sigh and looked up. “He uhhm. He hit me in the face and knocked me down--”
“Ed…”
She raised her good hand. “Let me talk.”
It hurt to hear it, but if she needed to rid herself of the memories, I needed to let her.
“Okay.”
“He kept trying to take it, and I poked my thumbs in his eyes, you know, like you taught me.”
I grinned and nodded. “Good for you.”
“He uhhm. So, he was hitting me and stuff, and I screamed for Sandy. And then I blacked out or something. It gets weird after that. But then, I heard her.”
“Sandy?”
“Uh huh.”
She began to poke her pie with her fork. “She uhhm. She screamed. I remember that. She uhhm. She said…”
She inhaled a long breath and looked up. “Hey mother effer. Get off my daughter.”
I chuckled and cried at the same time. I quickly wiped my eyes and looked at her. “She said mother effer?”
She shook her head. “She said the other one. She screamed it.”
I hoped it was all she remembered.
“Is that all you remember?”
She shook her head. “I remember the sound of the gun. And then of her pulling him off of. She uhhm. She pulled him off me. And she talked to me. She called me my baby. And she said she loved me.” She met my gaze. “You call me baby.”
My throat tightened.
I swallowed hard and I nodded. “Yeah, I do.”
“I remember the ambulance guys. They were talking on the way to the hospital. Said the guy was dead. She shot him in the head.”
“Eddie, it’s not anything that needs to be--”
“I’m glad she shot him, dad. I hate to say it, but I really am.” She huffed a sigh and raised her cast. “Look at me. I mean, really. Yeah, he needed to be shot.”
I couldn’t agree with her more, but refrained from giving an opinion.
“I’m just glad it’s over,” I said.
She smashed her pie with the tines of her fork, and after flattening it into a pile, she looked up and
nodded. “Yeah, me too.”
I pushed my plate to the side.
Two months prior, marrying Sandy was unthinkable. Now, it was all I could think about. It had very little to do with Eddie’s question, though. I desperately wanted to do everything right, be married, have a family, and raise our baby in as conventional of an atmosphere as a 1%er and a former stripper could.
I looked at Eddie. “What if it was sooner, rather than later?”
“What if what was sooner?”
“Sandy and I getting married.”
She smiled. “Far as I’m concerned, the sooner the better.”
Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Four
Sandy
Eddie and Richard were on a date, and Smokey and I were on pins and needles since she’d left. While Smokey went to the bathroom for what seemed like the tenth time of the night, I sat and listened to the music.
The doorbell buzzing caused me to jump from my seat.
“Get that, will ya?” Smokey shouted from the bathroom. “Probably Cholo dropping off a check.”
I walked to the door, opened it, and gawked at who stood on the porch. He was dressed differently than he was at the police station, but I’d never forget his face.
Detective Watson.
My throat constricted and my mouth went dry. “Do you. Do you have a uhhm. A search warrant?”
He blinked and then coughed a laugh. “Excuse me?”
“If you don’t have a search warrant, you can’t come in. House rules.”
“I need to talk to your significant other,” he said.
“Sorry. No can do.”
“I think he’ll want to hear what I have to say, and I do believe you owe me a favor.”
I heard the bathroom door open and then close.
“Smokey, the cops are here.”
“What?”
Smokey stepped between me and the door, and looked at Watson. “You lost?”
Watson shook his head. “Need to talk to you for a moment.”
“Concerning what?”
He glanced over each shoulder, and then met Smokey’s hardened gaze. “May I come in?”
Filthy F*ckers: The Complete Series Box Set Page 75