The Tempted Series: Collectors Edition

by Janine Infante Bosco

  The male officer looked at me placing a hand on my arm. “Have you been checked out?” he asked softly.

  “Not until I know what’s going on with Mikey,” I say stubbornly. He opened his mouth to say something, but my father walks over to us.

  “I’m ready to give my statement,” he says, shoving his hands into his pockets as he looks at me. “Give me a moment with my daughter and then I will meet you in the cafeteria,” the cops look at one another confused but then they turn to my father and nod.

  “I hope your boyfriend makes it,” the female officer says before walking alongside her partner in the direction of where I assume the cafeteria is. I wait for them to disappear through the doors before looking back at my dad. He leans forward and presses his lips to my forehead.

  “I love you, Nikki. I don’t deserve to ask anything of you but I’m selfish enough to ask that you don’t doubt my love for you. I have made very bad decisions and maybe I was stupid enough to think that they never would affect you or your sister, but I swear to you I never wanted to hurt either of you. I only wanted to give you two girls the best possible life I was capable of. I swear on Val’s grave may he rest in peace that I never wanted to hurt Michael either my intentions were pure when it came to him.” He lifted his hands from his pockets and cradled my face in his palms. “I’m sorry for every bad thing that ever touched you,” he whispered pausing as if to memorize every feature of my face before smiling at me sadly. “I love you, my little girl.”

  His thumbs brushed away the tears that fell from my eyes before dropping his hands and looking over my shoulder towards Aunt Gina.

  “Stay with her. Don’t let her wait alone.”

  “You’re just going to give your statement, right?” she asked skeptically.

  “Yes,” he said with a slight nod. He gave me one final look before starting to walk away from me.

  “Dad!” I said, watching as he stopped mid-stride, looking back over his shoulder at me. “I love you too,” I said, choking with emotion.

  The corners of his lips curved as he smiled at me, placing his hand over his heart and winked at me. I watched him walk away from me and couldn’t help but feel as if this too was a pivotal moment in my life one that I’d never forget. The moment my father told me, he loved me before walking away from me. Aunt Gina’s arms wrapped around me and I turned in her embrace, wishing my mother were here with me.

  “Are you the family of Michael Valente?” I heard someone ask, forcing me to pull away from Aunt Gina and turn to face the doctor that was removing his mask.

  “Yes,” I said hoarsely grabbing onto my Aunt’s hand for support, fearing what he was about to tell me.

  He took a deep breath as his eyes found mine. “It was touch and go for a moment, but he’s stable. The bullet ruptured his spleen, so we had to perform a splenectomy. He was brought in just in time if we had waited any longer to do the surgery he would’ve died,” he paused for a moment. “I’m pretty sure we were able to get all the fragments of the bullet too.”

  “He’s going to be okay?” I asked disbelievingly.

  “He has quite the recovery ahead of him and it’s very important for him to be monitored with any abdominal injury such as a gunshot we worry about infection. Lucky for him the bullet didn’t puncture his stomach or his intestines,” he looked at me for a moment. “They’re moving him to recovery, but it will be a little while before you can see him so why don’t you let me call one of the residents to check you out.”

  I opened my mouth to object, but he held his hand up so he could continue without interruption.

  “If I had just gone through what he did the first person I’d want to see is my wife, but it would absolutely destroy me if she looked like you do.”

  “Okay,” I said reluctantly. “But then you’ll let me see him?” I asked tiredly.

  “You have my word,” the doctor said. I sighed, telling myself that I just needed to hold out a little longer before I saw Mikey.

  My Mikey.

  I glanced up at the tiled ceiling and silently thanked the man upstairs for answering my prayers and restoring my faith.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  I opened my eyes, trying to make out what that beeping noise was and where it was coming from. I felt woozy like I was drunk and my body weighed me down. I knew even if I attempted to lift my head that I wouldn’t be able. I was suffering the world’s worst hangover at least that’s what I thought until I realized I had a tube up my nose.

  It all started to come back to me slowly the shootout at Temptations going on the run with Nikki realizing I love her only for her to be taken from me. Everything just hit me like a Mack truck taking me back to chasing the sounds of her cries praying to God that I could save her. She was tied to that chair crying and there was a man with a gun aiming it straight at her. I ran as fast as my legs could carry me, shielding her body with mine as the bullet hit me. I hear her shrill cries as she calls out for me. Did I save her? Did he get her after he shot me?

  I start to lift myself up desperate to see her to know whether she survived or not. I don’t make it very far and my head falls back against the pillow. I’m confined by the tubes and wires that are connecting me to the machines, even if my body had the strength to get up I would be trapped here never knowing if it was all for nothing never knowing if I failed Nikki.

  I move my hands in search for a call button or something that can get a nurse in here, but instead of finding a button my hand grazes something silky smooth. I will myself to look down

  and see what I’m touching and I almost cry out when I see my fingertips are touching her hair. Nikki is sitting at my bedside with her head laying on the bed next to my leg.

  Relief floods me as I continue to caress her hair. It dawns on me that I have survived the loss of my mother and father, but I would’ve never been able to bounce back if I had lost Nikki. She is everything to me she makes this life worth living. She makes me want to be the best I can and not just because that’s what she deserves but because we both deserve it.

  I wiggle my fingers against her scalp it’s a poor attempt to wake her up, but it’s the best I can do. I need to look at her and make sure she’s okay and more than that I need to tell her that I love her and I’m so fucking sorry I left her giving that dickhead the opportunity to take what is mine. I try to speak, but there’s a tube down my throat making it impossible.

  Nikki starts to stir as my fingers continue to work her scalp until she turns her head so that her beautiful face is looking at me. She blinks her eyes rapidly as if she’s waking from a dream and lifts her head from the bed eyes wide as she takes me in.

  “Mikey? Oh my God,” she gasps covering her mouth. I can see her eyes start to water and if I’m not mistaken, she’s hiding that beautiful smile of hers that owns my soul behind her hands. She stares at me for a moment before dropping her hands from her face and reaches out to touch my cheek.

  “You’re really awake, aren’t you? I’m not just dreaming?” she whispers softly.

  I shake my head, mesmerized by everything I see in her eyes if I hadn’t been awake when she told me she loved me, I would’ve known right now that this girl loves me with every fiber of her being. I open my mouth wanting to speak to tell her I love her too, just in case my eyes don’t tell the story my heart is writing but the fucking tube is in the way.

  “Don’t try to speak,” she said taking in all the tubes and wires that I have attached to me. “I’ll get the nurse,” she leaned down to kiss my cheek where her hand was before walking backward towards the door. It was almost as if she was afraid to take her eyes off of me like I’d drop dead if she turned her back little did she know I was never fucking leaving her again. I wondered if people would look at us funny if I attached her to my hip somehow. She tore her eyes from me only to step outside the glass doors and shout to the nurses.

  “He’s awake can we get someone in here, please?” she said, turning back to look at me.

  I�
��m not going anywhere, Princess.

  She stepped aside as a doctor and a nurse hurried into my room. They hovered over me shoving a light in my eyes as they poked and prodded.

  “I’m Dr. Peters do you know where you are?” he asked me.

  I nodded.

  “Do you know why you are here?”

  I nodded. Take the fucking thing out of my throat Doc.

  “We are going to take the tube out of your throat you may feel some discomfort, but it’s important for you not to make any sudden movements.”

  I nod again and watch as the nurse tells Nikki she needs to step out of the room for a moment. I hear her argue that she doesn’t want to leave my side, but the nurse assures her it will only be for a few minutes. Once they’ve convinced her to leave they work at removing the tube that’s been helping me breathe and it feels as if someone is shoving a knife down my throat. It takes all my willpower not to move as they finally dislodge the trach from my throat feeling as if it’s on fire as I struggle with short breaths. It’s not that I can’t breathe but more that the tube has made my throat feel raw and with each breath there is pain.

  The doctor watches my oxygen levels as he weans me off and then turns back to watch me closely as I breathe.

  “I don’t want you to struggle it will only hurt you more so if it’s too much for you to breathe on your own.”

  “No,” I struggle to say as pain shoots through my stomach, making the one word feel like such a chore. The nurse and doctor continue to monitor me and Nikki creeps back into the room. She stands to the side, allowing the doctor to do his job without any interference from her. I focus on her as the pain begins to ease, and I get used to breathing on my own again. I am still connected to some machines and I’m told that’s because of the major surgery, I have just come out of. They are intravenously feeding me pain medication and antibiotics to keep an infection at bay. They tell me that I almost died that I needed emergency surgery and that they’ve removed my spleen. They also inform me that my recovery is going to be a bitch and then they scare the fuck out of me by telling me that any kind of infection while I’m healing can kill me.

  Isn’t life, funny? Just a few weeks ago, I couldn't care less if I died and now more than anything I wanted to live. I wanted to plant roots and make a life for myself and I wanted Nikki in the center of it all. I guess life really can change in the blink of an eye and not always for the worse.

  Before they leave my room, they tell me to take it easy and try not to exert myself too much. If I have to cough they give me a pillow to hug to my belly like that’s supposed to ease the pain when my stomach feels like it’s being torn apart. We’re finally alone and Nikki walks to my side taking my hand in hers and smiles down at me.

  “Don’t talk,” she says when she sees me part my lips. “I’ve never been so scared in my life,” she says automatically making me feel like shit for leaving her that fucking night because I was too much of a pussy to face what I was feeling for her. “I thought I’d never see you again,” she swallows and I can see the struggle she’s fighting not to cry. “I thought I’d never hear your voice or your wise ass remarks again,” she laughs slightly. “I thought I wouldn’t get the chance to tell you how much you mean to me.”

  “I know,” I cut her off struggling to speak. I couldn’t make a big elaborate to do in telling her how I felt, but I wasn’t going to let another word come from that pretty little mouth of hers before I could say what I almost didn’t get the chance to. “I love you,” I say taking short pauses between each word.

  She smiles widely. “I know,” she says and the dam breaks free as fresh tears start to roll down her cheeks.

  I swallow hard even though she’s smiling I hate to see her cry she’s cried way too much in the last few days.

  “Don’t cry,” I whisper shaking my head slightly.

  “Okay,” she wipes her cheeks with the backs of her hand.

  “You know what?” she sniffles and sits on the edge of my bed to be closer to me. “I love you too Mikey,” she shakes her head as if she can’t believe we’re telling each other what we mean to one another.

  “So much more than I ever thought I was capable of,” she takes my hand in hers. “I don’t want you to talk you need your rest but I want you to know…,” her voice cracks as she tries to complete her thought. “I’m going to take care of you. We’re going to take care of each other,” she swallows back a sob and leans in to press her lips gently against mine sealing the promise she’s making to me. I squeeze her hand hoping she understands the gesture is my vow to her that she knows that I’ll live the rest of my life for her.

  She slowly pulls back from the gentle kiss we share moving back to sit in the chair she’s occupied for God knows how long and never let’s go of my hand.

  “Get some rest,” she says before I close my eyes, knowing that when I open them, she’ll still be right where she is now.

  I don’t know how long I slept for but when I awoke every bone in my body ached. My guess it had to do with sleeping in the chair beside Mikey but I’d take the discomfort any day of the week before I left his side again. I sit up and find Mikey smiling at me.

  “Why didn’t you wake me?” I ask as I yawn.

  “You’re so pretty when you sleep,” he says his voice sounds more like his own than when he first woke up, but you could tell there was still a strain when he talks. He brings the pillow that the nurse gave him in case he coughs to his abdomen I guess when he speaks it hurts him. I lace my fingers with his and sit on his bed. “Are you okay?” he asks me concern etched along his handsome face.

  “I’m fine,” I say confidently. “I was a little dehydrated, but they put fluids in me and now I’m good as new.”

  He looks down at my wrist his thumb tracing the red lines that mark my skin where I was tied, “I could kill that bastard.”

  I smile. “You already did.”

  “Good,” he says closing his eyes briefly. “Hey, Nikki?”

  “Yeah?” I ask his eyes are still closed but he smiles.

  “I’m going to marry you someday,” he opens his eyes and raises an eyebrow towards me testing me.

  “Good,” I mimic treating him with a wink watching as his smile widens. We stay like that for a few moments just smiling like a bunch of lovesick clowns when there is a knock on the sliding glass doors. We turn around to see my father walk into the room and I notice the same cops who questioned me are outside Mikey’s room, standing by the door, they’re probably here to question Mikey and get his statement.

  “It’s good to see you awake Michael,” my dad says walking closer to us. “The doctor says you’re likely to make a full recovery as long as you listen to them,” he cocks his head to the side a knowing smile playing on his lips we all know Mikey doesn’t follow rules well.

  “I plan on being the perfect patient,” Mikey says looking at me.

  My father waits for a beat before letting out a heavy sigh glancing over his shoulder at the cops that are by the door before turning back to us. “I don’t have much time, so I better cut to the chase.”

  I peel my eyes from Mikey and look at my father confused. “Are you going back home?” I guess he had loose ends to tie up and all that, not to mention I had been so preoccupied with what was going on here that I didn’t even think to ask about my sister or Anthony.

  “Yes,” he said looking down for a minute before lifting his gaze to Mikey’s. “I just came to check on you son. I can’t thank you enough for what you did,” he looked at me when he spoke. “Taking that bullet for my daughter,” he shook his head. “I’ll never be able to repay you.”

  “I’d do it again in a heartbeat Vic. I love her,” Mikey squeezed my hand.

  My dad’s eyes moved from mine back to Mikey’s nodding slightly. “I think that would’ve made your father as happy as it makes me,” he paused. “Can I ask a favor?”

  Mikey looked at my father, his eyes showing as much confusion as mine. I didn’t know where
my father was going with this conversation, but I didn’t like the feeling that I had in the pit of my stomach.

  “Go ahead,” Mikey urged.

  “Will you take care of my little girl?” I watched as my father’s eyes welled with tears. “I didn’t do the right thing by her always and I just want…,” he wiped away a tear. “I just want to make sure that someone finally does. I don’t deserve the peace of mind, but if you could just give it to me anyway I’d appreciate it.”

  My father’s words stung because I knew the guilt he was feeling was because of the lashing I had given him before. I didn’t mean to make him feel so horrible about himself, especially about the kind of father he was. Regardless of everything, my father did provide a beautiful life for me and my sister we never longed for a thing and most of all we never felt neglected or unloved. I felt awful for making him think otherwise.

  “Daddy, I didn’t mean for you…,” I started only for him to cut me off.

  “Shh, it’s okay,” he whispered. “It’s going to be okay, I promise. Mikey’s going to take care of you—you’ll take care of each other,” he sighed heavily before glancing over his shoulder at the police officers that were watching us intently.

  “Daddy, what’s going on?” I cried nervously.

  “Nikki come here,” Mikey said as he held my father’s gaze knowingly. I diverted my eyes back and forth between my dad and Mikey wishing one of them would clue me in.

  “I’ll take care of her,” Mikey vowed taking my hand in his and pulling me towards him with whatever little strength he had.

  “Would someone please tell me what’s going on?”

  My father turned around to face the police giving them a curt nod before turning back around and meeting my gaze his eyes asking for my forgiveness. The police stepped inside Mikey’s hospital room, stopping to stand right behind my dad.