by JJ Lamb
“No way, doll.”
Harry asked the cops to take them straight to the Ridgewood ER.”
* * *
Gina’s thigh needed some heavy duty suturing. The knife had really made a mess of her muscle.
“Steri-strips, huh” Harry whispered in her ear. She smiled, kissed his hand, and held it to her cheek.
She was grateful just to lay back and rest while the ER doc and nurses took care of her. She knew most of them by name; they not only fussed over her serious wound, there were a lot of comments and home remedies for her black eye and split lip.
By the time Harry got her home and into bed, she was pretty much out of it. The last thing she remembered was him saying, “Sleep tight, doll. I’ll be right here.”
* * *
The next day, Gina spent most of her time sleeping. She’d tried to convince Harry to go to work, but he’d refused. He told her the ICU team leader gave him hell for not coming in, but he stood his ground and promised he’d make it up.
Late in the day, the doorbell rang and Harry opened the door to Vinnie and Helen.
“Thought maybe you and Gina might want to go out and grab a bite for dinner,” Vinnie said.
“Nice thought,” Harry said, “but not tonight.”
“Who’s out there?” Gina called from the bedroom.
“Your brother. Was looking forward to your company for dinner. What say?”
“Come on back,” Gina yelled.
“Maybe we could do this another night,” Harry said.
“Really? What’s with you, Harry?” Helen said. She grabbed Vinnie’s hand and tugged him toward the bedroom. They stopped in their tracks when they saw Gina in bed.
“What the hell happened to you?” Vinnie said, his voice filled with suspicion. He turned to Harry with questioning eyes.
Harry held up his hands. “Don’t look at me that way. You know I would never hurt your sister.”
“Maybe not, man, but what happened?”
Helen sat down next to Gina on the edge of the bed. “You look like you’ve been to the wars.”
“It’s nothing. I was just sleep-walking, plowed straight into the bathroom door.” She laughed. “It about knocked me out.”
The phone rang and Harry snatched it up.
“Oh, hi, Mulzini. How you doing?”
He lowered his voice and carried the phone into the kitchen. “She’s fine. But it was close.”
“Taking care of the two of you is getting to be a full time job,” Mulzini said.
“I can’t thank you enough for convincing Pepper Yee to get involved right away. The next morning might have been too late.”
“Well, I’m glad things worked out. Can’t let anything happen to my favorite nurse. Pepper said there was a shooter who killed that Vlad guy who snatched Gina.”
“We have to go to the station tomorrow so Gina can give her statement, but it’s a real bizarre back story.”
“What else can I expect from that crazy nurse of yours?”
“Thanks for calling, Mulzini. But really, how are you doing?”
“Hey, I’m fine and it’s behind me now.”
“We’ll be up to see you tomorrow after we give our statements,” Harry said. “Again, we really appreciate everything you did.”
When Harry turned to go back to the bedroom, Vinnie was standing in the doorway. From the look on his face, Harry knew he’d heard everything.”
“Okay, Harry. Out with it! What really happened to my sister?”
“Nothing you need to worry about ... now,” Harry said.
Vinnie’s face flushed and his eyes went cold. “Stop treating me like a damn invalid. Just because I have PTSD doesn’t mean you have to shelter me from the world. She’s my sister and I have a right to know what’s going on with her.”
Harry pointed to the dining room table chairs, they sat down next to each other. Harry told Vinnie everything. When he finished, he wrapped an arm around Vinnie’s shoulder. “She’s okay, man.”
Tears ran down Vinnie’s cheeks. “I don’t understand how so many life-threatening things happen to my sister—anything that can go wrong, always does. It scares the shit out of me.”
“Yeah, me too, Vinnie. Me, too.” He took a deep breath. “You know, it’s not like Gina asks for trouble. Most of the time, like with Tallent, trouble comes to her and she gets sucked into something that should never have involved her in the first place. Know what I mean?”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
They went back into the bedroom, where Vinnie gave Gina his usual lecture about her working harder to avoid trouble, then hugged her a long time before letting her go.
* * *
When Helen and Vinnie were gone, Harry locked the door and went back to Gina. He took her in his arms and said, “What am I going to do about you, doll? I’m not sure my heart can take too much more of this, to say nothing about how your antics affect Vinnie.”
“It’s been hard, I know,” she said, looking into his eyes for a long moment.
“I feel so helpless, so lost without you. There must be something I can do to stop the world from crashing down on you.”
She took his face in both hands, looked deeply into his eyes.
“Just love me, Harry. That’s all I need. Just love me.”
# # #
