“I look forward to helping him and having him help me out as well,” Vince said.
“Why you need more time off?” Kaid asked.
“I’m planning for the future. I want Natalie. She’s my One. And if she sees me the same way, I want a life with her. That means less time around the bar, more time around home and the family I hope we’ll have.”
Kaid nodded to himself. “What about Brandi?” he asked.
“I was wrong. Everybody was pairing off and mating up and the first time I felt any kind of pull toward a female, I thought that’s what it was. And according to Bam, she’s only copper, not gold,” Vince said. “Honestly, I knew the minute I saw Natalie. If Brandi had been it for me, I’d not have even noticed Natalie. But I made promises, and I was determined to live up to them. I’ve talked to Brandi, or should I say, Brandi talked to me? She understands. In fact, she sent me back to the hospital to look for Natalie. I was all hung up on my promises to take care of Brandi, and she put me in my place real quick. Said she didn’t have to be my woman for me to take care of her and protect her. Said she saw me and ya’ll watching over each other all the time, and we weren’t mates, so why did I think she had to be my Mate for me to protect her? Basically called me on my shit and sent me after Natalie. And let me tell you, since I’ve gotten out of my own way and let Lion free to feel what he already knew, I can’t see anyone or anything but Natalie. I’m no longer pulled toward Brandi at all. All I can see is Natalie.”
“How does Natalie feel?” Kaid asked.
“Don’t know. Can’t find her. She works in New Orleans half the month, and I don’t know where. But, I do have a date for dinner at her parents’ house next week, though. Her mom wanted to fix me up with her.”
Kaid laughed softly so as not to wake Delilah. “That’s gonna be interesting.”
“Hey, I’ll take anything I can get at this point. I just need to be near her,” Vince answered.
“I get it — I do.”
“Alright, well, look, I’m gonna let you go get some rest. I’ll be waiting to meet with Eustace sometime this week.”
“Alright, sounds good,” Kaid answered.
“And hey! You better call Maverik and tell him to keep his voice down and his stubborn self out of your house if you don’t want to be woken up. You know he’s the first one to bust up into wherever he wants and commandeer the situation.”
Kaid laughed. “Yes, he is. But, he’s gone for a couple days.”
“Gone? What about Valerie? Did she go, too? It’s too close to her time to be traveling,” Vince said, concern in his voice.
“Oh, no. She didn’t go, she’s still here. We’re keeping an eye on her. Maverik threw Maia in the car and headed out toward Riley’s. He said nothing good could come from her moping around here wasting her life with the crowd she’d started hanging with. The guy she’d been dating showed up here the other night with Les. We sent him packing, and Maverik loaded Maia up and off they went the next morning.”
“Damn. I had no idea. But running with the crowd that Les is involved in, can’t say I blame him.”
“Naw, me either. And Riley didn’t do whatever she thinks he did. It’s just a huge misunderstanding. That male would kill for her.”
“And Maverik knows that, otherwise he wouldn’t even consider taking his daughter to him.”
“Exactly.”
“Alright, well, let me let you go. I’ll be looking for Eustace to come by. Oh, and I’m sending you a picture I took in the hospital.”
“Oh, good, I was wondering what the hell you were doing snapping pictures while we were asleep. And Eustace’ll be there at some point.”
Vince laughed. “Just too good of a picture-op not to snap it. Hug the baby for me, and call if Valerie goes into labor.”
“I will, take care, Vince.”
Kaid ended the call, put his phone on silent, then went back to the living room. He took a seat in the recliner they’d bought for Delilah while she was pregnant and extended it back as far as it would go, tossed a soft throw blanket over his legs and sock covered feet, and drifted off to sleep listening to his Mate and his son breathing deeply as they both slept.
<<<<<<<>>>>>>>
Goldy and Sadie sat at their favorite table at Joanne’s Books and Goodies. They preferred the front table for two that sat up right against the glass in the huge window front. They enjoyed sipping their morning coffee in the bright rays of the early morning sun as they visited most mornings.
Goldy’s gruff voice could be heard murmuring to Sadie throughout most of the shop. None of the other patrons could quite make out what he said to her, but she blushed profusely and demurely lowered her eyes as he reached across the table and took her hand in his. Goldy grinned at her, lifted her fingers to his lips so he could kiss each knuckle tenderly.
Joanne smiled to herself as she watched them. Goldie was such a loud, gruff, rough male, yet so tender and gentle with his Mate. He lived for her, and it was apparent to anyone who even glimpsed them together, they were totally devoted to one another. Joanne glanced down at the counter she was busily cleaning, still with a smile on her face.
Sadie’s next comment had her hurriedly looking up to see what the problem was.
“Oh, Goldy! No, we can’t have this. Look at him. That poor child!”
Goldy had been gazing out of the window just as Sadie had, and saw the young man coming out of the alley that ran up the side of the insurance building across the street. He’d watched him pause just at the head of the alley and squat on the ground to better roll the pillow and blanket he carried, into a pack and tie it up with the ends of the blanket. Then he tucked it under his arm and stood, brushing off his dirty jeans and hurrying off down the street toward the opposite side of town.
“He’s not a child. He’s a young man, won’t be long and he can take care of himself.”
“He can’t be more than fifteen or sixteen years old,” she answered quickly.
Goldy looked back at the boy making his way down Main Street. “It’s sad, Sadie-girl, but what do you want to do about it? We could offer the boy some money, but depending on why he’s sleeping in the alley, it may last no longer than his next fix, and then he’d end up right back in the alley.”
“We can’t not help him,” Sadie said, her eyes following the boy as he got farther and farther away, to the point Sadie couldn’t see him anymore.
“We don’t even know him, Sadie. He may have just had an argument with his parents and decided to give them a scare.”
“Maybe, but I don’t think so. He looks familiar,” Sadie answered.
Goldy stood and walked to the front door, straining to catch sight of the boy. He was completely out of sight now. He looked back at Sadie, who was chewing on the edge of her cuticle — a sure fire sign that she was upset. He couldn’t have this. No way in hell would he allow anything to upset Sadie. “Tell you what… let’s come back in the morning. If we see him leaving the alley again, we’ll know it’s not just a fluke and we’ll try to talk to him. If he’s not here, then we’ll know he’s gone home. Okay?”
Sadie looked up at Goldy, worry clear in her eyes. “But it’s going to be so cold tonight.”
Goldy sighed. “We’ll come back this evening and see if he’s in the alley. If he is, we’ll see if we can get him somewhere warm to sleep until we can figure out what else to do. How’s that?”
Sadie lit up, smiling and holding her hands out for him to take. “That’s perfect! Thank you, Goldy, so much!”
“You’re welcome, Sadie-girl. Let’s finish up breakfast and get on back. Kaid and Delilah may need a break.”
<<<<<<<>>>>>>>
Vince ended his call with Kaid, then walked back into his kitchen for another cup of coffee. He tossed his cell phone on the counter top beside the coffee pot and leaned against the kitchen counter, sipping his coffee and listening to the TV coming to him from the living room. It was an advertisement for Lakeside Hospital on the South Shore, Greater
New Orleans region. It got him thinking. He reached for his cell phone and typed in ‘hospitals New Orleans’. A list of all the hospitals in the Greater New Orleans region filled his phone screen. He pressed the first one and read through the options. He grinned to himself and pressed dial.
An excessively happy woman answered. “Lakeside Hospital for Women, how may I help you?”
“I’d like to speak with Nurse Natalie Salvaggio, please.”
“One moment,” the woman responded. Moments later she returned to the call. “Sir, I’m sorry, but we have no Nurse Salvaggio working in this hospital.”
“Oh, I must have the wrong place. I’m sorry, please forgive the interruption,” he answered. He pressed end call on his phone, and grinning, went on to the next hospital on the list.
Twenty minutes later he held his breath as he waited for the telephone operator at Touro Infirmary to come back on the line and tell him there was no such employee as Natalie Salvaggio. Only this time, the voice that greeted him was familiar to him.
“This is Nurse Salvaggio. How may I help you?”
Vince was so startled he forgot to speak.
“Hello??” Natalie asked on the other end of the line.
“Is this Natalie Salvaggio?” he asked.
Natalie stopped breathing on the other end of the line. Nooooo, she thought. This can’t be Vince — he wouldn’t know where to find me, and he wouldn’t look for me anyway.
“Natalie? Is that you?” he pressed.
“Yes, this is Natalie. How can I help you?” she asked, biting her hand to stop from giving away the fact that she knew well who was calling her.
“This is Vince, Natalie. I’m sorry to phone you at work, but I didn’t know how else to reach you.”
“Vince, is there something I can do for you? Is Delilah okay?” she asked, doing her level best to keep it professional.
“Oh, no, Delilah is well. I was… I just…” he gave up all pretense of pretending. “I can’t stop thinking about you. I needed to speak with you — to hear your voice. Are you well?” he asked.
Natalie didn’t know what to say. She’d not stopped thinking about Vince for one moment of the last few days she’d spent in New Orleans. But she’d promised herself that she’d never be the other woman, she’d never do to any woman what was done to her so many times in the past. “Vince, I can’t…”
He cut her off, hearing her denial coming. “Don’t tell me to go away, Natalie. Please. I can’t. Just meet me for lunch or coffee. Anything. Just five minutes at a stop light even, I’ll take anything you’ll give me.”
“I can’t,” she whispered into the phone, not having the strength to put her full voice behind it.
“Please. Just for a second. We need to talk.”
“There’s nothing to say, Vince,” Natalie said sadly.
“There is no end of things to say,” he objected.
“You already have someone, Vince. I saw her that day in Delilah’s room.”
“It’s not what you think, at least not anymore,” Vince said.
“I won’t be that woman — the other woman who causes heartache to another.”
Vince could hear commotion and alarms going off in the background, voices screaming out different codes. He raised his voice so she could hear him over them. “I promised to take care of her, that’s all it is…”
“I have to go. There’s been a shooting, we’re being inundated with emergency trauma cases. I have to go!” she said hurriedly into the phone.
“When can I…” he rushed out trying to find out when he could come speak to her, but the line was already dead.
Vince looked at the cell phone in his hand. “Fuck,” he said aloud.
He slid down the cabinet and took a seat on the floor. He sat there, sipping his coffee, resting his forearms on his bent knees. Her words kept running through his mind. “You already have someone, Vince. I saw her that day in Delilah’s room.”
Back then he’d thought he had someone, but he’d had no idea what the true Mate pull of your One truly felt like. Now he knew only too well the difference between ‘could make this into something, and this is every-fucking-thing you ever dreamed of’. He reached up behind his head and took his phone off the counter. He scrolled through it a couple times until he found what he was looking for, took a screen shot of it and smiled as he got to his feet and headed into his bedroom to change clothes.
<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>
Natalie leaned over the counter at the nurses’ station to hang up the phone. She stopped there, leaning across the raised section of the station, hearing Vince’s words in her head. “I couldn’t stop thinking about you. I needed to hear your voice.” Her heart ached. She wanted him so badly. It made no sense whatsoever, but something deep inside of him called to her. And it killed her not to answer, but she couldn’t. If he was the type of man who had no problem juggling promises to multiple women, it was better for her to find out now.
“Come on, Natalie! We need you!” a voice barked out as a gurney was wheeled by her at breakneck speed.
Natalie looked up to find Dr. Fuches riding the gurney with the patient, furiously administering CPR to the patient he straddled, shouting at her to hurry up and help. “I’m right behind you!” she answered, falling into step with the gurney and then running ahead of it to shove open doors, so they could move the gurney through to emergency surgery without hindrance.
Chapter 12
Thirteen hours later, Natalie walked out of the ER Trauma unit at Touro Infirmary. They’d worked all day and into the night on so many victims and perpetrators, that she’d lost count. They’d actually managed to save two of the three children that had been caught in the crossfire of a drive-by shooting by two rival gangs. Her scrubs were blood stained, and her head was pounding. Her feet hurt, and she felt empty. All she could think of was the face of the mother they’d had to tell that her son wasn’t coming home that evening, or ever. An eight-year-old little boy lost his life because some fool gang member didn’t like that a rival gang had dared to venture into their territory to eat at a new restaurant. So they’d given retribution by following the offending gang into their territory and firing shots at some of the gang members as they hung out in front of one of their homes. The kids they’d treated had been simply in the wrong place at the wrong time walking along the same street on their way home. The woman was young, doing the best she could to provide for herself and her son. She’d rushed over to the hospital from work when her babysitter had called to tell her there’d been an accident. There was no damn accident — it was a travesty! That baby should still be alive! Natalie’s eyes filled with tears as her mind gave her pictures of the little boy’s body, bleeding out and lifeless as they tried in vain to do anything they could to save him, to force life back into him. She lost control of a sob she’d been holding in just as she cleared the automatic doors leading to a walkway that she had to follow to reach the employees’ parking lot.
Natalie stopped walking, she brought up her hands and fisted them to wipe the backs of them across her eyes so she could see. She held her jacket in the crook of her arm, and a zippered lunch container hung from her shoulder along with her purse. She had her keys clutched in her hand, and though she wiped her eyes again and again, the tears kept coming. Then she was wrapped in strong, comforting arms. Her face was pressed to a wide, warm chest while soft lips kissed her forehead over and over again.
Natalie startled and tried to pull away.
“Shh, it’s okay. I’ve got you. I’ve got you — whatever it is, I’ll make it okay,” a familiar, soothing voice said to her.
Natalie realized who held her. And despite her affirmation that she’d not be the other woman in anyone’s relationship, she just needed someone to be stronger than she was, even if only for a little while. She looked up into Vince’s face and could just barely make out his features through her tears.
“Are you hurt? Did someone hurt you?” he asked, running his hands through her hair,
and holding her face in his palms.
She shook her head.
“Tell me what you need, whatever it is, it’s yours, just tell me,” he said.
“Hold me,” she whispered.
“Absolutely.” He swept her off her feet and up into his arms and hurried her to his truck. He got her situated in the front seat and rushed around to the driver’s side. Soon as he got in, he reached for her, pulling her over toward him and into his lap. “I’ve got you,” he repeated.
She nodded and let the tears come.
He held her until she seemed to get herself under a little control, then tried to talk to her. “I saw you walk out of there, despondent, wiping the tears from your eyes, and I couldn’t get to you fast enough. I never want to see you so upset again. I’ll do anything I have to to make sure you don’t ever feel that way again.”
Vince gathered her even closer and rested his cheek on her head, his face angled toward hers. They sat that way, just soaking up each other’s presence, sharing the air they breathed until eventually he heard her stomach growl.
“Hungry?” he asked softly.
She shook her head.
“I heard your stomach growling.”
“Too upset to eat,” she whispered.
“What happened, hon? Why are you so upset? How can I help?” he asked, still holding her close.
“A child died today, while we worked on him. We did everything we could to save him, and it just wasn’t enough. I had to help the doctor tell his mother. Sometimes…” she sobbed and inhaled deeply, “Sometimes, it’s just too much to take.”
Vince didn’t know what to say, so he just kept holding onto her. He wouldn’t ever fully feel what she was talking about. But he could understand the helplessness, the devastation of having to deal with the death of someone who came to you for help, especially of a child. “I’m sorry, Natalie. Tell me how I can help.”
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