“I know he put her up to this!” She shouted at me. “My Alyssa has never gone against what I wanted, and now Wen is in her ear and she’s telling me that she wants to go live with her dad?” She was fuming and looked about ready to blow a gasket.
“Janet, how about you calm down and let’s put Alyssa in a dressing room while we go find Wen. I’ll put security on her door so that you know she’ll be safe.”
“Safe!” She screeched. “You think my daughter is safe around a rock star and all of this?” She threw her hands up to indicate the backstage commotion.
“You married a rock star, so you obviously thought the life was safe enough,” I argued, tired of Wen’s wife disparaging our profession. She’d been doing it for years. Her resentment of his time away, and lack of love for her, had always made the business her proverbial whipping boy. That was when she wasn’t just using her anger to whip Wen into doing whatever she wanted. The one thing she couldn’t get him to do though, was to give up his career. He’d offered, once upon a time, and we’d gone on without him for a year. A year in which Janet realized her finances suffered for his loss of touring income. Then he was free to come back, so long as he could stand to listen to her complain.
“Get him here now.” She seethed, the words like verbal venom to my ears. “He needs to deal with this,” she told me while shaking their daughter, whose arm she had in a vice-like grip.
I grabbed the walkie from Mike and keyed it up. “We need Wen, Mel, and security to medical immediately!”
“Security? And who is Mel? Is that his new slut? Did he replace Calista while she was gone?”
“No, Janet. Mel is our nurse, and she’s going to need to take a look at the damage you’re doing to your daughter’s arm.”
“I’m not hurting her!” Janet screamed.
“Yes, you are,” Alyssa sobbed.
“What the fuck is going on?” Wen bellowed from somewhere behind me. “Janet? What in the hell are you doing?”
“You stole her love from me!” She howled at him, again shaking their daughter as she did.
“You need to let go of her, now!” Wen ordered Janet.
“Why? So you can take her to go play happy family with your whore? So she can be a big sister to the bastard you have brewing in that bitch’s belly?”
Well, that was news, and judging by Wen’s face, it was to him as well. “I have no clue what you’re on about Janet, but you need to let Alyssa go, right now!”
To everyone’s surprise, Janet did, but only because she appeared to be reaching in her purse for something. Alyssa wasted no time in running to her father. Mel, Alex, and Tim had come up in the hall behind Janet and were standing back waiting, when Janet pulled a gun from her purse and aimed it directly at Wen.
“I told you that you would never take her. I warned you that you were never to have a family with anyone else. I let you play with that whore while we were apart and you knocked her up?”
“Janet!” Wen yelled while trying to tuck Alyssa behind his body. “What the fuck are you doing? Put that away!” I saw the puzzled look on Alex and Mel’s face before Janet shifted and they finally realized she had a gun.
“Do you really thing that Alyssa would want to be anywhere near you after this?” Wen asked his wife.
“It doesn’t matter. You’ve already tainted her. She told me she wanted to live with you and that whore.”
“I wonder why?” Wen taunted. Probably not the smartest thing he’d ever done. Then again, maybe it was, because Janet started screeching a bunch of nonsense and flailing the gun around as she yelled. Two things happened at once. John and Phoenix had come up behind Wen and grabbed Alyssa. John ran with the girl while Phoenix attempted to move around the narrow hallway. The other, was that Alex decided enough was enough and while Janet was distracted and not pointing the gun at anyone in particular, he tackled her to the ground.
At the same moment, I dove for Wen, hoping to take him down to the floor, just in case… The sound of the shot reverberated through the narrow hall, and then searing pain ripped through my thigh before we hit the cold, hard, unrelenting cement floor.
Phoenix moved quickly. He got the gun from Janet, tucked it into the waistband of his jeans and then flipped her onto her belly, zip-tied her hands behind her back and sat her down against the wall while he also zip-tied her ankles together. I guess he wasn’t taking any chances with the crazy bitch. Mel ran to me, snatched her bag from Mike, who was still standing by the door, stunned and completely out of it.
“Holy shit! Did that just happen?” He finally asked when Mel taking the bag from him finally brought him back around.
“Yes, now get down here and make yourself useful,” Mel ordered.
“What do you need?”
“Bandages,” she called out as she tried to get a better look at the wound on my leg. “Sorry about this,” she told me, without looking up from the wound. “Scissors first,” she corrected, and Mike handed her a pair of scissors that she immediately used to cut the leg of pants away from the bullet wound. Mel then leaned over and continued cutting the denim away. “It went all the way through,” she called out to no one in particular. Once the denim was cut and peeled away from the wound, she grabbed the gauze and bandages that Mike handed her and started packing and wrapping both the entrance and exit wounds.
“I think you got really lucky. If she’d hit the Femoral Artery, we would know it.”
“Ambulance is here,” someone called out from down the hall as the sound of wheels squeaking on the concrete floor drew closer.
“Don’t leave me,” I begged Mel as the emergency responders lifted me onto the gurney.
“I won’t,” she told me before turning to them and letting them know what the damage was. The police were there as well, dealing with the fallout of Wen’s crazy marriage. I didn’t envy him or his daughter what was about to happen from that point. Especially if what Janet had been ranting about was true. If Calista was pregnant when Wen left her this last time, I didn’t think she would be able to forgive him and go back.
That was a problem to delve into with my friend once I was patched up and doing better though. For now, I had my own issues to deal with and she was riding along in the ambulance with me to the hospital. “Fuck!” I hissed as the EMT stuck me with a needle. “A little warning would have been nice,” I scolded him.
“Sorry, we have to start an IV.”
“Why?”
“In case they need to get you into surgery, get blood into you,” he hitched a shoulder and grinned at me. “Just in case, really.”
“Great.” I glanced down at my bloodied, bandaged leg and let out a hollow laugh before looking up at Mel. “Is this enough blood for you?” I asked. She sat there, horror-struck for a minute, before she was able to school her features.
“This is a bit extreme – even for you,” was her answer before she turned away to try to hide her grin, or maybe it was the worry she didn’t want me to see. Either way, I was going to take that as a win. Getting shot had to have perks, right?
18 – White Walls & Regrets
Only part of the bullet that hit Gabe exited his body. It apparently fragmented when it hit the edge of his femur and they ended up wheeling him into surgery to get the rest of the bullet out, as well as the bone fragments that had splintered off in the bullet’s wake.
While I waited to hear something, I started making phone calls. My first was to Chevy, since he was Gabe’s only living relative.
“Hey Mel, what’s going on?” Chevy asked in a heavily sleep-laden voice.
“Sorry to wake you, Chev, but there’s been an incident.”
“What did my dad do this time?”
“Are you at your mom’s house?”
“Nah, was taking advantage of the quiet, and the studio, at dad’s. What’s up?”
“I don’t want you to panic,” I started.
“Mel!” He growled my name into the phone.
“Your dad was shot by Wen�
�s crazy wife tonight. He’s in surgery now. She got his leg, but they needed to go in and get some bullet and bone fragments out. He’ll be right as rain in no time.”
“Janet shot my dad?” He asked, in complete shock. “Holy shit! What happened? You know what, never mind. Where are you guys right now?”
“We’re in Nashville, honey. He’s at TriStar Centennial Medical Center.”
“What do you mean, ‘he’s at’? Aren’t you with him?”
“Well, yeah. I rode in the ambulance with him, but he’s in surgery. I’m not sure if they’ll give him a room overnight, or just discharge him after he comes around. Considering parts of his femur splintered off, he’ll probably get an overnight stay at the very least, to make sure they got everything and to keep a watch for infection. The bus and hotel rooms aren’t exactly the best places to try to stay germ free.”
“Mel, you’re rambling. I’m getting ready. Keep your phone on you, okay?”
“Sure. I’m going to call your mom and let her know what’s happened while you get ready.”
“Why?”
“So she can be there for you guys,” I told him and then hung up and immediately dialed Kendra.
“Hey, lady, it’s about time I heard from you! A little late though,” Kendra added, sounding plenty chipper considering the late hour.
“I just talked to Chevy. Gabe is in the hospital here in Nashville.”
“Oh my goodness, what happened?”
“Wen’s wife shot him.”
“Wen’s wife? What in the world? Why would she shoot Gabe?”
“She shot him by accident when they tackled her. I think she came there to kill Wen, or maybe Calista, but that’s not the point. Gabe is the one who was shot and I thought you might want to know so you can be here for him.”
“Melanie?” She turned my name into a question, but honestly, I wasn’t in the best headspace to explain why I thought she’d want to be there. “Is Chevy coming here to get me? Does he need me to go with him?”
“I don’t know. I just thought…” I hesitated, trying to think of the best way to put this. “You seem to have a special relationship with Gabe, so I thought you should know too.”
“I’m going to head up there with Chevy to make sure he’s okay with everything, but Mel, when I get there, we need to sit down and have a talk.”
“Yeah, sure,” I answered back and then, like a coward, I hung up.
“Hey, Mel. How are you holding up? What’s going on with Gabe?” I hadn’t even realized that John and Tim were there until that moment.
“Hey. Is everyone else okay?” I asked instead of answering his questions.
“Everyone is fine. The police are questioning Wen, Alyssa, and Alex right now. They’ll want to talk to you too before it’s all over with, and Gabe, once he’s looked at.”
“He’s in surgery right now.” I went on to explain what was happening with the surgery and why.
“Do you think he’ll have to go through what Chevy did with his leg?”
I shook my head. “He’ll most likely be pretty sore for a while, but unless there was more damage than I’m thinking, it won’t be anywhere near that level.”
“Did anyone call the kid?”
I nodded. “He and Kendra are on their way.”
“Kendra?” John asked while scrunching up his brow in confusion. “Why is she headed here?”
“To be there for her son? For Gabe?” I asked, though they really weren’t questions.
“I don’t know what you were thinking, but woman, you have to know that Gabe wouldn’t want Kendra here.”
“Why not? She’s like family.”
“Chevy’s family, maybe, but this isn’t about the kid anymore. It’s about Gabe, and there’s nothing between those two that would require her being by his side in the hospital.”
I just shrugged my shoulders at that, because there were still so many unknowns where Gabe was concerned. I ignored the looks the men sent each other and instead tucked into the unrelentingly hard waiting room chair to wait for news on Gabe.
“What’s going to happen to Janet?”
“Hopefully, they lock that crazy bitch up and throw away the fucking key,” Tim responded without an ounce of sympathy.
“What about Alyssa?”
“She’ll go with Wen now, and that shouldn’t be a problem since the next few shows are definitely getting rain checked.” John glanced over at Tim, who was being the most informative person tonight. “What? It’s the truth. Gabe probably won’t be able to stand through a concert for a while. That shit has got to hurt. Then Wen has things to work out. Apparently, his other woman is pregnant and didn’t tell him yet.” Both men turned in my direction, looking for clarification.
“I wouldn’t tell you, even if I knew something, so there’s no use looking my way for answers.”
“I think that means, ‘yes’,” John teased. “Otherwise, she would have just said ‘no’.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Tim agreed. I just rolled my eyes at the both of them. Part of me wanted to blame this whole night on Wen, because if it weren’t for him allowing his crazy wife to string him along, then it never would have come to this. Granted, it might have come to this a lot sooner because the woman had definitely lost the plot somewhere along the way.
“Family of Mr. Northman?” A woman called out from over by the locked doors that led to where they’d wheeled Gabe earlier.
“That would be us,” John explained as he stood. We all walked over to her.
“I can only speak to his family,” she argued.
John pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket. “His adult son is on the way, but I have power of attorney for cases such as these.” Knowing that these men had thought ahead about who would represent them in case of an emergency, made me think even more highly of their relationship than I had before.
The woman tipped her head, indicating Tim and myself. It was a silent question. ‘Is it okay to talk freely in front of them?’
“They’re family too, and I’m just going to tell them whatever you say anyway,” John explained. The woman glared at me for a moment, obviously knowing I wasn’t part of the band family, and then turned back to John. “He’s out of surgery. Everything went well. We’re confident we got all of the debris that was left behind. We’re going to keep him overnight, and then reevaluate tomorrow, once we get a second, post-surgery look at the leg.”
“Were there any tears to the femoral artery from the debris?” I asked.
The woman glanced over at me, but ignored the question as she continued addressing only John. “It will be about an hour or so before he is able to have visitors. He’s in post-op recovery right now and will be placed in a different room for overnight observation in a bit. Once he’s there, we’ll come update you, then two people at a time will be allowed up to see him. Our Chief Resident relaxed the visitation hours for Mr. Northman considering the circumstances. We do ask that you remain respectful of the other patients that will be on the floor, as they need their rest.”
“Great, now answer Melanie’s question about Gabe’s artery. Did you have to repair any tears to it?”
The woman sighed but couldn’t refuse the direct question from a man holding the documents that stated he had a legal right to know. “There was a small tear from a bone fragment that splintered off after the bullet’s impact. Luckily, for Mr. Northman, while it tore the artery, it also plugged the tear by itself too. We were able to remove the fragment and repair the damage without any major blood loss.”
“Thanks,” John told her dismissively. Then he turned to me, “Is that a bad thing?”
“I can assure you-” the doctor started to say, but John held his hand up. “That’s all, Doc.”
Tim sputtered out a laugh that he failed at holding back as John turned back to me. “Is that a bad thing, Mel?”
“As long as they did a good job of repairing the damage, it will be fine. It just means that he’ll have a fe
w extra things he won’t be able to do during recovery because he won’t be able to risk more damage.”
“You really should be obtaining this information from a medical professional,” the doctor attempted to inform John.
“I am,” he told her, again with a very dismissive tone. “You didn’t want to speak with the other medical professional here, so now, we’re done with you. Send someone to let us know when Mr. Northman is able to receive visitors. Thanks.”
“You didn’t need to do that,” I quietly told John.
“She was rude. I’m not sure why she thought it was okay to be rude to someone I specifically said was family and would find out anyway, but there was no need for that. We deal with people like that a lot, unfortunately. The only way to nip the behavior in the bud is to be rude right back to them and let them know that it’s unacceptable.” John seemed angrier than necessary at the situation, and a little lost in thought after he spoke. I wasn’t sure what that was about, but I also knew I wasn’t going to delve into his business while waiting in the hospital after all the drama that had taken place.
“I get that,” I told him as we sat in the waiting once more. The simple answer was probably the best thing, so that we could all just get lost in our thoughts for a bit while we waited. Tim didn’t bother to sit though.
“Anyone need coffee? I’m going to run and grab some.”
“Black, and make it a fucking really big cup, man,” John requested before turning back to his phone and texting.
“I’m good.”
“Mel, I’m bringing you something back. You’re shaking. If you need a sweatshirt, I can grab one from the gift shop,” he stopped and thought about that. “Maybe not, since they’re probably closed, but I could have Ev deliver one to us here.”
It was then that I realized I was shivering. The hospital was a chilly place, and my body was starting to come down from the shot of adrenaline that spiked through me as soon I saw that gun aimed toward Wen and Gabe. I nodded to Tim. “Thank you. Maybe just a hot chocolate. I don’t need the extra caffeine right now.”
“Sure thing.” He took off after that, leaving John and me there to sit quietly as I shivered, and my teeth started to chatter.
Revived Page 19
