Let Me In-Dragan's Tale: The Mikhailov Brothers (7 page)

CHAPTER TWELVE

CABS

Toni

I held my mother’s hand as the emergency vehicle weaved its way through traffic. Mom faded in and out of consciousness. My fingers traced the narrow blue veins across Mom’s hand. My focus turned to her fingernails. I needed to give her another manicure. She was long overdue.

The last time I’d tried the tremors in Mom’s body were so severe I ended up spilling the polish and upsetting her.

The doctors’ had told us months ago that the symptoms were worsening. And though she’d get an occasional reprieve, my mother’s condition was getting more difficult to handle on my own.

My eyes went to Mom’s face. She had always been such a beautiful lady. Petite and fair. She reminded me of Cinderella when
I was little. When she was ten-years old I’d convinced Evelyn that my mother was a princess.

I grinned at the memory.

“What’s so funny,” Mom croaked. Her voice was hoarse and thin.

I
grinned and kissed Mom’s hand. “Just remembering a trick I played on Evelyn when we were kids,” I answered with a smile.

M
om’s head rolled side to side as we hit a bump. Her body looked boneless and insignificant on the stretcher. Her skin, thin and gray. She was starting to change in a way that scared me. I was losing her and I knew. We weren’t coming back from this. I closed my eyes in an attempt to supplant the image of Mom’s current status with a happier memory. Remember her beautiful and laughing. Playing games with me, Davy and Evie.

“Toni, sweetie. I am so sorry. I thought I could make it to the bedroom. I wrecked the living room.”

I shook my head. “Never apologize to me, Momma. I just hate that you fell and I wasn’t there.”

Patsy Hume groaned. “You can’t be with me every minute. You need your life. Honey…” She paused and tried to turn her hand to squeeze my fingers but the muscles in her wrist wouldn’t cooperate. Sensing what she was trying to do I folded her hand into mine.

Mom smiled.” I’m so tired,” she started. You can’t live like this Antonina.

“I’m living the way I want to live. And I do have a life. A pretty decent one in fact.”

“And what about him,” she asked.

“Who?” I asked, eyeing the paramedic seated across from me.

“The man waiting with you when they wheeled me out of the bedroom.”

“No one,” I dismissed the question. He was no
thing to me.

Patsy Hume smiled and closed her eyes. “He didn’t look like no one. He stayed right by your side, the whole time.”

My eyes left her hand and I gave her a look. “He was no one, Momma. You won’t see him again.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

ALWAYS FINE

The Dragan

When the ambulance rolled under the canopied entrance at
Austin General Hospital, I was already there. Parked and awaiting the ambulance carrying Antonina and her mother’s arrival.

I’d called Sergey and let him know what was going on. Apparently Evelyn was sick. And he had his hands full with her. I told him I would take care of Antonina and report back in the morning.

Toni had dismissed me at her house but I had ignored it. What kind of jackass would leave a woman to handle a situation like this alone? And, I grinned to myself. I knew, in my short acquaintance with Toni, my presence would irritate her. And that, in turn would humor me. In fact I found pissing her off down right entertaining. Besides, if Evelyn was incapacitated, I considered it my duty to be of service to her friend. That’s why I wanted to stay with Toni. It was for Evelyn. At least that is what I told myself.

As the paramedics wheeled Toni’s mother past me, I didn’t speak and she didn’t acknowledge me. Though I did catch a smile from her mother which I returned. I fell in line behind the precession and walked through the hissing electronic doors and into the hospital.

I’d always hated hospitals. For all the reasons others did. The artificial brightness, the scent of disinfectant. But it was the sounds I hated most. Whirring machines, beeping equipment, the coded calls from the public announcement speakers, the fucking moans. Why can’t people suffer pain in silence?

I shook myself free of my thoughts and followed Antonina to the desk under a massive “Registration” sign.

Without a word I took Toni’s arm and moved her so I could ease her into the seat. Positioning the other chair a comfortable distance from the desk, I maneuvered myself forward and into the seat. No words exchanged. An exceptionally large African-American woman sat behind a monitor typing, her large bulbous head resting on her rolls of neck.

“Patient’s name?” she asked without looking up.

“Patricia Hume,” Toni replied without nuance. As the woman typed, Toni pulled the binder she had taken from her home and opened it, propping it on the edge of the desk.

In it,
I spotted tabs labeled by month and color-coded. Though the code meant nothing to me initially after a few minutes of witnessing the exchange between the women, it became apparent that Toni checking her mother into an ER was not a novelty.

Within minutes she had relayed the recent history of her mother’s illness. An exact illness as yet unknown to me. She had a detailed list of all her mother’s medicines. It was lengthy. Doctors
’ names, physical therapy, speech therapy and so much more.

I watched as Toni signed document after document. Not needing to be told where to sign or why to do it.

“Have they assigned my mom a room back there yet,” Toni asked, her eyes never leaving the paperwork.

The woman shook her head in the negative and informed us to wait in the lounge for the nurse.

Toni rolled her eyes and took a breath. “You got 20 minutes to get someone out here or I will go back on my own.” Before the woman could reply, and from the look on her face, I surmised she had quite a comeback, Toni stood, ordered me to do the same and together we headed to the waiting room.

We remained silent for a moment while I watched the woman beside me add notes to the already overflowing binder. Her handwriting was small and swirly. As she wrote, she frowned and the little freckles that dotted the bridge of her nose disappeared
into the creases. She really was exceptionally beautiful up close. When her features weren’t schooled into a hateful growl just for me.

She’d pulled her honey blonde hair up
and into a messy ponytail. And her face, which had been accentuated in smoke and peach, was devoid of color. Her eyes, always a striking feature in pale blue and ringed in gold, looked weary.

I breathed in and considered the female next to me. Always in control with a touch of haughty aloofness, she looked anything but right now. Instead her countenance was harried, her control tattering at the ends like a knit sweater unraveling. Soon to be a limp pile of yarn without a purpose.

“Can I do anything for you Antonina? Should I call someone for you? David?”

She said nothing at first, glancing over to me like she had forgotten I was there. Even in times like these, I wanted her regard but knew I wouldn’t get it. Probably didn’t deserve it.

Finally she shook her head and spoke. “No, don’t bother him. I’ll call Evelyn in the morning. No use in her coming down here anyway.”

I nodded. “Yeah, I called to let them know I wasn’t coming back.
Sergey said she was nauseous.”

She sighed. “I hope she is okay. It’s all the stress of dealing with Eric and all the crazy with your family.”

“You know about that” I asked.

I had lunch with Evie
and Brenna a couple weeks ago.” She gave me a sideways look. “It was mentioned.”

I chuckled. “Brenna is worried. I didn’t know you’d meant them before tonight.” I was glad the conversation was turning. If it kept her mind off what was happening to her mother behind those swinging doors it was worth it.

“I’d met Brenna. I hadn’t met Boris yet.” She smiled. “He’s great. Really funny.”

“
Yeah, he is” I agreed.

“He really loves your sister. He looks at her the way Sergey looks at Evie.”

I didn’t understand what she meant. “How?”

She shrugged and her cheeks got pink. “Like she is the air he breathes. Like the world would
unstitch without her.” She was quiet again after she finished her thought. Then she started again. And…” she trailed off, closing the notebook and placing it on the seat next to her. “Mikhailov, it’s really nice of you to be here but you should go. You can’t stay here for me.” Those few words of appreciation seemed to pain her and I smiled.

“Oh, yeah. Why not?”

“Because I know the drill. I will get to see her for a few minutes. They will give her something to sleep and I will either go home for a little bit or sleep right here.” She pointed at the hard plastic chair she sat in.

“And how will you get home?”

She shrugged and the veil of smartass flitted across her face. “They have these crazy inventions called cabs. You call and they come,” she ended with sarcasm.

I grinned. This was a Toni I could handle. Not the one who looked like she needed to be
held. Protected.

“Oh, yeah. And how will you get to work tomorrow, eh? Another cab to the Booth?”

Toni sat up straighter and ignored my question. An older man in a white doctor’s coat was walking toward us now. His face set with that grim wariness all ER doctors and nurses seemed to sport.

“Toni Hume, right?” he asked as Antonina rose to take his hand. I stood too, cupping her elbow. My hand finding its way to the small of her back as we waited for the news. I patted her once, keeping her steady when she wobbled. She was bone w
eary. And she seemed to struggle to stand up straight.

The doctor motioned us to be seated and lowered himself into the chair across from our seats. “Well, your mom has fractured her fibula. The narrow bone in her lower leg,” he explained. “The way she describes the fall, it didn’t take much for the break to occur. This is worrisome.”

Toni nodded but said nothing. I didn’t understand but remained silent.

The doctor continued, “We are going to do a
MRI to see the extent of the damage. I also want to see the scarring near her pelvis.”

“My mom said she got dizzy. Why not just an X-ray? She had her last MRI two weeks ago. I have the documentation…” Toni reached over to retrieve her binder.

“No, Ms. Hume.” The doctor touched her knee, bringing her back to the conversation. “She has only gone two weeks between attacks. She only went a few days without numbness in her legs. And her tremors never left at all. Her speech is markedly worse since she was in last. When I asked her about speech therapy, she didn’t remember going.”

Toni sat up straighter. “I definitely—”

The doctor interrupted with a wave of his hand. “I know you manage her therapies. I know you make sure she goes to her therapies.” He sighed and rested his elbows on his knees.

“I called your mom’s PCP. She is going to call you in the morning.” He paused and continued. “She was in here for a bump and laceration to her head two weeks ago. Before that it was spasms causing her catheter to dislodge. Before that it was her wandering off during physical therapy and ending up two miles from the facility not knowing her own name.”

My stomach clenched as he watched Toni bite at her lower lip. I should not be the one sitting her with her when she heard news like this. I pulled out my phone to call David.

“You’re admitting her then?” she asked.

“Yes, we can’t let her go home with this level of confusion. And the cut she suffered on her arm during the fall will, in all likelihood, require some surgery. She’s cut through some tendon. It is quite deep and could impact mobility in her forearm. I’ve called an orthopedic surgeon.” He stood then and Dragan guided Toni back to her feet. “You are a good daughter. And you’ve done a great job caring for your mom. Symptoms are becoming—”

“Unmanageable,” Toni finished and offered an imperceptible nod, stood and shook the doctor’s hand. I followed suit. Together
we watched the doctor walk back down the corridor and through the double doors.

I was oddly disappointed when Toni didn’t insist I leave after the conversation with the doctor. She hadn’t discussed the pronouncements from the physicians. She just went back to her binder. Notating in margins. Occasionally mumbling to herself.

After she was able to see her mom and say goodnight, I escorted her back through the ER. When she accepted my arm and let me le
ad her to my car, I was stunned. I continued to palm my cell phone. I’d brought David’s number up on the screen a half a dozen times. I didn’t have it in me to be the comfort she needed. David would know what to do. I found her borderline friendliness unsettling. And I knew she didn’t want someone she hated providing her comfort.

I was skirting the edge of a connection I couldn’t afford right now. I took my hand from the
gearshift and put it to my upper lip. Taking a moment to trace where the scar that ran across it dipped into the philtrum. That weird little spot beneath the nose. An odd feature of the human anatomy that served no purpose. Just a residual souvenir of time in the womb. The two sides of your face develop independent of one another, and then join at the middle. I grimaced at the thought. Two faces. That was me.

The sound of the engine revving for third gear pulled me from my thoughts.

“You know,” Toni started. “If you can’t drive a manual transmission, you can park up ahead and I can do it for you.” The first words she’d uttered since leaving the hospital—and they were sarcastic. Balance restored.

“I got it, smart
ass. Just thinking.”

She settled in again and returned to her silence. A motionless Toni was unnerving. She was always running her mouth, moving…doing something. The sooner I got her out of the car the better.

When I pulled the Audi up to the house all was quiet. The lights and sirens that had disrupted the quiet
cul de sac
were gone. All that was left was a dormant neighborhood. Night had a firm grip and they only sounds were the distant chirps of frogs in an adjacent wooded area.

“Thanks,” she offered with her signature offhanded coldness going for the door. Again, before the car had come to a stop.

I’m walking you in.” I heard myself saying. My own voice, a surprise to me.

“Naw, I’m cool,” she
said. Dismissing me for the third time that night.

Without replying I parked and unfolded from the car, keeping up behind her as she walked up the uneven cement path to the porch.

“You should keep your porch light on,” I said aloud. Not expecting a reply.

“I was in a bit of a rush when I left,” she answered thrusting the key in the lock.

“Get one with a timer. It will come on at dusk every night.”

After a struggle, Toni got the door unlocked and turned to send me on my way. “Thanks for that,
handyman. I’ll get right on it.”

She turned and started to close the door but I followed her through the threshold and closed it behind me.

Toni turned and eyed me wearily and then her shoulders slumped. “Look, Mikhailov. There is little that I enjoy more than arguing with you but I’m tired. My head hurts. Maybe we could meet tomorrow and piss each other off, yeah?”

I stared at her for a moment before a grin started to spread across my face.

Toni looked at me in confusion. “Are you smiling at me right now?”

“Yeah,” I laughed. “Every time I piss you off… I don’t know. It makes me smile.”

Toni stared for a moment and then shrugged. “You want a drink? Wine, whiskey?”

I pulled my arms out of my suit jacket and laid it across the back of a chair.

“Water would be great,” I said as I began sliding the furniture that had been pushed to the side to accommodate the EMTs and their equipment. The living area was small. It didn’t take much imagination to figure out where the sofa and chair went. As I straightened the threadbare rug into the center of the room, I looked up to see Toni still staring at me. “So, is that water not happening? I asked with a smirk.