Tearing Down Walls (Love Under Construction Series Book 2) (45 page)

It was just Tony, Nikki, and Laura. Tony sent everyone else away, Peyton and José home, Annabeth and Katie to Molly’s, and Clayton and Brittany back to Louisville to relieve their neighbor of Anthony and Ella Jane. Then he took an hour to go out and get food that no one felt like eating, and the three of them dug in to wait.

Steve showed up at a little after eight, looking as stricken as Tony had ever seen him. He sat down, looked at the three of them, and said, “You do know I love him, right? I mean, I know we pick and poke at each other, but I think the world of him,” he said, his eyes filling up.

Tony reached for Steve’s hand and said, “I know, bud. It’s okay. He knows too.” Laura was shocked to see a tear trickle down Steve’s face as he sat back to wait with them.

“Mr. Walters?” a voice said, and Tony opened his eyes to find that it had gotten light outside and they’d all been asleep for hours.

“Yeah?” he said, his voice hoarse with sleep.

“You can go back and sit with him if you want.”

“Can the three of us go back?” he asked, looking at the two sleeping women, one of whom was draped all over him.

The nurse smiled. “Sure, why not? Just be quiet and let him rest.”

Tony woke Nikki and Laura, then woke Steve to send him home, but he said he had a cot at the club and he’d rather just stay there so he could come back later. He hugged Tony before he walked out, and Nikki couldn’t help but think maybe they’d all misjudged Steve.

Vic hadn’t moved since Tony had been in his ICU room the evening before. He and Nikki took up a chair on one side of the bed, while Laura took the chair on the other. Nikki sat in Tony’s lap with her arms around his neck, and Laura held Vic’s hand and stroked it. The three of them drifted in and out of sleep until a nurse came in and said the doctor would be in to take out Vic’s ventilator tube in a little while.

“Does this mean he’s better?” Tony asked the nurse.

“It means he’s stabilized,” she said with a tiny smile. Tony glanced at Nikki and Laura and saw that they’d noticed her expression too.

Once the tube was out, they were allowed back in the room to take up their vigil. Then at five thirty that evening, they were ordered out and called back in again. The doctor saw the questioning in Tony’s eyes. “He’s going to make it. It’ll be a long road back, but he’ll be okay. We’re keeping him sedated to keep him still, but he should wake up in the morning.”

The relief Laura felt was overwhelming. She wanted to lean down and put a little kiss on his lips, but not with Tony and Nikki in the room. But she was filled with dread too. She knew that if he made it back – and he would make it back – she’d have to tell him her secret. She didn’t know how, but she’d have to.

After struggling for a few minutes, Vic got his eyes open. The first thing he saw was Tony’s face, all worried and dark. Then Nikki came into focus, a smile breaking on her lips when she realized he was waking up. Tony read the look on his face and pointed to the other side of the bed.

One glance was all he needed: She was safe. Her cheek lay on the bedrail, and she looked like she was trying to sleep. There was an exhaustion about her that saddened him, and she was kind of bedraggled and unkempt. He tried to smile at her, but he was so weak that he couldn’t. His hand managed to reach through the bed rails, his palm coming to rest on her head, his fingers in her dark hair, and she gasped and sat up, peering up at him in the bed. All he could manage was a weak wave, just a wiggle of the fingers of his left hand.

“Hi, handsome. Don’t try to talk. Just rest. We’re here.” She reached up and stroked the side of his face, and he closed his eyes and pressed his cheek into her palm.

Tony and Nikki moved in closer. “Hi, buddy!” Tony whispered. “We’re here. Everything’s fine. Just get better for us.” He reached for Vic’s hand, and Nikki leaned down and kissed Vic on the forehead. “How do you feel?” Tony asked him.

“Tired,” he managed to whisper.

“Go back to sleep,” Laura told him. “We’ll still be here when you wake up later.” That was all the encouragement he needed; within seconds, he was back out.

The nurse picked that moment to walk in and check Vic’s vitals. “He was awake, just for a second,” Tony told her, “and then – boom! – he was back out.”

She nodded. “Pain meds. If he wakes up, he won’t stay awake long. That’ll change when we start scaling it back, but he’s going to be in an enormous amount of pain for a good while.” She fiddled with a monitor, then took a long look at Vic. “I hope he’s as strong as he looks,” she added.

“Stronger,” Nikki said. “You just have no idea.”

Five days later, they moved Vic to a regular room. He said he was better; his doctor said he wasn’t as well as he thought, and when they tried to get him up the first time, he found out the hard way and almost passed out. It didn’t help that it took Tony, Clayton, and Steve to get him up, and besides the pain, he had the embarrassment to deal with.

Even though he felt a little better every day, Laura looked worse. Finally, Nikki asked Tony, “Wonder what’s eating Laura? You’d think she’d be glad he’s getting better.”

“Yeah, I noticed too. I can’t figure it out,” he replied, watching her from a distance while she helped Vic eat. He was still on clear liquids, and he was bitching constantly. Nikki couldn’t help but think how she’d be laughing at him if she was trying to help him, but Laura just looked drawn and tired, her golden complexion washed out.

By day nine, Vic’s doctor had told Tony and Nikki that he couldn’t be released to go home by himself, and they assured him that wasn’t going to happen. Unless Laura offered to go home with him, he’d be going with them when he was released.

And Laura didn’t offer.

Nikki couldn’t figure it out. Laura seemed to care; she was there every minute of every day, and there wasn’t anything he wanted or needed that she didn’t knock herself out to provide. But there was a struggle going on there, and Nikki was stumped.

On day ten, Vic’s doctor told him he could start eating soft foods and would be released the next day. “Good. I’m going home. I’m sick of this shit,” was all that he said.

“No. You’re not going home because you’ll be alone. You’ll come home with us. No argument,” Tony ordered. And they waited.

But Laura still didn’t offer.

Late that afternoon, Molly came by to see Vic and hung around for awhile. When she started to leave, Laura chased her down the hall and called out, “Hey! Wait up! I have Vic’s keys. Would you take me to pick up his car?”

“Sure! Right now?”

“I guess,” Laura said. “Is that okay?”

“So he knows?” Molly asked.

“No. I want to surprise him. I’ll get Tony or Nikki to come and pick me up. Don’t tell anybody; I want him to wonder how it got home.”

“How nice! Come on; we’ll go right now.” As they walked out, Molly saw Laura stop at the nurses’ station, but she didn’t see the piece of paper Laura slid to the nurse at the window. On the outside it read:
Please give to Vic Cabrizzi this P.M.
Then Laura walked out the door with Molly and didn’t look back.

“How’d the dinner go down?” the nurse asked Vic when she walked into the room that night.

“Watered-down mashed potatoes? Not too hard to swallow. Where’s my steak?” he teased.

“About a week out, I’d say. Ready to go home tomorrow?”

“Hell yeah. I can’t imagine that anybody would hang out here for the fun of it,” he laughed.

“Not often!” she quipped back. She pulled something out of her pocket and handed it to him. “The dark-haired lady left this for you,” she said as he took it from her.

Tony and Nikki walked in before he got a good look at it. As usual, Nikki kissed Vic on the forehead before she sat down on Tony’s lap. Vic looked at the piece of paper, folded like a letter. He flipped it open, saw Laura’s name at the bottom of what was written there, and folded it back up.

“Fuck me.”

“What’s that?” Nikki asked, and she and Tony waited for him to answer.

Vic dropped his head back onto the pillow and sighed. “I’m guessing it’s a ‘dear John’ letter. And I hadn’t even graduated to being ‘John’ yet.” Nikki’s mouth fell open, and Tony closed his eyes and dropped his head.

“No!” Nikki hopped up and reached for the letter, but Vic snatched it away. “She can’t do that! That’s so, so . . .”

“It is what it is.” Vic held up the letter and started tearing it up until it was in tiny little pieces, then picked them all up and threw them up into the air like confetti, and they fell into his hair. He just sat there, eyes closed, expressionless.

“Where the hell is she?” Nikki shrieked. “Because when I get my hands on her, I swear to god, I’ll . . .”

“No, just leave it alone,” Vic said, still not opening his eyes. “I don’t know why I expected anything else.”

When Tony looked up at his wife’s face, it was drenched in tears, and she turned and ran out of the room. He turned to his cousin, sitting stock still, and asked, “Vic, what can I do? I’ll do whatever you ask. Just tell me.”

Vic opened his eyes, and the steely expression Tony was so accustomed to seeing was there. “Find her. Whatever it takes. I’m damn sick and tired of this. I don’t want a fucking letter. She owes me, and the least she can do is talk to me face to face.”

“Agreed.” Tony stood and strode to the doorway, then turned back to Vic. “I’ll find her and drag her ass here. I don’t know what was in that letter, but before you leave this hospital tomorrow she’ll stand here and tell you herself.”

“Thanks, Molly. I’ll be fine.” Laura got out of the car, keys in hand to open the warehouse door, but Molly followed her.

“After what happened here, I’d really feel better if I went in with you,” Molly told her. She let Molly come in the door, but once inside, she told Molly, “Just go on. I think I need to be here alone for a minute, please.”

Molly stopped with her hand on the doorknob. “Just be careful. And let me know if you need anything?”

“Sure. And remember, it’s a surprise.”

“Got it!” Molly replied as she left.

Laura looked around. There was still blood everywhere, and the sledgehammer was lying right where it had fallen. Most of the other gore and mess was gone; someone had at least cleaned up a little bit, probably retrieving evidence for autopsy. Vic’s car was sitting there, as beautiful as ever, and when Laura hit the unlock button, it seemed to come to life. Then she headed for Lexington. She didn’t stop at a convenience store, grocery, or gas station; she drove straight to Vic’s house.