But by the time he aimed it at their prisoner, the prisoner had already turned the barrel of that gun onto Nikki and was just about to pull that trigger. But Teddy fired his weapon first, taking out the bad guy. Marco opened the back passenger door, ready to take out the gunman himself, just after the shot was fired.
“Are you okay?” Teddy anxiously asked Nikki. And although she nodded her head as if she was, he could see that she was not okay at all. After all she’d endured and what she’d just heard about her father-in-law, a man Nikki was extremely close to, she was nowhere near alright. Teddy pulled her into his arms.
“Get him out of here,” he ordered Marco, “and get us to the airfield.”
Marco grabbed their now-deceased prisoner, threw him out of their SUV, got back in on the front passenger seat, and ordered the driver to take off. Which he did.
But as Teddy sat back during that ride to the airfield, his head was spinning. Nikki came that close to certain death, and she came close thrice. And all three times right under his nose. He could have lost her just like that. All because he gave her too much freedom. Too much rope.
It was too close. It was far too close for any kind of comfort.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
By the time Teddy, Nikki, and Marco arrived at the hospital, it was five hours later. But when they walked into the waiting room and saw just how devastated Roz appeared, they hurried to her.
Roz stood up when she saw them, too, and they all hugged together. Gloria and Jackie joined in the group hug too. They all had tears in their eyes when they stopped embracing.
“How are you, Ma?” Teddy asked her. Just the look on her face distressed him.
“He’s got to pull through, Teddy,” Roz responded. “Pray to God Almighty he pulls through.”
“He will, Ma, you know that. He has to.”
But that only set Roz off. “I’m tired of people telling me what he has to do!” Big Daddy looked up at her. “My husband in on that operating table dying, and everybody keeps telling me what he has to do? Fuck y’all. Fuck all y’all!” Then Roz broke down. She fell to her knees and broke down.
Even Bella Caine had tears in her eyes as Teddy and Gloria and Jackie tried to get their mother up, but Big Daddy stepped up. “Leave her alone,” he said to them.
They all stopped, stood up, and looked at him. Then Big Daddy went over to Roz, squatted down, and exhaled. “I’m worried too, Roz.”
Roz looked at him. She was sobbing. “I saw his eyes, Charles. He was so scared. He knew he wasn’t gonna make it. Oh dear God, what if he doesn’t make it, Charles? What if he doesn’t pull through? What are we gonna do?”
Everybody were in tears by now. But Big Daddy was back. There wasn’t a tear in his eye. “If Mick doesn’t pull through,” he said, “Then we’re going to carry on. You hear me, Roz?” He took her chin and lifted it up. “You and his children and me and mine are going to carry on.”
“But it’s my fault,” Roz cried. “He told me I couldn’t go to Essence. But I went anyway. If I wouldn’t have got on that road to New Orleans--”
“No, Ma, no,” Teddy said as he squatted down beside Big Daddy. “That’s not true. They were coming for you no matter where you were. They came for Nikki in New Orleans.”
This was news to all of them. “What?” Roz said as they all looked at Nikki. Roz began getting up then, as Big Daddy helped her up and got up too. Teddy stood back up too.
“What happened?” Roz asked Ted and Nikki.
“Some guys tried to take me out,” Nikki said. “And they would have if Teddy and Marco didn’t show up.”
“Oh dear God!” She grabbed Nikki’s hands. “Are you okay?”
“I’m absolutely fine, Ma,” Nikki said with more cheer in her voice than she was actually feeling. “I’m good.”
“But you can’t blame yourself, Ma,” Teddy said. “They’re were going after Dad and everybody he loves apparently. This is not your fault.”
When Teddy said those words, a burden seemed to lift off of Roz. It was a small burden, but it was better than nothing. She pulled Teddy, her stepson, her confidant, into her arms. Then she pulled Nikki in her arms too.
And then the door to the waiting room opened, and three surgeons walked in, and they were followed by Duke and all of the principals.
Duke hurried to his mother. “They’ve got news about Daddy,” he said excitedly. “Uncle Reno told them to come and tell you first.”
Duke placed his arm around his mother’s waist as she looked nervously at the three doctors. It was rumored that each one of them would receive a million dollars for their work. They were considered among the best of the best.
Everybody gathered around Roz. It felt as if they were collectively holding their breaths. As if their collective hearts had stopped beating. “How is he, Doctor?” Roz asked with so much agony in her voice that it devastated them all.
