Perry’s office. They took him to surgery right away. After Perry removed the bullets, they took Nick to a room to recover. “How is he?” Danielle asked.
“I removed the bullets. He was very lucky that they didn’t hit any major organs. Nick always was lucky,” Perry said. “But he’s lost a lot of blood , so he’ll be weak for a couple of days and he should take in as much fluids as possible. But he’s going to be fine.” Perry looked at the concerned look on Danielle’s face. “Don’t worry, Nick is a strong man. He’ll get through this.”
“Thank you, Doctor.”
“Perry,” he said and started to walk away. Then he stopped and turned around. “I don’t think I’ve met you.”
“I’m Danielle Graham.”
“And you are?”
Danielle smiled. “I’m the food and beverage manager at JR’s. That’s where he got shot. Rain went after them and Nick told me to bring him here.”
“Oh—okay,” Perry said and started to walk away again.
“Can I see him?” Danielle asked.
“Sure. Come on.” Perry led the way to the recovery room and opened the door.
“I’ll come back and check on him. Let me know if he wakes up. I’ll be right down the hall,” Perry said and left Danielle alone with Nick. She went in and sat down in the chair next to the bed.
Danielle had been there for a half an hour when Nick moved and seemed to grimace in pain. She reached for his hand and squeezed it. She wanted him to feel her. Feel how she felt for him as tears fell from her eyes. Danielle tried to wipe them away but they kept coming, so she let them flow.
She heard somebody at the door. Danielle looked up and saw it was Rain. She quickly let go of Nick’s hand and tried to wipe away her remaining tears. “What you doin’ here?” Rain asked.
“I’m the one who brought him here,” Danielle said and wondered if Rain saw her holding his hand.
“I know that; but what you still doin’ here?”
“I didn’t want to leave him alone.”
“Yeah, well, I’m here now, so you can leave.”
Danielle looked at Nick and got up. As she was leaving, Perry came in the room. “You’re not leaving are you?”
“Yes.” Danielle looked at Rain. “She’s here now.”
Perry looked at Rain. Being very close to Wanda, Rain wasn’t one of his favorite people. “Hello, Rain.”
“How you doin’, Perry?” Rain figured that he didn’t like her, but she was used to that. All of Nick’s friends who knew Wanda treated her that way, whether they knew anything about her or not. Part of her wanted to do something to turn that around, but then there was that other part of her. Fuck them. I’m gonna be around for a long time so they might as well get used to it. “How’s Nick?”
“Like I told Danielle, I removed the bullets. They didn’t hit any major organs, but he’s lost a lot of blood. He’s gonna be weak for a couple of days. So you need to make sure that he takes in as much fluid as possible, but he’s going to be fine.”
“Thank you, Perry.”
“No need to thank me.”
“Can I take him home?” Rain asked.
“I don’t think he could he moved just yet. I’ll check him again in a couple of hours and then we’ll see,” Perry said and walked out with Danielle.
Rain didn’t like that she couldn’t take Nick out of there, but she sat down in the chair Danielle had just vacated. While she waited she held Nick’s hand and thought about the night’s events.
This was her fault.
There were no two ways about it. If she hadn’t gone to Cynt’s to send a message, Nick wouldn’t be laying there now. She thought about what Nick said to her when she tried to explain herself. ’Cause I knew you’d wanna run off and do something about it. She could hear him shout at her; That’s not what I wanted!
He was right, the way to deal with the situation was to wait them out, watch them, find out what they were planning and be ready for them when they made their move. “It’s called intelligence and
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