Kate joined Nikki, who sat gingerly on the edge of the bed, reading to him. She lightly touched her friend’s arm.
“Ready for some dinner?” Kate asked. “We’re starving.”
Nikki glanced over her shoulder. “Already? What time is it?”
“Close to eight. We’ve been here for over twelve hours and they’re about to kick everyone out. Time’s up.”
Nikki’s gaze returned to the patient. “Seems like I just got here.”
She set the book she’d been reading aloud on the nightstand and then said to the man in the coma, “I’ll check in on you first thing in the morning, Nico. Pleasant dreams.”
Kate stepped back and Nikki stood. But she didn’t move away from the bed. She stared down at it for several moments, then gave a small shake of her head before following Kate out.
In the hallway, she told Kate and Jude, “I was speaking with the capitán de la policía earlier and he said Nico Valdiviesio saved thirteen lives. That first building that erupted was an apartment complex with many elderly residents who weren’t efficiently mobile. Nico manages some of their trusts and was in with one client when the initial blast occurred. The warning alarms went off, and he purposely sought out those he knew couldn’t make it out of the complex on their own—and also assisted their neighbors and friends who were similarly going to have difficulty evacuating in a timely manner.”
“He’s our kind of people,” Jude commented.
“Yes,” Nikki said. “What’s so bizarre, though, is that no one other than those survivors have come looking for him in the hospital.”
“As in, no family, friends…fiancée?” Kate ventured.
“Well, I wasn’t thinking in terms of the latter, but, yeah. Total loner. And yet, he risked his life for all these people.”
“Interesting,” Jude replied.
“How so?” Kate’s gaze narrowed on him as they started down the corridor to avoid being politely kicked out by the staff.
“I’m just thinking that if he’s the one putting all their estates in order, there’s an opportunity for him to become close to the elderly—who might not have other relations. If you get my drift.”
Nikki caught on quick. “So they might bequeath unto him?” she mused. “Because he feels like family, is only looking out for their ‘best interests’… So on and so forth?”
“Something along those lines,” Jude concurred. “It’s a familiar scam. One I’ve encountered a time or two in the courtroom.”
“Hmm.” Nikki seemed to give this its due consideration.
Kate, ever the optimist, eyed her friend and said, “But in this case, the potential scammer saved the lives of his clients—and their friends. People he didn’t even know, right?”
Nikki gave a noncommittal shrug, as though uncertain as to whether to continue believing in the hero-worshipping path she’d inadvertently traveled with Nico Valdiviesio.
Because Jude wasn’t instantly throwing the man under the bus any more than Kate was, he causally suggested, “Doesn’t sound as though Nico was looking to cash in on anything, Nik. Perhaps he was just helping others because he knew he could.”
Nikki deliberated over the pros and cons of the situation for a few moments before reluctantly saying, “There have been reporters and newscasters wanting to interview Nico. They’re collecting stories from those he rescued. I haven’t let the press into his room on my watch, but the papers have been filled with his heroics. That’s what I first started reading to him.”
“And has there been any response?” Kate asked. “Even slightly?”
“Ever-so-slightly,” Nikki told her. “Yes.”
“That means something.”
With a nod, Nikki said, “I thought so, too. So I grabbed a couple of books from the chapel’s library and began reading to him. He seems to like A Tale of Two Cities.”
“Or he likes your voice,” Kate said as she took a side-step closer to Nikki and rubbed shoulders with her.
Nikki laughed. “Ever since you and Jude hooked up, you’ve been one big fluffy ball of romance.”
“While I will concede to finding a little more Zen in my life…” She flashed a grin toward Jude, then returned her attention to Nikki. “I’m only saying that you’ve just gravitated toward a SAR hero without even knowing it, and he clearly likes listening to you murmur to him whatever it is that you murmur to him at the end of the day. When no one’s around. When it’s just the two of you in his room and—”
“Kate!” Nikki flashed her an indignant look.