No More Tears In The End

Chapter 35

Rain was too shook-up to do anything, so I drove her to the hospital. When we got there, Jeff Ritchie told her that JR was in his office at the club, having a steak, and he suddenly grabbed his chest and fell to his knees. “He’s in intensive care. They don’t know if he’s gonna make it. You can go in,” he told her.

“You call Miles?”

“He’s on his way back. He’ll be here in a few hours.”

Good. Now I don’t have to wait until Monday.

Rain turned to me. “I’m gonna go in and see my father. Don’t leave me, Nick, okay. Don’t leave.”

Rain grabbed the first nurse she could find and they took her to the intensive care unit. Jeff Ritchie looked at me and I looked at him with a yeah, I fucked her, look on my face. He shook his head and walked away. I went in the waiting room and sat down.

I had been sitting there people-watching, ’cause it was more entertaining than television, for over an hour before Rain came back and sat down next to me. It was obvious that she had been crying, so I put my arm around her. I held her for awhile before she spoke.

“The doctor said his main coronary artery was completely blocked and the other two was just about blocked. They did bypass surgery on him.”

“Is he gonna be all right?”

“They don’t know. Said we just have to wait and see. Look, I’m gonna go back in there. You can go if you want to.”

“You go ahead and be with your father. I’m gonna stay for awhile,” I said knowing that I wanted to talk to Miles, but thinking that maybe this wasn’t the best time to hit him with this.

“You sure?”

“Yeah, I’m cool. You go ahead.”

Rain went back in the unit and I reclaimed my seat. It was two hours later when I looked up and saw Miles and Lakeda go in the unit. It would be another hour before Rain came out again. “He regained consciousness. He’s still very weak, but they say he has a good chance.”

“That’s good to know. I’m gonna go ahead and leave,” I said and handed her, her keys. I had decided that I would wait and talk to Miles another time. “I’ll take a cab back to my car.”

“Thanks for stayin’ as long as you did. I’ll call you tomorrow.” Rain kissed me on the cheek and walked back toward the unit. I watched her until the door closed behind her.

I caught a cab back to my car and went and hit a few of our spots. As I went from spot to spot, I wondered who Wanda’s spies were and how I was gonna find out who they were. Maybe she was clocking me right now.

I thought about what Black said about not hurting Wanda. It wasn’t like I was trying to hurt her, but I knew that I was. Even if Wanda didn’t know for sure that I was fuckin’ Rain, every minute I spent with her, every time I’m with Wanda and I think about Rain, I was driving the knife a little deeper. I loved Wanda, but there was something about Rain, something I wasn’t ready to give up.

I called Wanda and told her that I was gonna make a few more stops and then I would be there. “That’s if you want to see me,” I said.

“Of course I want to see you. How long do you think you’ll be?”

“I don’t know.”

My next stop for the night was the game. I stayed there for awhile and talked to Jackie. “Where’s Travis tonight?”

“Monika called him last night, and he rushed out of here. I haven’t seen him since,” Jackie told me.

“What’s up with that?”

“I don’t know. Maybe Monika had a tip on a hot job and needed Travis for it. You know how they roll.”

“Yeah, she did say she was into something the last time I talked to her.”

When I left Jackie, I decided to call it a night and head for Wanda’s, but I called Rain first to check on her. “Where you at?”

“On my way home.”

“Your home or your woman’s?”