Page 54 of Baby Me

“I suppose so. We’re still building trust after a bumpy start.”

“Speaking of, where is Bagger?”

“He just went down to get our food really quick. We tried to have something delivered, so you wouldn’t have to eat shitty cafeteria food again. Unfortunately, thanks to all the crazy restrictions, no one would let the delivery person up.

“Hey y’all!” A sweet, girl who looked to be barely out of her teens knocked on the door and then entered the room with what looked like a gift bag in her hand. Immediately, I ran to the other side of the room where my daughter’s crib was and grabbed the call button to get a nurse in there.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you. Someone just dropped this off for you at the nurse’s desk, but everyone was busy with poor Cody Anderson a few doors down.” She poked her lip out in a pout. “She…” She seemed to think better of giving us too much information, but the swipe of the tear running down her cheek said enough. Poor Cody probably didn’t make it.

“Texting my dad, that doesn’t feel right in combination with the bag being dropped off.”

Star was thankfully one step ahead of me, but on the same page. “Can you please, drop the bag and get out?” I asked the girl.

She did as she was told and the nurse who was supposed to be on call for my daughter’s room entered. “If you’re worried about Lexi, she is supposed to be here. She was vetted by the hospital to work here as a candy striper. It earns her a credit toward…”

“We don’t care about Lexi’s credits. The girl just delivered a gift bag for my sister that was left at the nurse’s station. Do you know anything about it?” Star asked in that no-nonsense way she had of making people get on the right track.

“There wasn’t anything left at the nurse’s station prior to the code we all just worked.”

I walked over to the bag and opened it up, figuring it couldn’t be anything that would hurt me, otherwise whoever left it wouldn’t have trusted it to do its job after sitting around or being handled by others.

When I got it opened, there was a bloody card sitting on top. “I’ll get her first, but you’re next.”

“Oh my God!” I yelled and dropped the bag. The contents rolled out. Besides the threat that had been delivered, there was a babydoll that fell out of the bag. It had been mutilated and stabbed repeatedly. Food coloring or something else was used to simulate the blood coming from each of the stab wounds.

Star didn’t waste any more time getting in contact with her dad, Breakneck, and then Bagger who still hadn’t come back to the room yet.

“Excuse me!” Someone yelled from the door. “There was a handsome biker in the room with you earlier.” The other nurse addressed Star as she spoke.

“Yes, that’s right.”

“We just found him unconscious on the floor in the bathroom. He’s being taken down to the ER for treatment.”

Star looked back and forth between the nurse and me. I could see the devastation on her face that she had to make a choice. Stay and help protect me and my daughter or go be beside her man.

“I’ll be down as soon as my dad gets here,” she finally told the woman.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, now go!” Star shouted at her before she picked up her cell phone and dialed someone else.

“Scout, tell me they’re all on the way!” She paused for a minute obviously listening. “Send them a message. Bagger was injured and left in a bathroom. He’s been taken down to the ER. It’s just me, Vina, and Coral in the room now. We received a package with a mutilated baby doll inside it and it says: “I’ll get her first, but you’re next.”

Star listened to Scout speak for a minute or two more and then she nodded her head and hung the phone up. “She’s sending more bodies to be able to cover Bagger and both of you.”

“I’m so sorry, Star. We will be just fine if you need to go be with him.”

“Nope, I would never forgive myself if something happened to either of you. Bagger is a grown man and he’s in the crowded ER. He’ll be fine. Besides, Kip is going straight for him. Your dad is coming here with Breakneck, and Scout and her friend are already crawling through video to see if they can track down who took Bagger out and left the package.”

An hour later, we had our answers.

June and a man who most everyone else seemed to recognize, were in the hospital. They were disguised well. June slipped into the room of Cody Anderson and did something to her that caused the poor girl to code. That was the distraction needed so that the man could slip in behind Bagger and take him out. Then June left the gift bag there for us to find while the two hauled ass out of the hospital again.

Scout and Keys stayed in the room with us working furiously on their respective laptops to find more answers. “Does anyone know this address?” Keys asked. When she read it out, Tripp immediately spoke up.

“That’s June’s cousin’s place. We went there looking for Anna yesterday, but she wasn’t there or wasn’t answering the door at any rate.”

“My girls are here,” Keys stated just before we heard a commotion out in the hallway. “Let them know it’s okay for them to come back.”

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