Page 79 of The Tempted

Chapter Twenty-Eight

I opened my eyes, trying to make out what that beeping noise was and where it was coming from. I felt woozy like I was drunk and my body weighed me down. I knew even if I attempted to lift my head that I wouldn’t be able. I was suffering the world’s worst hangover at least that’s what I thought until I realized I had a tube up my nose.

It all started to come back to me slowly the shootout at Temptations going on the run with Nikki realizing I love her only for her to be taken from me. Everything just hit me like a Mack truck taking me back to chasing the sounds of her cries praying to God that I could save her. She was tied to that chair crying and there was a man with a gun aiming it straight at her. I ran as fast as my legs could carry me, shielding her body with mine as the bullet hit me. I hear her shrill cries as she calls out for me. Did I save her? Did he get her after he shot me?

I start to lift myself up desperate to see her to know whether she survived or not. I don’t make it very far and my head falls back against the pillow. I’m confined by the tubes and wires that are connecting me to the machines, even if my body had the strength to get up I would be trapped here never knowing if it was all for nothing never knowing if I failed Nikki.

I move my hands in search for a call button or something that can get a nurse in here, but instead of finding a button my hand grazes something silky smooth. I will myself to look down

and see what I’m touching and I almost cry out when I see my fingertips are touching her hair. Nikki is sitting at my bedside with her head laying on the bed next to my leg.

Relief floods me as I continue to caress her hair. It dawns on me that I have survived the loss of my mother and father, but I would’ve never been able to bounce back if I had lost Nikki. She is everything to me she makes this life worth living. She makes me want to be the best I can and not just because that’s what she deserves but because we both deserve it.

I wiggle my fingers against her scalp it’s a poor attempt to wake her up, but it’s the best I can do. I need to look at her and make sure she’s okay and more than that I need to tell her that I love her and I’m so fucking sorry I left her giving that dickhead the opportunity to take what is mine. I try to speak, but there’s a tube down my throat making it impossible.

Nikki starts to stir as my fingers continue to work her scalp until she turns her head so that her beautiful face is looking at me. She blinks her eyes rapidly as if she’s waking from a dream and lifts her head from the bed eyes wide as she takes me in.

“Mikey? Oh my God,” she gasps covering her mouth. I can see her eyes start to water and if I’m not mistaken, she’s hiding that beautiful smile of hers that owns my soul behind her hands. She stares at me for a moment before dropping her hands from her face and reaches out to touch my cheek.

“You’re really awake, aren’t you? I’m not just dreaming?” she whispers softly.

I shake my head, mesmerized by everything I see in her eyes if I hadn’t been awake when she told me she loved me, I would’ve known right now that this girl loves me with every fiber of her being. I open my mouth wanting to speak to tell her I love her too, just in case my eyes don’t tell the story my heart is writing but the fucking tube is in the way.

“Don’t try to speak,” she said taking in all the tubes and wires that I have attached to me. “I’ll get the nurse,” she leaned down to kiss my cheek where her hand was before walking backward towards the door. It was almost as if she was afraid to take her eyes off of me like I’d drop dead if she turned her back little did she know I was never fucking leaving her again. I wondered if people would look at us funny if I attached her to my hip somehow. She tore her eyes from me only to step outside the glass doors and shout to the nurses.

“He’s awake can we get someone in here, please?” she said, turning back to look at me.

I’m not going anywhere, Princess.

She stepped aside as a doctor and a nurse hurried into my room. They hovered over me shoving a light in my eyes as they poked and prodded.

“I’m Dr. Peters do you know where you are?” he asked me.

I nodded.

“Do you know why you are here?”

I nodded. Take the fucking thing out of my throat Doc.

“We are going to take the tube out of your throat you may feel some discomfort, but it’s important for you not to make any sudden movements.”

I nod again and watch as the nurse tells Nikki she needs to step out of the room for a moment. I hear her argue that she doesn’t want to leave my side, but the nurse assures her it will only be for a few minutes. Once they’ve convinced her to leave they work at removing the tube that’s been helping me breathe and it feels as if someone is shoving a knife down my throat. It takes all my willpower not to move as they finally dislodge the trach from my throat feeling as if it’s on fire as I struggle with short breaths. It’s not that I can’t breathe but more that the tube has made my throat feel raw and with each breath there is pain.

The doctor watches my oxygen levels as he weans me off and then turns back to watch me closely as I breathe.

“I don’t want you to struggle it will only hurt you more so if it’s too much for you to breathe on your own.”

“No,” I struggle to say as pain shoots through my stomach, making the one word feel like such a chore. The nurse and doctor continue to monitor me and Nikki creeps back into the room. She stands to the side, allowing the doctor to do his job without any interference from her. I focus on her as the pain begins to ease, and I get used to breathing on my own again. I am still connected to some machines and I’m told that’s because of the major surgery, I have just come out of. They are intravenously feeding me pain medication and antibiotics to keep an infection at bay. They tell me that I almost died that I needed emergency surgery and that they’ve removed my spleen. They also inform me that my recovery is going to be a bitch and then they scare the fuck out of me by telling me that any kind of infection while I’m healing can kill me.

Isn’t life, funny? Just a few weeks ago, I couldn't care less if I died and now more than anything I wanted to live. I wanted to plant roots and make a life for myself and I wanted Nikki in the center of it all. I guess life really can change in the blink of an eye and not always for the worse.

Before they leave my room, they tell me to take it easy and try not to exert myself too much. If I have to cough they give me a pillow to hug to my belly like that’s supposed to ease the pain when my stomach feels like it’s being torn apart. We’re finally alone and Nikki walks to my side taking my hand in hers and smiles down at me.

“Don’t talk,” she says when she sees me part my lips. “I’ve never been so scared in my life,” she says automatically making me feel like shit for leaving her that fucking night because I was too much of a pussy to face what I was feeling for her. “I thought I’d never see you again,” she swallows and I can see the struggle she’s fighting not to cry. “I thought I’d never hear your voice or your wise ass remarks again,” she laughs slightly. “I thought I wouldn’t get the chance to tell you how much you mean to me.”

“I know,” I cut her off struggling to speak. I couldn’t make a big elaborate to do in telling her how I felt, but I wasn’t going to let another word come from that pretty little mouth of hers before I could say what I almost didn’t get the chance to. “I love you,” I say taking short pauses between each word.

She smiles widely. “I know,” she says and the dam breaks free as fresh tears start to roll down her cheeks.

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