“Leave Noah alone,” Nick said, the muscles in his body all tense.
“Or what?” Ronnie stepped forward until their noses were touching.
I grabbed Nicholas’s hand.
“Nicholas, don’t do it,” I whispered. I knew he’d heard me. Ronnie, too. Nick pressed his fist into Ronnie’s chest and pushed him away.
“Stay out of my life, Ronnie. You don’t want problems with me. There are too many witnesses here for you to risk going back to jail.”
Ronnie clenched his teeth and forced a grin.
Just then, the manager walked over with the door guy.
“You two,” he said to Ronnie and Nick, “out of here, now.”
I was trembling all over.
I followed them outside. Nicholas went to his car and Ronnie to his—or, rather, to Nick’s Ferrari. He shot past Nick and vanished down the street. I walked over to Nick with a strange feeling in my chest.
“Are you okay?” he asked me, looking at my face with worry.
“Yeah, I’m fine, I just…” Suddenly a strange feeling overtook me. I couldn’t see Nick clearly anymore, and everything went dark.
32
Nick
I grabbed her as she was about to hit the ground, cursed, dragged her around to the other side of the car, and laid her in the passenger seat.
She’d fainted. I shouted to the security guy to bring me a bottle of water. Slowly, Noah came to.
“Hey, Noah,” I said, bringing the bottle to her lips. “Here, take a drink.”
She opened her eyes and grabbed it, taking little sips.
“What happened?” she asked, looking all around. “Where’s Ronnie?”
I breathed a sigh of relief, knowing she was all right.
“He left,” I said, leaning on the headrest. “Dammit, Noah, you scared the hell out of me.”
Pale as a ghost, she said, “I’m all right.”
“No, you’re not,” I said. “Lion told me you fell when you were bowling and hit your head, but you refused to go to the hospital.”
“I didn’t go to the hospital because I already know what they’re going to tell me. That I need to rest.”
I was starting to lose patience.
“You could have a blood clot.”
“That’s not it.”
By then, I’d stopped listening. I got in the car and took off toward the highway.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m taking you to the emergency room. You hit your head and passed out. Maybe you’re okay playing with your life like that, but I’m not.”