Page 32 of The Wrong Guy

“Medically-induced coma?” Mary questions with an eyebrow raised. “My baby is in a coma?”

“Yes, but only until the morning. We will further evaluate her condition. You all can see her now.”

I don’t go with them to the room. I’m not family, and I know they will want time with their loved ones. In another world, I would have avoided and stayed out of the hospital. However, Audrina is special.

My phone rings again. Greg. Why am I not surprised?

“Yeah?” I answer.

“Your father wants to remind you he doesn’t like to be kept waiting,” is his terse reply.

“I don’t give a fuck what he wants right now, Greg. Audrina’s in the hospital.”

He chuckles a little from the other side of the line. “This brings me to my next point of business. Audrina’s name came across our desk.”

My heart drops into my stomach. I know what that means. “Really? Did anyone pick it up?”

He clucks his tongue. “No one picked it up. However, the price is pretty good considering she’s not dangerous to anyone.”

“What’s the price?”

“Twenty-five large. Thirty if she’s bloody.”

“Get rid of the name, and don’t let anyone else see it,” I demand.

“Aren’t you the bossy little prince? Now that you crawled back to Papa, you think you can order me around?”

I leave out the front door to continue this conversation in peace. I know there are going to be people lurking and overhearing my conversation.

“Greg, I’m not in the mood for this. Are you going to get rid of the name or not?”

“It’s gone. Just because I burned it, doesn’t mean it isn’t going to come back. Your father wants to remind you that you must come to dinner tonight. He’s wanting you to bring your friend.”

“Andreas doesn’t have anything to do with this. He’s not from this life. He won’t get it.”

The clicking of the tongue tells me again I’m on borrowed time. I will give my father what he wants because I made this situation a “him” problem.

“You’re funny today.”

The line goes dead, and I shove the phone into my pocket before returning to the emergency room. Once inside, I see Sheryl being led to her grandson’s room. I’m following behind her to get past the nurse’s station. Once she led me to Derek’s room, I saw he was hooked up to all of the machines.

Standing outside the door, I wait for her to enter the room. Once she’s inside, I walk up to the nurse’s station with a couple of Benjamins in my hand.

A pretty nurse with deep green eyes looks up at me with a smile spread across her face. “May I help you?”

I give her my smile that gives me everything I want. “Yes. Derek Bancroft is one of my dearest friends. Could you please let me know how he is doing?”

She looks behind her before looking back at me. All around the hospital are the familiar beeps of machines, people talking, people crying, people eating and sleeping. The nurse doesn’t know who I am, and I’m going to let her off the hook.

“Sir, I appreciate you being friends with Mr. Bancroft. However, I’m not able to release his information.”

I slide over a bill for her to take a look at. “Um, hold on.” She leans behind her to grab a file. As she delivers it in front of me, she grabs the bill from me. “I will be back in two minutes. You better not be here.”

I take a look at the file to see the normal information I could find online about his social history. When I reach the mental health section, I take my phone out to take pictures of the chart. Once that has been completed, I flip to the following areas of the file and snap photos. The more information I have, the better off I will be.

Chapter Twenty

Audrina

---