Nickel
“Where is she?”
“Sir, we’re going to have to ask you to calm down.”
I shook my head at the cop and pointed to the gas station. “Where the hell is my woman?” I demanded.
I was on edge. Hell, I was over the fucking edge, and all I wanted was to see Karmen and make sure she was okay. Boink had called me, calm as could fucking be, with the first words out of his mouth, “She’s fine.” Then he proceeded to tell me “she” had been in a fucking shootout at the gas station.
“Yo, Nickel.” I spun around and saw Boink appear from behind the ambulance I had walked by.
Pipe caught up to me and patted me on the shoulder. “Go to your woman, brother. Send Boink over. I’m going to need him to give me a rundown on what the hell went down.”
I nodded and watched Boink disappear behind the ambulance.
I jogged over to him and instantly demanded, “Where is she?”
Boink pointed to the ambulance. “She’s in there. Nothing happened to her in the gas station. It was after when she was standing next to her car that she got light-headed and puked. She just got in the ambulance a couple of minutes ago.”
My heart stopped in my chest, and my world tilted on its axis. I numbly walked around to the back of the ambulance where the doors were open. Karmen was laying on a stretcher, two paramedics over her body hooking up an IV while her eyes were closed, and she laid there listless.
“Karmen,” I croaked.
Her eyes popped open, and she lifted her head to look at me. “Nickel,” she sighed.
“Karmen, what are you doing?”
She looked up at the paramedic then down at me. “I didn’t really feel like driving anymore, so I called these guys for a lift.”
Boink laughed behind me, and I couldn’t help but smile. “This doesn’t really fit in with your whole shy and quiet act, Captain.”
She sighed and laid her head down. “Yeah, but I figured shy and quiet doesn’t really fit with the name Captain.”
“Not really,” I mumbled. I cleared my throat. “Baby girl,” I called. She raised her head again and looked at me. “You need to tell me what the hell is going on right now before I lose my shit.” I had a tight clamp on my control, but it was about to fucking explode if no one told me what was happening.
“I’m dehydrated. I puked, and it’s all in my hair.”
“You can ride along with us, sir. We’re going to transport her just to make sure she and the baby are fine.”
“Baby?”
I looked over my shoulder at Boink who looked surprised as hell. “Keep that shit to yourself.”
“I ain’t saying shit,” he promised.
One of the paramedics moved to the driver’s seat while the other sat on a bench next to Karmen. I moved into the ambulance and sat on the other side of her.
Boink slammed the doors shut and pounded on them. I hadn’t told him to talk to Pipe, but I knew he would head over to him.
Karmen’s eyes were closed again, and she was back to scaring the hell out of me. “Baby girl.” I grabbed her hand, and her fingers tighten around mine.
“Puking is so exhausting,” she mumbled. “I think I’m going to take a nap on the way.”
I looked up at the paramedic who shrugged. “If I could take a nap right now too, I totally would,” he mumbled.
“She’s okay to do that?” I asked.
“No reason for her not to. We’ve got her hooked up to the monitors and everything looks fine. We’re just taking her in for a checkup since she isn’t very far along.”
“But she’s fine, right?” I insisted.
“I can’t say anything for one hundred percent, but the fact we’re not running lights and sirens should help calm you down.”
I nodded, understanding that Karmen was going to be okay.
She lightly snored next to me, and I couldn't help but laugh at the fact that not only had she been in a shootout and now an ambulance ride, and she was sleeping like nothing had happened.
I grasped her hand with both of mine and bowed my head. She was going to be fine, and Morski was no longer a threat. Life was going to go back to normal. Well, at least as normal as it could be.
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