INFERNO (The HEAT Series Book 4) (3 page)

"My son told me all about you." John Monroe faces me. "He said you were beautiful but that word doesn't do you justice. You're gorgeous. You're as gorgeous as Kay."

"Dad." Kayla taps him on the shoulder. "Don't embarrass her."

"Embarrass her?" He winks at me. "How can I do that? She's a stunner and she can cook up a storm. Your brother was right when he said she's one in a million."

My gaze drops to my shoes. I'd almost rolled my ankle as I walked over to where they were seated. I'd been in a rush, fueled by my need to get this over with. I was tentative. The majority of the anxiety I was feeling about talking to them stemmed from my belief that they'd automatically compare me to Neela. I wondered if they'd insisted that she come to the hospital with them once they knew about the accident. She was almost a permanent part of their family. It would make sense that those feelings would linger for all of them.

"How did he seem, dear?" Amy, Tyler's mom, asks. "Ben told us that he needed stitches."

I look at her. She shares the same brilliant blue eyes as her daughter. I see Tyler in her face too. He's there in the shape of her nose and her smile. "His face is banged up. He has some bruising. I think he may develop a black eye."

She winces. "What about the rest of him? Ben said Ty didn't break anything."

"He was standing," I say assuredly. "He walked over to me. He looked good other than the bruising on his face and the stitches."

"He's a handsome devil, isn't he?" John's voice pulls my attention back to him. "He looks just like me, don't you think?"

I smile softly. "I think so, yes."

I hear Sophia giggle behind me. I'd introduced her when we first approached the three of them, but they'd turned all of their attention to me. Sophia had backed away gracefully, silently taking a seat a row behind us.

"They're going to keep him overnight for observation." I lock eyes with Kayla. "I'm not sure if he's allowed visitors or not."

"We have an all access pass." She waves her left hand in the air. Her brilliant diamond engagement ring and wedding band sparkle under the fluorescent lighting. "My husband will get us in there. Do you want to come with us? I know Tyler would love to see you again."

I shake my head. "I can't. My dad is in the ICU. I need to go see him."

"What?" Amy darts in front of me, pushing her husband aside. "Your dad is in the Intensive Care Unit? Why? What happened?"

After the greeting I received in this crowded waiting room, I thought that Tyler's family would know everything there is to know about me, including the fact that my dad is Sergio Firi. I have to explain that to them now.

Kayla heaves out a breath, her arm circling my shoulder. "Cadence's dad was with Ty. They were on their way to the party together."

"Your father is the man my son saved?" John's brown eyes are soft as he looks at me. "Now I know why he fought so hard to keep that man alive."

***

I use the tissue that Kayla handed me to wipe away my tears. "You're saying that Tyler performed CPR on my dad?"

She nods as she fishes in her purse for another tissue. She flattens it on her lap before she hands it to me. "Their driver told the EMTs that Tyler pulled your dad from the car and started CPR in the middle of the street."
              It sounds as foreign to me now as when she first told me just a few minutes ago. I'd stared at Tyler's dad in blank confusion after he said that Tyler had saved my dad's life. When Kayla stepped in to explain about the CPR, I had to take a seat. I had no idea that Sergio stopped breathing after the accident.

"You didn't know any of this, did you?" Amy moves to sit next to me. "We can get Ben to explain it to you, dear. It wouldn't take him but a minute to get up to speed on your dad's case."

She obviously knows that Ben isn't my dad's primary physician. I suspect Dr. Foster has been so focused on caring for Tyler that he has little to no understanding of my dad's condition.

"I can speak to Dr. Reynolds about it." I rest my hands against the arms of the chair. "I need to go to the ICU now. My dad might wake up."

"I can go with you." John reaches for my hand as I push to my feet. "The girls will go see Ty. I can stop by later."

"Thank you for the offer." I look toward where Sophia is now standing behind me. "My friend and I can go up. I think Tyler would want to see all of you."
              John nods. "We'll go see our boy but if you need anything at all you let Ben know. He'll get word to us."

"I will," I say wearily even though the only thing I need is for my life to go back to exactly the way it was this afternoon.

I stand at the foot of Sergio's hospital bed staring at his face. It's difficult to find his features under the swollen, bruised mess. His entire forehead is bandaged, part of his hair shaved to reveal a row of stitches. The area around both his eyes is purple, the skin tone uneven. Several clear tubes are protruding from between his lips held in place by strips of white medical tape. I wince at the sight of the cervical collar around his neck.

An intravenous line is in his left arm, the right secured next to him by a splint. He looks broken and battered. He's unrecognizable, so much so that I look up at the monitor that is tracking his heart rate to check his name.

"When will he wake up?" I ask the nurse who brought me in here. She insisted that Sophia remain in the Intensive Care waiting room. She had clear orders from the doctor, she said, to only allow one visitor at a time. I was grateful because it meant I would get to see my dad by myself. There are things I need to say that I don't want anyone, including my best friend, to hear.

"Dr. Reynolds will be here to speak to you within the next thirty minutes." She jots something down on a paper attached to a clipboard. "You can sit in that chair and wait for her if you want."

I glance at the green plastic chair that is sitting next to the window. They've drawn the curtains even though it's dark out. My dad used to love the sunlight when I was a kid. He liked it so much that he'd rarely lower the blinds in his condo. He told me he did that so he'd never miss a second of sunlight.  I tried doing the same when I moved to my nonna's apartment but the light so early in the morning always felt intrusive.

"I'll wait here." I sigh. "Can you tell my friend I'll be in here until the doctor comes in?"

"I can do that." She smiles softly. "There are chilled water bottles for visitors on the counter behind you. Help yourself."

I'm grateful for the offer. I turn back and grab a small bottle. I open the lid and down half the cold water in one gulp. It does little to chase the dryness in my mouth away.

"If you need me, press the call button."

I pivot on my heel so I'm facing her again. I watch as she points at a red button attached to a cord that leads to a panel on the wall. Her eyes lock with mine and I realize that she's waiting for confirmation that I heard what she just said.

"If I need you I'll press the call button," I parrot back. "I'll sit next to my dad and wait for the doctor."

***

"He was conscious briefly, Cadence." Dr. Reynolds rests her fingertips on my dad's wrist. "He only spoke once to ask about Tyler."

I'm hit with a wave of disappointment.  While I waited for her to arrive, I thought about what I'll say to him when he opens his eyes for the first time. Now, she's telling me that he was awake and I wasn't here for him. "I should have been here. He would have wanted to see me."

She looks over her shoulder to where I'm standing. "It actually happened right after the MRI. The technicians were the ones who reported it. He drifted back after that. It's a positive sign though."

"Does it mean that he'll be okay?" I take a step toward her, resting my hand on the foot of the bed. "Do you think he'll wake up again soon?"

"All of his scans came back clear which is very promising news. We still need to monitor him very closely." She grazes her hand over his left thigh. "His left femur is fractured. That's going to require surgery and extensive physical therapy.  We can talk about that once he's alert. We'll go ahead and set his arm in a cast within the next few hours."

It's all good news. The damage was minimal. It's all treatable. "When will he wake up again?"

"I've given him something to help him rest." She glances at the monitor above his bed that tracks his heart rate and blood pressure. "I don't expect him to wake again before morning."

"I can stay here until then, can't I?"

She taps the intravenous line with her finger. "Family is granted twenty-four hour access in the ICU. You're welcome to stay. There is something else I want to discuss."

I clench my hands together in front of me, hoping that the something else isn't bad news. Everything she's told me has been positive and hopeful up to this point. "What is it?"

"Your dad was unconscious when he was brought in so the police had to notify his next of kin." She closes her eyes briefly before she turns her gaze to me. "The person they contacted was your dad's wife, Asta."

If Asta comes to the hospital, I'll have to leave. If I don't, I'll be violating the restraining order and she'll have me arrested. She won't give a fuck that my dad is in bad shape. She'll use this situation as a chance to get back at me again.

"Is she in New York? Is she coming here?"

She shakes her head, frowning as she steps toward me. She lowers her voice to a mere whisper. "She told the officer who called that she's in Europe and unless your dad is dead she has nothing to gain by coming back to New York."

My throat tightens as I look at my dad in the hospital bed. He's at his weakest and the only person left in his corner is me.

I hold tightly to Sergio's hand as I wait for Dr. Reynolds to finish her call. She excused herself after she told me about Asta. She needed to check in on another patient. I watched as she dialed a number on her phone before I turned my attention back to my dad. He hasn't moved at all. He's just as still as he was when I first walked into this room.

"Tyler's been moved to a private room." She approaches me from where she was standing near the door. "I spoke to the nurse in charge of that ward. You can visit him at any time tonight. I'll write down his room number for you."

I watch in silence as she pulls a small white card from the pocket of her lab coat. Using the pen that's been clipped to the collar of her coat, she jots a four digit number on the back of the card before she hands it to me.

"I should stay with my dad," I say quietly. "I want to be here for him."

"He's going to be asleep for hours now, Cadence." She clips the pen back in place. "It might do you good to have a break and spend some time with your fiancé."

"What?" I drop my dad's hand. "My fiancé?"

She grins, both of her brows popping up. "Yes. You know the man. He's tall, his arms covered with tattoos. He's handsome, although I'd deny that if you told my husband I said it."

"Tyler and I…we're not…there's no…" I stammer, heat rushing over my cheeks. "I'm not engaged to Tyler."

"Oh, God." Her hand leaps to cover her mouth. "I gave away the surprise, didn't I? Hunter told me not to say anything to anyone and I messed it all up."

"Messed up what?" I ask breathlessly. I haven't even told Tyler I love him, how the hell could he be thinking about getting married? It's too fast. It's all too much. Not to mention the fact that I would not be okay with any husband of mine working closely with his ex-fiancée.

She scratches her chin, her chest heaving on a sigh. Her gaze drops to my left hand. "Hunter saw the ring box on the desk in Nova's office one day last week. He pocketed it because he thought someone might take it."

I listen intently, my heart sinking with every word she's saying.

"I dropped by there before work and he showed me." Her eyes light up. "It's breathtaking, gold, there's a solitaire in the center and then a knot of diamonds sit on either side of it."

As I stare at my dad motionless in the bed, she glides her fingers over the screen of her smartphone.

"I took a picture of it because I was so in love with it. Right after I did that Tyler walked in and took the box from us. He told us he'd left it on the desk and he was on his way to give it to the woman it belongs to." She turns the screen of her phone so it's facing me, a picture of a ring in full-view. "That's why I thought you'd have it."

I don't have it. Neela has it on a gold chain around her neck. The only thing I have is a million questions for Chef Monroe.

***

"I'll grab you a change of clothes and shoes." Sophia points to my feet. "You can take those off, Den. No one will care if you walk around the hospital in bare feet."

I grimace. "I'd care, Soph. This place is overflowing with all kinds of bacteria."

She rubs the palms of her hands together. "That's gross, but you're right. I'm going to take a shower at home before I come back."

I smile weakly. "You can grab a few hours of sleep too. If you get back here before you go to work tomorrow that would be great. You don't have to rush to come back."

"I'm not leaving you here alone for that long." She stops in place to look at me.  We've been slowly heading back to the ER. I asked Sophia to walk with me after Dr. Reynolds left my dad's room. She'll have no trouble finding a taxi outside the hospital. "You need me so I'm coming right back."

"Dr. Reynolds said they'll bring a cot in for me to sleep on." I sigh. "That way I can be right next to my dad. I'll sleep here. You'll sleep at home and I'll see you bright and early tomorrow."

"I called Mr. Foster." She tilts her head to the side. "I told him I had a family emergency and I won't be in tomorrow."

"You did?" I ask, trying to mask my surprise. Sophia doesn't call in sick even when she's got a fever and she's running on fumes. She takes her job too seriously to clock out for any reason. The fact that she took a day off to be with me hits me hard. It's a huge sacrifice for her. One I don't take lightly.

"Tyler's doctor is Mr. Foster's cousin." She smiles. "He knows your dad is a pretty big deal and he knows we're like sisters so he told me to take all the time I need."

"What would I do without you, Soph?"

"You'd still be wearing colors that clash with your skin tone." She chuckles. "I'll be back bright and early with clothes and breakfast."

I hug her tightly, closing my eyes with the hope that by the time I see her in the morning, I'll have all the answers I need from Tyler.