Chapter 26

Brian awoke in his room, feeling a little foggy. "What the fuck….." he began groggily.

This jolted Audrey, who had dozed off at his bedside, immediately to attention. "Daddy?" she asked softly, leaning down toward him.

"Audi," he said, taking her face in his hands. "My beautiful baby girl. You're okay."

"Of course I am, but I think it is you that should worry about being okay. You're at the hospital. They had to take a bullet out of your side."

"They got me?"

"You could say that, but not before you gave them a good slamming to the ground."

"I did? The last thing I remember is lunging for the guy and then a loud bang before something stung in my side. Where's your mother?"

"Right here," Steffi poked him gently from the other side of the bed.

He turned his head. "Well, hi, beautiful."

"Whatever they have your dad on, maybe we should keep him on the stuff," Steffi joked.

Heath and Barbara came in the room with beverages. "Oh hey, Dad's awake."

"Welcome back, sleeping beauty," Barbara said, kissing Brian's cheek.

Heath picked up a paper, showing it to the others. "Check this out; Dad's all over the front page of the evening edition."

"What's the fuss about? I didn't do anything no other guy would do to save his kid."

Brian then appeared to be focusing on something across the room. "Oh, wow. That's a nice little kitty cat."

Audrey and Steffi looked at each other, confused. "What?"

"Brian, there's no cat in here," Barbara said.

"Sure, it's sitting over there by the window. It's black and white."

"What kind of drugs do they have Dad on?" Heath wondered.

"Apparently something quite strong," Steffi replied. "In any case, we should all get out of here for awhile and let him sleep it off. I don't think we're going to have a rational conversation with him at this point."

"Nice kitty," Brian sighed before drifting back off.

The next afternoon:

"Dude, what were you trying to do, get yourself in the obituaries? I go to Germany for a match and the next thing I know when I get back, Frannie and the girls are going ass crazy on me while I'm barely in the front door, plus I get like six hundred text messages, all saying you got shot," Paul said.

"I'm guessing you know about the whole hostage thing. Two scumbags held Audrey and three other girls for about eight hours," Brian replied. "I think the whole time all the cops practically did was stand around with fingers up their own asses. One of those bums was about to rape my daughter when Bryan and I managed to get in there."

"Good God. Is she okay?"

"Audrey's fine. She's supposed to see some counselor, but other than that, she's been pretty resilient. Actually, she's more worried about me than herself."

"Is it true you really drop kicked that big ass fucker?" Paul asked.

"Last thing I remembered before I was shot. Bryan said I made the asshole kiss some pavement too, but I can't remember that part."

"Jesus, remind me not to mess with your kids."

"And I'd do the same if anyone touched your girls," Brian said.

"Before or after I killed the bastards who would even think about laying one finger on their heads first?" Paul grinned. "Anyway, I bet that son of yours is crowing with pride today about his old man."

"To put it mildly. I don't know who's worse, him, Ma, or Steffi."

Paul pulled something out of his jacket. "Lyric made you this. She and Renee say get well soon and get your lazy butt home."

Brian studied the homemade card and smiled. "Tell those little beauties I said thanks. Hopefully, I should be out of here in a couple of days."

"Luckily, I got warning about your new hero status before it was all over the noon news. By the way, Steffi said you got a message on your phone to call management when you're up to it."

"Oh God," Brian groaned. "Shit."

"I don't think you're in trouble this time, shorty," Paul reassured him.

"More like probably concerned how soon my happy ass can come back to work. What, they're short on little guys to job this week? No pun intended."

"Doubt that," Paul said. "Not with the coverage you're getting. And Jeff says hi."

"That old fucker," Brian chuckled. "I still owe him an ass kicking after that extreme rules match."

"After what you did to the dude that tried to rape Audrey, if I were Jeff, I think I would take that a little more seriously from now on," Paul cracked with a grin.

Meanwhile:

"Good lord, this place looks like a funeral parlor," Steffi said, looking around at the floral offerings that had arrived at the house. "You'd think your father had died rather than recovering in the hospital."

"Check this out," Heath said, indicating an arrangement. "This one is made of fruit and it's from some people he works with." He picked off a piece and proceeded to munch on it.

"Heath, that's for Daddy," Audrey said.

"He won't care," Heath said.

"Just put it in the refrigerator," she sighed.

"A gift basket from the management," Barbara read the card. "What on earth? Boxes of chocolate, Doritos, all other kinds of junk food in here."

"Wow, that's Dad's dream," Heath laughed. "He'll like that one more than the fruit arrangement."

"Five hundred dollar gift card to Best Buy?" Steffi asked. "My lord. As if my husband doesn't have enough gadgets."

"Here's a potted plant from some TV station," Audrey announced.

"Keep that away from him for sure," Steffi said. "It's common knowledge your father has a black thumb."

"Yeah, only guy I know that could kill a cactus," Heath laughed as the phone rang.

Steffi got up to answer it, speaking for a few minutes before turning back to the others.

"That was the king," she said. "He requests the honor of our presence."