Bennie and Adam Plan a Wedding

Chapter 8

Adam

Bennie and I smiled at each other as we watched the news cast playing the video of Dallas being killed, it looked very real. The plan looked as if it went off without a hitch, Dallas gets shot while Travis is helping him to the car, the hospital staff rushes out and takes them back inside on a stretcher. Dan made sure the footage was leaked to the press, hopefully drawing Joey Wilcox out of hiding.

I said, “wow, that looked so real, I don’t remember talking about the second shot that hit Travis in the shoulder, but it sure added a touch of realism, don’t you think?”

Bennie nodded, “yeah, Dallas did a good job falling down, but I thought we agreed that one shot was enough.”

We finished our coffee and headed to hospital, we wanted to meet up with Dan and Travis to see if they had heard from the undercover agent that fired the blank shots at Dallas and Travis. We were hoping that once Wilcox saw that Dallas was shot, he would meet the agent to pay him for the job. As we walked into the hospital, one of Dan’s agents met as at the door, “follow me, I’ll take you to see Dan and Dallas.”

Bennie asked, “Dan and Dallas, where is Travis?”

Dan came out of an office, “in here guys.”

Dallas grabbed me, “they shot Travis!”

Bennie gasped, “what? What the hell happened?”

Dan said, “there was a second shooter, right after our guy fired, another shot came from the roof of the office across the street.”

I asked, “did you get him?”

Dan shook his head, “no, by the time we got there he was gone, no one saw him leave.”

Bennie gave Dallas a hug, “Dallas, it’s going to be ok, where is Travis now?”

Dallas wiped a tear away, “he’s in surgery.”

Dan paced the floor, “I should have never gone through with this, the first rule is never put the victim in any danger, shit what a mess. I need to go clean this up.”

He pulled the agent that had led me and Bennie in, to the side. “I want two guards at this door at all times, as soon as Travis is out of surgery you take these guys to his room and move those guards to that room. Do not, I repeat, do not let any one of these guys out of your sight.”

He headed out the door.

I helped Dallas sit down and I sat in the chair next to him, putting my arm around his shoulder.

He looked at me, “oh God Adam, I hope Travis is going to be ok, I really like him.”

I said, “I know, just be strong for him.”

Bennie sat on Dallas’s other side, “you guys will get through this, I know it. By the way, Travis feels the same way about you.”

He took a deep breath, “thanks Bennie.”

We sat there for another two hours, and the doctor finally came in to update us. It was the same doctor that Bennie had when he got shot.

He pulled a chair up in front of Dallas, “Travis is out of surgery, they are getting him settled in his room. I will have the nurse come get you as soon as she can. We understand the situation and all the hospital staff has been instructed to not discuss the case at all. There are only three nurses and one other doctor that know what is going on, I trust them fully.”

Dallas said, “thank you, how is he doing?”

The Doctor said, “we got him patched up, he lost a lot of blood, and the bullet nicked his heart.” We all held our breath. He continued, “it didn’t damage the heart too bad, and we were able to repair it. The next few hours are very critical, but he is stable.”

Dallas let out his breath, “is there still a chance that he won’t make it?”

He told Dallas, “There is always a chance, but he’s young, in good health, we are giving him the best care possible, just keep thinking positive thoughts.”

The doctor stood to leave, he noticed Bennie, “Bennie, I didn’t see you there, how are you doing?”

He stood and shook the doctor’s hand, “I am well doc, thanks. I wish we would stop meeting under these circumstances.”

He chuckled, “me too, the next time you guys come see me, I hope it just for a cold.”

A nurse knocked on the door and looked in, “we have Travis settled in his room, I can take them up now.”

The doctor said, “thanks, guys this is Janet, she will take you to Travis, she will introduce you to Brenda and Diane, they will be the only nurses helping on this case.” He turned to Janet, “take them up the back elevator and let the guards lead the way. Agent Winter is the only other person allowed in Travis’s room.”

She smiled, “yes, doctor.” She turned to us, “follow me please.”

She took us down a back hall to an elevator, and we came out to an empty hall on the fifth floor, there were two chairs next to a door just a short way down the hall.

Janet told the guards, “These are for you, if you need coffee or anything to eat, please let me know, I’ll have the cafeteria send up anything you need.”

She opened the door, and I helped Dallas walk in, there was a nurse changing Travis’s IV bag.

Janet said, “Brenda, this is Dallas, Adam and Ben…”

Brenda grinned, “Bennie, you are looking better than the last time I saw you, hi Adam nice to see you again too.” She turned to Janet, “Bennie was a guest here last year.”

Bennie gave Brenda a hug, “it’s good to see you too, I feel much better than last time too.”

She said, “I'm glad you're better. we’ll leave you guys alone, let either Janet or I know if you need anything, Diane will be here this afternoon, Travis is our only patient until the FBI tells us differently.”

I said, “thanks, I think we could use some coffee, if it’s not too much trouble.”

She smiled, “no trouble at all, I’ll be right back, and we’ll be bringing lunch up in about an hour.”

I sat Dallas in the chair next to Travis, he took his hand and kissed it.

He looked at me, “he looks like hell Adam.”

I sat next to him, “I know buddy, it will get better. He’s tough, he knows you’re here for him.”

We sat in silence, and a few minutes later the nurse brought us our coffee. After they brought us our lunch, we sat waiting for Travis to wake, each of us dozed off and on the rest of the afternoon.

Just as Diane came on shift and brought us dinner, Travis began to stir. Dallas immediately set his tray down and took Travis’s hand.”

A tear rolled down Dallas’s cheek, “Travis, I’m here, please squeeze my hand.”

Dallas burst into tears as he turned to me, “he hears me, he squeezed my hand.”

Slowly Travis opened his eyes, his voice was gravely as he asked, “what happened?” He was looking at me.

I said, “there was a second shooter, you’ve been shot.”

His eyes fluttered, “Dallas?”

Dallas adjusted his chair, “I’m here babe, I’m fine.”

A small smile formed on Travis’s lips, “did they get Wilcox?”

I said, “no, not yet Dan is working on it.”

Bennie said, “I’ll let the nurse know he’s awake.” He opened the door and told Diane, she came in and took his vitals and as she left said, “I’ll let the doctor know, he’ll be in to see you in a few minutes.”

We filled Travis in on the shooting and that the extra shooter was a surprise.

The doctor came into the room and talked to Travis, He told him many of the same things that he told Bennie when he had gotten shot. We were all relieved that Travis was improving, but the doctor warned us that Travis still needed to rest and that it would be another day or so before he would be confident in a full recovery.

The mood of the room was definitely lighter, but Dallas never released Travis’s hand. We now were waiting for news from Dan.

About an hour later, Dan walked into the room.

He said, “Travis, good to see you awake, how do you feel?”

“I’m pretty sore, but I think I’ll be fine.” He responded.

Dallas shifted nervously in his chair, “so what about the shooter, did you find him?”

Dan nodded, “yes, we have him and Joey Wilcox in custody.”

We all breathed a sigh of relief.

I asked, “what happened, is Dallas safe?”

Dan nodded, “yes, I think so. We are still going to be careful, but the ad for the hitman has been taken down from the dark web, according to our agents that monitor it.”

Bennie asked, “so how did you catch them?”

“Well, as soon as I left here this morning, I talked to some of Travis’s guys. They had just found the weapon used to shoot Travis in the trash dumpster next to the office building. We traced it back to one of the hitmen on our list, we immediately started to try and track him down. I met with our undercover hitman, and he told me he was supposed to meet Wilcox at the airport parking garage in an hour. We had already set up surveillance at the airport, so I had them concentrate on the garage. We decided to send our fake hitman early in case Wilcox tried to slip out without paying him. We were right, there is no honor among thieves, Wilcox was trying to leave early. Just as my guy was pulling into the garage, he saw Wilcox arguing with another man. He parked and observed for a few minutes, he alerted all our other agents, and they surrounded the area.” Dan told us.

I asked, “so, you moved in to grab him?”

Dan nodded, “not right away, we didn’t know who the guy he was fighting with was.”

Bennie asked, “who was he?”

“Well, that is where we got lucky, it was the guy that shot Travis. Wilcox was going to stiff him too. We moved in once we saw him pull a gun on Wilcox.”

Travis chuckled, “so you got both guys at the same time, that’s awesome.”

Dan laughed, “yep, sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good, although we would have gotten Wilcox anyway. We knew what fight he was booked on, he was dumb enough to use one of his old known aliases.”

Dallas sat back in his chair, “thanks Dan, I’m glad this is all over.”

Dan said, “well, like I said earlier, we’re still going to be careful, but yeah, I don’t think there is any more danger. After we questioned them both, they both came clean, hell Wilcox even admitted to running Charlie Jenkins off the road. He said he was just trying to scare him, he didn’t mean to kill him, I guess he thought that would make it less wrong. Now all the State and District Attorneys are fighting over who gets to prosecute him, I’ll let them hash that out, I’m just glad Wilcox is off the street.”

We were all relieved and asked Dan more questions. I noticed Travis was getting tired.

“How about we all leave, I think Travis needs to get some rest.”

Dan said, “yeah, I have a few more things to wrap up at the office, I’m going to leave the guards here, at least until tomorrow. Better safe than sorry.”

The nurses rolled in a second bed so Dallas could stay with Travis, he was still healing as well and could some rest.

Bennie and I headed home. On the way we decided we should postpone the wedding, Saturday was only two days away, and Travis would probably still be in the hospital.

Bennie said, “how about we just put it off two weeks, things should be back to normal by then. That’s about how long it took for me to feel better when I got shot.”

I took his hand, “that sounds like a good idea, we’ll call everyone in the morning to tell them. Oh, and we’ll call Heather tonight when we get home, she’ll be glad to know everyone is alright.”

Bennie grinned, “besides, if we postpone the wedding, that will give us two more weeks to practice for the honeymoon.”