Being a Star (Isn't Easy)
Chapter Twenty-Three
MIDNIGHT--THE HOSPITAL
The news that Ezra was awake and knew who had shot out the tires on the SUV had
made all of the news channels in a matter of two hours.
They were all a little wary about what they were doing, and they had informed
Ezra. He was a little scared, but was willing to go along with the plan. The
police hadn't been notified, because they all knew that the sting would be
scrubbed. But, they also knew that they were all going to catch hell when the
police found out.
Ezra was laying in his hospital bed, pretending to be asleep. Rain, Casey, and
Inez had been sent on home in case things turned out badly. They didn't want to
leave Ezra, but they understood.
Vin, Chris, JD, and Josiah were sitting in the lounge area. Nathan and Buck were
picked to distract the nurses at the Nurses' Station. None of them wanted any
innocent bystanders to get hurt.
Vin looked at his watch and let out a frustrated sigh. Part of him hoped that
nothing happened, that way he knew for sure Ezra was safe. But, another part of
him just wished that whatever was going to happen would hurry up. He wanted the
person or persons that were responsible for causing Ezra to be hurt in jail.
That was if he didn't kill them first.
The lounge area was across the hall and two doors down from Ezra's room. Chris
was keeping an eye out for anything suspicious. All of a sudden, Chris quickly
stood up and hissed, "Come on!" The other three quickly and silently followed
him out of the lounge and to Ezra's room. Chris noticed that there was nobody in
the hall, the nurses weren't at the Nurses' Station at the moment. 'Good. Nobody
should get hurt,' he thought to himself.
They reached Ezra's hospital room and saw a man standing in there. He was just
staring at Ezra's "sleeping" form. They all knew that Ezra had to be extremely
nervous, but he was delivering an Oscar-winning performance of a man sleeping
like he didn't have a care in the world.
They were all standing quietly inside the doorway. Even though they were behind
the man, he didn't notice them. He was too busy staring at Ezra with a
happily-crazy smile on his face. They also noticed that he had a syringe in his
right hand. All Vin wanted to do was jump the man, beat the shit out of him, and
then call the police to escort the man to jail. But, a warning look from Chris
stopped him from following through with that plan.
The man crept toward Ezra's bed, took a small bottle out of his jacket pocket
and started to fill the syringe. As he was filling the syringe, he started
talking. "You know, Ezra, I'm only doing this for you. I love you and I know
that you love me, too. I know that they are making you tell them who shot out
the tires on your car. I know that you wouldn't do that on your own, you
wouldn't hurt me that way."
He quit talking as he finished filling the syringe and replaced the bottle back
into his jacket pocket. He looked at Ezra and said, "I know that you would want
me to do this. That way you can wait for me, and when my time comes, we can be
together again. I'll always be yours and you'll always be mine." With that said,
he leaned down and gave Ezra a soft kiss on the lips.
It was all Vin could do to not kill the man right there, and he knew that Ezra
had to be putting his wonderful acting skills to work overtime, to not flinch.
The man had almost put the syringe into Ezra's I.V. when Josiah grabbed him from
behind, and JD flipped on the light switch. The man had been so focused on Ezra
that he hadn't seen Josiah sneaking up behind him while he was talking.
The man tried to struggle, but he was no match for Josiah's strength and anger.
Using a napkin, so as to not leave any fingerprints, Chris carefully extracted
the syringe from the man's grip after Josiah had forced the man into a chair.
Ezra had his eyes open and was watching everything that was happening. He didn't
know the man. He couldn't understand why he would do everything that he had been
doing. Then again, he knew why. The man was a stalker. A violent stalker.
Vin laid his hand on Ezra's back, rubbing soothing circles, as Ezra's heartbeat
slowed. It had been the performance of his life. Ezra hadn't known if he was
going to be able to pull it off or not. But, he had.
"It's over, Ez. It's over," Vin softly said. Ezra nodded. Vin was right. It was
finally over. He could let go of all of the fear he had had since he had started
being stalked. He let out a relieved sigh and gave Vin a small smile.
Vin gave him a soft smile in return, before turning his icy blue eyes back on
the man that had caused his lover so much terror and pain.
The man was scowling. "I didn't do anything wrong!"
"You came in here and were going to kill a man," said Josiah with a raised
eyebrow.
The man smirked. "Prove it. I've been in trouble with the law before. Nothing
ever sticks."
"JD, go get a nurse and doctor to check Ezra out. Also, give the local police a
call," said Chris. JD nodded, then left to do as he had been told.
"And, we can prove it," Chris said, speaking to the man. Pointing to a medium
sized picture on the wall, Chris said, "There's a small camera hidden in that
picture. Small but effective. Everything that you said and did was caught on
tape."
Chris gave a chilling smirk as the man lost some of his bravery. They could all
tell that the man was shaken. He hadn't expected to be caught on tape.