“Father?” he asked.
“Nope. Looked him up. Turns out, he’s a cardio-thoracic surgeon. Lives in Boston.”
“Good. Thanks. Send the details over to me. I’ll see if Xavier wants to call him or I should.”
“Sure thing, boss.”
He ended the call and waited for the information to come in. Jimmy even included a picture of August James. He looked to be in his early-forties. Who was he? Surely, she didn’t have a husband. There was no ring on her finger, but that didn’t mean anything.
But no, her horror over the idea of being part of his supposed-cheating had been real. He grimaced. Her opinion of him had been pretty low. Had she really imagined that he would have cheated on Kiesha? Maybe it was an ex-husband. Or perhaps a brother? He was going to go with that.
Leaving her room, he headed to the nurses’ station to have Xavier paged.
So scared. Her teeth chattered. She knew he would find her.
Help! Help!
Screams.
“Wake up! Hey, shut up. You’re going to wake the whole damn hospital up.”
&nbs
p; Someone touched her, shaking her. And she fought back. What was happening? Who was that? Where was she?
“No! Get back! Stay away from me!” she yelled.
“Calm down! I’m a nurse. I’m just trying to help you. Stop fighting me!”
“No, get away from me! I won’t let you hurt me! Help! Help!” She fought, desperate to get away.
“Fuck! Stop or I’ll have to sedate you!” someone yelled.
There was pressure on her arm. No! They were hurting her. Bruising her.
“Don’t tie me up! Don’t!” she screamed.
“What the fuck is going on in here!” A deep voice roared. “What are you doing? Let her go! Now!”
Help is here.
She didn’t know why she thought that. But she found herself calming. The hands that had been trying to hold her down, disappeared.
“Nobody is tying you up, Georgie-girl. You’re safe. You just need to calm down. Georgie-girl, you’re safe. Come on, wake up for me now. See where you are.”
She forced her eyes to open. Her breath was coming in shallow, fast pants. It felt like her heart was racing so hard that it might just jump straight out of her chest. But she forced herself to focus. Looking around, she saw that she was in a sterile-looking room. An older male, dressed in scrubs stood off to the side. He moved his glare between her and Ed.
Ed was here. He was standing by her side, half over her.
Protecting her.
Moving on instinct, she wrapped her hands in his T-shirt. She wasn’t letting him get far from her. Some small part of her whispered that she shouldn’t be so needy. But right now, she was fully ignoring that part.
She needed him.
“Sheriff, we have to sedate her! She was punching me. She could hurt someone.”
“Look at her. Does she look like she’s going to fucking punch someone? I don’t know what you did, but you’re twice her fucking size and you’ve just terrified the hell out of her. Nobody is sedating her. Get the fuck out of here.”