The shaking wouldn’t stop, no matter how hard I tried to will it away. Just so I could run, get away, escape as far from the man who tried to kill me as I possibly could. My knees gave outas I tried to move backwards, causing me to hit the ground hard. Shemar was by my side, trying to understand what was going on, but Craig had stepped out of the room and was approaching me.
I tried to scream against the invisible belt constricting my throat, but no sound would form. Gasping noises were all I could create from the terror taking over my body. He was there to finish the job; he had to be. There was no other reason why he would have come down here. If he didn’t kill me, the panic taking over me would. My fear was a force of its own, taking control and evicting me from my own body.
Shemar was able to get an arm around the back of my shoulders; he must have abandoned his clipboard, but all that did was make it worse. Now I could no longer back away from my would-be killer. Now he was kneeling down in front of me, smiling while talking in a calming voice. That sickening sweet voice, worse than nails on a chalkboard, that I knew was fake.
“It’s okay, baby, this is why you’re in a place for people to help you. These episodes might kill you one of these days.” The threat lurking beneath his smooth voice was clear, so why didn’t anyone else seem to notice that he was promising to finish the job right in front of them?
“Get away! Get away! Get the fuck away from me!” I screamed as he tried to touch me. Shemar must not have known I was talking to him or Craig; he didn’t move from his position around me, buthe also didn’t make Craig back away. His arm around my back held me firmly trapped between the two men.
The elevator dinged in the distance, but it could barely be heard over my screaming. Patients and their visitors were starting to take notice, sticking their heads out of their rooms to watch the scene unfolding.
“What’s going on?” a strange baritone voice interjected. I couldn’t see his face as he stood behind me, I didn’t care, the only thing that mattered was to get as far away from Craig as I possibly could. I started to try to hit Shemar, pleasant disposition be damned if he wasn’t going to let me run.
“He tried to kill me!” I bellowed, finally able to form a sentence around my labored breathing.
“Shemar,” barked the new male voice, “call security and have this man removed now, or I will do it myself, and you won't like having to clean up the mess.” He stepped around me and placed himself between me and Craig. It was difficult to tell his height from my angle of half lying on the ground, but he was taller than anyone present in the chaos.
“Who are you to say I can’t see my girlfriend? I’m the one who admitted her into the hospital; I saved her life.” Craig's knowing smile stayed on his face while he tried to reason with the newcomer. His charm fell into place as easily as pulling on a sweater. He was an artist, and no one around him could see through the carefully crafted charade he had in place.
“I don’t give a fuck who you are. If you cause this type of reaction with any of our patients, their well-being ranks above your wants. So get the fuck out of this hospital now before I have charges pressed against you.”
Craig took a step towards the new guy, obviously not intimidated by his stance on trying to make him leave, but the unknown man never backed down. Shemar must have called security like he was asked to do because not a second later, two uniformed men came to escort Craig off the property. I didn’t see him putting up much of a fight, but that didn’t mean some type of revenge was brewing in his mind. I knew how he worked, how he operated, and I knew all too well what that smile meant.
The unknown man finally turned around once security had disappeared with Craig sandwiched between them, and crouched down on the floor beside me. My chest heaved with the lingering panic.
“Are you okay?” He asked, not getting too close as Shemar helped me to my feet, the nurse’s lithe frame nothing compared to the giant of a man next to him.
“No,” I paused, trying my damnedest to breathe, “H— tried—to kil— me.” I spoke as steadily as I could without being able to take a complete breath. If my body was determined to make these moments my last with the panic coursing through it, then I was going to continue to do my best to get someone to listen to the truth.
“Miss Devlin, you’re here because of a suicide attempt,” started Shemar, but the new guy cut him off.
“Could you please go get new bandages, Shemar? Miss Devlin seems to be bleeding.” I glanced down at my arm. The man was right, in my attempt to get Shemar off me, I had torn off the dressing covering my stitches, ripping a few out in the process.
Shemar didn’t argue and left me in the stranger’s care while he went over to the now unoccupied nurses’ station to find a first-aid kit. The other nurses were trying to get the other patients to resume their visits now that the chaos had finally died down.
“I’m Daxton Bradshaw, one of the therapists here. Do me a favor, breathe in through your nose for a count of six, then out through your mouth for another count of six.”
Even though I was still shaking, I tried to follow his directions. He held my gaze as I tried to breathe, his height not nearly as intimidating now that it felt as though he was on my side. While trying to count to six, I breathed deep through my nose. It didn’t work on the first try. I made it to three before my chest felt like it was becoming too tight, my ribs refusing to expand any farther. Defeat settled in me, and panic was starting to rise again when I couldn’t make myself breathe properly.
Panic was something I had struggled with most of my life, both anxiety attacks and panic attacks. The majority of the time, I could almost pass as a normal human being, until the thoughts started to creep in. Sometimes, circumstantial, other times without warning,but they were leeches in my mind, draining me of rational thinking. Craig's influence on my mind had not only opened old wounds but provided me with fresh ones to overcome.
Very slowly, making sure I was aware of his movement, he lifted a hand to place it on my shoulder. Daxton's brown eyes met mine as he started to count for me while I used the few brain cells I had left to try and figure out how to breathe normally again.
“Good, very good. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six.” He counted slowly and quietly. “Now exhale. Six. Five. Four. Three. Two. One.”
Daxton repeated the process until my hands stopped shaking and my heart stopped trying to jackhammer its way out of my rib cage, desperate to crack the bones open and escape. His gaze stayed locked on mine so intensely that I thought I must have been imagining the feeling of him seeing the real me behind the panic-ridden exterior.
Now that I was calming down, I was aware of just how attractive he was. Even though he was obviously tall, well over six feet, his wide shoulders were visible under his blue button-up shirt, obviously well-muscled. His strong jaw line appeared more severe with how tight his face was set, just by watching me like a cat liked to watch a caged bird. Fascinated but ready to pounce the moment it ventured too close to the bars. His entire presence was all-consuming and intense.
Shemar came back with rushed apologies and a first-aid kit from the nurses’ station. He hastily unzipped the bag, spillingsome of the contents on the floor. As he started picking them up, Daxton started redressing my arm. I watched him carefully. Despite how large and brutish the man appeared, his hands were surprisingly gentle as he applied both triple antibiotic ointment and fresh gauze to my wounds.
“I’ll speak with security about your visitors for the remainder of your stay. You won't have to worry about him showing up here again,” he whispered in his richly gruff voice, quiet enough so anyone still eavesdropping wouldn’t be able to hear.
“Thank you,” I muttered as he tore off the last piece of medical tape holding the gauze on my arm. Blood had dripped on the floor at my side and all over my light blue scrub top, making it look worse than it actually was. The bleeding had stopped, so I was pretty certain no one was going to be concerned with redoing the stitches tonight, and I wasn’t going to go out of my way to ask. The fewer people invading my space, the better in my eyes.
“The safety of our patients is our top priority.”
“I guess the paperwork for an attempted murder on clinic property must be enough of a nightmare for you to actually give a shit in getting him away from me.”
