A Friend In Need
Natalie Turner hadn’t even fastenedthe cuff of the blood pressure gauge around the man’s arm before he shoved her in the shoulder. She stumbled backwards as the man fell off the gurney. He’d been near catatonic a minute prior, but Natalie knew from personal experience that drunks and drug addicts could swing from one extreme to another in a matter of seconds; one moment half-asleep and drooping, the next, swinging fists with wide-open, bloodshot eyes. Natalie shouted to the security guard, who’d only ducked his head out the door to answer a question from Dr. Kaylin Lawrence about a patient down the hall.
The patient leaned heavily on the gurney to regain his balance, but he didn’t have time to stand before the security guard rushed him, knocked him to the floor and pinned his arms to his back. Natalie stood against the cinder block wall of the exam room, her stethoscope still clutched in her hand. She’d only been back at work in the correctional care emergency unit of Brooklyn United Hospital for three hours after vacationing with her family back home in Alabama, and already a patient tried to assault her.
She checked her watch as the security guard wrestled the delirious man into submission. The patient—intercepted trying to board a plane to Hawaii while too drunk and high to walk straight—slurred curses at the security guard with his mouth mashed into the exam room’s tile floor. Natalie had never seen this security guard before. He was younger than the usual crew, with bicep muscles barely contained by the stitching of the standard navy polo worn by hospital security staff.
“You don’t attack the nurse!” the guard shouted into the patient’s ear. “Keep your hands to yourself! She’s just trying to help you!” He twisted the man’s wrists together and cuffed him, then stood him back up. “You alright? Did he hurt you?”
Natalie shook her head; the man was too high to put much force behind the shove. “I’m getting a spit guard for him,” she said, trying to focus on the patient instead of the security guard’s masculine square jawline and Dove chocolate-brown eyes. “Hold him, please.” She stepped into the hall as Kaylin grabbed her elbow and tugged her out of sight of the doorway.
“You okay, Nat? Did he hit you? I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have distracted Colt. I thought that guy was on the verge of a coma.”
“I’m fine,” Natalie replied, brushing her best friend’s concerns aside. “Just another day at the office. It’s nice to see not much has changed around here while I was gone. Except for that guy. Who’s he?” she asked, nodding toward the room where the security guard had sat the patient in a corner on the floor.
“Colt,” Kaylin replied. “A temp for Officer Andrews. Andrews took his wife to Florida for their anniversary. Rusty hired him not too long ago and this is his first assignment. Too bad you didn’t get home earlier; today’s his last day. Cute, huh?”
Natalie rolled her eyes. “Like I need to date someone this soon after Gavin.” She snuck a peek at Colt’s perfect butt in the uniform khakis. Never has a man made those pleated khakis look this good before. “And like he’d go out with someone like me.” She opened her arms, gesturing at her own wide-hipped frame.
“Stop it,” Kaylin said. She linked arms with Natalie and walked with her toward the supply closet. “Colt is a friend of Rusty’s. Army buddies. He just got out, moved here and joined Redmond Guardian Service. They’ve known each other since elementary school. They’re like brothers.”
“He looks like he dates supermodels.” Natalie tore open the plastic packaging on a mask; she didn’t trust the patient not to try and spit at her; it’d happened many times before with intoxicated patients.
“He had a girlfriend back in Texas, but that was a long time ago,” Kaylin said. “Honorably discharged. Fun at parties. That’s all Rusty told me about his private life.”
“Thank you for the Tinder profile,” Natalie said. “But I’m not looking for anyone new after what happened with Gavin.”
Kaylin’s hospital-issued phone beeped. “You’re broken up. He’s gone.” She glanced at the text. “Dammit.”
“Not totally gone. He wants to get back together.”
Kaylin gripped Natalie’s elbow. “Absolutely not. He’s a violent drunk. You can’t tell me you’re considering taking him back.”
Natalie shrugged her off. “No, of course not.”
Kaylin arched an eyebrow.
“Maybe,” Natalie conceded. “It’s not like guys haven’t taken a swing at me at work. That jerk this morning shoved me . . . ”
“That’s different,” Kaylin interjected. “He’s a patient—a stranger—not your boyfriend. Rusty would never act like that.”
“Good for Rusty,” Natalie said, defensively. She sighed. “I know you mean well. I’m trying to cut things off with Gavin. He just won’t leave me alone. He sent flowers to my mom’s house every day in Alabama. I had to turn my phone off, he called and texted so much.”
“Is that why you didn’t answer my texts?”
Natalie nodded. “Yeah. I’m thinking about getting a new number.”
“That’s extreme,” Kaylin said. “You shouldn’t have to do that.”
Natalie strapped a fabric face mask over her mouth. “He’s harmless. All talk,” she said, lying to herself. Kaylin glared. Natalie held up her hands. “What can you do?”
Kaylin watched her friend disappear back into the exam room. “What can I do?” she asked herself, taking out her personal phone. She texted Rusty:Colt have a new assignment yet? Natalie being harassed by ex.
Rusty replied quickly.Lined him up for celebrity security detail but can rearrange. She needs a restraining order.
She thinks that won’t help,Kaylin typed.
Can’t hurt,Rusty responded.But if Nat’s in danger, bodyguard isn’t a bad idea.
Doubt she can afford your rates,Kaylin typed. Her hospital phone beeped again. She grunted.Pro-bono? For me?
If she agrees,but you’re gonna have to pay up later, wink,Rusty responded.Colt would take good care of her.
Kaylin smiled and closed her phone. She’d hated Natalie’s ex, Gavin, for years, and didn’t trust him not to do something awful to get his way. That was Natalie’s problem—she was too trusting, too forgiving—and didn’t have confidence in herself to find someone decent. Gavin had money, but that didn’t excuse his behavior over the years. How many lunch dates and girls’ night outs had Natalie missed because Gavin thought she was going out to cheat on him? He was a jealous, manipulative asshole. And a drunk, at that. A mean one. Nope, Kaylin thought, she didn’t trust him at all, especially not after what Natalie had said about his behavior while she’d been home with her parents.
Kaylin’s phone beeped a third time, and she hurried down the hall to the surgery rooms to stitch up a cyclist clipped by a delivery van. The morning surgeries were always car accidents and kitchen injuries, and evening ones were bullet wounds and bar brawls. She’d also stitched up women attacked by their husbands, lovers, or exes. She didn’t know the full extent of Gavin’s aggressiveness toward Natalie, and didn’t intend to find out by leaving him loose to torment or attack her best friend. A bodyguard would be perfect. Now the difficult part, though: convincing Natalie she needed one.
