Dr. Mercer wet her lips. “Most of the time, when inmates run their mouths, it’s just talk. Posturing. You learn to tune it out.”
“But?”
“But this felt different.” Her voice dropped, clinical now, the way doctors speak when delivering bad news. “According to him, before the altercation, he was talking about you. The new nurse. Said he’d find a way to get you alone, pin you down, and …” She met my eyes. “Well, he threatened to do something to you.”
The room tilted sideways.
I touched the base of my throat.
“Evidently,” Dr. Mercer continued, “Knox Blackwood overheard him. Told Doyle to knock it off. Leave you alone.”
Knox had told him to leave me alone.
A man I hadn’t even met yet. A man who had zero reason to care whether some creep ran his mouth about the new nurse. He’d heard my name attached to a threat, and his response was to put himself between me and danger.
“And Doyle didn’t listen.”
“No.” She shook her head slowly. “That’s when it escalated.”
I pictured it. Knox, all coiled muscle and quiet menace. Doyle, talking too loudly, too sure of himself. The moment Knox’s patience snapped.
“From what I gathered, Knox gave him one warning. Then another. Doyle kept running his mouth, kept making threats.”
Two warnings. He’d given Doyle two chances to walk away.
That wasn’t blind rage. That was restraint. Patience. The kind of control that said Knox hadn’t wanted to hurt Doyle—he’d just been willing to.
For me.
Dr. Mercer’s voice was matter-of-fact now. “So, Knox beat him until Doyle couldn’t make threats anymore. Beat him badly enough to send a message to every other inmate in that cellblock: touch the new nurse and you answer to him.”
Knox hadn’t just stopped one threat. He’d drawn a line in the sand and dared anyone else to cross it. He’d made himself my shield before I even knew I needed one.
Before I even knew his name.
Jesus.
When I’d evaluated this job, this kind of scenario had been my worst nightmare. Some inmate deciding the new nurse looked like an easy target. I’d convinced myself it couldn’t happen, that the security protocols were airtight, that the COs were always watching.
One day in, and Knox had already spotted holes in that theory. Holes he’d decided to fill himself.
My stomach turned.
I forced the thought down. Shoved it into that crowded little corner of my brain where I stored things I couldn’t deal with yet. The internal lecture would find me later tonight, probably around two a.m., when my place was too quiet and my mind decided sleep was optional.
But right now, I was trying to process what Dr. Mercer had just told me.
Knox Blackwood had beaten a man half to death for me.
“And you kept this from me for three weeks?”
“I know.” She rubbed the back of her neck. “I kept waiting for the right moment, and then there wasn’t one. Honestly? Part of me thought ignorance was kinder. You were already nervous about working here. I didn’t want you looking over your shoulder, wondering which inmates were sizing you up.” She gestured vaguely toward the infirmary door. “But then Knox applied for the orderly position. And I saw how you two interact. And I thought … if anyone’s earned the right to know the truth about him, it’s you.”
“That fight was to protect me?” My voice came out smaller than I wanted.
“Looks that way.”
“Why? Why would Knox care if some guy planned to hurt me?”
