He just grunts. In agreement or disagreement, I don’t know.
“If she gets hurt….” I point at him while I make my threat, leaving the possibilities of what it could mean open. Even if I don’t fully understand why it feels that series right now. It’s mostly an empty threat, but still.
He raises a single eyebrow at me. “Which one?”
I look away. I don’t want him to read me any more than he already has.
It’s fucked up. Every part of this is fucked up. Because I should say one name. A simple one. One that I guess a fewmonths back would be the only one I knew. But if this were a few months back, I’d also be on the other side of this door and going there to help, not locked up like a caged animal that can’t do more than pace in its cell.
But life happened. And no matter how mad I am about the situation, things have changed. Things are still changing all around me, and I’m staying stagnant. Stuck.
Till now.
I don’t let guilt have an opinion on my wanting to call her name out first, that my concern is for my nurse above my daughter. That should bother me more than it does. But something tells me Ruby will handle anything that’s thrown her way. She grew up with me as a father apparently; she has to be tough to have put up with my old cranky ass.
It’s Diana I worry about. She’s soft. Too soft to know what to do with someone as a threat out there. Especially with her job. She should hide in a safe space, but I bet her training taught her to seek out and help. Which will only get her hurt or killed.
“Where is she?” I grit out. Again. I’ve asked a few times already, and no one is telling me jack shit.
I’ve waited. Two hours. Mad Max has been on the phone with the club, but they only gave us details about Atom, not her. I know active shooters draw attention, and if someone is hurt, they take precedence. But it’s been two fucking hours, and no one can tell me where Diana is. She might not be a priority for them, but she is for me.
“Sir, you need to calm down,” Nurse Vicky says again, with a zero-fucks-given look on her face.
I slam my fist down on the nurses’ station counter, drawing all eyes to me as I roar, “Fuck your ‘calm down.’ Where is she?”
“Sir, if you don’t quiet down, I’m going to have to ask an orderly to take you back to your room.”
I laugh at her threat. Mad Max isn’t saying shit, but he’s behind me on this. Literally. If anyone comes close, he’ll deal with them.
I spread out my hands on the counter and take a deep breath. Twice. Then I look at the one nurse in the whole place who no one can stand but who does her job extremely well. “If you don’t tell me where she is, so help me God, I will rip this place apart to find her. And you won’t like how I do it, because not a fucking person will stop me.”
She purses her lips and looks at me with calculating eyes, likely debating if I’m telling the truth or gaslighting her.
She must get the picture finally, as she taps on her computer for a few moments.
“She didn’t clock out, so she’s still around.”
She holds up a single finger as I open my mouth and glares at me for a second before continuing. “She was assigned to the east wing this morning, but”—another look up to me, this one more accusatory than anything—“she doesn’t seem to always stay where she’s told to be.”
I clench my jaw and move my hands off the desk. I really shouldn’t hit her, but the urge is strong.
“Boss,” Mad Max says at my back, and I turn to look at him. He gives me a chin lift to the right.
And there she is.
She looks as if she’s just run a mile at record speed to get here, the door to the wing still swinging in her wake.
I scan her over quickly from this distance, not seeing a single drop of blood on her but still making sure nothing else is off. She seems frazzled, and I would love nothing more than to grab her in my arms and triple-check that she’s okay. But I hold fast.
“There. You see? She’s fine. Now please, sir, go back to your room. In case it has eluded you, we are in lockdown till the police have cleared us. Please remain in your room till that announcement occurs.”
I give Nurse Vicky a scathing look, one that’s made grown men piss themselves, but move back to my room.
As I go, I look at Diana, my Babygirl, and give her a chin lift. One she returns shakily. She’s not okay, but she’ll be fine.
And I plan to make sure I’m the one to help with that.
As soon as Mad Max closes the door to my room, I go to the window and look out at the chaos below.
