CHAPTER 32
I wake to the sound of moaning. Confused, I sit up. It’s still dark out. I hear the beeping of the hospital monitors and the nightmare comes flooding back.
More moaning, this time, accompanied by an increase in the beeps on the monitor. I jump to my feet and see Sydney thrashing all over the bed, the glow from the machines lighting her face a ghastly green color.
“Shhhh, Sydney, you have to stop moving honey.” I gently hold her shoulders down. She needs to stay still. I push the nurse call button.
The sounds coming from her get louder until she’s panting. “My side hurts. Can’t breathe.”
Her face is coated in sweat. I push back her hair and kiss her forehead. “I know it does sweetie, relax. I’m getting the nurse.”
The door opens and a pink scrub-wearing woman heads directly for the array of machines on the far side of the bed. She begins pushing buttons and reading numbers.
“You’re awake. I’ll check you real quick and let the doctor know.” The nurse lifts the bandage over her stab wound and Sydney makes a noise so pitiful that I freak the fuck out.
“She’s in pain, give her something!” I can’t contain my anger.
“It’s right here, Mr. Forrester,” she plucks a needle out of her pocket and injects it into Sydney’s IV line. “There, you should feel better already. I’ll just go get the doctor sweetie.”
My nerves frayed, I angrily watch the nurse leave the room. By the time I turn back to Sydney, she’s out again. I drop onto the couch and am asleep before my head hits the armrest.
“What the…?”
I jerk awake to the sound of hysterical sobbing.
Sydney.
Jumping up from the couch, I see her helplessly clawing at the blankets as she wails. Her IV’s have been pulled out, and her heart monitor is beeping rapidly.
“Syd, what are you doing? You’re scaring me.”
I’m afraid to touch her, afraid to hurt her. Her cries are becoming more desperate. Fuck! What the fuck do I do? I put my hands on my head and fist my hair in frustration.
She sobs again and I see tears flowing down her hollow cheeks.
“Stop it, Sydney! You’re hurting yourself.”
I can’t watch this. It’s as if that bastard’s knife is slicing into me and carving my heart out, leaving behind a shell of a man. I gently grasp her wrists and pull her to my chest.
“The baby?” she whimpers.
Whatever is left of my empty heart shatters into a million pieces. I wrap my arms around her frail body and cry with her, mourning the loss of our future.
“Why am I sitting here again?” I ask Leah. She dragged me out of Sydney’s room down to the cafeteria to eat something. The food isn’t bad, especially considering it’s hospital food.
“Because you’re losing it, Drew.”
I glare at Leah from across the table.
“What? You are. You haven’t slept more than a few hours in almost two days. You need to go back to the hotel and rest.” She pushes her plate away and sighs.
“Not hungry?”
I purposely ignore her comment about leaving Sydney’s side. She’s lucky she got me down here, using the excuse that Sydney and her mom needed to be left alone for a while. Reid left while she was still unconscious, after making sure Sydney would be okay. He almost lost it when he gave her a kiss on her cheek before taking off.
It sucks that Syd was sleeping and didn’t get to see her dad, but he said he didn’t want to add any more stress to her overflowing plate and I see his point. This isn’t the time or place for an emotional family reunion.
“No, not really. I’m going to go back to the hotel for a while. You’ll let me know if anything happens, right?” Leah asks.
“Yeah, I will.” I see movement out of the corner of my eye behind her chair. Leah must see my eyes harden because she turns to follow my stare and gasps.
“Drew, don’t do it,” she whispers.
Too late. I’m out of my seat and charging at the guy with the camera before I can think.
I see the guy’s eyes widen in surprise right before my hand makes contact with his chest. Shoving hard, the asshole goes flying backwards as I snatch the phone out of his hand.
“Drew!” I tune out Leah and stand over the guy, my foot on his neck, pinning him down on the institutional tile floor.
Rage flows like acid through my veins, scalding every inch of my body. It takes everything in me not to push down and snap his fucking neck.
When his face turns purple, I move my foot and bend over to hold him down with my hands. “What gives you the right to be here? To exploit my fucking pain? Sydney’s pain? It’s your fucking fault that she’s here!”
He stutters, unable to speak as he scrabbles to loosen my hands which are wrapped around his scrawny neck.
“Drew!” Leah tugs on my arms, trying to break the hold I have on this pathetic motherfucker. She leans in and calmly whispers in my ear. “People are watching, security is on its way to escort him out. Let. Go.”
Loosening my grip, I lick my lips and glance around the cafeteria. A hundred sets of eyes are fixed on us.
“We’ll take it from here.” I spin my head around and face two huge hospital security guards. They have their hands up in a non-threatening manner meant to calm me down.
I. Am. Fucking. Losing. It.
Swallowing hard, I release the terrified man and stand up. One of the guards jerks him to his feet and leads him out of the cafeteria.
“Drew, give me his phone,” Leah whispers as the other guard approaches. I palm it to her before he can see what we’re doing.
“Let’s go somewhere more private,” I say to the guard.
“Alright, after you,” he says, extending an arm toward the door but keeping a safe distance between us.
Leah goes first and I follow her. Once in the hall the guard brings us to a nearby office and shuts the door.
“Look,” he says, his face full of pity, “I know you’ve been through a lot. I understand completely why you did what you just did. Just… don’t attack anyone else, okay? The hospital can’t be a part of a lawsuit.”
I bristle at his words and the hairs at the back of my neck stand up. I don’t want his fucking pity and I could give a shit less about a lawsuit. All that matters to me is Sydney.
“Well, keep those fuckers away from me and my family and we won’t have a problem,” I snarl.
Leah speaks before the guard can respond. “Sir, we understand your point, but you have to see this from our side. We don’t want to be filmed. I’m certain your hospital doesn’t want to be caught on tape breaking patient confidentiality. I know that your administrators rely on very big donations from Hollywood’s elite to run this place, and I’m sure that would change in a heartbeat if they knew that paparazzi could get pictures of them or their family members inside the hospital.”
I watch as the guard’s face blanches from Leah’s little speech. Damn. She’s good.
“Here’s his phone. I hope you don’t mind, but I’ve erased the videos he took. He had quite a few on there. You may want to let the administrators know what’s going on around here, because if we see any videos like this on the internet or TV? Well, let’s just say it won’t be good for the hospital or its social standing in the community.” She drops the phone onto his desk, grabs my hand, and storms out of the office.
I don’t speak until we get to a quiet spot in a deserted hallway by a pathology lab. I stop walking, her grip on my hand pulling her to a stop.
“Leah,” I begin.
“Yeah?” she looks up at me, anger still evident on her small face.
I can’t help but smile. “Thanks.” This isn’t the first time this tiny blonde powerhouse has helped me out.
“You’re welcome. No more outbursts like that. Deal?” She crosses her arms and glares at me.
“I don’t know if I can agree to that,” I admit.
She smirks, “I didn’t think you would. I’m headed to the hotel. I’ll be back later and then you’re going to go punch shit or workout or whatever it is you do to de-stress, because this has got to stop.” She spins on her heel and stalks away.
Fuck, that hundred-pound girl is ten times stronger than me right now.