“I’m the one who brought her here!”
“We still can’t break hospital policies, Sir. I’m sorry. If you can just fill out this paperwork and let us know what is wrong with her, we can get her treated.” The woman remained calm, which escalated Shane’s anger even further. She was keeping him from Lia.
Finally, he jerked the clipboard she was holding out to him from her hand and started filling in Lia’s information. He knew it by heart. The next couple of minutes seemed to be the longest in Shane’s life as he waited to hear what was wrong with Lia. He hoped he hadn’t arrived too late.
When the doctor stepped through the doorway, he pulled one of the nurses aside before coming over to Shane. It was a good thing he hadn’t delayed any further, because Shane was ready to start throwing punches.
“Hi, Mr. Grayson. I understand you brought Ms. Palazzo in?”
“Yes. Now I need to be with her,” Shane insisted as he tried to push through.
“I understand, sir. I’m very concerned about her right now. Do you know how we can get ahold of her family members?”
“They’re all out of town at the moment,” he answered with frustration as he pushed his hair back and paced the floor in front of him. “Do you know what’s wrong with her? I believe she was drugged.”
“We won’t know what drugs are in her system until we get the labs back. I’ll put a rush on the work order so we can begin treatment immediately, but it’s important to know how long she has been unconscious. Do you know?”
“About half an hour. I got her here as quickly as possible. Tell me she’ll be all right,” Shane demanded, grabbing the doctor’s arm.
“We’ll do all we can for her,” was the doctor’s only response as he pulled his arm away. It wasn’t the answer Shane was hoping for. As Shane waited out in the hall for lab results, the time trickled by. If something were to happen to her, he couldn’t imagine what it would do to him, or her family.
When he’d first met her so many years ago, she’d been nothing but a pesky little sister to his best friend. As the years had passed and she’d become a woman, he’d found himself drawn to her — the way she lived life so fully.
Dammit. Lia was too young, had too much to give to the world, and to think of her so frail in the bed was messing with his emotions. OK, so his feelings for her were strong, but he couldn’t act on them — hell, he wasn’t the settling-down kind of guy anyway. He had to treat her like nothing but a little sister. Too bad he was feeling less and less brotherly…
In the late morning, Lia suffered a grand mal seizure; Shane heard the doctors as they rushed in, and his heart stopped momentarily. Granted, such seizures could be one-time things with no major effects, but there was no way to count on that. So it was past time that he called her family. He should have done it the second he and Lia had arrived at the hospital. He’d been hoping it would turn out to be nothing more than a hangover. It appeared he was wrong.
Rafe picked up on the second ring.
“You need to come home now. It’s Lia. We’re at the hospital and she had a seizure.”
“What? What happened?” Rafe demanded.
“She called me about three this morning. Apparently your little sister decided to attend a rave for the first time, and not only that, but she went alone. The doctors don’t know exactly what is in her system, but she passed out on the way to the hospital, and she just suffered a seizure.”
“Why in the hell didn’t you call me immediately?” Rafe shouted into the phone.
“I didn’t think it was that bad, Rafe. You were out of town, so she called me. I got her here as quickly as I could, but I’m scared, brother. Just get here.”
“Have you notified my parents yet?”
“No. You were the first one I called. If you can call your dad and Rachel, I’d appreciate it. I just don’t want to explain this over and over again.”
“Yes, I’ll call them on the ride to the jet. We’re leaving now — and, Shane — thanks for being there for her.”
Rafe had managed to calm his voice as he thanked Shane and hung up the phone. Shane felt that some of the weight had been lifted from his shoulders. He could handle a crisis, but he needed his friend here. If something happened to Lia, he couldn’t go through it alone.
As the hours passed and the stress continued taking its toll on Shane’s sleep-deprived body, he stood and paced the hallway, never getting too far from Lia’s room. He knew caffeine would help, but he didn’t want to leave for even the ten minutes it would take to obtain a cup. What if it was at that moment she awoke and nobody she knew was nearby?
Once Rafe arrived, Shane could catch a power nap, the two of them taking turns watching and waiting. She would wake; there was no other acceptable alternative.
“Mr. Grayson, can I speak to you out here?”
Shane turned to find the admitting doctor standing in the doorway, and from the expression on his face, it appeared he wasn’t the bearer of good news.
“Of course.”
With reluctance, Shane rose on stiff legs. He didn’t really want to hear whatever the doctor was about to tell him, but he had little choice.
“Mr. Grayson, the officers need to speak to you, please.”
Shane turned to find two uniformed policemen standing a few feet from the doctor. What in the hell was going on now? He had neither the time nor the patience to keep repeating the same story over and over again. He didn’t know what Lia had done before he’d arrived. There was nothing else he could tell them that he hadn’t already.
“I’m sorry, but it won’t do you any good to keep questioning me. I wasn’t there until after she’d taken whatever it was that has made her so ill. You’re wasting your time and mine, and I’m at the end of my tolerance level for appeasing people.”
Shane turned to walk back into the room when he felt a tight grip on his arm from behind. He spun around and swung without thinking about it. When his fist connected with one of the officer’s faces, he knew he was in for a very long day.
“That’s it, Mr. Grayson. You’re under arrest for assaulting an officer, and for suspected assault against Ms. Palazzo.”
Shane struggled to process what the officer had just said as the two men yanked his hands behind his back and cuffed him, but from high stress and lack of sleep, he couldn’t wrap his brain around it. It didn't make any sense. Did they actually think he was the one who’d drugged Lia? Were they truly that idiotic?