I didn’t wait for her response. Instead I rushed to Mia’s bedside.
“I’ve got this, Dr. Foster,” Dr. Balding said.
“I know.” I took Mia’s hand. “Mia honey.” I looked her over as quickly as I could to see what had happened. My heart was thundering in my chest as terror seeped into my soul. She was breathing. Her heart was beating.
“The crowd advanced, knocking her down. I think she hit her head,” the security guard said.
Dr. Balding began his assessment, and as much as I wanted to take over, I knew I couldn’t. I could barely see straight the panic, and now growing rage clouded my vision.
“The crowd outside did this?” I asked the security guard as I stepped back to let Dr. Balding and the other medical staff help her.
“Yes. I think more sheriff's deputies just pulled in to help. There are a bunch of crazy loons out there.”
I stood for a moment, watching as Dr. Balding assessed the wound on Mia’s head. I’d been angry in my life, but never like this. Never like I could kill someone. Like I could tear a body limb from limb. But that’s what was coursing hot and wild through my veins as I looked at Mia, pale and lifeless on the bed.
“I’ll fucking kill them.” I strode toward the exit.
“Now wait up, Dr. Foster,” the guard said. “I wouldn’t go out there. They want to string you up.”
“Let ‘em.” I could see a group of people standing just past a half dozen or so deputies outside the door. I walked straight out. “What the fuck is wrong with you people?”
The crowd had been somewhat subdued, but when they saw me, the frenzy began.
“You’re a murderer, Foster,” someone yelled.
“Oh yeah? So you decide to get back at me by attacking a hospital staff?” I looked at one of the deputies who was shaking his head probably because I was adding to his headache. “I hope you got all their names and will arrest them for assault.”
“We didn’t assault—”
“The unconscious woman inside suggests different,” I said as I moved toward the mob.
“Get back inside, doctor,” one of the deputies said. “Or I’ll arrest you for inciting a mob.”
I looked at him incredulously. “Me? These people are not only blocking people from getting medical care, but they’ve put a woman in the hospital. Mia Parker. Most of you know her.”
“You’re a quack,” someone called out. That had me stop and look for Eli. He was the only one I knew of that called me that. I didn’t see him in the crowd. “We know you killed Mia’s mother too.”
Fuck. I didn’t see Eli, but there was no doubt he was the one who put that idea in their heads.
If this was about Ms. Mason, then I’d rub it in. “You do Ms. Mason a dishonor by acting like children and harming a woman. She’d be ashamed of all of you.”
The group came toward me in a rush.
A deputy grabbed me and started pushing me back into the hospital. “Get inside,” he growled.
I fought him because I wanted to fight the crowd. Red hot rage snapped and crackled through my body and needed a release that beating these people to a pulp would bring. I was nearly crazed by it.
Inside the double doors, the deputy pushed my body against the wall and held me there until I could barely breathe.
“Get your shit together, doctor.”
“They hurt—”
“I know it, but you’re not helping. You’re going to get one of us hurt in the same way she did. Now get yourself together.”
It took a moment for red haze to begin to clear. I took a breath, and then another. The coiled-to-strike tension began to release. The deputy must have felt it too as he backed off. “You in control?”
“Yeah.”
He released me and I shook out the kinks in my neck and shoulders from being pinned to the wall. “Sorry.”
“I get it, but there’s no reasoning with a group of angry people.”
I nodded. Then I thought of Mia. “Can I go?”
“Stay in the hospital until you’re told otherwise.”
I rushed toward the triage area. “Where’s Mia?” I asked Peggy.
“She’s been taken upstairs to get her away from the chaos.”
“Is she conscious?”
“Yes. She’s going to be fine. They want to keep her a little bit. She had a concussion and some bruising. They’re going to x-ray to check for any breaks or fractures, but she’ll be fine.”
I ran my fingers through my hair.
Peggy watched me. “Does she know?”
“Know what?” I said, looking at her.
“That you love her.”
My head whipped from side to side looking for someone who might have overheard. “I’m not—”
“I won’t tell. I know it’s against the rules. But it’s a dumb one if you and her—”
“There’s no me and Mia.” I was probably too adamant. Peggy’s expression suggested that she didn’t believe me.
“Have you called her dad?” I asked.
“Yes. Eli is bringing him.”
“Fucking Eli. This is his fault.”
“What?”
I waved her question away as I saw Eli and Jim walk in. “Excuse me.”
I strode up to Eli, grabbed him, and pushed him hard against the wall.
“Nick,” I heard Jim exclaim.
“You did this, you fucking loser,” I seethed at Eli. The wash of red rage began to fill my brain again. This is the man I’d take out all my anger.
“I wasn’t even here—”
“No, you sent your henchmen, and they hurt your sister. Are you happy now? Has your pathetic envy of me finally got you what you wanted? Your sister could have been killed. Good job Eli.”
Hands gripped my arms and pulled me off. “Dr. Foster, that’s enough.”
“What are you talking about,” Jim asked as the two security guards pulled me off of Eli.
“He’s crazy,” Eli sneered.
“Do you know what your mob said? They called me a quack and said I killed your mother. That’s you, Eli. You fuelled their fear and hate, and now your sister is paying for it.”
“Is what Nick saying true?” Jim asked Eli.
Eli’s eyes turned venomous. “You would side
