Page 21 of Risking it All

“She’s stable. We have to move her, Mr. Ash,” one of them told me.

“Where are you taking her?” I asked them.

“She needs to go to the hospital.”

“Which hospital? I’m going,” I decided.

“Do you have any information about her? Her next of kin or anything?”

“I looked through her things. Her ID says her name is Iris Bonner. She’s here from Texas,” Chris mentioned as he passed me my phone.

“Texas?” I mumbled.

“OK, let me have that,” one of them said, accepting the ID.

Seconds later, they had her on the stretcher headed for the elevator, with me right behind them.

“Sir, you can’t come on.” One of the paramedics held his hand up to me before I could follow them in.

“The hell if I can’t. This is my fucking hotel.”

“There’s no room. I don’t want it too crowded in case we have to move around.”

“Fine,” I said, taking a step back and reluctantly letting them go down without me.

As I waited on my own elevator, I texted Nicholas to let him know that I was out for the day. I would explain later, not that he wouldn’t already know what happened by the time we talked.

“Chris, I need you to hold it down for a while. Have Derrick help you keep things in check,” I told him as the elevator doors slid closed.

For as long as I could remember, I hated hospitals. The lights were too bright. It smelled like industrial cleaners. Everything moved fast, but time didn’t seem to matter to anyone but the sick or the people waiting on news about their loved ones. Dawn came, bringing daylight creeping through the dingy waiting room windows. The sitting area filled and emptied, and yet I still waited.

The emergency staff had only spoken with me briefly. I’d told them that Iris was my fiancée; otherwise, they wouldn’t have told me what little they had. I couldn’t tell them that we’d just met last night, and I had no idea how to get in contact with her next of kin. Chris hadn’t even been able to find a cell phone in her room. Who the hell didn’t carry a cell phone in this day and age?

He hadn’t been able to find any information on her or anyone connected to her. It didn’t matter who he could find. As far as I was concerned, I was her next of kin. At least for the time being, she was my responsibility. I was with her when it happened, and I wouldn’t be able to rest until I found out how she was doing. Another hour ticked by before I stood to stop the doctor on call as he left from updating another family.

“Can I get an update on Iris Bonner?” I requested.

“She’s still heavily sedated, but it’s a good thing you knew to use that Narcan, or we might be having a different conversation.”

“When can I see her?” I asked him.

“They’re still working on her. Give us a little more time.”

If somebody else said something about time, I was probably going to lose it. I needed to know that she was good. More than anything, I needed to see where her mental state was. They might have had all the time in the world, but I didn’t have time. I’d only gotten one night with her before she decided that she didn’t want to be here anymore.

Iris didn’t want more time, not with me, not with anyone. That didn’t mean she didn’t deserve it. I just needed her to be OK so I could help convince her that whatever was plaguing her, whatever she thought was too much to live with, wasn’t enough for her to end her life. I needed to help her. I was used to being able to solve problems. I didn’t like having to wait for someone to tell me when something was taken care of. I hated waiting.

Another hour passed. Missed calls and text messages continued to pile up. Derrick had called me twice, although I left Chris in charge. Even he had to call to have me approve a code change for the computer system. Nicholas called worried about ramifications of someone attempting suicide in the hotel. Thanks to Nicholas, even Reed reached out to see if he needed to conduct a press release. I needed the situation to stay under wraps.

I could only imagine how humiliated Iris would be if it got out to the public. Reed promised to make sure there was nothing in the news about it, even if he had to bribe the paramedics that picked her up. We agreed that they were most likely to leak the story.

“Mr. Ash,” one of the nurses said as she walked out to the waiting room holding a clipboard. I stood immediately and walked over to her. “Ms. Bonner is awake, but she’s very groggy. The doctors are considering an involuntary forty-eight hour hold in the psychiatric department, depending on her evaluation, but you can speak with her now. I ask that you don’t overwhelm or bombard her with a bunch of questions. She’s been through quite a traumatic experience.”

“I got it.” I nodded. I didn’t care about any of that. I just needed to know she was OK.

7

Zenia