Part 16 (2/2)

”What's going on?” Mona, Cody's mother, and the charge nurse, asked.

We both stood aside to let her see. ”Oh, my.”

Oh my, was right.

The psych patient in room 13 was truly in need of a psych consult. Stat.

”Go on, Cody. Go be a man,” I urged him with a nudge of my elbow.

Cody shook his head. ”No, thank you.”

Mona looked on with a flabbergasted expression on her face. ”How'd he get those paddles? And where'd he get those needles?”

”Fuc-uh, heck if I know,” I said thoughtfully.

”The real question is, what do you think is in them?” Cody wondered.

I concurred.

One could hope it was only tap water, but there was really no telling. He'd been smart so far. No one had even known he'd had the weapons until I'd entered the room moments ago.

”Code White, Room 13,” a disembodied voice said over the loud speaker. ”Repeat, Code White.”

Code white was the code that was called when a combative person or a.s.sailant was a current threat to staff or other personnel.

That was the code used to get security there, stat.

It normally would've worked, too, if the patient hadn't chosen that point to line the needle up with his neck, stab it in his throat, and depress the plunger.

I hadn't meant to start moving.

Somehow I'd done it, though.

I was right beside him, slapping the other needle out of his hand and dropping down to the floor to duck his fist all in about three seconds.

He used that moment to kick my side, throwing my off balance and slamming me hard against the wall.

I covered my head with my hands, knowing that he was about to hit me again, or worse, put about 3000 volts into me.

Then he was there.

I saw him move out of the corner of my eye.

I turned my head just in time to see the patient who'd been holding his hands out towards me to go flying sideways with the full force of Cleo's body hitting him like a linebacker.

Cleo.

”What the f.u.c.k?” The patient cried.

Cleo stood, placing his foot down in the middle of the patient's chest. ”Stay.”

That one word had enough bite and force behind it to make anybody stay.

Man, woman or child.

I'd never been happier to see him in my life.

Cleo had just dropped off a patient that had a ma.s.sive heart attack while riding four wheelers with his friends.

I'd seen him at the counter giving his report to the nurse who was taking over the patient's care, but I hadn't said hi to him because I'd thought I'd be right back.

Turns out, I was wrong.

Cleo's livid eyes turned from the patient who was now cowering on the floor, to me and he gave me one of the most venomous glares that I'd ever been the recipient of in my life. I would've shriveled back if the wall hadn't held me in place.

Then he blinked, and the aggression was gone from his eyes. It'd morphed into concern the minute I'd flinched from him.

”Are you okay?” He asked.

I nodded, but the commotion of security stole my reply.

”What happened?” Craig, the oldest security guard in the entire place, asked.

No wonder it'd taken so long.

The man was a nice person and all, but he had no business being here. He was nearly eighty, and he moved about as slow as a two-toed sloth.

Possibly even slower.

And asking that man to take you out to your car at night was just a suicide mission because I was fairly sure he shouldn't be retaining a driver's license.

”This man just tried to kill one of your nursing staff,” Cleo snapped.

He looked so d.a.m.n good in his flight suit.

Not to mention the amount of authority that rolled off of him when he spoke.

”Where is the sitter that was supposed to be in here?” Cody asked from the doorway.

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