Page 8 of The Enforcer

CHAPTER 4

Valencia

“You know there’s a full moon tonight,” Emily told me as soon as I walked into the ER. “We’re going to have a full house of crazies.”

She believed in karma and magic, as superstitious as anyone I knew. But she was right in that whenever the moon was full, the giant orb acted like an attraction for every nutcase to take out their anger on someone.

The hospital administrator’s determination that every doctor take a turn inside the ER at some point had given all of us practicing in the hospital a better understanding of the atrocities often performed by one human against another.

I’d seen horrors I couldn’t unsee. The first time had left me with nightmares for weeks. Maybe now, I was simply numb to the various brutal activities.

“Yeah, I know. Are we ready?” I asked her as I headed to the main check-in, noticing the waiting room was already full. Ismiled at Missy who sat behind the desk. The girl couldn’t be more than twenty-two, yet was one of the most composed people I’d ever met.

“We’re ready.”

“What do we have?”

Emily followed me back into the main section, walking with me as I checked on the patients already being given medical attention. While there were other doctors on the floor, as the senior tonight, I was considered in charge.

“A burn from a stove fire. A car wreck, but mostly cuts and bruises. A child fell from a second story window.”

“Oh, shit.”

“The bushes below caught her fall and saved her life.”

I blew out the air I’d been holding. There was nothing worse than when children were injured. Whether by accident or design. “Thank God for that.”

“I know.”

“Mark. Can we free up the bed?” I asked after taking a look at the intake notes.

“Yeah. Being transferred to ICU. A bad case of the flu,” he answered.

I nodded and continued walking, both Emily and I checking on other patients. There was a solid busy vibe in the emergency room, but nothing too crazy yet. “Maybe we won’t be overloaded tonight.” It was already past midnight, the bewitching hour when numbers often tripled.

As always, I should have kept my thoughts to myself.

Missy raced around the corner. “Dr. Laurant, we have gunshot victims.”

“How many?”

“One DOA coming in privately with another possibly going into V-fib. From what I can tell, shot in the heart. There are also two ambulances arriving with two additional gunshot victims, one considered life threatening.” While she hadn’t gone through but one year of nurse’s training, she was usually spot on with her assumptive diagnosis.

Well, fuck. So much for a quiet night.

“Get the injured man on a gurney!” I ordered one of the medical techs. “Bring him to room four.”

“You got it, Doc.” The young tech acted quickly while I headed toward exam room four. “Emily, get the IV prepared. Have the defibrillator standing by.”

“The guys who drove in the injured man insisted they come back with him,” Missy continued, keeping in track with my long strides.

“Are they family?”

“I don’t think so. They look like bodyguards.”

Her words struck a chord with me. “Tell them they’ll need to wait outside.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

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