Page 56 of Power Play with My Brother's Irish Friends

31

DUNCAN

“Get to the hospital. Faster.” I held Miranda in my lap and stroked her hair back from her face. “Come on, Miranda. Wake up.” Her shallow breaths were the only thing keeping me sane as Patrick peeled around a corner and wrenched the car to a stop outside the emergency room doors.

Charlie almost tore the SUVs door off the hinges opening it for me. He held out his arms, prepared to take Miranda. I scowled dark enough to send him back a step and dropped onto the hot pavement. I’d kicked off my skates the second we left the rink, none of us bothering to put on shoes in our hurry to get Miranda to the hospital.

An amublance screamed past us, heading out onto the main road and turning right.

“We should’ve called the ambulance.” Charlie trotted beside me, jumping ahead to make the automatic doors open so I didn’t have to slow down.

“Would have taken them as long to get to us as it did to drive.” I tightened my grip. No way I’d have been able to let her go in an ambulance by herself. We’d spent enough time on our knees in the rink trying to rouse her. “We all know how to wake someone when they fall.” It hadn’t worked on Miranda. Why?

The smell assaulted me, the cold astringent mixed with urine and god knew what else. “We need help.” I carried Miranda to the front desk and glared at the woman sitting calm and patient with a phone to her ear. She held up a finger, and I legit growled in her face. “I don’t have a fucking minute.” Turning away, I marched to the doors separating the waiting room from the rest of the hospital and kicked the shit out of them. The heavy thuds brought a rush of staff, along with a few security guards, running from all sides.

“He’s worried.” Charlie tried to help by stepping in front of me and holding up both hands. “We were ice skating. She fell and hit her head. We can’t get her to wake up. Her name is Miranda Lake.”

Three security guards in blue uniforms surrounded us. “Put her down.” The tallest, beefiest of them pointed at a wheelchair. “Put her right there and back away.”

Fuck me. I’d done it again. I’d let my anger and concern take over and turn me into the beast everyone saw on the ice. I took a breath and held it. “I’m sorry.” My voice shook as I lowered Miranda to the chair. Her head slumped to the side, and I placed a hand on her cheek to keep her steady. “Please help her.”

“We’ll take it from here.” A woman in pale blue scrubs and wearing a white doctor coat nodded once at the security men. “It’s fine.”

They eyed me, their expressions dubious.

“I’ll behave. Promise.” I mimed crossing my heart and kissed my fingertips. “Swear to God.”

Postures relaxed and the mad scramble to contain me returned to the general rushing rhythm of a busy hospital.

Two nurses in plain green scrubs rushed to Miranda. One took hold of the wheelchair handles, and the other supported her head.

“Any medical history we should know about?” The doctor shot the question over her shoulder.

We all shook our heads, remaining mute. We knew almost nothing about Miranda. I knew I loved her and I’d go after anyone who harmed her. What was I supposed to do with the knowledge that I was the reason she’d gotten hurt?

“I could strangle you.” Patrick sawed his teeth back and forth. He almost tried to grab me but dropped his hand with a swift look around at all the people still watching us. “Sit the fuck down and stop acting like the sky is going to fall on us.”

“She’s hurt.” That was as far as I made it before the emotions I’d been holding back roared up and sent me crashing against the wall. I’d let her get hurt. I fought to keep control, but all I saw was her hitting the ice and going still. I felt her smooth skin beneath my hands when I tried to wake her and the slight weight of her in my arms. “She’s been asleep too long.”

“She’ll be fine.” Charlie bit the words in short succession, snapping them between clenched teeth. “We are not going to even consider anything else. You hear me?” He did touch me. Charlie, after years of never letting anything force him to lose his cool, fell apart before my eyes. He fisted his hand and knocked it into my chest, right into my sternum. Three hard knocks, one for each word grinding between his teeth. “She’ll. Be. Fine.”

I managed a nod meant in thanks, but it came out so stiff and unyielding that I grimaced and ducked my head. We waited in the stinking room alongside a handful of others. Gray plastic chairs lined the walls all the way around the room, but I had no desire to sit. I crossed and uncrossed my arms, rocked on my heels, and stared unseeing at the TV playing an old basketball game.

Patrick and Charlie lined up on either side of me, blocking me in. Probably hoping they’d be able to grab me if I took off.

“Did anyone call Austin?” Charlie frowned at his phone. “We should call him, right?”

“What about paperwork? Insurance?” I gripped the sides of my head. “I know her birthday, but that’s it.”

“We’ll figure it out.” Patrick’s low down calmed me.

The locked door I’d kicked earlier opened and the doctor walked our way. A pinch of concern wrinkled her brow, but she walked right up to all three of us and stopped. “Which of you is the father?”

“Father?” Charlie mouthed the word like he’d never heard it before.

What did she mean ‘father’?

“Miranda’s father is deceased.” Patrick took the initiate and filled in the open question.

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