Page 2 of Created in Chaos

Lucian pulls his phone from his pocket and makes a call while she’s watching. “Morozov, find out who runs St. Joe’s hospital and get me their direct number,” he states in a cold voice. The nurse looks over at the front desk as if to ask, Can you believe this? but no one offers her advice or help.

We don’t have to wait long before Lucian dials another number. “This is Lucian Morningstar, I’m standing in your ER.” There’s a short pause before he continues. “You have someone on your staff who fucked with me on the wrong day. I’ve shown restraint, but my patience is gone. You can instruct her to personally provide me with updates about Nova Devlin’s condition every ten minutes, or you can fire her and have someone else do it. I’ll let you decide which. You have five minutes.” He hangs up the phone without a change in his demeanor.

The nurse widens her eyes and tilts her head back like she can’t believe his arrogance. Even now, it seems she doesn’t put much stock into his threats. I tried to warn her.

I wouldn’t say I’m shocked about how Lucian handled this, but I don’t know if I can remember another time when my brother used his name in such a manner. The people we’re used to dealing with know who we are, so there isn’t a need for it, and if they don’t, I’m much more accustomed to him handling any issues that arise with actions, not words. It’s further proof that something in him has changed, but I’m not certain when that happened.

The sealed double doors to the back open, and a woman exits, heading straight for us. She’s not wearing scrubs or a nametag, but there’s an air of authority around her. “Sorry to keep you waiting, Mr. Morningstar.” She glances at us, then keeps her face trained in our direction so it’s clear she’s addressing both of us. “I wanted to get an update on your friend’s condition before meeting with you. If you’ll follow me, I’ve arranged for a room where you’ll be able to wait more comfortably.”

The nurse huffs as if she can’t believe what’s happening, but she continues to be ignored when I interject, “How is she?”

“Would you like to speak privately?” the woman offers.

“Answer him,” Lucian demands.

“She’s not out of the woods, but her heart rate and blood pressure are showing signs of improvement.”

I don’t know if I can trust this woman. Is Nova really improving, or is she looking for something positive to tell us? “Is she awake?”

“No. If you’ll come with me, we can go over everything I know.” She lifts her hand in a get moving gesture. The moment we head toward the doors to the back, she turns toward Nurse Ratched. “Someone will be waiting for you in HR.” She hurries her steps to beat us to the door and waves a badge in front of a sensor.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” the nurse complains, but she’s already forgotten.

LUCIAN

“I need to see her,” I tell the woman leading us down a long hall and straight toward an elevator.

She breathes heavily through her nose but nods her head once as if she expected as much. “I haven’t seen her myself yet, but I want to warn you, the reports on her condition are pretty grim.” Wisely, she doesn’t ask if I’m sure or try to talk me out of it.

“Do you know what happened to her or the extent of her injuries?” I question, nervous now that we’ve changed directions and seem to be heading right where I asked—to see Nova.

She stops in her tracks and turns to assess me. “She was beaten.” Clearly, it caught her off guard that I didn’t know this.

“Were there weapons involved?”

“I could ask if you would like, but that information wasn’t provided to me,” she replies softly.

I nod my head in acceptance as we begin walking again, but I can’t look at her when I ask the final question. “Was she… She wasn’t… She was found in the bathroom,” I finally manage to say, because I can’t force out my real question.

“There was no mention of sexual assault, if that’s what you’re asking about,” she whispers, but the relief I feel allows me to take a deeper breath.

“Thank you,” Nox tells her when I don’t have the words to speak.

“Please don’t thank me. The only thing I can confirm is that it wasn’t noted in her report. Her treatment so far has been about stabilizing her.”

My chest constricts again, and I hear Rory’s words in my head about me putting the nail in her coffin. I insinuated she was a whore and made people think she propositioned me for sex to degrade her. If someone took advantage of her because of me… I could throw up now at the thought.

The woman leading us comes to a stop in the middle of a hallway and turns to face the wall. I glance around, wondering why she stopped, but it becomes clear in the next moment. My lamb is on a bed in the middle of the ER with nurses at her side. The thin curtains that usually separate the beds are all pulled back, exposing her to the other empty cots and not offering a lick of privacy.

Her hair is a dark matted mess on one side, and there are streaks of blood on her face that look like someone hastily tried to wipe them away, but they didn’t do a very good job. There’s an oxygen mask on her face, an IV in her arm, and some other shit attached to the beeping monitors next to her head.

“Jesus Christ,” Nox mutters.

“Make sure you check her kidneys. She sustained damage from a car accident a few years ago.”

“I’ll let the nurses know.” The woman steps away from us and speaks quietly to the nurse near Nova’s head. I don’t want to look at the bruises forming on her jaw and eye, but I force myself to.

Nox’s arm brushes mine as he moves to stand closer to me. I don’t know if he’s looking for support or giving it.

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