A Fallen Heart by Cate Ashwood Read Free Book Online Page B

for his brother, Joel had bonded with him and become more to him than just another patient.
    As the clock clicked over to midnight, the opiate withdrawal symptoms became pronounced, and by two o’clock, Ford’s nerves were ragged. He was barely holding it together. His heart shattered, watching Joel’s muscles spasm and sweat soak through the thin hospital pajamas they’d provided for him.
    It was intense and heartbreaking to watch someone so young, someone who should be home playing video games or watching movies with his friends, clinging to consciousness as his body protested against the denial of the physical craving for drugs. Joel vomited despite the antiemetic Ford had pushed into his IV, and as he had since he’d arrived, Ford held his hand.
    He stood watch, offering as much comfort and compassion as possible while Joel threw up into the little cardboard tray, his eyes welling with tears as he doubled over in pain. Ford had done everything he could for him, and now he just had to survive the night. Saint Joe’s, where it was geographically situated, was well equipped to deal with drug dependency. There was a section in the emergency psych unit dedicated to helping those with addictions come down off their habit.
    The nurses there were well trained, and they had helped thousands of people before Joel. It wasn’t going to be an easy road, but with a little luck, he would be all right.
    He was moved to the emergency psych unit a little after three, as soon as a bed opened up. He was set up in a room all his own in the department that sat behind two doors that required key swipes to enter. Ford went with him. Despite the fact that Joel would no longer be his patient, he had to see it through.
    When Ford’s shift ended, he reluctantly left the hospital. His heart was torn, leaving Joel there alone, but he needed to give himself some space and a bit of perspective. The boy would be in good hands. Logically he knew that, but he felt a sense of responsibility for him. He blinked hard and rubbed the heels of his hands against his eyes, willing himself to focus and make it through the next few hours.

Chapter Six
     
     
    NASH COULDN’T wait to get out of his uniform, climb into bed, and pretend the whole day never happened.
    Pulling up to the station, he saw the other car in the bay and the supervisor’s vehicle parked outside. The paperwork alone would probably take at least another hour, and the debriefing would be a minimum of thirty minutes on top of that. The aftermath of the day was beginning to wear on him. An hour and a half seemed far too long to wait before being allowed to book off and go home.
    Quickly and efficiently, he, Rob, and Caleb sanitized the inside of the ambulance and made sure everything was restocked for the part-time replacement crew that would be taking over for them. When everything was done, they climbed the stairs to the main living quarters, where the supervisor was waiting for them.
    They went through the same song and dance every time a traumatic call went down. Nash knew the spiel almost by heart. He nodded when he was supposed to and signed his name where required, and before long the taillights of the supervisor’s car were fading out of sight.
    Nash turned back from the window, ready to get the fuck out of that place and sleep off the long-shift hangover, when he saw Adam pacing back and forth, staring at his phone, clearly agitated.
    “You okay, man?” Nash asked.
    “Yeah, I’m fine.”
    He didn’t sound fine.
    “Just don’t like that Dex is dealing with this all on his own. I know this shit’s gonna hit him hard, and it pisses me off that there’s some asshole out there and all we do is clean up the aftermath of his psychotic tendencies. It’s fucked. Jack should have caught the guy by now, but instead here we are, half a year later and there are four fucking kids, all carved up, and he’s no closer to finding who did this than he was that first night. Maybe if he