Perfectly Toxic (Sterling Shore 9)

My heart is jackhammering in my chest when I come skidding to a stop in front of the hospital, leaving the keys and everything behind as I run inside.

“Hey! You can’t park there!” someone barks at me, but I ignore them as I crash through the doors and into the emergency room’s waiting area.

Ruby rushes toward me, and I get sick when I see the blood on her shirt. It’s all I can do not to punch something or someone right now. I need something tangible to hit.

“How is she? Where is she? The… The baby?” I can barely get the words out before my voice cracks and my hands ball into fists.

Ruby’s eyes are red, and tears are running down her cheeks.

“I… They won’t tell us anything. They shoved us out of the way. The paramedics were just next door when we called, dealing with something that wasn’t a true emergency. We were lucky they came right to us, but… We don’t know anything. Allie isn’t answering, and she’s her only next of kin that’s listed.”

I pick up my phone with shaky hands, and I dial Wren. It goes straight to voicemail. Allie’s phone does the same damn thing.

I move to the glass in front of the reception desk, and I bang on it as a woman walks up.

“Bella Pierson! I need in now to see her.”

“Unless you’re family, you can’t come back until she wakes up,” the nurse says with a sad smile. “I’m sorry, but it’s hospital policy.”

“He’s Corbin Sterling. He fucking owns the hospital,” I say, pointing at Corbin.

“His father owns it, and unless Hershel Sterling calls here himself, I can’t do anything,” the nurse informs me.

Corbin offers me a grim, regretful look. “Dad’s not answering, since I’ve sort of cut him out of my life,” he says quietly. “I’m sorry. I’ve already tried.”

I punch the glass, and the woman jumps, but it doesn’t break.

“I’m the baby’s father. Please, I’m fucking begging you, let me come back there. Or at least tell me something.”

Her eyes soften, and she clears her throat.

“They’re working on her right now. That’s all I know. Unless she wakes up and tells us it’s okay, we can’t allow you back here. We have a strict policy to ensure our patients’ privacy, so unless you can prove you’re the baby’s father, you can’t come back here. She’ll be going to a room soon, and you can meet her up there, though.”

“Fuck!”

I spin around, barely able to hold it together. Rye is holding Brin as her body shakes in his arms, her head buried against his chest. He gives me a pitying look that I can stomach right now.

“How did it happen?” I ask Ruby, who is curled in Corbin’s arms as they stand together.

“I don’t know. One second she’s right beside me on the stairs, and the next… The next…” Her voice catches, and she wipes away fresh tears. “The next she’s falling and I tried… I tried so hard to catch her. I missed her by a few fingertips. There was so much blood, Ethan… I’m… I’m so sorry.”

She starts sobbing, and Corbin holds her closer.

Her words slam into my head like a bowling ball rolling down hill to a wall. No… No. Fuck no!

My chest feels like someone is crushing it down, and my insides feel raw. A growing ache forms in my core, expanding more and more by the second.

Something wet hits my cheeks, and I reach up to swat it away. Tears?

I haven’t cried since I was a kid. All that was beaten out of me, and I haven’t even had to resist the urge. Now the tears are falling, and I touch them, dumbstruck.

“Ethan Noles?” I spin around as a familiar face walks up to the glass.

It’s the linebacker woman who tackled me once upon a time, but she doesn’t look like she’s trying to take me out right now.

“Berta, right? Can you please fucking tell me something?” I ask her, moving toward the window again.

She sighs as she frowns. “I wish I could, but I don’t know anything, and they’re shut up in a room with her. Here’s what room she’s gonna be in though,” she says before sliding a piece of paper through the slit at the bottom. “Go there and wait for her, okay?”