Page 7 of Wild

"Have you ever been to a concert before?" Jude asks, letting out a short laugh through his nose. "Look, I appreciate the concern, I really do. I know it's your job. But Mia knows what she's doing, and if she needed to stop, she would. I can assure you she's fine. That said, I'll have someone make sure she's drinking more water between songs. Does that work for you?"

He doesn't wait for an answer — he simply leaves her standing there and walks over to someone on the tech crew to say something.

"Smug asshole," she mutters under her breath as she turns around to head back to her post.

"What did he say?" Barry asks.

"He's not going to do anything. Don't go far — we may need to step in."

Barry looks back at the singer. To him she just looks like a tired girl, and that's within the range of normal given that Mia hasn't stopped singing, dancing, and moving since the show started — but he's worked with Erin long enough to know she's never been wrong, not once, so he stays at her side and waits.

Mia is in the middle of a chorus on a fast song the crowd is belting along to when her legs give out. It's not dramatic or theatrical — it's something worse and uglier than that: her knees buckle inward as though someone has pulled the bones out, and she goes down sideways onto the stage floor. It's so sudden that everyone takes a few seconds to understand what happened — everyone except Erin Dooley, who's already running onto thestage with Barry right behind her, identifying herself as a doctor while he waves off everyone trying to get close.

Erin drops to her knees beside the singer just as the lights cut out completely and the curtain begins to move. Two technicians light them up with flashlights so she can see while the crowd screams, desperate to know what's happening.

The first thing Erin does is press two fingers to Mia's carotid to make sure she has a pulse.

"We need to get her out of here and into the medical room."

Barry slides his enormous arms beneath Mia's body and lifts her without effort while Erin supports her head and helps settle it against his shoulder.

Chapter 4

The room has filled with people who shouldn't be there, but Barry's handling that because Erin is focused on Mia, who is opening her eyes. The doctor watches her expression as she does and realizes immediately that something is wrong, because the singer blinks without quite focusing, then stares up at the ceiling with a bewildered look, and her hands close around the fabric of the gurney until they're fists. Her breathing speeds up at once, her chest rising while her diaphragm won't drop, and Erin recognizes the pattern without needing Mia to do or say anything, because she's been a doctor too many years and has seen too many patients spiral into panic, which is exactly what the singer is doing right now.

"Everyone out," she orders, her voice cutting through the room as she turns around.

Standing with Barry is the singer's manager and another guy whose stricken expression somehow puts Erin at ease from the first second, because he looks genuinely worried about Mia.

"I need to be in here," Jude says, "because I'm—"

"I don't care who you are, get out. You too, Barry." Erin looks at the other guy, who seems to be silently begging her not to send him away. "You, sit over there and don't get in my way."

Noah lets out a shaky breath and drops into a chair while Barry steers Jude out of the room and pulls the door shut behind them.

Mia is trying to push herself up on her right elbow when Erin turns back to her, but she can't manage it and falls against the padding of the gurney. Her left hand trembles in the air as ifreaching for something that isn't there, or as if she doesn't even know what she's reaching for, but what strikes Erin most is the intensity of those wide-open blue eyes.

"Mia," the doctor murmurs, softening her voice. "Hey, look at me."

The singer looks at her but doesn't quite seem to see her.

"My name is Erin. I'm a doctor, and right now you're at Madison Square Garden." Mia keeps watching her while she tries to breathe. "You passed out on stage. You're okay even if it doesn't feel that way, and it's normal to be scared, but I need you to trust me right now. Nothing is wrong with you."

Mia tries to say something, but what comes out is a strangled gasp, and her eyes fill with tears. Her breathing keeps accelerating, her shoulders nearly reaching her ears with every desperate attempt to pull in air.

"Listen." Erin places her hand on Mia's damp forehead and brushes the wet strands away. "What you're feeling is a panic attack. You're frightened by what happened and a little disoriented, but I promise you're going to be fine."

The doctor glances toward the chair, and Noah stands up, ready to come closer, but she waves him off—before she lets Mia interact with anyone else, she needs her pulse to settle.

She takes one of the singer's clenched fists carefully and opens her fingers one by one while Mia, terrified, stares at her. When she's managed to uncurl the hand completely, Erin places it flat against her own chest, just over the pocket where her name is embroidered, so Mia can feel the rise and fall of her breathing.

"You need to breathe like I do, okay?"

Mia gasps and blinks through tears, but keeps her eyes locked on the doctor.

"Come on, breathe with me," Erin says. "One in, two out, three in…"

Erin draws in air. Mia holds hers.