Page 212 of Mile High Ruin

I look farther down the hall. Nothing.

The disappointment arrives so quickly that I hate myself for it.

Isn’t this what I wanted? I told him to leave me alone.

I told him I couldn’t survive having him tear apart what little remained of my life, and after everything between us, after the anger and the accusations and the way he looked at my stomach as though the ground had disappeared beneath him, maybe he finally listened.

That should feel like relief. Instead, the corridor looks strangely empty without him.

I turn back toward Ethan before I can examine that thought any further.

Then the door opens, and Vadim steps inside. My heart gives one humiliating jolt before I notice the people behind him.

There are at least six of them. Two men in medical scrubs, a woman carrying a hard black case, another man in a white coat speaking rapidly to one of the hospital nurses, and two orderlies pushing equipment I have never seen before.

I stand immediately. “What’s happening?”

Nobody answers me.

The room fills with movement so quickly that I have to step backward to keep from being pushed aside. One of the doctors checks Ethan’s monitor while another begins examining the IV line, and a nurse I don’t recognize reaches for the controls on his bed.

“What are you doing?”

The woman in scrubs looks at me briefly. “Please stay out of the way, ma’am.”

“I’m his sister.”

“We understand.”

“No, you don’t understand. What are you doing to him? You’re not even his doctor!” I all but scream.

I move toward Ethan. Vadim catches my arm before I reach the bed.

“Let go of me.”

“Sloane.”

“What the hell is going on?”

Ethan stirs at the noise. His eyelids open slightly. “Sloane?”

“I’m here.” I try to move toward him again, but Vadim’s grip stays firm.

One of the doctors injects something into Ethan’s IV, and I lose whatever control I had left. “What did you give him?”

Nobody answers quickly enough.

“What did you give him?”

The doctor finally looks toward me. “A sedative.”

“Why?”

“We need to move him.”

“Move him where?”

The orderlies are already releasing the brakes on the bed.