he got to her. ‘It’s all right, no one is going to hurt you here. You’re safe.’
He continued to look around but he stopped walking. He’d stopped almost level with the door that Kitty could have escaped through. If he took one more step in her direction he would effectively block her access to safety.
Kitty had to risk it. She knew Lisa could push another button that would open the door and let her in, once Kitty got close enough. She looked at her. Lisa nodded and moved towards the button as Kitty moved towards the door. Towards the man.
‘Stay away from me!’
Kitty froze. He’d taken her movement as a threat.
She raised her hands, intending to convey she meant him no harm. Her heart was in her mouth and she could feel every beat echoing through her body. Adrenalin coursed through her, triggering her fight or flight response. She wanted to flee but there was nowhere to go. This man was blocking her escape route, and the only thing between him and her was her pregnant belly.
She couldn’t risk it. She had to get out of there. She was terrified, afraid to turn her back, but she had no other option. She was trapped. She couldn’t go forward. She could only go back.
Kitty slid back a step, but he took another lurch forward.
‘What are you doing?’ he yelled at her.
She hesitated. She didn’t want to upset him. He was drug fuelled, erratic and unpredictable. Who knew what he was capable of?
Kitty took her eyes off him momentarily, searching to see if help was coming in any form. Surely minutes must have passed since Lisa had pressed the alarm? Where was everyone?
He was watching her. ‘Who’s there? Is it them?’ He turned his head to look over his shoulder and Kitty took another step backwards but she wasn’t fast enough. He had turned back to face her, catching her movement.
He advanced towards her, reaching behind his back as he walked. Kitty froze. She was terrified.
He brought his hand forward and Kitty’s eyes went wide. He was holding a large knife. Light reflected off the blade, glinting ominously.
Kitty couldn’t move. She was so frightened she’d lost voluntary control of her limbs, her muscles stiff and unresponsive.
He lunged at her, and Kitty was surprised by the speed of his movement and the power of his skinny body. She felt a blow to her chest that was hard enough to knock the wind from her lungs. She felt herself falling, and the last thing she remembered was the shine of the overhead fluorescent lights reflecting off the blade of his knife.
JOE HAD SEEN Kitty come out of the hospital. Out of the corner of his eye he’d seen her glance his way as he sat with Victoria, and seen her choose not to come and say hello. Things between them had been a little strained for the past few weeks. If he’d had to put a time frame to when it had started he would pick the night at the pub. The night he’d almost kissed her.
Not that she’d said anything. Nothing had been said about it by either of them, and he had to assume he was the only one dwelling on it. That he was the only one who considered it a missed opportunity. He wasn’t sure that Kitty had even realised what he’d been so tempted to do. For all he knew, she had been, and still was, oblivious to the whole episode—but it didn’t explain how she was behaving.
He’d thought that things might be back to normal when she’d invited him to her birthday dinner but there was still tension between them. He could feel it. And she was definitely avoiding him. She’d made excuses about why she couldn’t catch up with him. She’d blamed the pregnancy—she was tired or had appointments—but he wasn’t convinced that was the sole reason. He wasn’t certain it was to do with the almost-kiss but something wasn’t right.
Maybe he should have kissed her. Maybe that would have brought things to a head and sorted it out once and for all. God knew, he’d spent far too long thinking about the missed opportunity, and he’d thought the best way to get her out of his head was to date someone else but even that wasn’t working.
He wished she’d never mentioned wanting sex. He wished she wasn’t pregnant and full of raging hormones. Hormones that made her think of random sex with strangers and, in turn, made him think of sex with her. He wished things had stayed the same. But he was having a hard time thinking of her in a platonic sense now. Since she’d talked about wanting sex and his conversation with Cam, all he could think about was ‘could it work?’ But he knew, realistically, it couldn’t. It wouldn’t. It would be an unmitigated disaster. He’d mess it up for sure.
But that didn’t stop him from dreaming and wishing and imagining. It hadn’t stopped him from watching her out of the corner of his eye as she’d sat and eaten and very carefully avoided looking at him.
He knew she’d seen him, and he’d kept an eye on her even as he’d tried to continue his discussion with Victoria. He’d been busy trying to tell her that their relationship wasn’t going to work without really explaining why. He couldn’t, in good conscience, continue to sleep with her when his head was full of thoughts about making love to someone else. Not even if he knew that was never going to happen. Because the short answer was he couldn’t be with Kitty. He’d meant it when he’d told Cam he wasn’t the man Kitty needed.
But he’d still kept one eye on her as Victoria had railed at him and called him heartless, and even while she’d accused him of not listening to her or paying attention. He hadn’t admitted she was right.
He’d seen Kitty glance their way and choose to head in the opposite direction, and he’d seen her finish eating and disappear back inside the hospital. And, because he’d still been watching the entrance to the ED, he’d noticed a tall, thin man approaching the entrance, too. The man had been dishevelled and talking to himself, and Joe’s antennae had pricked.
He’d looked distressed and when Joe saw the guy go into the ED he followed, his suspicions alerted.
The ED doors slid open as they sensed him and Joe stepped inside and found himself in the midst of his worst nightmare.
The ED was virtually empty but despite the lack of people there was noise, chaos and confusion. It was out of proportion considering the emptiness of the space.
Movement to his right caught his eye.
Someone was falling. Fast. He saw their head hit the wall and saw them land in a crumpled heap.
And then he saw that the someone was Kitty.
The guy Joe had followed into the ED was moving towards her and Joe started running before he’d fully taken stock of the situation. All he knew was that he had to get to Kitty.
He sprinted towards her.
Subconsciously he registered that the guy wasn’t distressed. He was high.
Joe had seen what methamphetamines could do to people. He’d witnessed the rage it could induce, the psychotic episodes and the physical violence that ensued, and all he could think about was getting to Kitty before this guy did. He didn’t stop to think about what he was going to do. He’d seen it take four big men to subdue meth addicts before. He’d been one of those
