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This couldn’t be happening again. Julia had been fine not even a half hour ago when he’d checked on her. Easton had assured him he would watch after his baby sister.
Just like his mother had all those years ago.
He raced out of the executive suite. How had he screwed up his priorities again? He’d come to the conference room to see how Rosalie was holding up. The tough agent didn’t need him. If he’d stayed with Julia a little longer…
Annie rushed out of Julia’s room as he skidded to a stop. The tears in her eyes didn’t tell him a damn thing. “How is she?”
“We have a heartbeat.”
A heartbeat didn’t mean she was all right. “What the hell happened?”
He shot through the doorway. Easton stood white-faced by the recliner.
Dr. Murphy placed a hand on Cannon’s shoulder. “She went into cardiac arrest. We revived her with the paddles.”
The thought of his sister bouncing off the bed as electrical currents pulsed through her frail body stopped his own heart. He examined the monitors. Yeah, she was stable, but that only meant her lungs and heart were working. Every second she’d been without oxygen heightened the risk of brain damage. She’d been fortunate she hadn’t suffered any damage last time, but how lucky could one girl get? “How long was she down?”
Annie appeared across the bed, under control and in charge. “Three minutes.”
“Fuck.” Too long. “She needs a CT scan, but imaging is still nonfunctional.” He turned to Easton. “You were supposed to be watching her.”
“I was. I swear.” Easton's hand trembled as he ran it through his disheveled hair. “I haven’t left her alone since you were herelast, and the officer stationed at her door has been here the whole time. Doc Murphy came in to say hello, then a nurse came in a little while ago to change her IV bag.”
The hair on Cannon’s neck stood up. Her IV bag hadn’t needed changing when he’d been here. “Which nurse?”
“The new guy.”
“What new guy?” His CIO and his head of security had lied through their teeth to infiltrate his hospital. He didn’t trust any staff members except the ones he considered family.
“Short guy. Built like a bull. I met him in Dad’s room yesterday.” Hysteria took over Easton’s voice. “I don’t know his name.”
“Of course you don’t.” Easton only knew the names of the pretty, single nurses. “Annie, switch out the IV bag and get the current one to the lab for testing.”
“Do you think someone tampered with it?”
“I don’t know what to think about what happens around here anymore.” He looked at Rosalie who stood in the doorway. “I need the name of that nurse and every other person in this hospital that Julia had contact with in the last twenty-four hours.”
“Wulf and I are already on it,” she yelled as she backed into the hall with her phone out.
Jimmy ran into the room. “Dr. Ford. The entire network just came back online.”
Unease rippled in his gut instead of joy. “How?”
“Malgor restored it.”
“Is this the next play in his game?”
“I’d put money on it.”
“Shit.” He’d address that development later. Right now, he lived minute by minute. At this moment, his sister’s welfare trumped the motivations of a terrorist. “Get Julia a CT scan. Now.”
Easton wheezed from the corner. “I’m sorry. She was sleeping. I saw her thrash around a little bit and then she went all peaceful again. I didn’t think anything of it. Then, a minute later, it happened again. There weren’t any alarms going off when I ran to get a nurse and then when Annie and I came back…” Tears formed in the cowboy’s eyes. “I shouldn’t have blown it off the first time.”
Cannon pulled in a deep breath. Easton never gave explanations for his choices, and he never shook in his boots. “You did the right thing. You saved her life by getting Annie before she flatlined.”
Easton sniffed. “She’s going to be okay. She’s the toughest woman I’ve ever met. She’ll get through this.”
Cannon glanced out the door at the other tough woman in his life. As he pushed Julia’s bed out of the room to take her to imaging, he growled to Rosalie, “Find out who did this.”
