Page 10 of Desperate Justice

His dark gaze met hers. “Help her. She collapsed. I think it’s her heart. I did CPR and she’s breathing, but barely.”

Shock at seeing him again gave way to professionalism. Allison grabbed a gurney and wheeled it over. Rafe gently laid the woman onto it. After pushing it into a curtained room, she began taking the woman’s vitals. Pulse thready and thin. Heartbeat with a sloshing sound. Murmur, probably.

“Is she on anything?”

He rattled off a well-known heart medication. Allison glanced at him as she slipped an oxygen cannula into the woman’s nostrils.

“Did she complain of pain before she collapsed? Was it crushing chest pain, with shortness of breath?”

Chest pain meant bad things. If there was ST elevation on the EKG, Rafe’s grandmother could have complete blockage of a coronary artery and that meant cardiac tissue dying.

Rafe shook his head. “She said she felt nauseated. Not crushing pain, but tightness in her chest. Got me worried.”

“Women having heart attacks sometimes experience different symptoms, so it’s good you kept an eye on her.”

Another nurse brought over a portable EKG machine. Allison opened the woman’s dress, thankful it buttoned from the front.

The woman moaned as Allison attached the sticky leads to her chest.

“Hey, gorgeous, what’s your name?” she asked the elderly woman.

“Elena, her name’s Elena,” Rafe muttered, stroking the woman’s white hair. “My grandmother.”

“Tita, Tita, please be okay. Uncle Rafe, tell me she’s going to be okay,” a young girl sobbed.

“Rafey, why did you take her here? Miami Bayshore is closer.”

“Rafe, shouldn’t she be fully awake by now?”

“Rafe, you pushed awfully hard on her chest. Did you break her ribs?”

Allison glanced up. At least twenty frantic, upset people surrounded them, including a pretty teenage girl in a tiara and puffy pink dress. Her gaze shot over to Rafe’s poker face.

Rafe looked up at the crowd.

“She’s a good nurse. The best. Now, everyone, back off and let her do her job. Give Tita some room, please!”

“Do you happen to know all the medications she’s on?” she asked Rafe.

He consulted his cell phone. “Everyone keeps a list on their phones in case of emergencies. I’ll text them to you.”

“I’m surprised you still have my number,” she muttered.

“Kept it just in case.”

In case of what? You wanted to ask me for a date? She shook her head, withdrew her cell and consulted the text. In addition to the heart medication she was on a well-known blood pressure medication.

“You have her number, Uncle Rafey?” The puffy dress teen looked interested more than scared. “Are you guys seeing each other?”

To her horror, Allison felt revealing heat suffuse her cheeks. She focused on Elena.

“We’ll take good care of her,” she assured Rafe and the others. “Stay in the waiting room, and as soon as we know something, I’ll come out and bring you up to speed.”

As she turned, Rafe caught her upper arm. His dark gaze burned with intensity. “Don’t let her die.”

A brief nod. She and the other nurse wheeled Elena away. Allison shifted to the job at hand, pushing back the thoughts of Rafe and his dark gaze, and how he changed from the intimidating FBI agent to a worried grandson.

His grandmother’s life was in her hands now.