Jose’s face was only slightly more alert than when she’d found him a few minutes before, lying on his bedroom floor, gasping, the skin around his lips blue. His inhaler had been lying next to him. Empty.

I should have known it was empty. This is my fault. The rage, at herself and the world, roared through her like an apocalyptic fire.

From across the crowded room, she and Gabriela exchanged a glance. The older woman gave her a nod, agreeing with the young mother that it was time to release the mama bear.

Angel walked around the desk and loomed over her fellow student nurse, using her slim five-foot-eight frame to intimidate the even smaller girl. “Theresa, I am going back there. I’m not gonna spaz, I promise.” Sorry, that’s bullshit, she seethed. Turning and jogging down the hall before Theresa could gather her wits, she thought, People don’t start moving their asses, shit will burn.

An X-ray tech and a registered nurse were walking toward her. “Hi,” the RN said politely, but they didn’t stop. Angel wore scrubs from her morning rounds. She blended right in.

She knew the nurse, and these rooms, not just because Jose was a repeat guest but also because this was where she’d been placed for her nursing practicum, with Dr. Collins as her supervisor.

She could hear the doctor’s stupid, fake southern accent two doors away, followed by a nervous giggle. Walking past the open door, she could see the crusty bourgeois bastard, his signature black turtleneck setting off his waxy, pale flesh. He stood way too close to a teenage girl lying stiffly on the exam bed.

Angel coughed to get Dr. Collins’s attention. Where is the nurse who’s supposed to be in here?

“Hey! I didn’t know you were on rounds tonight!” The doctor slid away from the teen, slicked back his silver hair. “We’re waiting for Brandi’s mom to come back with her paperwork.”

Angel purposefully stepped closer to the exam table, forcing the doctor to slide further away. “Sorry to interrupt,” she said blandly. “I’m not working, just checking to see where you’re at with patients.”

“The nurse can finish up here. I have a minute.” Dr. Collins placed a hand on Angel’s upper arm. Her muscle twitched involuntarily, his touch lingering too long, with a hint of a caress, before he casually dropped his hand and shoved it into the pocket of his lab coat. “Did you need something, darlin’? Help with one of your reports? We can go to my office…”

“No! No, sorry, it’s Jose. He needs a breathing treatment. Right now. He’s in distress.”