The night had been a long one. No sooner had I dropped Yanni off and headed to the hospital than my phone went off signaling the first emergency.

From there, it was total chaos in the ER—gunshot wounds, stabbings, car accidents, food poisoning. I didn’t care what some might have said, full moons brought out the worst in people. It also brought out folks you thought you’d never have to deal with again.

After patching up a young boy who had somehow managed to tear his pinkie to shreds with a pair of wire cutters, I ambled into the on-call lounge, too tired to take the elevator to my office, and stretched out on one of the chairs.

I don’t know how long I was out, when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I peeked through one eye, fully expecting to see one of the nurses waking me for another round. Instead, it was Brandon Randolph.

I rose to a sitting position, at the same time trying to hide my surprise. “Hey, when did you get back?”

Following the kidnapping of Starlet’s baby, Brandon had been placed on administrative leave, until the investigation concluded or cleared him of wrongdoing. With that said, I thought he’d eventually be fired. At least, that’s what I hoped.

“Tonight’s my first day back,” he said, with a broad grin. “Man, I never thought I’d miss the grit and grime as much as I did. I’m just glad things worked out.”

“For who?” I asked, frowning at him.

“Oh, come on, you didn’t think I had anything to do with . . .” He paused, probably trying to read my expression. He then hung his head. “Well, I guess you do think so.”

“Put yourself in my place. What would you think?” I got off the couch, walked to the corner bar and poured a cup of joe. “I guess they didn’t think so, because here you are.”

“Look, I’m sorry about what happened. I never thought those guys would pull a stunt like that.”

I grunted over my cup of coffee and returned to my seat.

“You’ve got to believe me. Being a doctor is my life. I’d never do anything to destroy that.”

“So you say.” I snorted and took another sip of the steaming liquid.

Brandon sat back on his heels, like he was deciding whether to leave the room or not. I was hoping for the latter, because I really wasn’t up to discussing anything with this traitor.

“Well, I guess I’d better be getting back to work,” he finally said. “When I saw you here, I just thought I’d stop by and extend an offer of help where Alex is concerned.”

“And just how do you propose to be of help to Alex or any one of us?” I blurted out. “Don’t you get it? You’d be the last person Starlet or any of the others would want to receive help from. Hell, you might even get your face bashed in.”

Brandon flinched. “I guess I’d better be going.”

“Yeah, you might want to do that. I hope your gambling debts were worth putting an innocent baby at risk.”

Brandon spun around. “How’d you know?”

I gave a half-laugh. “Does it matter? The fact is you were willing to sell your entire career down the drain to pay them off, yet you say you care about your job.”

“You don’t understand. It wasn’t what it—”

“Excuse my French, but it was exactly what the fuck it looked like. You’re a fucking sell-out, plain and simple.” I walked up to him and pushed against his chest. “You are just lucky, fucking lucky that there’d be too many witnesses.”

I could see the fear in his eyes, as I continued to push until he was against the wall.

“Take it easy,” he said. “I told you I was leaving.”

“Leave. And when you leave, leave this damn hospital. If you don’t, you’ll wish like hell you did.”

I released him, and Brandon scrambled out of the lounge. I took a deep breath, sat back down and, for the longest, tried to figure out what had gotten into me.