Free Agent in Training by Jerri Drennen

free agent, and that was the way he liked it.

 
     
    CHAPTER TEN
     
     
    As Oak Haven loomed in the distance, Shiloh prayed her father was all right. She’d been told from day one, if the hospital ever called her it would be an emergency.
    All kinds of horrible images came to mind. He could have wandered off, or gotten into a scuffle with another patient. He might have fallen down and hit his head or broken a hip. They’d never give her bad news over the phone.
    She’d taken a cab to Ryan’s to pick up her car, then drove like a maniac to get there.
    “Just let him be alright… Please, God.”
    She pulled her Lexus into guest parking and quickly got out.
    With her stomach in knots, she rushed to the side entrance and punched in her code. Inside, she raced for the elevator where she was met by a tall, reed-thin security officer.
    “The hospital called. Something about my father, Ben Templar.”
    “Do you have your card key?”
    Shiloh dug through her purse and found the plastic card and handed it to him. While she waited for the elevator doors to open she thought about how fragile her father was. Anything could send him over the edge.
    The doors opened and the security guard handed the card back to her. She rode to the fifth floor, her heart racing at a dangerous speed. If something happened to her father, she’d never forgive herself. After all, it was her fault he was here.
    When the elevator doors opened, she dashed down the hall to the nurse’s station, searching for someone she knew. A young nurse sat at the circular desk, writing in a patient’s file.
    “I’m Ben Templar’s daughter. They called me. Is something wrong?” Shiloh heard her heart pounding in her ears as she waited for the nurse to tell her something—anything to relieve her fears.
    The nurse’s face changed from complete indifference to annoyance. “Yes. He’s been almost too much for us to handle tonight. We had no choice but to sedate him.”
    Shiloh swallowed hard over the lump in her throat. “Why? What happened?”
    “He was hysterical. Something about a man in his room, trying to smother him.”
    Shiloh’s blood ran cold. “Did he say anything else? Did security see anyone?”
    The nurse rolled her eyes. “No,” she said in a huff. “You do know that Alzheimer’s patients are sometimes delusional, right?”
    “Yes, but I told security a man had snuck onto the grounds a few weeks ago and had upset my father, and that I wanted him watched more closely,” Shiloh said, purposely using a harsh, authoritative tone.
    “We’re a hospital, Ms. Templar, not a maximum-security prison. We don’t have the resources to watch him every second. So unless you want to hire a private-care nurse to be with him around the clock, we can’t do any more than what we’re doing.”
    Shiloh’s blood pressure soared. “Okay. Can I see him?”
    “Of course. But don’t wake him. We’d hate to have to put him in restraints.”
    Shiloh mentally calmed herself. How could they consider doing something like that to a man in his condition? First thing in the morning she was going to start looking for another facility for her father, even if she had to pound the pavement from one nursing home to the next. Clearly this wasn’t the best place for him.
    They didn’t seem to care about him at all. Caring Heart, in Seattle, had been a Godsend, but obviously this facility was not up to those standards. She’d thought she’d done her research and found the best possible place, but now she realized she was wrong. If worst came to worst, she’d take him back to Seattle, and fly there on weekends to see him.
    Quietly, she slipped into his room and noticed, even in sleep, her father’s face appeared troubled.
    Tears blurred her vision as she stared down at him.
    “Oh, Daddy, I’m so sorry for placing you in this awful situation. I promise I’ll find you a home that will care for you as well as Caring Heart did.”
    She lightly brushed his cheek.