Free TEMPTED BY HER BOSS by Scarlet Wilson Page A

factors and treat any complications.’ He looked around the staff. ‘For everyone here, barrier nursing techniques have to be used in all cases. Any staff member exposed to body fluids is at risk. Protective gowns, gloves and masks have to be worn at all times. Take care with the disposal of needles, equipment and patient excretions.
    ‘Patients who are worst affected should be placed in isolation if possible.’ He held up his hands. ‘I realise facilities here aren’t ideal. But the people with the worst symptoms should be nursed in side rooms if possible. Parents have to be warned about the spread of disease. They have to be gowned, gloved and masked if they want to stay with their kids.’
    The questions flew at him from all corners of the room.
    ‘What if we’ve already been exposed?’
    ‘How many people die from Marburg’s?’
    ‘Is this the only outbreak?’
    ‘How long do the lab tests take?’
    Donovan was calm, cool and collected. He answered everyone as best he could. The death rate could be terrifying. But he didn’t want people running scared. There had already been a death here. Jessie Tanner hadn’t been old. But the death of a sixty-seven-year-old was a lot less terrifying than the death of a kindergarten-aged kid. He had to try and keep things in perspective.
    He kept everything brief and to the point. After around fifteen minutes most of the staff had returned to their stations.
    Lucy Kirk, the head nurse, appeared at his side. ‘I’ve got a couple of kids that need to be reviewed. Their symptoms are getting worse and they’re not responding to their IV fluids. They can’t stop vomiting and the fluids are coming out quicker than they’re going in.’ Her face was flushed and her hair had escaped from the elastic band at the nape of her neck.
    Donovan looked up. ‘Can’t you ask Grace? She’s supposed to be reviewing the patients.’ He felt a little surge of annoyance. He’d just been asked to take part in a press conference for the local TV and radio stations. He’d done many of these in the past but knew he was supposed to run things by the communications department of the DPA first. Trouble was, he hadn’t worked out what he was going to say yet—let alone put pen to paper.
    Lucy shook her head. ‘Grace is caught up with a kid with breathing difficulties. We’ve got six adults and thirty-four children as patients now. Grace hasn’t stopped for a second. We’ve already nicknamed her Superwoman. But she’s only one person. Our regular doctor is spending most of his time trying to move the rest of our patients to other facilities.’
    Donovan nodded quickly, running his hand through his hair. ‘Okay, thank you. I’ll be with you in two minutes.’
    Lucy disappeared back to the ER while Donovan scribbled some quick notes for the press conference. He was being unreasonable. He couldn’t really expect Grace, on her first assignment, to look after more than forty patients. Trouble was, things frequently worked out like that on DPA fieldwork trips.
    He gowned, gloved and masked. It only took him a few minutes to review the kids and agree with Lucy’s assessments. He wrote up some orders but, after looking around him, decided just to administer the anti-emetic IV shots to the kids himself. It didn’t take long and he quickly disposed of his equipment and clothes.
    He walked past an office where John was buried up to his neck in paperwork with two open laptops next to him. ‘Okay? How are you getting on?’
    John stood up. ‘Exactly like we first suspected. The common denominator in everyone’s story is the caves in the State Park. But they don’t contain African fruit bats—they have Jamaican ones. What I can’t work out is why Jamaican fruit bats have made it this far up state. They’ve been spotted in Key West before, but never this far northwest.’
    ‘Have any of the state park staff reported being unwell?’
    John pointed to the notes. ‘I’m tracking down as many