Kat could hear David’s voice, and a woman’s, but she wasn’t ready to open her eyes. Her eyelids felt heavy and her head was pounding. She could feel something in her arm and something else wrapped around one of her fingers. The sounds of beeping machines told her that she was still in the hospital; everything else alerted her that this time she was a patient.

“Why isn’t she waking up?”

“She was dehydrated and her blood sugar was really low, which probably means that she hasn’t eaten in a while. The dehydration caused her heart rate to accelerate and her blood pressure to drop and that’s what caused her to faint after her blood was drawn. Once everything returns to normal, she’ll wake up and she’ll be fine. She’s healthy otherwise.”

“Why were they drawing labs?” Kat opened her eyes then and mumbled:

“Mind your own business.”

She felt David squeeze her hand. She hadn’t even realized he was holding it. She almost squeezed his back before she caught herself. When she remembered that she was still angry with him, she pulled it away. David let go of her hand, but reached up and brushed a lock of dark hair off her forehead. “Hey, how are you feeling?”

“Like a million bucks,” she said. She tried to sit up and the nurse came over to the side of the bed.

“Stay lying down, Miss Brown. Your blood pressure is low. We don’t want you passing out on us again.” Kat’s head throbbed, and she tried to reach up and touch it, but realized there was an IV in her right hand. Using her left hand, she touched her forehead. There was a bandage on one side.

“What happened to my head?”

“You fell and hit it on the wall in the elevator.”

Suddenly Kat remembered. “Oh, yeah, I remember thinking what a worthless stalker you are. You can follow me around and ‘check up on me’ but you can’t catch me when I fall. Great.”

David laughed and looked at the nurse. “She’s fine now.”

Kat’s eyes landed on the heart monitor next to the bed. “Does that qualify as an EKG?”

“They did one while you were out,” the nurse said.

“Good, one less appointment I have to make. When can I get out of here? I have things to do.”

“I’ll have the doctor come in and talk to you. He wants us to finish this bag of fluids. When was the last time you ate?”

“I don’t know.”

She raised an eyebrow and said, “If you are planning on being a…” Kat gave her a look and the nurse looked at David and stopped talking.

“Being a what?” he asked. “What’s she talking about, Kat?”

Kat kept her eyes on the nurse. “Can you please ask my visitor to leave so that I can have some privacy and maybe get some rest?”

“Kat…”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Brady, but if she doesn’t want you here I’ll have to ask you to leave.”

“You don’t have to apologize to him,” Kat said. “He wasn’t invited here.”

The nurse looked like she felt bad for David, but she didn’t say anything else. David stood up and said, “I’ll be outside in the waiting room.”

“Go to work.”

He looked at the nurse and said, “I’ll leave my number at the desk in case she needs me.”

“I won’t.” He ignored her and left the room. Kat breathed a sigh of relief. She couldn’t breathe when he was in the room. He sucked out all the oxygen. No wonder she passed out. Once he was gone, the nurse told her that the EKG came back normal, but she needed to take care of herself, i.e. eating and taking in fluids and sleeping, or she’d never be healthy enough to give Dillon part of her liver.

“It’s been a rough couple of days,” Kat told her. “I’ll get back on track.”

“Good. I’ll let the doctor know you’re awake and he’ll be in soon.”

“Can I have my phone?” The nurse got the phone from her belongings and handed it to her before she left. Kat turned on the phone and saw that she had a missed call and voicemail. She dialed the voicemail—it was from Vinnie Tucci.

“Miss Brown, my brother-in-law said that you’d like to talk to me about a business venture. This is my number, feel free to call me this afternoon any time after four. I hear you’re on Eastern Time, so that’s four, my time.” Kat rolled her eyes. It wasn’t a good sign that he was talking to her like an idiot. But if she kept her temper in check with anyone, it had better be Vinnie Tucci…if she wanted to live long enough to help Dillon out.