"Ma'am," a young nurse stuttered. "Are you okay?"

Another nurse came from behind the desk. Maybe to check her injuries. Maybe to escape. Sugar looked ready to die or kill.

A wide-eyed baby-faced security officer approached her, his white-knuckled hand wrapped around a Taser gun. He mumbled into his walkie-talkie and held onto his Taser, unsure of her next move.

Like that Taser could stop me. "Where is Jared Westin?" She ignored him, placing both hands on the desk, and leaned into the nurse's space. "Find him for me."

"Step back from the nurse," Baby-face called to her. Sugar turned her head. He spread his legs shoulder-width apart and bent his knees in a classic shooting stance. Someone had taught him well. "Ma'am-"

"Oh, for fuck's sake." She reached over and tapped the nurse's computer screen. "Find Jared Westin. Tell me where he is."

Baby-face advanced. "Ma'am-"

A similarly uniformed grandpa-lookalike ran around the corner. "Wait! Wait. It's okay."

Baby-face kept his Taser trained on her and looked over, looked back, and over again. "Not sure about that."

Gramps rushed over and whispered to Baby-face. Slowly, the Taser dropped until it pointed to the tile floor. Everyone in the ER watched him. The janitor was holding his mop as though he had planned to fight like a ninja.

Then, turning a knowing glance to Sugar, Gramps cautiously approached her with his hands in the air. "Jared's in surgery. I'll take you to a private waiting room."

Other than the televisions hanging in the corners of the emergency room waiting area, the open space was silent.

"Okay." Sugar's tear-soaked voice cracked.

"Come on." The man dropped his hands and beckoned. "It's okay. You're with Titan. Come with me."

She nodded and followed. Her footfalls clacked with each step. Behind her, whispers and murmurs erupted. She didn't care. Jared was still alive.

The private waiting room was small and secluded. A few chairs faced a hanging television and a phone. The magazines fanned out on the table looked so foreign, so absurd. She couldn't contemplate how people could read or care about any issue outside the walls of the hospital when they sat on these couches.

She looked at the phone and wanted to call someone. Jenny. Titan. Maybe ask about Asal. But they would have questions for her, and she didn't know if she could string together a coherent sentence.

The door cracked, and Roman stuck his head in. "Sugar?"

She nodded, finding that she really couldn't string words together.

He pushed into the room, followed by Rocco. Both of them looked like hell. Worried eyes. Ruffled hair. They wore their tactical pants and black shirts. They carried their weapons, but Rocco wasn't armed with as many as he had been before. The battle was done. This was just their everyday weapons wear. Tactical chic.

Rocco nodded. Both men took a seat on the couches and stared at her. Her eyes darted between them, and the air felt heavy, trapped in her lungs. Oh, no. Fuck, no. Please, God... no. "If you have news to share, do it and be done with it."

If Jared's dead...

Her throat burned with pain. She needed to vomit. Bile coated the back of her tongue, and hot tears seared her eyes all over again. She couldn't find a breath. Her lungs stopped. Not one breath in or out, until she gasped, sputtering a cough. "Just tell me."

"We're sorry..." Roman shook his head.

"It shouldn't have happened like this." Rocco ran his palms over his knees, crossed his arms, and stared at the floor.

"No!"

There it was: the dreaded truth. Denying a fact did no good. Tears spilled onto her cheeks. Her body shook. Her blood-stained hands covered her mouth, her nose, and her eyes. She wanted to slip away and die, right along with Jared.

Strong arms wrapped around her, hoisting her back onto the seat. She hadn't realized she'd slid to the floor.

Rocco or Roman, one of them, hugged her tight. "It's okay. Everything will be okay."

Okay? In what universe? I don't need the bullshit life-will-go-on speech. She needed something to knock her out, to numb the pain, to erase the past, and rewrite the day. Anything. She needed anything but for someone to tell her things would be okay.

"Leave me alone." As hard and as fast as she could, she jabbed an elbow into her hugger's throat. "Go away."

Both men stilled. Neither said a word, which was good, because she didn't want to hear it.

Roman rubbed his throat. "Sugar-"

"Get out."

Rocco crouched in her line of sight. "Sug-"

"Get the fuck out!" she screamed, pushing past the men. She grabbed the magazines and threw them. "Go. Out. Now."

Collapsing to her knees, Sugar cradled herself. She craved the fetal position, needing to just curl up and drift away.

"Girl, when Jared wakes up, he's gonna-"

What? She looked up at the men. She mopped her face with the back of her hand and sat back on her heels. "What did you just say?"

Rocco's brow furrowed.

Roman nodded and whispered loud enough so she could hear, "Jared's gonna kick our asses if he ever hears we let you get this upset."

Sugar flew to her feet, swaying as the blood ran from her head. "Jared's... Jared's alive?"

Both men blinked.

"Well, yeah." Roman shrugged. "The bastard isn't going to die in surgery."

"But..." Her jaw fell, and they both stared at her. "You said, 'We're sorry.'"

They nodded. Roman mumbled, "We are."

"You said it shouldn't have happened like that." Sugar took a step toward them, and both men took a step closer to one another, unsure if she would attack. And she was about to. She closed the distance and struck Rocco in the chest. "You said-damn you, Roc. You don't walk into a waiting room and say bullshit like that unless someone's fucking dead."

They stood silently as seconds dragged by.

Finally, Rocco offered, "Today didn't go according to plan."

She crossed her arms. Indignant. Furious. Thrilled. "He's alive."

"Yes."

Relief was a cold splash of water, slapping her with emotion, and her legs gave out. A couch caught her. Tears welled all over again, and her lungs kick-started to a steady rhythm. "Jared's still alive?"

They nodded.

A nurse popped her head in. "Excuse me?" She laid eyes on the men, then Sugar. "Sorry to interrupt. I'll come back."

"No!" Sugar reached, needing outside assurance. "Please. Do you have an update?"

Giving them a nervous glance, the nurse stepped into the room and clicked shut the door. "Mr. Westin's surgery is going as expected. He'll be out in about an hour, and Dr. Tuska will give you an update then."

The men nodded. That was all they seemed to be doing.

The nurse shifted her weight and continued, apparently less concerned that their little group would kill her for delivering bad news. "As you know, Titan is a very welcome guest-"

"Guest?" Sugar looked at the nurse, then Roman and Rocco. "Very welcome guest?"

Rocco shrugged. "We do a lot of business with them. Titan has repeat-customer status or some shit."

The nurse smiled weakly. "We see them... often. Yes. Mr. Westin and Titan are very important to-"

"What have I gotten myself into?" Sugar almost needed to laugh. The absurdity of it all was far past comical. She'd fallen in love with a man who had a frequent-shopper card at a hospital. "Never mind. He's going to be okay. That's all that matters."

The nurse nodded again. "If you'd like, we can arrange for fresh clothes and a shower. That's if you like, Miss Chase-"

"Sugar."

The nurse tilted her head. "Come again?"

"It's my-never mind. A shower?"

Confusion stayed on the nurse's face. "And fresh clothes."

"Take the offer, Sugar." Roman laughed. "You look like hell. Boss Man will kick our asses regardless, but if you could look less like shit when he wakes up, we'd owe you."

A genuine happiness curved onto her cheeks. A few minutes before, she had known she would never smile again. Sugar looked at her palm, where the dried blood still dyed her life and love lines.

She was her own woman. No crinkled lines on her hands or motherly memories would dictate how she loved and lived. "Hell yes. I want a shower. But not before I call and check on Asal."

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO.

Jared took a deep breath. The smell of a hospital room hit him instantaneously, as did the feeling of dull pain and a foggy drug stupor. Trying to sit up made everything ache. His dry throat stifled a groan. He didn't know how long he'd been out or if Sugar was okay.

His fingers searched for the remote that would reposition his bed, and a warm hand with soft skin covered his. The touch startled him, forcing his eyes open.

Sugar. He didn't need to see her to know her, but she was the best thing to see.

"Hi ya, J-dawg," she whispered and interlocked his fingers with hers, giving him a squeeze.

She wore hospital scrubs, and her hair was no longer covered in blood. It hung loosely, framing her face. Her eyelids were red rimmed, and the tip of her nose was also red, but her smile was mega-watt, and again, pretty popped into his head. Pretty and perfect.

"Baby Cakes." His throat itched, and his mouth was dry, but she heard him. The mega-watt smile illuminated brighter than before, and he needed to hold her. "Come here."

No sooner had the words crossed his lips than Sugar gingerly crawled onto the bed and burrowed next to him. He threw his arm around her shoulder, and it hurt like hell, but he didn't care.

Sugar's hair fell across his bicep, and her cheek pressed against his hospital-gown covered chest. "I'm going to get into trouble for doing this."

He started to shake his head, but it ached, and he didn't want to make any sound that might drive her away. "They don't tell me no."

She laughed. "So I've learned."

He wanted to ask where she'd been while he was sleeping. He wanted to kiss her and...

He woke up again. Must've drifted off to sleep, but he'd had a good dream. He couldn't remember what it was, just that it'd been happy. Sugar was still nestled against him, and a blanket lay over them. Her breaths were soft, but she wasn't asleep. How much time had passed? Didn't matter as long as she never left his side again.

"Sugar..." He needed a sip of water. His throat was sore, his neck had a dull throb, and he wanted to tell her he loved her.

She didn't move. "You're awake?"

"Yeah."

"You hurting?"

"A little." Behind him, a machine beeped steadily.

Sugar rearranged the blanket. "Do you want some pain medicine?"

"No. But water would be-"

"Hold on a sec." She leaned to a side table, then offered him a giant plastic cup with a straw. "Here you go."

Gripping the cup's handle, his muscles weighed a million pounds. He was too tired and weak to grip it for long. "I hate being laid up like this."

"You lost a lot of blood. But the doc said you'll be running around in a couple days, although he's requested more than a couple months between gunshot wounds."

He chuckled and gave her back the water cup. "You met Doc Tuska, huh?"

Sugar snuggled against him again. "Whatever you pay him is not nearly enough."

A low rumble of a laugh escaped. The no-nonsense doctor handled all of Titan's medical problems without question. "He's worth his weight in gold-plated ammo. That's for damn sure."

"You want to talk to him?" She shifted. "I could go get him or the nurse or someone."