CHAPTER NINE

Kat knew she should let it go, but she just couldn't.

Otherwise, why would she be at the hospital again?

She should have been basking in the satisfaction of getting $3000 for less than six total hours of work. After all, the Craig Hartley case had gone about as well as she could have hoped. When she provided audio evidence of his affair to the man's soon-to-be-ex-wife, along with video showing his prostitute mistress arriving at and leaving the motel earlier this morning, Claire Hartley had written her a check on the spot.

And yet, Kat couldn't seem to take the win. As she sat in the waiting room of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, preparing to be escorted back to the nurses' station—which was as far as she was allowed to go these days—she considered how much things had changed recently.

She had been here over forty times in the two months that Ash Pierce was in a coma, and another five times in the two weeks since she woke up. They"d never actually spoken, of course.

Neither the police nor the prosecutors would allow that. In fact, had the higher ups in either the LAPD or the district attorneys" office known that nurses and uniformed officers had been allowing her to visit Pierce on a near-daily basis when she was comatose, they would have lost it. Luckily, no one had spilled those beans.

The staff had taken pity on Kat, sympathetic to the fact that Pierce had tortured her and, on two separate occasions, nearly killed her. Perhaps they"d figured that because Kat had used CPR to save Pierce after that second failed murder attempt, she was not a threat to the assassin. But now that Pierce was awake, that assumption seemed na?ve, and they wouldn"t even let her within sight of the woman. In fact, Kat knew she was lucky to even be allowed on the same floor.

One of the friendliest nurses in the secure wing of the ICU, a blonde twenty-something named Jenny, came into the waiting room and motioned for Kat to follow her. She didn't say anything until they were alone, walking down the hallway to the unit.

"How are things going today?" Kat asked.

"Big doings here," Jenny said caustically. "There was a court-appointed psychiatrist brought in to interview her. This is the third one since she woke up. The doctors for the prosecutor and defense have already come by. I'm sure this one will come to a definitive conclusion that will satisfy everyone."

"You're not filling me with confidence, Jenny," Kat said as they pushed through the doors and rounded the corner to the nurses' station.

"Look, what can I say," the nurse replied with a shrug. "Pierce maintains that she has no recollection of anything that happened to her since her time in the military. She claims not to know who you are, who Hannah Dorsey is, or who Jessie Hunt is. And she certainly hasn"t admitted knowing what"s her name, the crazy girl who hired her to kill you and Hannah last summer."

"Zoe Malone," Kat replied, referring to the disturbed young woman who had tried to poison hundreds of people at a crowded movie theater before getting caught by Jessie and subsequently hiring Pierce to get payback against her loved ones.

"Right," Jenny said, pointing out an empty chair at the nurses' station where Kat could take a seat. "Conveniently, she's definitely never heard of her."

"I've got to say, Jenny," Kat noted, taking a seat, "you sound slightly skeptical about the woman's veracity."

Jenny smiled sadly.

"I took care of Pierce when she was in a coma and after she woke up, and personally, I found her more believable when she was unconscious. Maybe I'm biased because I've gotten to know you. All I can say is that the people who make the decisions seem way more conflicted. The psychiatrists looked uncertain when they came out of sessions with her. And I've even overheard the prosecutors complaining about whether they'll be able to win over twelve jurors at trial, assuming it gets to that."

"She's murdered seven people that we know of and tried to kill at least that many more," Kat said indignantly. "Now she can just claim amnesia and get off?"

"I didn't say that," Jenny replied quickly. "I'm only saying that she puts on a good show. I get why people might be taken in."

"Well, maybe they should let me have a sit-down with her and observe that interaction," Kat offered. "Then we"ll see if there are any cracks in her armor."

"While I'm sympathetic to the idea, I don't think it's the way to go," Jenny told her. "Even if I did agree, you might have a little trouble getting to her, what with the four cops who are constantly guarding her room."

"You don't know what I'm capable of if I put my mind to it," Kat warned.

"All the more reason to keep you at a safe distance," Jenny replied. "I do value keeping my job. If I was smart, I never would have let you leave that waiting room, but I know that you can't sleep if you don't check in on her status."

"Honestly, I don't sleep very well even with these check-ins," Kat admitted. "I can only imagine what it would be like without them, so thank you."

Jenny nodded. After a moment, she glanced around. She must have noted what Kat did—that there were no other nurses around right now. She stood up and moved over to one of the monitors on the shared desk.

"This is definitely against the rules, so I'm going to make it quick," she said quietly, quickly typing on the keyboard in front of the monitor. A series of video images popped up, which Kat recognized as CCTV footage from various cameras on the hospital floor.

"What have we got here?" she asked.

"Normally, we only have feeds of the hallways and other public spaces for privacy reasons," Jenny said, clicking on a box in the lower right corner. "But because of the security threat posed by Pierce, we got authorization to put two fixed cameras in her room. That means you get a live look."

Kat leaned in to get a better look.

"Can you zoom in?" she asked studying the grainy image of the diminutive narrow-framed woman sitting at a 45-degree angle in her hospital bed.

"A little," Jenny said, adjusting the image marginally. "Enjoy the view for now because you won't get one tomorrow."

"Why not?" Kat wondered.

"She's got surgery scheduled," Jenny explained. "The injury she sustained when Hannah Dorsey stabbed her in the neck during their fight hasn't healed properly. Doctors didn't want to do anything about it when she was in a coma because it was too risky. But they've determined that she's strong enough to handle it now. She goes under the knife mid-afternoon."

It was impossible to get a good look at Ash Pierce's neck. The camera wasn't sophisticated enough to pick up on that level of detail. But Kat could at least see the woman's face clearly.

Pierce was engaged in a conversation with the court psychiatrist and seemed to be enjoying it. Her brown eyes were bright, and her hands were moving animatedly. Someone had brushed her black hair, which had been cut short to make it presentable. Her porcelain skin and arched nose were just as Kat remembered them.

Something about seeing the woman conscious and alert made Kat's stomach twist into a tight knot. Suddenly she pictured Pierce as she used to be, not in a hospital bed, but standing over her, happily torturing her while she was tied to a chair in the desert.

All at once, a wave of panic rose in Kat"s chest. Her heart began beating against her breastbone, and beads of sweat appeared magically on her forehead. She stood up on unsteady legs and stumbled away from the nurses" station.

"What's wrong?" Jenny asked, concerned.

"I have to do something," Kat managed to gasp unconvincingly, hoping she didn't pass out before she made it through the exit doors.

***

"It's okay," Mitch assured her gently, holding her tight to him.

"I don't know what happened," Kat muttered miserably.

"It makes perfect sense," he replied. "You hadn"t seen her like that for a long time. Of course, your body was going to react. It"s nothing to be ashamed of."

He might be right. Kat had been through enough therapy after her near-death experience in Afghanistan to know that sometimes the body reacted independent of the brain and vice versa. What she should be ashamed of was how she'd kept these hospital visits a secret from her fiancé for months now. It wasn't fair that he only learned of them when she called him in a near meltdown while standing on the curb outside the hospital.

But of course, Mitch had rushed here immediately. And since his arrival, he hadn't mentioned a word about her deception. That didn't mean she shouldn't.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered. "I shouldn't have snuck around like that. It was crazy. I should have told you what I was doing, coming here all the time."

"Yes, you should have," he chided gently. "If only so you didn"t have to carry this burden alone. I get it. This woman messed you up, and you want to keep tabs on her. You don"t want her springing any more surprises on you. You want some measure of control. That"s not crazy. It"s human nature."

"But we're getting married. I should have trusted you with this."

Mitch lightly placed his index finger under her chin and delicately lifted it so that she was looking in his warm, gray eyes. His sandy hair glistened in the late morning sun. With his kind smile and jolly tan giant of a body, he looked like he'd been placed here by the gods.

"We all make mistakes, Kat," he said. "You've been through a lot. It would be weird if all of your decisions were completely logical. But we don't have to fixate on that. Let's focus on the future."

"What future?" she asked, embarrassed at how pouty she sounded.

"A future where we deal with this together," he told her. "Now we can be open about how Ash Pierce waking up from her coma has impacted you. Maybe you can talk to a professional about it too. But the one thing we"re not going to do is let this define us, Okay? You"re back at work full-time now. I"m starting with the LAPD next month. We"ve got a nice new place together. And our friends are throwing us a party tomorrow night because we"re getting married in a few months. Things aren"t as dire as they seem. We just have to have the right perspective, okay?"

Kat fought off a giggle. Despite the fear she'd felt earlier and the mortification she felt now, somehow this tree trunk of a human being still had the capacity to make it all seem alright.

"Okay," she said. "I'm really lucky to have you."

"Yes, you are," he agreed.

She strained her neck to reach up and give him a kiss. Because of the people walking by, he returned it a little shyly.

"You can do better than that," she scolded.

He tried again, this time with much more enthusiasm. It was almost enough to make Kat forget about Ash Pierce, awake and alert in the hospital behind her. Almost.