Branded(27)

Handing the needle over to the nurse for her to dispose of, I press the stethoscope back to Phina’s chest and wait. It takes almost twenty minutes for her heart rate to slow to a normal level before Phina slowly opens her eyes and squints at me.

“Hey there, Fireball. Welcome back,” I tell her with a smile, trying not to kiss every inch of her face and pull her into my arms.

I’ve never had to work on someone I know. When I’m on the job, I’m a robot, doing what I need to do to save someone’s life. I never think about who they are, what would happen to their family if I couldn’t do my job or how me possibly fucking up in a critical situation could end their life. I do what I’m trained to do and then I walk away. Kneeling here next to Phina, I didn’t even realize I was praying to God the entire time, begging Him to keep her safe. As much as she pisses me off, she’s wormed her way into my life and I can’t stand the idea of her not being in it. I want to know everything about her. I want to know why she’s so angry and why she won’t let me in. I want to know what makes her tick and there is no fucking way I’m going to lose her before I can get to that point.

Phina reaches up and pulls the oxygen mask away from her face before pushing herself up on her elbows. I finally let myself touch her, wrapping my arm around her back to help her sit up. Placing my hand on her back, I rub slow, comforting circles there, the constant touch the reassurance I need that she’s really okay.

I watch as she looks down at her bare thighs and then quickly scrambles to pull her pants back up. When they’re in place, she holds her hands against her hips at an awkward angle before shooting me a dirty look.

“Why the hell were my pants off? Did you look? What did you see?” she fires at me.

I start to bristle at her attitude towards the man that just saved her fucking life when I see tears forming in her eyes. I have no idea what she’s so upset about. It’s not like I haven’t seen her with her pants off before.

“It’s okay, hon. He had to give you a shot of glucose in your thigh,” Finnley tells her comfortingly as she pats her leg.

Phina yanks her leg away from Finnley’s hand and quickly gets up from the ground. I jump up next to her and try to grab onto her arm, but she swats me away.

“Will you stop being so fucking stubborn? You were out cold for over twenty minutes because your blood sugar plummeted. I’m guessing you forgot to eat this morning?”

She rolls her eyes at me, pulling the oxygen mask strap over her head and tossing it to the ground. “I’m not an idiot. Of course I ate this morning. There’s no way my blood sugar dropped that quickly just because of my donation.”

She’s absolutely right and before I can let that thought fester and turn into outright panic, the nurse comes back outside from the truck after disposing of the glucose injection syringe.

“I don’t know how this could have happened. This truck is always monitored. I should have double-checked,” she says worriedly as she rushes over to us with a couple of vials of saline in her hand.

“What are you talking about?” I question when she stops in front of us.

“At the end of a platelet donation, we have to inject a little saline to finish off the process and flush out the I.V. We keep them in a line on the table and use them in order for each donor. Someone switched the vial of saline that was supposed to be used for her with insulin.”

She holds the vials out to me and I grab them from her. Sure enough, a small vial the exact same size and color as the saline is mixed in with all the rest. The word insulin is printed in small script on the label, but it’s been partially scraped off. The donation truck has been a zoo all day with people coming in and out for donations non-stop. The nurse looks like she’s ready to burst into tears and as much as I want to shout at her for not checking the label of the vial, I know it was an honest mistake on her part. She grabbed the supply right next to her, not even fathoming that it wouldn’t be what it was supposed to.

I look up and see Phina staring at the vials in my hand. The tears from moments ago are completely gone and she’s back to looking like she wants to kick someone’s ass. I can handle angry Phina. At this point, I’m a fucking pro. I don’t know what the hell I would have done if she broke down right in front of me and started crying. That, along with the compassion I saw from her today, would have completely done me in.

“Are you ready to let me fucking help you now?” I ask her in a low voice.

Without answering me, she gives Finnley a quick hug and pecks Collin on the cheek.

“We need to call the police. Clearly he’s got someone on the outside trying to get to you,” Collin tells her softly before she backs away from him.