“Excuse me? You feel for me? Grow a set already, Winters. Don’t stand behind the lie of protecting me. When you figure out what you’re so scared of, you find me. Otherwise, don’t worry your heart. And you won’t have to concern your nurse with keeping me away from you. I’m gone.”

She stormed out, the privacy curtain trailing after her in a harsh breeze.

Shit.

That went all wrong. Nothing like he envisioned. He had to get out of this bed. He needed to chase her down and explain everything. She needed to understand he shouldn’t love her. She deserved so much more than that burden.

Winters ripped the blanket off of him only to see electrical compression wraps on his calves and a collection bag for his catheter. Fucking fantastic. He grabbed the remote hanging by his bed and pressed the nurse call button once, twice, and then again.

Where the hell was she?

He tried to lean forward to release his legs and groaned. His body hurt. Every muscle was sore, weak, and pathetic. Just like him in the love life department. It might take weeks of physical therapy and training to get back to where he needed to be physically, but he was done for when it came to Mia. Some wounds never healed.

He leaned over again, undid the Velcro on one leg wrap, then moved the other. His lungs burned, and his pulse raced. He paused for a breath. How was he so out of breath? His plan to run after Mia might need to be downgraded to a speedy walk. God, he hated being sidelined.

The nurse shuffled into his room. Her concerned glance morphed into alarm as she saw him batting at the wires holding him back and working to undo his second leg wrap.

“Mr. Winters.”

“Get these wires off me.” He motioned to the catheter. “Take this fucking thing out.”

“You’ve only been awake for minutes after days recovering from serious injuries.”

“I’ve got places to go.”

“I’ll get Dr. Tuska in here. You can talk to him.”

Winters struggled against his pain, unhooking wire after wire on his chest. Alarms beeped. He studied the pole holding his IV bag. “Does this thing move, or do you need to unhook it?”

“Sir. Calm down.” She pulled a phone from her pocket and paged the doctor or security. Who knew?

“Sit your ass back in that bed,” a familiar male voice yelled, and the nurse jumped straight into the air.

Jared’s steely face was pissed. He sped past the nurse, who had one hand over her mouth and the other pressed against her chest.

“Whatever the fuck you’re doing… Why ever the hell you’re trying to break out of here like it’s the clink, you stop. Right now. You got me?”

The wide-eyed nurse pressed herself against the wall and sidestepped toward the door. With her exit, the loud click of the large door closing echoed through the room.