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medications continued to fail.
    However, Ops for Kids wasn’t limitless in its resources, and it was depending on the donation of the Godonov estate. That was why Alex had to be outed as the gambler he most likely continued to be and it was why he had to lose his inheritance by the 10 th . Lily was getting sicker by the day; after all, the brain could only survive so much electrical trauma.
    Kate sat in the overcrowded room and tried to ignore the spasms that lanced through her back due to the cheap plastic chairs. They were the same color as traffic cones. How much more depressing could a hospital get? There was coffee in her hands and she clung to it fiercely, the heat pouring from the cup was the only sensation tethering her to reality at all.
    And in the middle of all of this, her thoughts still turned to Alex. He had surprised her so much. She assumed he was some brainless, spoiled aristocrat. Yes, he was haughty and had a big mouth sometimes, and sometimes he didn’t seem to get the actual cost of things in the real world. Still, he was a brilliant chess player with a smile that was so bright that it could power the Vegas strip all alone. He was sweet and chivalrous…and who carried a girl several blocks just to save her embarrassment and pain?
    She sighed and thought back fondly to his magic trick. He’d been so sweet then. Sure, it had been in an effort to distract her, to obviously derail her from getting him to gamble, but it had still made her smile. Somehow, on the worst night of her life, Kate felt the truth in her bones that had Alex been there he would have comforted her, would have held her in those strong arms and made her feel safe. More than that, though, he would have smiled that wide, eager smile and made a corny but endearing joke and make her laugh as well.
    She wished he were there and after two days that shouldn’t even be true.
    He was the only way to ensure her sister got the surgery. All these doubts plaguing her mind shouldn’t be there, shouldn’t be part of the equation. And yet, here she was, depressed as hell and longing to hear his jokes and feel his presence. It was all she wanted.
    “Ms. Morrison?” the doctor asked. He was an older African-American man with graying hair and a paunchy belly. “I’m Dr. Johnson, can we talk?”
    She stood and trailed out with him to the corner of the waiting room near the vending machines. God, she hadn’t eaten in hours and suddenly all the Snickers looked heaven sent. Her stomach rumbled as hunger gnawed at her. “Is she okay? Did she?”
    “She’s stabilized but this was her worst seizure. She really needs to have brain surgery as soon as possible. It’s the only thing left to stop the faulty signals from crossing her corpus callosum and causing further damage. We want to set the surgery for July, as we’d discussed. Another seizure this huge could leave her in a vegetative state at best or, at the most dire, might kill her.”
    “I know but we have to wait until Ops for Kids can pay. There’s nothing I can do, and it’s not like your team is going to take an I.O.U.” Her breath hitched.
    The doctor nodded, his eyes brimming with concern. “I know, Ms. Morrison, and it’s completely unfair, I agree. I’m just keeping you appraised; your sister’s condition is deteriorating. I’d call the foundation again and do anything I could. Lily just doesn’t have much time left.”
    “Thank you, doctor,” she said, her voice coming out small and broken. 
    After he left, she pulled out her cell. She’d go hug Lily in a minute and sit by her sister’s bedside. Right now? Right now she needed to put in motion everything that needed to be done.
    “Joan, hey, it’s me. I need to still make it to the Rattler’s special fan night. We have to try plan B and I’ll see if I can get Alex to ask me out again. I…it’s him or Lily, and it’s always going to be Lily.”

Chapter Ten
    “She ran off?” his cousin, Xavier Rostov, the once and