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“I’m giving her a local,” Lochlan went on to explain.
The O’Brien’s blue eyes slid Maksim’s way. “Are you sure about this?”
He nodded, speaking for me. “She’ll be fine.”
Returning the nod, Maksim grabbed my right hand, knowing better than to grab my left one. Then, looking me straight in the eye, he lied to me, saying, “It is going to be fine, lyublyu.”
“That’s easy to say when you’re not the one that’s getting a bullet extracted from their leg,” I retorted, trying to hide just how nervous I really was.
“Awe, lassie,” Lochlan drawled out. “I’m pretty certain that every man in this room has had a bullet removed at one time or another.” He grinned sweetly at me, his voice back to normal. “I know for a fact that my brother and The O’Brien have.”
“If left up ta my wife, I’da had a couple o’ mere,” Noah Murphy remarked, and holy freakin’ hotness on that accent of his.
“You will be fine, Katja,” Maksim repeated, his dark gaze narrowing at my newest fascination with the Irish accent. “I would not put you through this if I did not think that you could handle it.”
“We’ll give you some privacy, lass,” Declan added. “Kotov can keep me and Noah company by telling us all what happened.”
“Thank you, Mr. O’Brien,” I replied quietly.
“I’m going to cut your pant leg off, then I’m going to disinfect the area, give you the local, and after it sets in, I’m going to do my best to extract the bullet,” Lochlan said, speaking to me like I might become hysterical at any moment. “Once I remove the bullet, I will sew you up, patch the wound, then send you on your way with some very effective pain medication.”
I gave him a tight nod before looking back over at Maksim. “What am I supposed to tell my grandfather?”
“I will handle your dedushka, Katja,” he promised. “Let us just get this done.”
I let out a heavy sigh before looking back at Lochlan Murphy. “I’m…okay, I’m ready.”
He let out a soft chuckle before he put on a pair of gloves, then went to cutting off my pant leg right below the tourniquet that Maksim had fashioned for me. When he was done, he slid the fabric down my leg, letting it pool at my ankle. Maksim nor Lochlan spoke as Lochlan did his thing, and even Avgust was keeping his voice down as he told Declan and Noah what had happened. The entire thing felt oddly uncomfortable, but probably because these men weren’t supposed to get along. I supposed that was why I was feeling more and more unwelcomed by the second. Though the O’Briens had been nothing but kind to me since we’d gotten here, I still felt like my association with Maksim made me an unpleasant inconvenience.
After Lochlan was satisfied that the local anesthetic had done its thing, Lochlan began to dig into my leg, and I immediately turned towards Maksim, holding onto him like a lifeline. It hurt like a sonofabitch, though still not as badly as I’d expected. However, it still hurt, and after the kind of day that I’d had, I deserved for someone to comfort me, and that someone was going to be Maksim Barychev, even if I was still mad at him.
Chapter 37
Maksim~
As soon as Lochlan Murphy had finished removing the bullet from Katja’s leg, I’d gotten her out of there and had brought her to my home. Of course, we had thanked the O’Briens, and after assuring Declan that the situation was over, we had parted ways, hoping to never have to deal with each other again. Granted, we always had business to attend to, but that was a relationship that we were all used to.
At any rate, once we’d gotten to my home, I had taken Katja directly to my room, and though Lochlan had advised against taking her home without an IV to replenish her fluids, he’d given me a list of things to help her recover from the blood loss, and Avgust had also called Dr. Seaport to meet us at my house. Though I’d never had a non-member of the bratva come to my home in the country, Katja was the exception to all my rules.
After Dr. Seaport had checked her over, he had assured me that she’d be fine and that there was a reason why Lochlan Murphy had a reputation for being one of the best doctors in the state. Nonetheless, I still made him look over the aftercare instructions and check Katja out for himself. Once we were all satisfied that she was out of the woods, Dr. Seaport had gone on his way, and I’d made the phone call to the Tremaine Group, informing them that Katja would be submitting her resignation later today, and I had also called Artur to let him know what was going on. Thankfully, no one from Katja’s work had called the police or her grandfather to locate her when she hadn’t shown up for work.
Dr. Seaport had also taken two vials of her blood, though he really hadn’t wanted to. With as much blood as she’d lost, taking more blood hadn’t been the wisest thing to do, but since she’d bitten Nikel’s dick hard enough to draw blood, it was important that she get tested for any diseases that Nikel could have contracted.
Akim had also been here to greet us when we had arrived, and while Dr. Seaport had been tending to Katja, Avgust had been telling Akim everything that had happened. Though it was finally all over, the lack of closure was still bothersome. I’d had so many questions for Nikel Ovchinnikov, but given the choice between closure and Katja’s life, I was more than glad that she’d been able to save herself. Besides, we already knew most of why he’d come here, so I wasn’t sure how much more we would have learned, but still.
“What did The O’Brien mean when he said that he wasn’t sure what you guys kept doing wrong?”
I’d just entered the bedroom from walking Akim out, and while I’d been expecting Katja to be asleep from exhaustion, she was sitting up in my bed, Naslediye curled up beside her like she no longer belonged to me. While I should take exception, they both looked perfect lying in my bed together.
Since Katja was going to be my wife, I saw no sense in shielding her from the life that I led. “Nikel came to Port Townsend five years ago, and he immediately started causing problems for all of us, though they were small problems at the time,” I told her. “And though unrelated, it seems as if…as if we had not been quick enough to handle matters on our own.”
Her brows furrowed over her tired eyes. “What’s that mean?”
“The underground world is run differently than the postcards of America that you usually see. Unlike us, people usually delved in gossip for entertainment reasons. However, we keep our ear to the streets because knowing everything about our enemies is vital for survival.” Needing to touch her, I finally walked over, then sat on the side of the bed, my hand reaching out to rub her uninjured leg. “Five years ago, Nero Sartori wiped out the Schulz organization because they kidnapped his wife. However, not before Kasen Sartori shot and killed the guy that set her up. A year after that, Savina Provenza was caught up in a murder scandal-”
“I remember that,” she quickly rushed out. “It was all over the news. She killed Congressman Oliver’s son.”
I nodded. “The rumor was that he had been abusive during their courtship, but before Aurelio could take care of it for her, Mrs. Provenza took matters into her own hands and killed him herself. Then, after that, Declan O’Brien met his wife, Keavy, and she is…unconventional to say the least. It is reputed that she has a penchant for killing people, and she is the one that took out most of Nikel’s gang.”
