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Fuck.
My eyebrows furrow as my body caves forward. Someone catches me before I hit the ground, and all I see is black—the color of a woman who unintentionally dressed for a funeral.
54
ELANEE
Istare at Dmitri as he lies in the hospital bed, waiting for him to wake up. I’d never seen that side of Dmitri. I’d seen him kill Connor and Candy before, but the way he brutalized The Lion was something only a wild, unhinged man could achieve. He didn’t just kill our monster; he pulverized him.
It all happened so quickly, and I could barely see past the tears as I watched him sever each of his big toes off. It was an awful and gruesome, yet grateful sense of relief that he’d paid the same price that I had. At that moment, I was disgusted in myself for taking pleasure in seeing it happen, but then one of The Lion’s men shot Dmitri, and all hell broke loose.
I didn’t think; I simply ran and barely made it in time to catch Dmitri as he toppled over. The bullet went straight through and fortunately missed his heart.
Luca and his men dealt with the clean-up, as Lorenzo took Dmitri, Layla and me to the hospital. We’d been questioned, but it was fair to presume that they were in Luca’s back pocket as they basically told us it must’ve been an alleyway robbery gone wrong.
“This fucker has more lives than a cat,” Layla says as she sits across the room with arms crossed over her chest. The only time either of us had left was to go home and shower. I was first since I had most of Dmitri’s blood on my black pantsuit. It was the first time I’d worn black in years, and would be the last.
It’d been a day since he was shot, and I counted every minute until he woke.
“He’s going to wake,” Layla says confidently, though I know she’s worried as well. “The asshole’s tenacious, if nothing else. We honestly couldn’t have met a more troublesome guy in college, even if we tried.”
I look at her now. “You don’t hate me for putting him in this situation?”
The Lion might’ve wound up being both of our demons to slay, but my sister had stayed loyal by Dmitri’s side all this time. Didn’t she hate me a little?
She scoffs. “As if he wouldn’t put himself in this situation. In fact, you need to keep tabs on him from now on so he stops acting so recklessly. He has a reputation to uphold.”
I want to cry at her generosity for letting me off the hook. And if I’m being honest with myself, I’m sick of blaming others. I’m sick of blaming myself. I’m tired. And I’m broken. But the shadow that loomed over me once seems less intense now. It won’t be easy to fight through, but I’ll be able to do it with this man by my side. I look to Dmitri again.
We can do this together.
It wouldn’t surprise me if gossip had already spread about the ‘alleyway robbery’ amongst the social circles. Strange things occurred all the time, and through gossip it always twisted a little from the truth.
Dmitri’s hand twitches and I snap to him attentively. “Dmitri?” I whisper.
Please wake up.
Please wake up.
Please wake up.
Thick eyelashes open, and he groggily searches the room. Relief washes over me, and then his blue gaze finally finds me. “Cricket?”
Layla is by my side within seconds, and she’s smiling like an idiot. “I knew even the devil himself didn’t want you.”
“Layla,” I reprimand.
“What happened?” he asks, clearly disorientated. Most likely because of all the drugs. So I tell him the one and only thing he needs to know.
“He’s gone, Dmitri,” I whisper, and his body physically releases bundled tension as he sighs. It is as if the weight on his shoulders has finally lifted, and what has probably been for the first time in his life, he can rest. He blinks and goes to shuffle himself to sitting but winces as if suddenly realizing why he’s in a hospital bed.
“And you got shot, you dumbass,” Layla says over my shoulder.
“Layla.” I reprimand.
“Twice in one year,” he complains as he still continues to push himself up.
“That, and once you heal from this, you still have to go in for surgery for the tumor,” Layla says with more sass than she should.
