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One of the doctors comes forward, and he takes charge. Adelaide is put on a gurney and carried away from me. A nurse puts her hands on my chest and tells me that I can’t follow.
I need to know Adelaide is alive. She has to live. I cannot accept any other outcome.
With my hands clenched into fists, I stay in that one spot, staring at the door. I don’t know when my men arrive, but Terrance is the first.
“Sir.”
“Sir.”
“Sir.”
He keeps repeating my title, and I finally turn toward him. “This is Adelaide’s phone. There’s a text. It tells her that if she wants to see you, she has to go to this location. It’s sent from an anonymous number.”
I don’t care.
Nathan has arrived with my men. His face is still bruised, but he’s cleaned away some of the blood.
“He helped to detain the men responsible,” Terrance said.
We’re in a public place. I can’t kill him right now. I don’t have to worry because over his shoulder I see Ivan appear, and I know he’s come to deal with the shit that just went down, because for the first time in my life, all I can feel is grief.
Chapter Twelve
Andrei
They didn’t know if Adelaide was going to make it. The bullet missed her heart, but there was too much blood.
She had also lost our baby. I had no idea she was pregnant and I guessed she didn’t either. The doctor told me there was no way to save the baby. That shouldn’t hurt. I was not like this. I had no bastard feelings, but I was struggling to hold it together. Ivan, my Pakhan, my boss, the one I served, handled everything, donating a large sum of money, and apologizing on my behalf as he made sure my wife was given the utmost care.
I was standing at the foot of my wife’s hospital bed, looking at her attached to tubes and wires as machines monitor her.
They told me to have hope. Seeing my wife fighting for her life, I had no choice but to feel hope.
****
Adelaide. My precious, sweet Adelaide, who didn’t even remember we had met before. It was some time ago, she had only been about eighteen, and for some reason, she ended up volunteering along with a few nurses. I think she must have been doing some basic medical training, but again, I’m not sure.
A deal had gone bad, I’d managed to get Ivan out of the place without a single scratch on him, but I’d ended up cut up really bad. You should have seen the other guy, he was unrecognizable. He’d been one of my men, and he’d turned on me, and that was what had caused the fuck-up in the first place.
Which is why I don’t trust anyone.
Anyway, Adelaide had been in the alleyway where I’d taken a moment to rest. A bunch of nurses and do-gooders were helping the homeless, trying to make a difference and all that crap, when Adelaide stumbled upon me.
I’d been cut bad. A slash right across the stomach. It wouldn’t kill me, but it sure did sting like a son of a bitch. The Volkov Bratva had been in full power at the time, and after killing the men who’d turned on me, I’d been alone and stumbled through my city, which is why I’d ended up in the alleyway.
Adelaide hadn’t questioned me about the cut. She’d tended to my wounds. Even when I yelled at her. Even when nurses recognized my brand and were terrified to come near me, Adelaide had treated me herself. What my precious wife didn’t know at that time was that she did something to me. I’m not exactly sure what it was, but I kept a close eye on her ever since.
It wasn’t like she’d done anything special. I figured she didn’t understand the ink decorating my knuckles, but then I realized, even if she did know what it all meant, she would have still cared for me. My wife has a kind heart. She is a kind soul, and in comparison, I’m a monster.
She doesn’t know when to leave well enough alone.
****
The door to Adelaide’s room opens, and I turn to see Ivan, carrying a cup of coffee. “I figured you needed something to drink.”
“Ivan, you shouldn’t be here,” I said. There was not enough protection for him, and I’m not going to lie, I’m not exactly in a state of mind right now to protect him. My focus is my wife.
“I’m where I need to be.” Ivan held out the coffee and I took it, taking a sip, thinking, oddly, about cinnamon rolls.
The coffee was rank, some of the worst I’d ever tasted, but I wished Adelaide was awake. She’d wrinkle her nose in that cute way she did and still drink it, because she was nice.
