AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Trino knew you were taken a few hours after it happened. Gus and Oscar called him to tell him about the warehouses. They told him then.” He helped me into the shower. The warm water did help me relax, but only slightly. My shoulder was still more painful than I would’ve liked. “I’ll hurry,” he said. I knew he felt my pain, so I didn’t even bother to try and hide it from him.
“How is Trino going to tell Sal?” I asked, trying to focus more on Adrik’s hands on me instead of the pain in my side and shoulder.
“I’m not sure. I just asked him to wait. I didn’t ask for details. I called him right after I got into bed with you in the hospital. I was more worried about you than anything else, so I didn’t really even think to ask for details.” He stood in front of me, his sexy smirk on his face. I felt the pull in my chest that I knew was from him as he leaned down to kiss me. Suddenly, the pain in my side and shoulder were now in the background. His desire for me was the strongest feeling I could feel. I moaned quietly in his mouth as I relished the break from pain that he offered. He kissed me harder, his desire for me growing. I wanted him to be able to pull me close, but I also knew it would likely cause me extreme pain. I couldn’t even use my one good hand to touch him right now without risking extreme pain when I let go of my cast. He pulled back slightly, so he could see me, both of his hands still on either side of my face. I saw the familiar look in his eyes that said mine were dark. He was both incredibly aroused, but also perplexed.
“I’m frustrated. I can’t touch you without pain right now and you can’t hold me like I want you to without pain right now. It’s very frustrating,” I said. He leaned down and kissed me once more, gently, then turned the water off.
“Let’s get your arm strapped down again. At least that will take care of one thing on your list,” he said as he grabbed a towel for me.
“What do you wanna bet Trino comes up with some amazing scheme to announce to Sal that Tony and Enzo are dead? Like he has their heads delivered to Sal. First-class, of course,” I said, trying not to laugh too hard as Adrik helped me get dressed.
“I’ll make sure to ask him when I call him today. I’m sure he’ll want to talk to you too. He was worried about you. Everyone was worried about you,” he said, helping me get my arm strapped back down. I took in as deep of a breath as I could manage once my arm was secured and mostly weightless on my shoulder again.
“They don’t know I’m hard to kill,” I said, grinning at him.
“I think we should keep it that way,” he said.
The guys were already in the penthouse when we walked out. “What time do you psychos wake up every morning? You’re always faster than us,” I said, walking up to Ivan, who I knew for a fact woke up at stupid hours of the morning, putting my good arm around his shoulders. I loved that he was so tall; I didn’t have to lean down to reach him even when he was sitting at the kitchen island.
He looked up at me, his face softening. “You look better this morning, princess. You must’ve slept better last night,” he said.
“She slept the entire night. We both needed it,” Adrik said. He immediately looked at me, with a stern look. He knew I was going to feel guilty for that. I just stuck my tongue out at him, holding my ribs so I could laugh. Stephen was next to Ivan, so I moved to him. “I heard you left Armando vulnerably diagnosed last night. What else did you learn while you were reading his thoughts, my favorite vampire?” I asked as I slid my arm around his shoulders.
He grabbed my wrist and held onto it gently as he laughed. “I hope he didn’t get any sleep last night. He has no one to blame but himself,” he said.
“The guys that are on him said he didn’t sleep. He was quiet for long enough that they tried to take the gag out. He started yelling again almost immediately, so they put it back in,” Viktor said, laughing his deep belly laugh.
“You guys had to gag him? I didn’t know that part,” I said, somewhat surprised.
“He might’ve started yelling in Italian at some point. I can’t stand yelling. So, I shut him up,” Viktor said, still laughing.
“Do you have a camera on him? Do you want to know what he said?” I asked, walking back toward Adrik.
Adrik walked the rest of the way to me, pulling me against him gently. “I don’t want you to ever have to see him again, love. It’s not important,” he said, kissing my cheek, then rubbing his cheek gently against mine.
“But how do you know it’s not important if you don’t know what he said?” I said, leaning into him.
“He started yelling after I vulnerably diagnosed him, as you say,” Stephen said. “I would think he was likely telling me off and trying to disprove my theory. You saw him once the polished exterior began to crack. He lost control of his anger quickly. I would bet good money that’s what happened last night. It happened again when Boss told him he’d been chosen specifically for that reason.”
“Wait, what reason?” I asked.
“Boss told him that Ricardo and Lorenzo had picked Armando because he was easy to control and likely because they knew he had issues,” Viktor said.
“Mommy issues,” Ivan said, giving me his most mischievous grin.
“Definite mommy issues,” I agreed. “What happened after that?” I asked.
“That’s when we left him. I want to break him before he dies,” Adrik said very matter-of-factly. Instead of being shocked at his admission, like some part of me knew I should be, I found myself agreeing with him. I fully supported him breaking Armando before he killed him. For me, there was no question that I wanted that to happen. I don’t know how I feel about this.
Adrik had cleared his schedule, except for Armando, until I got more mobile. He still wasn’t comfortable with having any conversations in his office for the time being. It wasn’t that it wasn’t secure, but there were plenty of people in the office during the day. It was too much of a risk, regardless of whether we were speaking Russian or not. He would deal with Armando at night, once everyone in the office went home. Since Armando was loud, he wouldn’t risk anyone in the office hearing him. They kept him gagged during the day, just in case.
I also knew that he simply didn’t want to be apart from me. We hadn’t discussed it yet, but I could feel his unease at the thought of having to leave me just for the short time last night. I knew he would struggle to come to terms with this incident, much like he struggled after the ball.
That’s the funny thing about life. You find something that you think you can’t live without and life has a way of showing you that you can. It might seem cruel to some, but the universe, God, whatever you want to believe in just wants you to know how powerful you are. Nothing more. It’s not out to get you. It’s just out to show you what you can handle.
The day passed much like the day before, with me translating in between naps. The acupuncturist came back again in the early afternoon, which helped my pain levels. My appetite was beginning to normalize as well. Misha ended up eating my extra sandwich that Andrei made sure to get for me, despite Andrei’s protests.
After the acupuncturist left, Adrik called Trino to fill him in. He put the call on speaker, so we could all hear.
