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“It’s going as expected,” she says.
“What the fuck does that mean?”
She sighs. “Your brother’s injuries were extensive. There are a lot of variables. The doctor is doing everything possible to save him.”
There it is. Nik is still fighting for his life. Even in the hospital, it isn’t over.
Mariya smiled while she told me Nik was alive. She said it like it was good news. And it is… in a way. It’s better than him being dead. But I saw the blood pumping out of his chest. I saw the way his eyes rolled back in his head, the way he went limp.
He shouldn’t have survived that. The fact that his heart is still beating doesn’t mean anything.
“What are his chances of survival?”
“I really can’t say, Mr. Kulikov. Things are still ongoing and could change.”
“Tell me,” I grit out.
“If you want more information, I can let you speak to the doctor. He’ll be available soon and then?—”
“Now,” I bark. “Fuck protocol. Tell me what his chances are.”
There’s a long pause before her voice comes over the line again, softer this time. “Your brother coded three times on his way to the hospital. He lost a lot of blood and was without oxygen. We are doing everything we can to save him, but there’s a lot we still don’t know.”
“How long was he without oxygen?”
“We don’t know,” she says softly. “He was dead when the EMTs found him. They brought him back.”
I left him there. Nik was bleeding out on the sidewalk. I thought he was dead; I didn’t think he stood a chance; and so I left him. And now, he may never come back. If I’d stayed and given him CPR, would things be different?
“I’ll call you as soon as we know anything,” the woman says. “Your brother is in good hands here.”
I hang up without a word. There isn’t anything to say. I have no control over whether he lives or dies. Not now. The only thing I can control is what happens next.
I have to focus on saving Luna.
The tracker app takes me through dark residential streets. Tall grass grows out of the cracks in the pavement. Rusted cars on blocks line the gutters. There are empty lots between the rundown houses like missing teeth.
When I’m a block away, I park along the curb and wait.
It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done. To sit in the dark, staring at the blacked-out windows of the house where Mariya’s phone is. The house where Luna might be.
But I wait for backup to arrive.
There’s a white van parked in the driveway. Behind the house, taking up most of the backyard, is a two-storey garage. It’s the newest building on the block by decades. And there’s a light on inside. I see the yellow glow through a gap in the upstairs blinds.
She’s in there.
I feel it the same way I know I would feel it if Luna was already dead. The space in my chest where she’s taken up residence would be empty. But it isn’t empty—it burns.
The thought that keeps my ass in the car and also has me dying to break down the garage door this second is that Akim wouldn’t kill Luna right away. To get the most out of his revenge, he’ll keep her alive and torture her. He’ll make sure she suffers so he can make sure I suffer.
That fact makes every second that Isay and the rest of my men aren’t here absolute hell. Fuck only knows what Akim is doing to her in there.
If he knows she’s pregnant, things will be even worse. Akim won’t just hurt Luna; he’ll kill our baby, too.
I grip the steering wheel with white knuckles. I never thought I’d become a father, but the role has settled on my shoulders easily. Without even trying, my thoughts have shifted to doing everything humanly possible to protect my child. I want to shield Luna and our child from every bad thing in the world.
And I will. Or I’ll die trying.
