AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I run a hand over her forehead until her eyes close. “Sleep, Wren. I’ve got you. Always.”
A few seconds later, the snoring starts up again. I wait to make sure she’s truly out, and then I grab my phone and dial in Aleks’s number. When he doesn’t answer, I call Pavel instead.
“Boss?” he murmurs sleepily.
“I want you and the team over at St. Joseph’s. Wren’s been admitted.”
“Oh, fuck,” he grunts, rustling himself to full attention. “Baby’s coming?”
I fucking wish. “No. There was a… complication. But she’s fine now. Just get over here so that you can stay with her while I’m out. And wake Aleks up while you’re at it. Kick his ass out of bed if you have to. God knows he deserves it.”
“Yo, bro,” Aleks says, rising to his feet the moment he sees me returning down the ward hallway. “Where’ve you been gallivanting off to?”
I glance towards Wren’s room door. “Is there anyone in there with her?”
“The good doctor. She just wanted to do a routine checkup, make sure everything was okay. They took Wren’s bandages off when she woke up this morning.”
“And?”
“Slight swelling around her nose but otherwise, she looks fine.”
I exhale with relief. “Good.” I have to resist the urge to put my hand back in my pants pocket. “Did you talk to her?”
Aleks nods. “Yeah. She was in a great mood. We even played a couple of games of Uno over breakfast. I won, not that you asked. Anyway, she asked where you were a few times, but I didn’t know what to tell her.”
It’s obvious he wants to know, too, but for a change, he doesn’t pry. Not directly, at least, though my brother is about as subtle as a hammer to the head.
“I had something important I needed to take care of.”
“Right-o. Well then, speaking of talking to Wren, did you tell her about that little secret you’re keeping?”
“No,” I growl shortly. “And I’m not going to, either. I was right to keep that from her for now.”
“Dmitri—”
“You convinced me last night,” I interrupt. “I’d made up my mind to tell her… and then I walk into our bedroom and her fucking nose explodes like goddamn Pompeii. It was a sign, Aleks. She’s in too delicate a position to handle this information. Better it comes later, when the baby’s been delivered safely and she’s in the clear.”
Aleks opens his mouth but then snaps it shut. “Are you sure this is the right decision?”
“I’m making a judgment call. You don’t have to like it, but you do have to accept it.”
I can’t stop replaying that snapshot in my head on a loop. Flicking on the light to see Wren drenched in blood… I shudder as it goes again and again and again.
Dr. Liza walks out a moment later. “Ah, Dmitri! Wren was just asking for you.”
I give her a passing nod and head into the room. Wren’s sitting up with a yogurt cup in hand. Her face is free of bandages and, like Aleks mentioned, there’s swelling around her nose, but it’s mild.
“Hey, you,” she greets. Her face lights up when she sees me. It’s insanity itself how that tiny little motion, those two little words, are enough to bring me to my knees all on their own.
This woman has a hold on me.
God help me, I think I like it.
I sit on the edge of her bed so that I’m facing her. “How’re you doing?”
“Still tired,” she confesses. “Still pregnant. And yet still here, by the grace of God or whatever. Where were you?”
“Missed me, huh?”
