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“Stay down, Ley,” Ryan barks at me, but I can’t. I can’t stop fighting because if I do, then he’ll die.
“No, he can’t die. I won’t stop fighting until I know he’s alive.” My voice cracks as cry out, the words ripped from my heart.
“He’s in the OR now. I have the best trauma thoracic surgeon on the East Coast working on him.”
“What?” I stop and look at my friend, who is now sporting a busted lip and black eye. Security is standing back, watching, afraid to touch me after that attack.
“You should be thanking me for talking the CEO into hiring Tanner. Or maybe kissing my feet, not beating the hell out of me. You get to explain to my wife why I’m busted up.” Ryan laughs, but I see the truth.
“How bad?”
“It’s not good. No spinal encroachment, but his right lung collapsed. Several ribs will have to be wired back together. Tanner is going to stabilize him then put him in a medically induced coma before he goes back in and finalizes everything.”
“And?”
“The next forty-eight hours will be the key.”
“Get me stitched up so I can go be with him.”
“Already done,” he says, and I look down and see that my side is bandaged. “Also did the one in your shoulder. There’s a guy here, says his name is Browser. He’s out front waiting for you.”
“Let him in.”
“Also, your father is waiting.” I see the shock on his face. “He threatened to kill people if he couldn’t come back here, but I assured him I would take care of you personally. That settled him down. He knows me?”
“He’s been watching, I guess.” I try to give him as much information as I can, but even I don’t know the full extent of my father’s involvement in my life.
“Let him back too.”
“Okay.”
Ryan lets a nurse know then returns to my side. “I just got a text from the OR that Leif is holding up.” He puts his phone away, and I nod. I can’t do more than that until I can be with him.
My father and Browser step through the curtain and move to the side of the bed.
“Thank you,” my father says to Ryan and wraps me in his arms. He whispers in my ear, “Your brothers are going to get Roger and secure him for you.” I nod.
“Commander says he has a bead on Fasttrack, but Crank is missing. Rio killed Mule during the shooting,” Browser tells me.
“Did you let Gambit know about Crank? He’s going to go after Franci.”
“I did. He says heal and get better; he’s got Franci. And”—he pauses—“he hopes that Leif is okay.”
I can’t stop the tears as they roll down my face. My father squeezes me tighter, and I just hold on for dear life. I want to be out there hunting these men down, but I need to be here more. I need to be with Leif when he wakes up because he’s wrong, my heart won’t survive if he doesn’t. I couldn’t promise him what he wanted me to because it’s impossible. Only he thawed my heart. He’s my only love.
* * *
Hours later, I’m sitting in a chair watching him lie there. He barely made it through the surgery, but he’s stabilized for now. The surgeon came in and told me it was touch and go. That we have to wait to see what would happen. If he survived the next forty-eight hours, then he’d go back in and repair the damage.
I sit there watching him, worried if I leave or close my eyes he’ll die. I hold his hand and caress it. I tell him over and over how much I love him and want him back. When a throat clears, I look up with blurry eyes and see Ryan standing in the doorway with my father.
“Malyshka, you need to get some rest,” my father says as he moves into the room. “I’ll stay awake with him while you get some sleep.”
“No. If I sleep, something might happen, and I need to look after him.” I choke on my words. “He took a bullet meant for me. I’m not worth it.”
“Oh, malyshka, my sweet daughter.” He pulls me into his arms, and I hold him tight, crying until the sobs wrack my body.
For the first time in my life, I’m scared. I’m also at a loss. I don’t know how to battle for him. I don’t know how to protect him right now.
