Before Audrey stepped into his path, I was responsible for its beats.
Now I don’t know which way is up.
24
Dimitri
Istop peering at my bloodstained hands when the voice of a man on the brink of exhaustion rolls through my ears. Ollie is wearing smocks like a real-life doctor. They’re as blood-stained as my hands, and the knowledge it is the blood of my wife curtails my mood even more than not being given an update on her condition in hours.
I’m always a little unhinged after a raid. It causes a rush of adrenaline you can’t get anywhere else—adrenaline I had planned to unleash on Roxanne until the wee hours of tomorrow morning. Instead, I’m sitting in the corridor that replicates a dungeon, waiting to see if a doctor kicked out of med school can fix the hack job someone did to the mother of my child.
I still can’t believe Audrey is alive. She never showed the fight she displayed tonight once during our relationship. She was the meekest woman in the room, the one who forever shied away from controversy. I never suspected she would be able to survive the ordeal she was forced through. That’s why I only ever searched for her body. I was convinced she was dead.
Shows what I know. Before Roxanne, I had never experienced the gut-tingling, ball-tightening, infuriating sensation I get when she enters the realm, but you’d think I would have felt a least a little bit of Audrey’s gall. She’s my wife, she carried my flesh and blood in her womb, so how could I not know she was alive, fighting to come back to me?
My frustrating debate is pushed back for another day when Ollie stops to stand in front of me. He called my name multiple times, but since I was so caught up in my thoughts, I didn’t acknowledge his presence.
“Sorry, what did you say?” My voice is so rough, I don’t recognize it. It’s brimming with agitation and a heap of the adrenaline I’ve yet to disperse.
While raking his fingers through his shoulder-length hair, Ollie slots into the chair next to me. Considering we’re in a residence, it should be odd acknowledging there’s a fully functioning operating theater in the basement. However, since it’s India, a freak in her own right, I’m not half as shocked as you’d expect.
We need to bunker down for a couple of days until the heat dies down. Although I would have preferred for that to occur anywhere but here, the realization that India has a house full of servants and access to every medical field there is had me changing tactics.
Supposedly India is in favor with an oil tycoon who has a hankering for the underworld. With the right amount of money, anyone can join some crews’ ranks. That shit doesn’t fly with me, though. I’d gut him just on the belief he can do what I do without earning it.
You don’t get to where I am by throwing money at people. It’s messy, gritty, and more fucked in the head than he’d ever understand. And more times than not, it occurs without the love of a good woman.
Perhaps that’s why I can’t sense Audrey as I can Roxanne? Audrey and I never shared those three little words I thought I would have to torture out of a woman before she’d ever give them to me voluntarily. Not even the day we wed saw them exchanged. We swapped rings, ate cake, then I fell into bed with a couple of hookers while Audrey went back to the honeymoon suite alone.
Fuck, I was an asshole. I still am. I just don’t see Roxanne taking my shit. I was coked out of my head, but I still recall the way she ripped the blonde hooker away from me by the strands of her hair. She wanted to kill her, and in all honesty, if she had a weapon, I reckon she would have.
I scrub my hand across my mouth, hiding my inappropriately timed smirk before locking my eyes with Ollie. The way he stares at me reveals he knew my thoughts were elsewhere again, not to mention his shoulder bump. He did the same thing when he confirmed what Audrey’s pregnancy test said, except back then, he was consoling me instead of livening me up.
“Is she going to make it?”
An unusual patter hits my chest when Ollie dips his chin. “She isn’t out of the woods just yet, but I don’t see her recovery having too many issues.” As he balances on the edge of his chair, air whizzes from his nose. That’s a telltale sign he’s nervous. “We had to remove Audrey’s uterus, ovaries, and part of her spleen. She won’t be able to carry any more children.”
I’m not stunned by his confession. Whoever got to Audrey made it clear if she survived the second time, she would be unable to bear children. They hacked up her uterus even more than they did when removing Fien from her stomach.
“Were there any signs she had… umm…” Who the fuck made me this whimpering, blubbering imbecile? I’m Dimitri-fucking-Petretti. I donotstutter.
“No,” Ollie says with a shake of his head, saving me from making a fool out of myself for the second time. “Excluding the scar from when she delivered Fien, there were no indicators that she had birthed other children.”
His reply pleases me greatly. I don’t want Fien to have half-siblings stretched across the globe like I had growing up. She’ll only have one set. The children I’ll have with Roxanne.
My cocky grin slips when Ollie discloses, “She’s been asking to see you.”
“She’s awake?” I don’t know why I sound shocked. My dead ass exposes how long I’ve been sitting on a hard, plastic chair, not to mention the annoying tick of my watch. I’ve been down here for over five hours. The delay feels as if it is slowly killing me. I don’t just want to discover if Fien’s cheeks are as soft as they look, I want to unearth the reason Roxanne limped when I loaded her in the ambulance Smith got onsite remarkably quick. She wordlessly assured me she was fine several times during our forty-minute ride, but I don’t believe her. She’s too brave to make a fuss and too fucking stubborn for her own good.
“Once you have things wrapped up here, can you take a look at Roxanne for me? I think she did something to her foot.”
Ollie smiles before nodding, forever happy to please me. It makes sense when you see how much he charges for his services. “I’ll stay with Audrey until she’s out of recovery, then hand her over to India’s crew.”
After slapping him on the shoulder, issuing my praise without words, I stand to my feet.
“You coming?” I ask when he remains seated. I’m almost halfway down the corridor, yet, he hasn’t walked a single stride.
My throat grows scratchy when he shakes his head. “Audrey asked to speak to you alone.”
