I don’t know what Dmitri says, or threatens to do, but all thoughts of police are forgotten by the time the doctor returns, and he lets us both into Evgeny’s room without a fight or word about it.
I almost run the other way when I see Evgeny in the bed, suit replaced with a faded hospital gown. He’s still ghostly pale and has a breathing tube down his throat. He’s wired with IVs and drips and monitors, and it feels like we’re in some sci-fi movie.
Neither Dmitri nor I try to talk. The big man takes the recliner in the corner, and I drag a chair to Evgeny’s bedside, wrapping myself in the extra blanket a nurse handed to me earlier. I don’t know if Evgeny would want me here, but I hope my presence offers some comfort.
I hesitate, then touch his face, tracing the sharp line of his jaw, the high cheekbones, and the scars.
Soon, the room is quiet, save for the beep of the heart monitor and the occasional chime from one of the other displays.
I’m unsure if Dmitri is asleep or just resting his eyes. They’re closed, leaving me to contemplate the small thrill I got when Dmitri called me Evgeny’s wife, even if it was a lie.
20
EVA
The doctors keep Evgeny sedated for almost a week to keep him calm and prevent more seizures as the poison is flushed from his body. It’s still a few days beyond that before he’s fully conscious instead of drifting in and out of haziness. They don’t remove the ET tube for another day. Evgeny shows even more improvement by growling at the nursing staff when they come to change an IV bag.
I’ve been here through it all, taking shifts with Dmitri, Vasya, and even Alona, though, really, I don’t go home at all, not even during their shifts. When Marco came to see how his new hero was doing, he brought me a sweatshirt and leggings from home, and that’s what I’ve been living in. Several nurses I’ve come to know have even graciously let me use their shower when the doctors aren’t looking.
It has given me time to face the fact that I’ve fallen, irrevocably, for the man who took me hostage.
I’ve watched the strongest man I’ve ever known fight to keep his life. I’ve seen him weak and in the terrifying throes of a seizure,and I’ve held his hand as he lay in the hospital bed, so tough and so vulnerable at the same time.
My heart has shifted in the time we’ve been here, through the hell we’ve been in, from interest, lust, and attraction to something more profound. Something I’m in danger of never recovering from.
“What are you thinking about?” Evgeny’s voice is still husky from the ET tube, but it’s growing stronger every day.
“Sorry, what?”
“You looked like you were lost in thought.”
Lost is a good word for it. As lost as I am in the startling green of Evgeny’s eyes. But I can’t tell him what I was thinking about, I mean there’s no way. I have no idea how he feels, and I’m afraid if I tell him, he will react badly.
“The house is lonely without you.”
A line furrows his brow. “That’s what you were thinking?”
“More or less.”
Less. A lot less.
“What areyouthinking?” I counter before he can ask any more probing questions.
He takes a moment to search my face, then traces the same path with his hand until his palm comes to rest, cradling my cheek. I lean into the warmth, grateful his hands aren’t ice-cold anymore, that they’re capable of the gesture instead of curling in involuntary spasms.
“You saved me.”
“I didn’t do anything. It was all the EMTs and doctors and nurses.”
“You spilled the wine. If you hadn’t been so clumsy, I would have had the whole glass.”
The bottle of wine, it turns out, was the culprit, laced with a whole lot of strychnine. The consensus is that the poison was meant for Vasya, who kept the bottle, and others, at the restaurant he frequented. It had been a gift he’d offered to Evgeny upon finding out where Evgeny was taking me.
“I suppose Vasya owes you his life, too,” Evgeny says, a small, tired smile touching his mouth.
I don’t find it funny though. I find it horrifying. One mistake, and he wouldn’t be with me anymore.
Another thought pops into my head. “If I hadn’t spilled the wine,Iwould have had some.”
