Page 77 of Russian Rescue

“Lucky me.”

“It hit the bone and fractured your femur, but it didn’t break. You’re going to have to be on crutches for a month or so to give it time to heal. After that, you should be good as new again.”

“Thank you again, doctor.” Wes reached across me and shook his hand. “I can’t tell you how grateful I am that you saved her.”

“Happy to do so. I’ve got your medications in the top drawer of the bedside table. I have two nurses who will stay here round the clock to take care of you until you’re ready for discharge in two or three days.”

For the first time, I really looked around my surroundings. I wasn’t in a hospital at all. I was in some kind of warehouse with a makeshift plastic hospital room. It wasn’t the first time I’d been injured on a mission, or even shot for that matter, and needed one of the mobile surgeons we used around the world, but it always felt strange thinking they’d performed surgery on me in some damp warehouse somewhere.

“Just don’t overdo it,” Dr. Sidorov warned. “Follow the instructions the nurses give you and stay off that leg. I repaired the nick in the femoral, but too much movement could open it back up. You’ll bleed out in mere minutes. No weight on that leg for at least a few days, but preferably at least until the end of the week.”

“I will watch her like a hawk.” Wes looked to the doctor then at me, pointing his two fingers at his eyes before pointing them back at me. “She’s going to be a model patient.”

“I hope so.” Dr. Sidorov started toward the door and stopped. “It was nice meeting you, but hopefully, your circumstances won’t necessitate another meeting. Heal well.”

With a smile, he lifted his hand in a slight wave, then pushed out the clear plastic door.

“Crutches? For a month?” I grumbled. “That sucks.”

“Yes, but it’s better than being dead or being on them for months. And hey! You’ll be ready to dance with me at Amanda’s wedding next month.”

“Wedding?” I lifted my eyebrows.

“Yep. Now that Petro has been stopped, Amanda’s wedding is back on. I promised her a top-of-the-line redo wedding since I screwed up her first one, so it’s in Hawaii in six weeks. I’ll expect you to be my date. I mean, I did save your life and everything.”

“Is this going to be a thing now? Like every time you want me to do something, you’re just going to remind me that you saved my life? Because the way I see it, I’ve saved your bacon a few times, too, so really, we’re even.” I lifted a finger. “Or actually, you owe me since I’ve saved your life more times than you’ve saved mine.”

He scrunched up his face. “Dammit. So, you won’t be my wedding date?”

“I didn’t say that.” I reached over and took his hand in mine. “I will be your wedding date because I want to, not because I’m obligated to.”

Wes’s grin stretched across his face. “Oh my God, my mom is going to be so excited I’m bringing a date. I never bring dates to these things because, well, they were never you.”

My heart fluttered inside my chest as he stared down at me, his love for me soothing away the last of the aches inside.

“Wait. Back up. You said Petro is finished? Did they catch him? What happened?”

“After they took you off to surgery, I went back to the hotel and got in touch with the Russians. They were very grateful for all the info I’d sent them and for letting them see and hear first-hand what Petro was up to. He was on the run, so the Russian government let me do my thing, and I hunted him down like I was Elmer Fudd and he was Bugs Bunny. But in this case, Elmer caught Bugs.”

Wes pulled out his phone and typed on it, then spun it around so I could see the screen. It was a video of Petro in cuffs being led by military guards into the base.

“They’ve got him?”

Wes’s broad smiled got bigger. “Yep. He’s toast. They have been ripping apart his entire cell for the past forty-eight hours. They’re arresting everyone in his organization, and there are no people left that are a threat to my family. We did it. We saved my family and stopped plans to nuke Eastern Russia. So, even though I made a bit of a whoopsie getting caught and kidnapped when I went poking around the Russian servers, it turns out it was a good thing. We saved a lot of lives.”

“Yeah. We did.” I smiled. “And managed to get out alive so we can save a lot more.”

“Yes, we will.” Wes kissed my hand again.

His phone rang, and he picked it up. “Hang on. It’s my mom. Again. Hey, Mom.” He covered the phone with his hand and mouthed, “She won’t stop calling.”

I chuckled and settled back against my pillow, listening to him assure his mother that he was perfectly fine, and he swore he would be home soon. It was nice hearing him be so sweet to his mom on the phone, and I wondered what my life would have turned out like if I’d had a mom like his growing up.

But I didn’t like to dwell on the pain in my past, so I reminded myself that all the heartache and all the pain I’d endured had brought me right to where I belonged.

It brought me to Wes.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN