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Chapter Twenty-One
RHYS
"I have some news on Valentin you might like to know," Ion says, and I am all fucking ears. This has been the hardest few weeks of my life, knowing that my wife is miserable and that I helped cause that pain by taking her away from her home. But I had to do it. She would have gotten us all killed. And she won’t even let me touch her or talk to her, I have tried. But I am hoping this is the day we get our next assignment and some kind of permanency. Either we find out we can’t go back home and we have to relocate, or Valentin never knew it was us who sent Lana and the others, and we are free to go back.
Maybe then she can start to heal.
"Yes?" I ask casually as I sit across from him in his office. I have never had so many one on one dealings with the king before nor do I wish to again because it has meant I am in deep shit. He had agreed to keep this all from Mariana, telling her vaguely that there is a threat and leaving it at that until he had more information. It means a lot considering how much I have done to try and earn her respect back. This fuck up could lose me that at the drop of a hat. I am lucky Ion and I are on speaking terms because he’s the one that told me not to earn us any more enemies. Not like any of us could have seen this coming. How Glib grew the balls it get Valentin Volkolv involved, I have no idea.
"It turns out he is busy with his new wife."
"New wife?" What happened to the old one?”
"Rumor has it he has killed her. That has not been confirmed, but she has gone missing. He is also gunning for an MC and some member of it he has a vendetta with, I guess. He is making no move against you or any of us yet, though we are watching the situation with the MC as we have already been warned about this becoming an issue. But it has nothing to do with your operation in the Czech Republic. This Glib did not tell him who was in his territory getting women just that someone was. So, unless any of your men or Vera's talked, then I think you are safe to return home. But Rhys, don’t fuck this up. Lay low until this other gang is eradicated."
I nod, an excitement building. I can’t wait to tell Vera we can go back to the mansion. If anything will make her feel better, it’s that, and we can start doing what we do best again. And we will kill Glib. That, I know for sure.
"Mul?umesc," I thank him. "It will be handled right. Thank you for helping us with this."
Ion nods, his mind likely already ion the next order of business, as is mine.
I walk out of there with a new swagger to my step when my phone rings. It’s Fredrig, and that can't mean anything good. He is only to call me if he can’t handle Vera. "What is it?" I ask, climbing into my car.
"It's Vera. I don’t know what to make of it, but she has been locked in the bathroom for over an hour now. I have heard nothing from her, and she does not answer the door. What would you like me to do?"
My heart is beating out of my chest. I have never had such a gut feeling that came with so much foreboding before. I know something is wrong with my wife. "I am coming." That’s all I say before I hang up, revving the engine and peeling out much faster than is safe. I don’t care for my own safety right now, only that I make it home. I need to get to Vera, and I just feel like I have to be the one to bust down that door.
I don’t know how many laws I break on the way or how many stares I get as I run through the lobby and into an elevator the last minute headed up toward our floor. I don’t know what I will find, but I feel sick, acid rising up in my throat as I put the key in the door to our room. I don’t greet anyone, I don’t even wait for the door to shut completely. My foot is busting through the hinges on that damn bathroom door in seconds, and all I see is my Vera laying in a pile of blood.
"Net!" I cry, lifting her up into my arms. I can instantly see the blood has come from her wrists. "We take the freight elevator. Get us to the hospital now!" I scream, running with her, the men behind me. I don’t bother checking for a pulse or for breathing because I don’t want to know. I want to assume the best, that she can still be saved, because I can’t handle anything else after all we have been through together.
I worry over her, pleading with her in every language I know in the backseat, over and over for her to get the fuck through this, to wake up. I don’t understand what would bring the strongest person in the world to do this.
I knew she wasn’t happy here. I knew she was mad at me. And I knew she was sad about Lana. But I never for once thought it would come to this; her trying to self-destruct. I didn’t even know she had it in her.
When we get to the hospital, I instruct my men to drive around back where the ambulances park, and we hand every staff member we meet a wad of cash for privacy and silence.
She is whisked away, a special team taking her to a private area of the hospital to give her a transfusion, and I am left to agonizingly wait to see if my wife is going to be okay. But something tells me even if she lives, there is nothing okay about her right now.
My hands, my body, I can’t keep them still, and a weight sets heavy on me. She didn’t get her revenge, not when or how she wanted. I know she is a woman bent on getting what she wants. Her strength comes from the order she commands, and I took it away from her. And then I took all her power, and I caged her.
This is all my fault, and I know if she makes it out of this I can never deny her again, consequences be damned.
