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With that, he stalked away, bringing me back to the safety of the room. I let out a shaky breath when he set me down, pulling my knees to my chest. It hurt, but I needed the comfort the position gave me, so I ignored it.
Viktor sighed, sitting in the chair next to me. “I am sorry. I asked them not to come, but they worry. You saved many people with your warning. I overheard them scheming in the video. They would have killed people before we dealt with them.”
I shook my head slowly. I didn’t know what to say to that.
His hand came into view, taking mine gently. “?????. I…” His jaw flexed and a pained look crossed his face. “I have many regrets from that night. Your involvement being the biggest. You must be very angry with me.”
My brow furrowed. How did he know that?
“Britney is right. You deserve the time to recover without the stress of a man’s company. The women mentioned taking turns staying with you for now.”
For some reason, that thought bothered me. It sounded like he was leaving and I didn’t want him to go. I wouldn’t force him to stay, though.
“If… If that’s what you want.”
He shook his head. “It is not about what I want. It is what you want that is important.”
I considered him. Everything I knew, every experience I had, said not to trust a man’s word. But my heart told me I was safe with Viktor. He held my hand with such care, his guarded expression not doing enough to hide the worry in his eyes. He was afraid he was upsetting me, so he was willing to walk away, even though I could tell he wanted to be close by to make sure I was okay. He put my needs first every time, since the moment I met him. It was hard not to trust someone that good.
“I… I don’t want you to leave…”
Yes, a part of me blamed him for what happened. But I blamed myself too, for not acting with more care. I could’ve made better decisions, starting with calling him and telling him instead of playing spy and sending a video. There were a lot of things in my life that I regretted, but meeting Viktor wasn’t one of them. He saved my life more than once now. I would be sad if he left.
ChapterTen
For the next few days,I recovered in that little apartment. It was slower than I would have liked, and I spent most of the time sleeping. The doctor finally told me about the damage, and it turned out I was really lucky. If those men had been any more vicious, I would’ve needed surgery. As it was, I had a few broken ribs and a concussion. He had concerns about internal bleeding, and it took some considerable work for them to convince me to go get scans. All under fake names and they didn’t make me stay, which helped. When he came back later that evening, he said I had some internal bleeding, but it was small enough that he believed it’d resolve itself on its own. All in all, I was lucky to be alive.
Luck aside, I started getting antsy to leave by the third day. I understood the need for caution, but staying in one place for too long was dangerous. Not to mention the amount of people going in and out of this little apartment, despite the fact that I was supposed to be resting. All of them knew my face by now, and I wasn’t sure if they knew I wanted to stay hidden or not.
I got the feeling that some of it was meant to be a distraction. I started asking to leave the same day they took out the IV. I could move on my own, albeit slower than I liked, and I could rest plenty on the streets. It’d be less comfortable, for sure, but it’d help with the anxiety a lot. I needed to keep moving if I wanted to stay out of reach. No matter how many times I asked, though, they kept putting me off with one reason or another, and someone would show up at my door not long later to distract me.
Gabi was the closest. Her apartment was next door to the one I was staying in. She was here the most often. Dmitriy didn’t like her going out while there was a potential threat, and she didn’t seem like the type to argue. She popped in randomly to check on me and never complained when I fell asleep while she was over.
It wasn’t just Gabi, though. The rest of the women who showed up that first day were there a lot. Britney had nursing classes that kept her busy, but she came over afterwards to check on me. Apparently, she lived in the same building, one floor below, with her husband, the massive Russian named Vlad. The rest came and went throughout the day. Mariana showed up in the morning and made breakfast, telling me about her most recent trip to Columbia. Elizabeth and Jo stopped by in the afternoon. Jo was bubbly and talkative, while Elizabeth was quiet, like me. Jo didn’t allow for awkwardness, though, and told me a lot about her annoyance with her husband for asking her to work with him in a bid to keep her at home.
“Don’t pretend like you don’t like it,” Elizabeth drawled. It took her a little while to start talking, but she seemed at ease with Jo, and smirked at her complaining.
Jo scowled. “I can enjoy being around him without wanting to spend the entire day at home. He asked me to work with him. I thought that meant I’d have actual things to do.”
Elizabeth pursed her lips. “Well, he said you’d be able to do more once the tower was constructed, right?”
Like Elizabeth, it took me a little while to work up the nerve to speak. But Jo never commented on my quietness or demanded I offer more than I was comfortable with.
“Tower?”
Jo waved a hand dismissively. “Yeah, yeah. The boys are expanding their… company… and they’re having a tower built downtown for headquarters so they can stop working from home so often. It takes months for those things to be built, so it still doesn’t help my current predicament. If I have to do one more project with my mother-in-law, I might shoot someone.”
Her outburst was surprising, but I didn’t feel like she meant it. I may not have had friends before, but friends vented. Right?
“I’m pretty sure you could use the pregnancy angle to get literally anything you want right now. Tell Liam to give you something to do,” Elizabeth replied.
My brows furrowed. “Y-You’re pregnant, too?”
Elizabeth snorted and a big grin crossed Jo’s face. “Yep. Gabi, me, and Mariana are all pregnant. Apparently, it’s contagious. Britney says she won’t drink the water at my house because she’s convinced that she’ll get pregnant too.”
I huffed out a laugh, and Elizabeth snickered. “Hey, I’m there all the time, and I’m not pregnant. Thankfully.”
I tipped my head, quietly asking, “You don’t want that?”
