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“Bring your machines here,” I reply swiftly. “She’s not leaving this house anytime soon.”
“Luca,” he warns bravely, but I shake my head.
“I will buy you new machines if that’s what it takes.” I say, refusing to change my mind. “She isn’t leaving this house, and if you suggest she do so again, you’ll see what happens when I’m really fucking angry.”
While I know it would be quicker, Titan is still out there and his job unfinished. Assuming Olivia escaped, she’s safest remaining in this house and that’s where she’ll stay until I say otherwise.
My intense stare stays on Theo until I make sure my point has been made. Within the next minute, he’s already on his phone, speaking urgently to someone about a delivery. When he’s done, he looks back at me. “I’ll be forced to close my office until I can get these machines back there. You’ll owe me close to two-hundred grand in order to care for her here.”
“Done. Just make it happen.” I lightly squeeze her hand, wishing she’d open her eyes and tell me what the fuck happened and how she got to that train stop, but before I can say another word, my left leg buckles and I have to use the hospital bed to hold myself up.
Jaxon and Damon are right there to make sure I don’t fall, each of them grabbing one of my arms. “Come on, Luc,” Jaxon says. “Let him stitch you before you need a transfusion.”
I don’t fight them as they guide me toward the couch that’s going to be ruined by the time we’re done here tonight. Though, a mess in my apartment is the least of my worries at the moment.
Seeing Olivia’s perfect blue eyes is the only thing I allow myself to care about, even when the doctor jams a needle into my leg harsher than necessary—retaliation for my earlier threat, I’m sure.
He’ll fix me and Olivia, and then my hunt will resume. For every bruise Titan put on my Raven, I’ll put three on his, and for the broken bones, he’ll get bullets. Lots of fucking bullets.
8
OLIVIA
Waking up has never been so dreadful, as if I’m resurfacing from a dark abyss. It’s not the pain that greets me first, but rather an unsettling numbness. My body is dead weight, and even though I’m trying to open my eyes, they’re not listening to my command.
My mouth is dry, but my breathing is normal, which is the only positive thing I can find right now. I try to force my hand to move, but I’m pretty sure nothing happens.
Wherever I’m at, it’s quiet and warm. The surface beneath me is soft, but not like a bed. It’s more like a cushion, and I’m realizing now that I can’t even tell if I have any clothes on. That’s how numb I feel.
A darkness casts over the eyes that won’t open, and I feel the pressure of someone…or something touching my hand. “Why hasn’t she woken up again?”
It’s Luca. His voice is scratchy, and he sounds furious, which hurts my heart more than I expected. I want to tell him that I’m right here, that I can hear him, but the words remain trapped within my uncooperative body.
“I told you what would happen when I had to give her the sedative,” an unfamiliar male voice says. “I can give her something to reverse the effects, but if she panics again, she could cause herself further injury.”
Panicsagain? When the hell did I do so the first time, and why can’t I remember that?
“Do it,” Luca grumbles. “It’s been two days. I can’t wait any longer.”
Two days since when? Damn it, I have so many questions.
“Put a hand over her chest in case she tries to sit up,” the other voice says. “She needs to remain calm, or she could further injure her splintered rib.”
Splintered rib… Oh, hell.
I’m probably in a hospital, and that’s likely a doctor talking, but why? I try to remember what happened to me and why I could possibly have been unconscious for two days, but there’s nothing there. At least not at first.
As my mind races, the flicker of a memory emerges, like a fragile ember threatening to fade away. It’s painful. I’m crawling in grass, battered and bruised, and I’m terrified, but I don’t know why. There’s a woman, but she’s kind. It’s not her I’m afraid of. I need to think harder, further back to before I was hurt.
Sensations of frustration, almost rage, intensify within me, the inability to remember gnawing at my sanity. I want to scream, but my current state remains impervious to any command.
What the hell happened to me?
A glimmer of movement rouses my awareness, and I feel a twitch in my fingers. "Olivia?" Luca's voice, a blend of desperation and relief, reaches my ears. "Are you awake?"
“She might need a few minutes to get her bearings,” the other voice says. “Don’t push her.”
I don’t need to be able to see to know that Luca is glaring at whoever is with him, and the thought makes me grin. Oh, how I’ve missed that grumpy mafia king.
