AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I take the stairs two by two. The amount of people crowding the hallway restrict the passage. What the fuck are they doing here at two in the morning? I scan each person I push out of my way, assessing the danger, but they’re mostly elderly men and women wearing troubled expressions.
They catch on that I mean business after my shoving invites a hum of protest in the throng. The people step aside. They stare at me as I walk down the human tunnel. I only breathe again when I spot my guards at the end, three on each side of the door.
I’m about to push the handle down when the door swings inward and a woman wearing a white coat and a name tag that reads Dr. Casanova steps out.
“No visitors yet,” she says in a gentle but firm tone.
She’s young. Not from around here. That’s why she doesn’t know me. She has no idea who I am or what I’ll do to her if she doesn’t let me see my wife right this minute. When she closes the door, I utter a sound close to a growl.
“I’m her husband,” I say in a tone that’ll frighten the toughest of men.
“Mr. Russo.” She pauses and winces as if she doesn’t know how to say what needs to be said. Touching my arm, she continues. “Let’s talk in my office.”
She walks to a door at the end of the corridor. When I don’t follow, she turns. Her smile is friendly but professional. “The office is more private.”
I look at the faces around me that belong to people I don’t know. One of them seems vaguely familiar. When I catch his gaze, he looks away. The grocery store owner. That’s right. I remember flattening his nose on his counter for refusing my mother’s money. What the fuck is he doing here?
“Mr. Russo,” the doctor says, reminding me she’s waiting.
“I want to see my wife.”
“In a moment,” she says. “We need to talk first.”
Fuck that. Wild horses won’t drag me away from this door. I push it open and step inside, my heart beating with shallow, painful thuds in my chest.
Sabella lies under a cloud-blue blanket on the bed, her face as white as the pillow on which her head rests. Nasal cannulas are inserted in her nose. Monitors beep around her. The sight of her connected to those machines fucks with my head. She looks too vulnerable. Too fragile. I only saw her like this once when her brother paid the doctor to put her in an induced coma, but one look at her now is enough to tell me that this time, regaining consciousness isn’t a certainty. This time, she’s fighting for her life.
I go closer. My insides twist. Fear digs sharp claws into my chest. I thought I knew terror when I chased after the children’s kidnappers in the dangerous landscape of the mountains. That was nothing compared to the dread tearing me apart now.
The soft click of the door behind me makes me reach for the gun in my waistband under my jacket. I spin around, ready to blow off heads, and come face to face with the doctor. I loosen my grip on the gun, leaving it in my waistband where my jacket conceals it.
She crosses her arms. “I would’ve preferred to have this conversation somewhere private. She may not hear us on a conscious level, but I do believe on a deeper level, people in a coma are aware of what’s happening.”
I stare at Sabella’s pale features. Her skin looks as thin and white as rice paper. “She’s still in a coma?”
“I’m afraid so.”
“When will she wake up?”
“It’s hard to say.”
With much difficulty, I tear my gaze away from my wife.
“She suffered a severe concussion and an abdominal hemorrhage,” the doctor continues. “We had to administer a blood transfusion. The bleeding stopped, but we’re keeping an eye on it. Five ribs are broken. She has multiple bruises with shallow bleeding, but those should disappear on their own.”
“What happened to her?” I ask, shaking with fury and something else I can’t allow myself to examine now.
“I was hoping you could tell me.”
“I just got back from Bastia. I was away on business.”
“I see.” She watches me with a level-headed expression. “Judging by her injuries, she’s been brutally kicked and beaten. She’s lucky to be alive.”
Kicked and beaten.
Lucky to be alive.
My vision unravels. The doctor’s mouth forms words, but I don’t hear them through the blood gushing in my ears.
