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When Ilaria looks up, our gazes connect through the window. My handprints mar the otherwise spotless glass. My husband’s blood. So so much of it.
As Ilaria exits the room, heading in my direction, the panic I’ve been keeping under tight control swells. I take a step back and attempt to calm my heart rate as she opens the door of the observation lounge.
I hold my breath.
“He’ll live.”
My lungs expand as I inhale. The first real breath I’ve taken in the last four hours. Ilaria is saying something else—details of what was done during the surgery and the expectations for the recovery process—but I barely hear it as only two words are running on repeat through my brain.
He’ll live.
Chapter 23
I fucking hate hospitals.
The smell alone brings up the worst of my memories.
Glancing down at my side, my eyes fall on Sienna’s sleeping form. When I woke up, she was in the bed next to me, her face snuggled into my neck while she held my upper arm in a viselike grip. She didn’t even stir when the doctor came in earlier, rambling about my wounds. I cut the woman off the minute she started speaking and told her to return when my wife was awake. I don’t care if she’s Ajello’s mother, no one gets to wake up my Sienna.
I reach across and brush back the few tangled strands falling over Sienna’s face. I was a hundred percent sure I wasn’t going to make it, but the idea of leaving her was unacceptable. So I clung to life by sheer will alone. If she hadn’t been in that car with me, imploring me with her eyes to keep fighting, I probably would have been a goner before we arrived at the hospital.
The door to the room opens, and Adam steps inside. I press my finger to my lips, signaling for him to be quiet.
“Everyone pulled through,” he says, but since I can’t hear anything, he’s likely mouthing the words. “Relja has a nicked artery, but he’s going to be fine.”
I nod and switch my focus to the clear imprint of teeth on his forearm. “Did Bogdan’s men resort to biting when they ran out of bullets?” I whisper.
“Um, that was your wife.” He shifts his weight from one leg to another. “I tried to keep her back while the guys were loading you into the car.”
Raising an eyebrow, I glance down at the angelic face tucked into my side. Little hellion.
“Bogdan?” I ask.
“Dead. Sienna shot him in the eye. I swear, if I hadn’t seen it myself, I wouldn’t have believed it.”
Yes, my sparkling wife is capable of so much, we’ve just scratched the surface. I can’t wait to spend a lifetime getting to know each of her graces.
“Tara and Keva are outside. Can I tell them to come in?” he asks.
“Nope. Tell them I’m fine and to drop by in an hour or so.”
When Adam leaves the room, I look back at my sleeping wife. She’s starting to stir awake.
“I heard you started biting my men.” I lift my hand and stroke the line of her tiny nose. “Do I need to limit your playing time with my dogs, Sienna? They may be a bad influence on you.”
Her lips quiver, and she squeezes her eyes shut. When she opens them again, tears are brimming her dark-brown depths.
“Watch my mouth very closely, Drago,” she chokes out. “So you don’t miss anything.”
“All right.”
“I had to keep my hands pressed over your maimed chest so you wouldn’t bleed out. Can you imagine how it feels to watch the love of your life dying in front of your eyes? Monitoring your every breath, wondering if it’s going to be your last? If you weren’t connected to a damn machine tracking your heartbeat right now, I would punch you in the face,” she bites out while tears stream down her cheeks. “If you ever dare to pull this kind of shit again, I’m going to kill you.”
I smile and tilt her chin up to place a kiss on her lips. “I must say, when I imagined the moment you’ll finally confess that you love me, it didn’t include death threats.”
“It most certainly does.” Her fingers stroke my hair. “I love you. But you already knew that.”
I lean forward and nibble her lower lip. “Yes. I see you, my Sienna. I always have. Why was it so hard for you to say it?”
