“Ivan’s really hurt. He sacrificed himself to get me here. Don’t tell him I said this, but I think he needs to go to the hospital. He’s lost a ton of blood. I can’t lift him by myself. And I don’t know what happened to Andrei and Misha. They got separated from us. There was gunfire but that’s all I know.”
I felt Adrik’s lips on my temple. “They’re fine. Andrei was shot, but non-lethal. Viktor is right behind me.” Just as he said that, I heard the normal sound of the SUV pulling up the driveway. “We’ll get Ivan to the hospital. Andrei is already on the way there. Misha is okay. Are you hurt?”
“No, I’m okay. Ivan took the worst of it. And by that, I mean he took all of it.” I had a flash of when the truck hit us. I could clearly see Ivan turn his body toward me, using his body as a shield from the impact. He looked me in the eye as we came to rest against the parked car. I clearly remember the look on his face. It was like he was seeing something else. At first, he was confused, then he was in awe. “He used his body to shield me, Adrik. He sacrificed himself.”
I wasn’t even aware of the tears falling down my face until Adrik reached down and wiped them away. Viktor ran up the steps and helped Adrik lift Ivan off me. They carried him to the SUV. I got up quickly and climbed into the back with him, leaning him in my lap again. Adrik climbed in the front with Viktor, and we sped away from the house.
I talked quietly to Ivan the whole way to the hospital. I felt like I needed to warn him that we were taking him there. I didn’t think this was going to go well, but we didn’t have a choice.
We were met by Misha and Stephen when we pulled up to the hospital. “Where’s Bubba?” I asked as Misha opened the door to grab Ivan. He looked at me, a small smile on his face, “surgery, gazelle. He’s okay. They’re just getting the bullet out.”
They were met by nurses with a bed for Ivan just outside the doors to the emergency room. They loaded him onto the bed. I tried to go with him, but they wouldn’t let me into the room. I felt Adrik’s arms around me from behind, his face against mine. “We should get you checked out to make sure you’re okay too. You said you’re fine, but you have cuts of your own. Your head is bleeding, solnishko.”
“It is? Are you sure it’s my blood? Ivan was bleeding profusely.” He gently turned me so that I was facing him. A small smile on his face. He pushed a few curls out of my face.
“I’m sure it’s yours, solnishko. Will you let them look at you? Ivan and Andrei are in good hands. They’re tough. They’re going to be fine. I need to make sure you’re also fine. They already checked out Misha.” He pressed his lips gently to mine. He was so calm right now that it made me calm. I inhaled, closing my eyes. He pulled me closer to him, walking us toward another room where a nurse was waiting to check me over. She also had a pair of scrubs for me to change Into. My clothes were covered in Ivan’s blood. And maybe a little of mine. I did have a few cuts that I hadn’t even noticed. I got more stitches because I hadn’t had enough stitches at this point in my life. I had a deep cut on my hairline and one on my arm that both required stitching up. Otherwise, my other cuts were mostly from broken glass and would heal on their own.
We waited in the hallway for them to give us word on Andrei and Ivan. While we waited, they asked questions about what had happened, so I recapped what I could remember. I got to the part about shooting the guy in the face and stopped, not wanting to say it out loud as there wore people walking up and down the hallway. I knew the word for “sh oot” in Russian, so I said that and pointed to my face. Their eyes went wide. Adrik pulled me against him as I continued to tell them about Ivan waking up getting out of the vehicle and to the bike. Then about the chase on the freeway with the other three bikes, the first one that had shot, and what Ivan had done to give us a clear shot for the last two. Once I told them about me going left, him going ri I walked to Stephen. I high fived him once. “That’s from me for teaching me how to shoot. Ivan said he owes you one, as wel Stephen laughed quietly.
I then told them about making it to the house and Ivan falling by the front door. I looked to Misha. “What happened on your end? I heard gunfire almost immediately. I assumed it was you and Andrei, but we couldn’t see anything. The truck that hit u blocked the street.”
“We saw you guys get hit. Andrei stopped immediately, but there were guys waiting. They knew we had two vehicles and were trying to separate us. We got out to try to get to you guys, but they started firing immediately. We both took cover, slowly making our way toward you, but it wasn’t fast enough. We saw the guy you hit run toward you. Andrei made a run after him. and that’s when he got hit. They just hit his shoulder, but he was forced to take cover behind a parked car. Viktor and Stepher showed up soon after. They said they got the signal from your beacon, but you guys were already well on your way to the freeway by the time they got to us. They knew Ivan would take you to the house, which is when Adrik left the penthouse for t house.”
I remembered that he had showed up alone to the house. “That reminds me, how did you get to the house again?” I asked, looking at Adrik.
He smirked. “I know how to drive. I just choose not to most of the time.” He laughed at the face I made. “I have a sports car, solnishko. I rarely take it out anymore, but it came in handy today.” He wrapped his arms around me tighter, kissing my temple. I was happy for his warm body next to mine. The scrubs I was wearing were not-the warmest clothing choice for a cold hospital
“And did you four just ki Il everyone or did you leave unfinished business?” I asked Viktor, one eyebrow raised.
He laughed his deep belly laugh. “No unfinished business, sestrichka. Misha and Stephen got Andrei to the hospital, and I left for the house.”
“Good game, everyone. Seriously. I feel like teamwork really made the mo therfucking dream work this time,” I said, as they all laughed at me.
Sephie
A nurse finally came down the hallway toward us. We all looked at her expectantly. “The gunshot wound is out of surgery. He’s still coming out from under anesthesia, but you’ll be able to see him soon. The vehicle accident victim…” she paused, and I felt my heart drop. She cleared her throat. “He’s proving to be a difficult patient. We’ve given him three times the normal anesthesia and he keeps waking up and trying to leave the table. He’s got a terrible fracture in his arm that we’re trying to fix, along with repairing the soft tissue, but it’s proving to be next to impossible.”
“You have to let me in there. I can keep him calm.” I said, as urgently as I could.
She looked at me like I was crazy, but I think the look on my face told her that I was serious. “I don’t know what else we can try without killing him, so come on.” I followed her quickly to the surgery room. She hurriedly put a sterile gown over my scrubs. I walked in the room ahead of her. Everyone in the room was surprised and protested. I stopped, looking at all of them, showing my anger on full display. “If you don’t let me near him, he will wake up and ki Il you all. I can keep him calm so you can fix him. Your choice as to which option you want.”
They stepped back. I ran to Ivan’s side. They had tried to tie him to the bed, he was struggling, half-awake, half-asleep, but fighting with everything he had left. As soon as I put my hands on his chest, he stopped struggling. I leaned down to whisper in his ear. “Hi, Super Squishy. These fuc king mo rons wouldn’t let me come in with you, but they’ve learned their lesson. I’m not leaving you again. Promise. They need to work on your arm. It’s broken. You’ve lost a lot of blood. I’m going to be here the whole time. I won’t leave you.” His body relaxed and he leaned his head back. As he inhaled deeply, I looked at the doctors and nurses and nodded my head.
“You can do what you need to do. He won’t resist.”
They stood frozen for a moment, completely shocked at what they just witnessed. The nurse that had allowed me in there. snapped out of it first and brought me a chair to sit in, so I could stay by his head without being in the way. I nodded in appreciation as I sat down, never taking my hand off him.
The doctor got back to work on his arm. Ivan stayed still, his breathing steady. I kept my hand on his chest, my thumb rubbing back and forth gently. He raised his good arm, putting his hand on top of mine and everyone jumped back from the table. “He’s waking up again!”
I felt him squeeze my hand slightly. I looked at the doctor. “He’s been awake since I got in here. Your drugs don’t work on him. Get back to work before his patience runs out.” He squeezed one more time. It took them over an hour longer to fix his arm. The break was the easiest thing to fix. It was all the soft tissue damage that took the longest to repair. He cut a lot of veins, as well as his brachial artery, which is why he bled so much. They finally got everything repaired and all the bleeding stopped. Once they were done stitching him up, the nice nurse looked at me. “He can go to a recovery room now. You can go back out and walt for him to be transferred to the room with the gunshot victim.”
“You must be crazy to think I’m leaving him again. Do you hate your coworkers? Do you want them all to di e tonight, because that’s what’s gonna happen If you don’t keep me with him.”
She looked shocked but didn’t argue. “Come on, then. We’re going to the recovery room.”
He squeezed my hand harder this time. The mass amounts of drugs they gave him wearing off. I bent down closer to his ear, “told you I wasn’t going to leave you again. These people are nu ts anyway.” He took one short breath, in between a cough and a laugh. I flipped my hand over and laced my fingers through his, so I could squeeze his hand.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.