Someone haddaredtoshootwhat belonged tome.
“Who?” I snarled, leveling my gaze with Maksim’s. “Whothe fuckshot you?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know,” he rasped, his voice thick with pain and his words a little slurred with blood loss. His head lolled, his eyes shutting. I stepped forward and gently tapped his cheek again, forcing his eyes open. “Hard to think.”
“I know, mouse,” I rasped, my heart in my fucking throat. “Just stay awake, okay?” I looked at Nicholas. “He’s lost a lot of blood—clearly. Find out his blood type so we can get a transfusion going.”
Nicholas sighed. “I know you’re worried, Alfonzo, but let me do what I do best, okay? He won’t die on this table. I promise.”
Rico pointed his finger at me. “My office. Now. Your… boy is in good hands, Alfonzo, and you fucking know it. But you and I need to fucking talk.”
I clenched my jaw, looking at Maksim once more. He forced a small smile to his face. “Go,” he whispered, his voice weak. “I won’t die. I swear.”
I blew out a harsh breath, then nodded, leaning down to mold my lips to his in a hot kiss that was still gentle—for him.Justfor him because clearly, he’d been through fucking enough.
“I’ll be back,” I promised.
He nodded. “I’ll be here.”
He better fucking be. And the glare I threw Nicholas’s way made my threat clear. The man swallowed thickly and nodded once. “I’ll take good care of him.”
Gritting my teeth, I forced myself to turn and leave the infirmary, heading up the hall to Rico’s office.
Chapter Twelve
Alfonzo
Rico didn’t break his stride until he was standing behind his desk. Turning to face me, he crossed his arms over his chest, narrowing his eyes at me. “If you were anyone else bringing the enemy inmyfucking house nearmy fucking boy, you’d be dead,” he growled.
I knew that. But even if he hadn’t given me the benefit of the doubt, I knew if he’d tried to stop me from getting Maksim medical attention, I probably would have put a bullet in Rico’s head. When it came to my boy, there was no limit to the lengths I would go to protect him and take care of him. I was feral for him. Fucking obsessed. And just as Rico would burn this fucking world to the ground to make his husband happy, I’d obliterate the goddamn universe for Maksim.
“He’smine,” I snapped at him. “And if you so much as look at him wrong, Rico…”
Rico held up his hand. I clenched my jaw, keeping myself from saying anything else. With a sigh, he gestured to one of thechairs near me, and I took a seat, watching as he did the same behind his desk. Steepling his fingers together on his desktop, he regarded me for a moment in that eerie way he did when he was trying to decide someone’s fate, then leaned back in his chair. “I need you tell me everything you know if you want this family to help protect him.”
“Right now, I only know what you know,” I admitted. “He was hired to take me out. I was given the job of taking him out. I toyed with him like I always do, and somewhere along the line, killing him became a no-go. A hard boundary.” Rico nodded once. “We fucked last night, and now, he’s here and goddamn bleeding out on Nicholas’s table.”
Rico scratched his jaw. “When he’s stable and has rested a bit, I need you to find out everything he knows, got it? It’s the only way we can get to the bottom of this. In the meantime, keep him indoors. I’ll talk to Niran about upping security around the place until this shit is settled.”
I pushed up from my chair, eager to get back to Maksim. I needed to be there. To watch over him and track every single thing Nicholas did to him. Maksim had lost a lot of blood and was too weak to defend himself. He needed me there to be his protector so he could properly rest and heal.
I’d never let another soul touch him again. And when I found who did this to him, I was going to slaughter them to fucking pieces.
Seeing Maksim damn near on the verge of passing out with blood staining his skin, coming tomefor help becauseclearlyhe couldn’t trust his own family—the Bratva—had me seeing red. I’d never felt anything this viscerally in my life. I was laid back and took things in stride. Hardly anything affected me. Butseeing the man I’d claimed as mine in desperate need of my help, damn near about to fucking die if he lost any more blood, had me ready to rip the goddamn world apart.
Someonewas going to fucking pay for nearly taking him from me, and I wouldn’t properly rest until my hands were coated in their blood.
When I made it back to the infirmary, Maksim was asleep. Nicholas was already stitching him up. An IV needle had been inserted into the inner elbow of Maksim’s left arm, and he’d been covered up with a blanket, apart from where Nichoas was working.
“That was fast,” I grumbled.
Nicholas nodded. “I can work quickly when I have space to do so and no one is bothering me. It was a clean shot. Went through the other side, so no bullet fragments. He’s going to be out of commission for quite a while though. You’re looking at physical therapy for quite a few months too, but I’ll let you know when that should start. He’s got a long road of mending ahead of him before he’s ready for physical therapy.”
I strode around the gurney to Maksim’s other side. Cupping his cheek, I stroked my thumb over his soft skin. His stubble had grown in more than last night, which meant he hadn’t even had time to get ready for the day before he’d been shot. I had a thousand and one fucking questions, but no way to get answers for them until he was conscious.
“I want to keep him down here for the rest of the day for observation,” Nichoas told me as he finished stitching Maksim up. I grunted, not liking that, but knowing I’d put up with it anyway for Maksim’s sake. If Nichoas thought he shouldn’t bemoved yet, then I trusted his judgment. He hadn’t been hired by Rico for his incompetence. “He’ll be asleep most of the day anyway. I have him on a morphine drip for the pain, which I’ll take him off tonight and put him on a pain pill instead. That’s when you’ll be able to take him.”
I nodded once, then grabbed one of the chairs along the wall and dragged it closer. If Maksim was going to be in the infirmary all day, then so was I.
