He wasn’t leaving my sight until I had the mother fucker who did this to him within my grasp.
Chapter Thirteen
Maksim
I’d never been so groggy in my life.
Slowly, I peeled my eyes open, thankful the room I was in was mostly dark. The doctor I remembered from earlier was sitting at his desk working by a lamp light as he typed something out on his computer. When I turned my head, I found Alfonzo sitting beside my bed, his chin resting on his chest. His arms were crossed, and he was sleeping peacefully. But I had a feeling the moment I made a single move, he’d wake up.
Alfonzo was a predator through and through. And a predator did not sleep deeply. Even when they were supposed to be resting, they werealwaysaware of what was happening around them.
And sure enough, when I adjusted my leg, his eyes snapped open and he looked up, immediately catching my gaze. His only show of surprise was aslighttwitch of his right eyebrow. Standing, he hovered over me, his hand coming to rest on the side of my head. When his thumb stroked over my buzzed hair, I moaned and sank into his hold.
“You’ve been asleep for a while,” he murmured, keeping his voice low. “You’ll probably feel like shit for a good bit, but you’re not going to die.”
My lips quirked. “Yay, I think.”
He grunted. “Don’t make jokes about your life, mouse. I was ready to destroy the whole fucking universe when you collapsed in my goddamn arms.” My chest tightened. He crouched so he was eye-level with me. “We need to talk about what the fuck happened to you. And I need every single detail you can remember, understand? No stone left unturned. Even the most insignificant detail. Because someone tried to take you from me, mouse, and I’m going to fucking butcher them for doing so when I get my hands on them.”
I shouldnothave gotten hard at his promise or the way he so casually spoke ofbutcheringsomeone fortrying to take me from him. It was the most caveman fucking thing I’d ever heard, yet I couldn’t get enough of it. I was obsessed with the toxic way Alfonzo wanted me. It was why I’d come to him in the first place. If I was safe anywhere, I was safe withhim. Which probably didn’t make much sense, considering he was supposed to kill me under orders from Rico Martinez, but if there was one thing I’d come to find out about Alfonzo, it was that he did nothing unless hewantedto.
If he hadn’t killed me yet, he had zero plans of it. Of that, I was one hundred percent certain.
“Let me check on him first,” the doctor said, walking up to my bed. Alfonzo grunted but stood straight once more, letting the doctor work. “I’m Dr. Allman, but you may call me Nicholas,” he introduced himself. “You are Maksim, yes?”
I nodded. He shone a light into my eyes, then began checking my vitals. The whole time, Alfonzo tracked every single move Nicholas made as if he was prepared to strike at a moment’s notice if Nicholas didanythingto harm me. It made me positively fucking giddy inside.
I was addicted to Alfonzo’s obsession. There was no other way to put it.
“Everything looks good, so I’ll go ahead and release you,” Nicholas told me. “The shot was a clean one—in one side and out the other. So, it was a simple fix to stop the bleeding and stitch your shoulder closed. No major arteries were hit. You were incredibly lucky. Just try not to use your arm too much for a few days, and I’ll check on you again in about a week to see where you’re at in your healing process.” He slid the IV needle out of my arm, then quickly applied a cotton ball and a Band-Aid to hold it in place. “Alfonzo has your pain meds already. You can take some in about four hours. Just focus on resting, got it?”
“Got it,” I murmured. Alfonzo helped me sit up, and I inched to the edge of the bed. After I slid off it, I took a moment to get my bearings. When Alfonzo’s palm landed on my lower back, he led me from the room. My steps were slow and sluggish, but he was patient.
The halls were empty as we made our way to a staircase. Using the banister, I forced myself to take one step at a time, already exhausted by the time I reached the top. “I’m not this weak, I swear,” I muttered, ashamed of how out of breath and tired I was. Alfonzo wasn’t going to keep me around if I was a liability.
“Shut up,” he rumbled, gently nudging me along. My heart dropped to my feet. He was already tired of me. “You lost a lot of blood, mouse, and you were shot. Not to mention, Nicholas keptyou doped up on morphine while you were sleeping. Even my big ass would be out of it right now and tired.”
“Being out of breath is normal with blood loss,” a man with bronze skin said as he slipped out of a room. He smiled at me and held out his hand. “Bento. I’m in charge of Anurak’s security, and I’m also Niran’s husband.”
“Niran is our head of security,” Alfonzo explained, though I already knew that. “You’ll meet him later when we sort out your security detail.”
Bento moved aside, nodding once at Alfonzo as we slipped by. “My security detail?” I asked, frowning. “I don’t need?—”
“You’re mine, so yes, you do.” He pushed open a door to the left and let me inside. The room was massive—almost as big as a studio apartment. A huge king-size bed sat against the wall in the middle of the room with a nightstand on either side and a TV mounted on the wall across from it. A black lamp rested on both nightstands. A long dresser sat along one wall, and a chest of drawers sat near the open closet. Another door was open to the left of the closet, revealing a dark bathroom.
“Let’s get a shower,” Alfonzo said as he shut the door behind him. “And then, we’ll talk about what the hell happened to you.”
Blowing out a soft breath and ignoring the pang in my chest at the knowledge my family had turned their backs on me, I nodded and headed for the bathroom.
I was more than likely losing the Bratva, but at least I had Alfonzo. I’d cope… somehow.
Chapter Fourteen
Maksim
Iwas still shirtless from Nicholas repairing my shoulder to the best of his abilities, so I at least didn’t have to deal with that issue of getting undressed. But as I tried to slip my sweats and briefs down my legs and toe out of my shoes, I kept getting twinges of pain in my shoulder when I bent or moved the wrong way.
Being shot was such a pain in the fucking ass.
