He put up a hand towards me, then immediately thought better of it and brought it back down. “Please, don’t say any more. I’ve already spoken with Miss Narzand’s brothers and they’ve given me strict instructionsnotto let anyone in. I feel bad, and you clearly care for her, so that’s the only reason I’ve given you the information I have. I can’t tell you anything else, and I can’t let you see her.” He immediately started to panic. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. Please.”
“It’s okay.” I sat back down in the chair, frustrated. “I won’t say anything to her brothers, so please if there’s an update, can you at least tell me?”
He nodded, his shoulders high with tension. “I can.”
“Thank you. I appreciate it.”
As quickly as he could move, the nurse turned and skittered back towards the door. The receptionist opened it long enough to let him through and then closed it again immediately. As angry as I was, there was nothing I could do, at least not if I didn’t want things to get worse. I had to just put all my faith in Avion that she would ask for me when she woke up. If she didn’t, then I would take that as a sign, and leave. I’d deal with her father some other way.
“Gio.”
The staff behind the reception desk all jumped a little as Milli came rushing into the waiting room. “Where’s Avion? Why aren’t you back with her?”
It immediately riled me up and I wanted to start yelling, but I abstained. “Avion’sfamilyhas been contacted, and they’ve provided the staff with instructions not to let anyone back. There’s one nurse who has been nice enough to tell me about her condition, but they won’t let me see her.” I looked directly into his eyes because I could see him puffing up. “I don’t want to cause any problems. They said if she wakes up and asks for me, that I can go back, so we just have to wait.”
I could see in the way Milli tensed that he didn’t like that any more than I did, but he nodded and sat down in a chair next to me. “How is she doing?”
“Touch-and-go,” I said, and I was surprised at the shaking in my voice. “They were able to remove the bullet in surgery, but it punctured an organ.”
“Fuck,” Milli hissed.
“They say that doctors are tending to her regularly and it’s up to her to push through it.”
Milli’s hands balled into fists. “I swear when I find out who did it, you’d better hope that I tell you rather than just killing them myself.”
“I appreciate that you developed a special relationship with Avion too, but if you kill the people who did this to her, I’ll kill you.” I clenched my own fists. “I want to drain the life from them myself. Nothing else will do.”
“Yes, boss,” Milli replied.
“What did you find out about who shot her?” I asked.
“As we expected, the shot came from far outside our security’s purview. There’s a tree in the distance with a large branch on the level of your window that looks like someone was sitting there. I asked my cop buddy to come and check the area and he found stippling, but no shell cases. It had to be a long-range gun, but so far there isn’t much to analyze, so I’m waiting to hear from your father and see if he picked up anything from squeezing the street.”
“All we really need is enough information for me to retaliate against the Narzand brothers. With me taking Avion back from their compound and her shooting Vincent, there’s not a doubt in my mind that they were behind it. Even if they didn’t do it personally, they hired someone to do it. They were probably trying to get me but just decided that if they caught Avion instead, they could just blame her death on me. I know that’s why they won’t let me go back to see her.”
“We’re the mob, not cops. If you feel so strongly that it’s them, let’s just kill them. It’s not like they’ll be missed,” Milli said.
“It’s more complicated now … because of Avion.”
“I think she’d miss them least of all.”
But I shook my head. “No, not that. She…” I looked over my shoulder to make sure no one was listening, then I leaned a little closer to Milli to make sure we weren’t overheard. “Avion asked me for help. She wants to take them down herself.”
Milli lifted an eyebrow. “She actually asked for that?”
“She overheard their plan to kill her and her father and pin it on me then have me killed in prison,” I explained. “She said this thing about her dad though that concerned me. Even though he’s done everything to her that he has, she didn’t want him to die. She’s … too good of a person. She doesn’t want her family dead.”
“So even if wedodiscover that it was the Narzand brothers you aren’t going to kill them?” Milli asked.
I looked at him and scoffed. “Have you lost your mind? You’ll need to replace the walls in the kill room for how badly I’m gonna stain them for this shit.” Milli nodded, taking solace in that response. “I just need there to be definitive proof forher. So that she understands that I had no choice. That they tried to kill me, but settled for killing her. She’ll get it when I tell her that I couldn’t just let that slide, especially when it comes to her.”
“Good. Glad to hear it.” Milli sat back in his chair and crossed his leg, his eyes drifting shut as he did it. “Then I’ll rest my eyes now while I wait to hear from Merrick. As soon as we connect. I’ll head right back out.”
I tapped him on his shoulder, grateful that he was always there when I needed him. “Thanks.”
The next couple of hours after that were radio silence. The hospital staff started to relax the longer we sat there without causing any more trouble, and I had to endure watching some people get the horrible news that their loved ones didn’t make it, and others get the news that they were stable and being moved up to recovery. I wasn’t sure which one created a more visceral reaction in me. If Avion didn’t make it, I was likely to turn New York upside down in search of vengeance. It hadn’t been that long since our relationship became more than a captive and captor, but though I’d finally come to realize my feelings were beyond just being a dom to Avion’s sub, I didn’t realize just how strong they truly were. The thought of losing her made me want to scream.
When did she becomethatimportant to me?
