I couldn’t deny that. She had been “fine” on her own, prior to knowing I existed. And I wouldn’t take back what I’d told her,that I hadn’t chosen her to treat me that night in the hospital. It wasn’t my action that had me waking up under her care.
But it was my decision to let myself be intrigued about her. To long for her. To desire her far past any link that labeled me as her patient and her as my doctor.
Groaning at the hint of a headache blossoming, I closed my eyes and rubbed my forehead.
There was no easy answer to any of this. And I couldn’t even count on one night of nothing to recharge and figure it out the next day.
Guards ran down the hall, prompting me to lift my head.
“Now what?” I growled as I watched Sergei hurry toward me with a couple of men.
“She’s gone.”
I didn’t have to ask who.
Pushing to stand, I sought my nephew’s face for more clues. “Gone? How? How the fuck is shegone?” I didn’t hear any alarms. If anyone dared to trespass, this entire building would’ve been locked down.
She left.That was the only other answer.
I gripped the front of the guard’s jacket, furious. “How the fuck did anyone let her go?”
“She lied,” he answered. “She said she was hurrying to get supplies for Anya.”
The urge to roar my frustration remained bottled up inside me. Red-hot anger consumed me, making my heart race again.
“Before I could check, she ran off. We gave chase but lost her,” the guard said.
“He raised the alarm, though, and I was in the control room to see where she ran,” Sergei said. “I ordered one of the men who are undercover near the hospital to look out for her.” He indicated for me to follow him, and I did.
“She went to the hospital?” I scowled. “But she didn’t need any fucking supplies.” I had all we needed here. Excepther.
“It was a lie,” Sergei said. “She looked spooked and just wanted to escape.”
“Of course. Of course, she did,” I growled, realizing that when she told me she should leave after I showed her how her apartment was broken into, she intended to actually do that. I had been giving her space, but I wouldn’t have bothered if I knew she’d made good on her claim to leave.
“She ran to the hospital, but she didn’t stay long,” Sergei said. “Our men kept after her, but they were too far back on the block to stop her from going to the cops.”
I stopped short, staring at him with alarm.
“They took her to the station and she hasn’t been seen since.” Sergei cleared his throat.
“They took her?”
“A couple of Popov associates seemed to have taken her in.” He shook his head, looking angrier by the minute. “I asked one of the spies to get in there, acting like a drunk bum. He got close enough to see that they’d forced her to treat a couple of Popovs they had in custody. Not in custody, but it was probably the bestthey could do to pull them in after a fight near the hospital, a scrimmage between a few Popov spies and Giovannis.”
“They made her help them?” I shouted, livid that they’d try to use her like that. I hadn’t used her. I gave her anything she needed and wanted, including myself.
Sergei nodded. “She was seen stitching them up while they taunted her and threatened to rape her.”
“Take me there. Now!”
He held his hands up, daring to challenge me. “We can head that way now, but I’ve already called for the lawyers to go get her out.”
“Get out of my way!” I’d be damned if Niko tried to use her. To take her from me. Subjecting her to those fucking assholes harassing her was too much of a crime to tolerate. Anything bad happening to her was unallowed.
“You can’t just go in there,” Sergei argued, walking faster to cut me off and lead me to a car waiting out front. “They own that fucking hellhole. They’ll pounce at the chance to bring you in.”
“Let them fucking try.” No one would stop me from keeping that innocent doctor safe, this woman I wanted to keep forever.
