The side of Gavriil’s mouth curls up ever so slightly before he strides out of the cage and locks the door without responding either way. He then grabs the IV pole-slash-coat hanger and shoves it into the bathroom, out of sight.
Good.
Dominik feels bad enough about everything without him worrying about me being on the brink of death.
I glance down at myself once I’m alone, frowning at the oversized men’s t-shirt with no panties underneath. Gavriil’s expensive scent lingers on the white fabric as it reaches all the way down to my thighs.
Anyone looking at me would think I chose this attire, that we did more than sleep together. That’s exactly what he wants Dominik to think.
I don’t bother asking for pants because that’ll just open the door for another deal so that the devil can get something else from me.
The bedroom door swings open, and my legs nearly give out at the sight of Dominik when one of the guards, Valentin, shoves him inside. Dark circles hang under his eyes, and chained handcuffs grasp his wrists. He looks awful, but he doesn’t shuffle inside like a hopeless prisoner.
“Alina,” he breathes out, a spark of light filling his stormy gray eyes as he gazes at me from across the room.
A lump swells in my throat as I watch Valentin grab his arm and jerk him toward the cage. The last time I was with Dominik, he was apologizing to me for pulling the trigger on Archer.
He says something in Russian but it’s the sound of his knees hitting the floor that echoes in my chest.
“Alina. God, I’ve missed you.”
The truth in his words make my eyes sting and burn, and my throat ache. I glance over at Gavriil, seeing a glint in his eyes. Like he’s waiting on…something.
“I’m so sorry,dikaya koshka. I didn’t want to kill Archer. I didn’t want to hurt you like that. I know you loved him, but…I had to protect you,” Dominik tells me, his voice strained.
“You can’t protect anyone,Bratishka,” Gavriil chides him.
Is this what this visit is about? Not to please me but to shame Dominik for his failures? I should’ve known Gavriil had an ulterior motive.
Healwaysdoes.
“Please stop starving yourself. Stop hurting yourself,” Dominik begs me as he reaches out to grab the bars in front of him, pain filling his face. “Please, Alina.”
I had the shooting built up in my mind, making Dominik out to be the villain. But I don’t see a monster in front of me right now. I see a man who felt like he didn’t have any other choice.
Dominik can’t bring Archer back. He can’t undo pulling the trigger.
If he could, he probably would because this is a man who loves me above everything else. A man who took a bullet to protect me.
It would’ve destroyed Dom if I had died last night. He’d never forgive himself.
The stone wall around my heart begins to crumble to dust. But the fracture is still sharp enough to cut me on the way down.
Forgiving him will be the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but I don’t like seeing him in pain.
I sink down to my knees in front of him on the other side of the bars, tears welling up in my eyes that I refuse to let fall. Not now. Not in front of Gavriil.
“Dom…” I whisper, the tightness in my throat cutting off the rest of my words.
How much I miss him. How lonely I’ve been without him. How I can’t stand the thought of him being locked up in a cell because of me and my bad decisions.
Dominik gives me a small smile, hope gleaming in his tired eyes. “I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere.”
I slip my arms through the bars and wrap them around his neck, pulling him as close to me as possible, needing his warmth to get me through all this.
As awful as it’s been in the cage, I have no idea what Dom and his men have been through in the prison.
I glance down to his ribs. “How is your wound? Has it healed?”
