Leon Barganella. I’d never forget the name. And it wasn’t because I wanted to get to know him or even have him in my life. It was the opposite. None of this would’ve ever happened had it not been for him and his plan to sell me off to the Bratva. The Branningtons wouldn’t have had to step in, and I would be back living my normal life.
Only parts of that life had been revealed to be lacking. At the time, I had nothing else to compare my love life to. Sure, my friends all seemed to fall in and out of love until they found their one. I thought I’d found it, too, only Drake was a fraud. An imposter posing as a devoted boyfriend when he was truly just scum.
And my sex life. Being intimate with Drake felt okay, but never had I imagined it could be as mind-numbing as it was with Zarren. Had I remained in that life, I would’ve never known what I was missing. Only now, I would be reminded of it repeatedly once I got to Russia because Zarren was never mine to have.
My parents, who’d doted on me from the time I was adopted, to my friends who’d been by my side and had my back, to acareer I had worked so hard to get into, were now gone. I’d never walk into Massachusetts General and smile politely at Jan and Ronnie, who manned the visitor’s desk, or talk to Allen, Keri, or Lenny, who worked on my floor delivering patients from their rooms to the various other departments. I’d never gossip about a binge-worthy television series, music, smutty romance books, or life in general with those at the nurse’s station. Not the janitors, the doctors, the technicians, anesthesiologists, or anyone else I’d befriended over the years.
“Mom... Dad...” I murmured aloud. “I miss you guys so much.”
There’d be no more family vacations on the Cape, parties at the yacht club, or leisurely days spent at their country club. There’d be no more mother and daughter pampering days at the spa, shopping, and at the salon. I’d never learn how to make her famous banana bread or be able to tie one of my father’s ties like I’d always done. My entire life as I’d known it was now over. Or was it gone?
Whatever it was, it’s slipped through my fingers like sand in an hourglass.
Squeezing my eyes shut, I refused to cry. Had this been the first or second day, I would’ve spent it crying as I’d once done. So much time had passed since then, and I was no longer the woman who’d slipped into the backseat of that SUV expecting to be whisked away to the airport for a romantic vacation. I’d been so unsuspecting, whereas now, I was way more intuitive and suspicious of everything. And everyone.
I had just sat back down on the chair in my room when I heard commotion coming from downstairs. “Zarren,” I whispered as I rose to my feet.
I slipped out of my room, and it was only when I looked over the railing that I saw Conor and Liam carrying an unconscious Zarren into the living room. Even from here, I could both seeand smell blood. In this time alone, I’d vowed to distance myself from him, but seeing him hurt like that was too much.
Before I even knew what I was doing, I was already halfway down the stairs. When I got to the bottom, I rushed over to them. Liam noticed me and immediately rose after laying Zarren on the sectional.
“You should go back upstairs, Miss,” he said to me.
I shook my head. “What’s wrong with him? What happened?”
Conor smiled warily at me. “It’s nothing a few hours of rest and a pain pill can’t fix. You should go upstairs.”
“No,” I told them matter-of-factly.
I pushed past the two large men and knelt down beside him. Immediately, my heart rose up in my throat, threatening to choke me. Zarren’s entire face was battered and bruised. His normally tanned skin was almost ashen in the few spots where it wasn’t a dark purplish-black color.
Those full lips of his that I’d bitten just two days before were now split open, but from another source. Blood smeared his cheek and chin, and one eye was completely swollen. I looked lower, and there was some bruising on his arms, but what caught my attention was the blood soaking through his dark T-shirt. I hadn’t noticed it at first because his shirt was so dark, but as I touched the large, damp spot, I pulled my hand away and sure enough, it was now wet and red.
“He’s bleeding,” I said to the other men. “We have to help him.”
“Zarren wouldn’t want you to see him like this. You should go upstairs.”
“I’ll do no such thing,” I said to them as I swatted away whoever tried to stop me from pulling his shirt up. When I did, there was a large gash, but it didn’t look like it had come from a knife. Maybe glass or something else. “It doesn’t look like he’llneed stitches this time, but I still need to clean this so it doesn’t become infected.”
“Miss, we can get?—”
Interrupting what I didn’t want to hear, I began to rattle off everything I’d need. “Bring me some gauze, rubbing alcohol, tape, and a damp cloth.” When they stared at me, I said more emphatically. “Now!”
Liam quickly moved away, and I heard him in the downstairs bathroom, hopefully gathering what I’d asked for. Conor pulled out his knife and sliced the shirt upward, and I helped him pull it off a still unconscious Zarren.
“What happened to him?” I asked the man.
“He wouldn’t appreciate our telling you, Miss. Please just let it be.”
“I can’t let it be.” Can’t you see that I love the asshole? “Was this my father’s doing again?”
If he got hurt or worse because of me again, I didn’t know what I would do. A part of me almost wanted to offer myself up to the man to spare Zarren, but I knew he’d never allow that. He did tell me that he wished I had let him die, so maybe he wouldn’t. The man was so Jekyll and Hyde that he constantly kept my head on a swivel.
“It wasn’t. Zarren likes to let steam off in the ring.”
“He was fighting?” I didn’t picture Zarren as a boxer, but he certainly has the physique for it.
“Street fighting, Miss,” he clarified, evidently sensing the confusion on my face.
