Page 106 of Warlord’s Empire

Radik didn’t move. He couldn’t.

Hands wrapped around his arms and pulled him from the car. Havel. Radik shook him off, rushing around the vehicle to the other side, yanking the door open.

He caught Saskia as she lolled backwards into his arms. He crouched on the pavement, holding her while Shaun pressed a towel between her legs.

She checked Saskia’s pulse. “It’s steady.”

“Why did she faint?” He demanded, panicked. “Why hasn’t she woken up?”

“I don’t know,” Shaun said in a calm tone. “There are any number of reasons. We won’t know until she’s checked.”

The wail of an ambulance cracked the silence around them and Radik turned to look as it made its way slowly up the driveway. Jozef’s people had finished moving bodies and cars before the ambulance arrived at the scene, as efficiently as if they practiced this sort of thing on a weekly basis.

Radik was forced to move again as the paramedics took over, Shaun rapidly explaining the situation to them. As she climbed out of the car, she said to Jozef, “I’m going with her.”

Jozef nodded, snapping his fingers at Halil who stepped forward. I want three vehicles on the ambulance and my people inside the hospital. Don’t take no for an answer if security tries to stop you from protecting her room. Use my name if you have to. Make sure there are people on my wife as well.

Saskia was quickly loaded into the ambulance by the paramedics, Shuan following them with the baby.

“I’m going!” Radik shouted, rushing to jump in after them.

A paramedic held out a hand. “You can’t come. You’ll have to meet us at the hospital.” He slammed the doors to the ambulance shut, cutting off Radik’s view.

“Saskia!” he bellowed, rushing forward.

“You’re too big, brother.” Ayaan tried to hold him back while Shola stood in his way, her hands on his chest. “You’ll be in their way.”

He wasn’t listening though. He shoved Shola into Ayaan, neutralizing both at once as they toppled to the pavement in a tangle of limbs. He took a handful of steps toward the ambulance before Havel stepped in front of him.

Instead of trying to reason with him, Havel drew back his fist and punched him.

Radik’s head snapped back, but he didn’t go down.

A haze of red blinded Radik to anything but the man standing between him and the departing ambulance. He jumped on Havel, knocking him to the ground, pummeling him.

The moment the ambulance was out of sight, several of Jozef’s security team peeled Radik away from Havel, who lay sprawled on the pavement, his lips bleeding, a dazed expression on his face.

Jozef pulled up next to Radik in a Bugatti. Opening the passenger door from the inside, he signed, Get in.

Radik folded his massive frame into the sports car. Jozef drove him to the hospital, the silence between them fraught with tension.

The moment they stepped through the hospital doors, Shaun rushed toward them, relief written on her face.

“Saskia and the baby are both fine,” she said, out of breath as she reached them. “Saskia’s blood pressure shot up from the stress of the delivery and then dropped immediately after the birth, which is why she fainted. She’s awake now.”

Radik fell to his knees before he knew his legs had buckled. It felt like he was being offered life again after having it ripped away for a few precious minutes. “I want… I need….”

Shaun’s compassionate gaze landed on him. “Of course, you’ll want to see them. Your daughter is being cleaned up and checked. She’s premature, but I don’t think she’ll need much more than a few days in the postnatal unit.”

Radik nodded, grateful that Shaun was giving him this information freely. She could have hated him for the things he’d done to Saskia, but she didn’t. Her compassion in such a moment, for a man such as him, was humbling.

Jozef helped him to his feet and to both of them, Radik said, “Thank you.”

“This way.” Shaun turned, leading them to an elevator bank.

Saskia was in a room on the third floor, the hall outside her door filled with several of Jozef’s security staff, milling around, trying to look like they belonged in the maternity ward of the hospital.

Shaun peeled away to speak to the head nurse on duty while Jozef stopped to talk to Halil. Radik pushed the door open, poking his head inside.