Vengeance Aside (Wanted Men 0.5)(32)

“Did I just hear that? Or are both my ears damaged?”

Pulling Dale along—was she trying to rearrange the bones in his hand?—he moved to the side of the bed to kiss his father’s too-warm cheeks. “You heard correctly, Papa. How are you feeling?”

“Uncomfortable. Where is she? Move your big head.”

Appreciating the familiar tone, Lukas stepped aside so he could show off his prize. He looked at Dale, trying to see her as his father did at that moment.

Young. Exquisite. Nervous. His.

There was no way he could have described the satisfaction he gained from introducing his future wife to the head of their family.

Dale, who’d recovered from her introduction to Yuri, offered the Pakhan a smile that was warm but careful. Her dimple peeked in and out of view. “Hello, Mr. Zavrazin. Magdalena can be a mouthful, so please feel free to call me Dale. I’m sorry to be meeting you under such unpleasant circumstances.”

“Nonsense.” He took and held her hand between his. “You will call me Kostya, and believe me; this is a pleasure I have waited years for. She’s very beautiful, son,” he added in Russian.

“I know,” Lukas answered in the same.

“Does she know who we are?”

“Yes. She’s witnessed me at my worst, but she feels deeply enough to still be at my side.”

His father chuckled. “Lukas is bragging,” he said to Dale, reverting to English. But he was the one who sounded proud.

Dale glanced up, and for the second time, Lukas had the pleasure of seeing her blush. “I usually do, too, when I introduce him to my friends.”

“He is a good man. His mother and I couldn’t be prouder of our boys. Samuel said you work at the club, so you must know him and Farah.”

Fear closed in to ruin Lukas’s moment. His father had just spoken as if Lukas’s mother were still alive. Had he seen her again? In his dreams? Was she coming now because it was time for her husband to join her? Had Yuri missed something? Had a piece of the bullet broken off and lodged somewhere in his father’s brain?

Was he not out of the woods yet? Was there still a chance Lukas and Samuel might lose him?

“…been at Scorch almost a year,” Dale was saying as Lukas shoved aside his frantic thoughts.

“All that time?”

He saw hurt flash in his father’s eyes, and he swept in to fix it. “But I only discovered her recently. And, like you and Mama before us, one look was all it took.”

“I thought Samuel said you’d been putting off introducing her. When did you meet?”

“Not long ago,” Lukas hedged, and avoiding Dale’s eyes because of what he was about to do, he shared some incentive he hoped would be enough to ensure his father wouldn’t give up on life yet. “Dale moved into the house tonight, Papa. So when you come home, you can take your time getting to know each other.” He gave no indication he’d just received a sharp kick to his calf. “Yuri, how long do you think it will be before we can bring him home?”

“I can’t say, Lukas.” The surgeon was sitting at a desk in the corner.

“Days? Weeks?”

Yuri turned with a genuinely apologetic look. “I won’t say yet because I don’t want to get your hopes up for nothing. Give me a day or two and I’ll know better.”

Lukas understood. “I’m curious because,” he leaned closer to his father’s good ear and lowered his voice, “Dale and I have decided to start a family right away, and it would be nice if you could be home when it happens. That kind of announcement shouldn’t be made in a hospital.”

“But you still have some time, Kostya,” Dale cut in as she slipped her hand through Lukas’s arm and gave his bicep a pinch that was sure to leave a mark. “Lukas certainly isn’t trying to rush your recovery. Are you, Lukas?” Her fragile jaw was set, and he could see betrayal and disbelief in her eyes.

“No, of course, not, yagodka.” He held her chin and kissed her, and felt something more than surprise when she let him. “He knows that.”

“How would he know that from what you just said? If he’s still in the hospital when a little plus sign shows, it will still be shocking news, won’t it? Wildly shocking and life-altering. Won’t it, Lukas?”

He wished he could let her know why he’d shared his plans. But he couldn’t very well stand there and explain his selfish need to give his father a reason to come home. What if Lukas’s mother came to visit tonight and took her husband with her when she left again? He wanted to beg her not to, but, looking at Dale, how could he? Of course, Leane would want her Kostya with her, wherever she was. Lukas fully understood that now.

“Yes, Magdalena,” he said as softly as he could. “It will be shocking. But someday, you’ll look back on it as one of the highlights of your life. Trust me.”

She took hold of his hand and squeezed his fingers so hard his knuckles cracked. The look in her eyes? She was pissed, but…what was that? She looked away before he could identify the excited light, then hid completely by laying her head on his shoulder.

“Has he always been such a bully?” she asked his father.

“Absolutely.” He winced but tried to play it off by shifting as though finding a better position for his bandaged head. “His mother says he’s like me that way.”