Wicked Mafia Prince (A Dangerous Royals Romance, #2)(72)

“Will he make it?” she says, screaming around a corner.

“He better. He owes me,” I say.

He stares up at me. Anguish in his eyes. He wants to apologize again.

“Shhh,” I say. “They shot each other like we imagined. Can you believe it?”

Soon enough, his eyes start getting unfocused. He tries to help me press his chest.

“I have you,” I say.

I press his chest like it’s my own heart.

Because it is.





Chapter Twenty-Seven




Viktor


She’s there like an angel, holding my hand. Everything around her is bright and hazy. I think she is an angel.

I try to smile, but tubes going out of my mouth stop me. I lift my arms to take them out, but she has my wrists. “Be still, pryanichek.”

She calls out to Aleksio. He’s here?

I try to say her name, but my mouth feels like it’s stuffed with cotton.

“Shh. You’re going to be okay.”

I’m alive? How can it be?

But I am.

I’m alive, and she’s sitting at my bedside. She drizzles a bit of water into my mouth. I swallow it down. I search her beautiful face. She drizzles some more.

“You forgave me,” I whisper.

“Yes.”

I try to sit up, but the pain twists through me.

“Stop it. The doctor says you’ll have to stay in bed for two weeks straight, and already you’re trying to leave. Once we move you out of here, maybe I’ll chain you to the wall by your ankle. What do you think? A nice ankle cuff?”

“I should’ve let you go. You wanted so badly to go.”

“I did, yes,” she says.

“You need to go. The convent is your heart’s desire.”

“It’s okay.” She strokes a hand over my forehead. “The best parts I carry with me.”

She won’t go back?

“I want to go back,” she says, reading my face. “But I want to go back with you. To bring you, to show you. Maybe after we all find Kiro?”

After we all find Kiro.

I don’t know if the tightness in my chest is from the bullet ravaging me or from Tanechka forgiving me. Joining us.

She leans down to kiss my cheek. Figures loom behind her. I squint as Aleksio comes into view.

“The bullet just missed your heart.” He kneels at my side. “You scared us.”

Yuri’s there, arm in a sling. “They shot each other. You and Tanechka are officially insane.”

My laugh feels like it rips my chest open.

“Stop,” Tanechka say softly.

My awareness expands out, and my mind clicks back online. Armed men stand around the edges of the room. I remember the war. We’re in a hospital, but it’s not safe here. A doctor muscles through.

“Kiro,” I try to say.

“We’ll find him, don’t worry. We’re on it. The Dragusha brothers will be together. Even you can’t f*ck that up with your insane choreography. Have I ever told you f*cking Russians are way too f*cking dramatic?”

I try to reply.

“Don’t make him talk.” Tanechka takes out a tube of lip moisturizer and smooths it onto my lips.

I feel light. Like a weight off.

Suddenly I know things will turn out with these people I love at my side. I believe that we’ll find Kiro. I believe in our family.

I believe that someday Tanechka and I will go lie on the hillock in Donetsk and visit with her sisters there and her goats.

I have faith in her. I have faith our love.

Peace comes over me as I give myself up to her. She takes my hand and I close my eyes, awash in love.