Nineteen Hours. Forty-Five Minutes. Thirty-Six Seconds.
Running my hand over my face, I lean back in the chair I’m currently residing in. I haven’t slept or moved from this seat since I got here. I have Stavros sitting on my left and Ilias on my right. They refuse to go home even though I’ve told them time and time again to head out.
Finally I can’t take it anymore. I get up from my chair and I start to pace the waiting room. I still feel like I can’t breathe and I don’t know when I’ll be able to take another breath. I hear heels clicking along the worn out linoleum and when I look up, I see my mom coming towards me. She has tears in her eyes and I walk straight for her.
“My baby,” she whispers into my chest after I wrap my arms around her. I close my eyes to keep the tears from falling. I won’t show a weakness. I can’t show one. I still have a hit out for me and I have no fucking clue who wants me dead. I don’t even know if the shooting on the house was tied to the death warrant.
I hear booted feet coming towards us and I know it’s Stavros. He wraps his arms around both of us and mom starts to sob against my chest. Stavros puts his hand on the back of my neck and he squeezes, giving me the strength that I no longer have to get through this.
Mom releases me and turns in my arms to hug her oldest son. Closing my eyes, I try to stay positive, but it’s getting increasingly hard when I have no information on my wife and unborn child.
A throat clears behind us and when I turn around to see who it is, I see an older doctor standing there with a clipboard. He has blood on his scrubs and a grim expression on his face. “Are you the family of Ivelisse Levin?” His eyes scan over us and I step forward.
“She’s my wife.” My voice is hoarse and choked up.
“I have some good news and bad news,” he starts. I hold my breath as I wait to hear how she’s doing. When I first walked into the bedroom and I saw the blood on the ground, I didn’t think she’d survive, but Stavros found a pulse and he drove us to the hospital. On the way there, she was somewhat lucid but soon went unconscious.
A hand comes down on my shoulder and an arm wraps around my waist.
“The bullet entered the back of your wife’s head and came back out the front of her skull in a clear path. The bullet missed all of the vital parts of her brain, but we won’t be able to see the full extent of the damage until she wakes up. There is slight swelling so we had to remove a piece of her skull to relieve the pressure. She was hit with a bullet from a nine-millimeter gun so the damage wasn’t nearly as bad as other cases I’ve had,” he pauses and it feels like a lifetime before he continues.
“She may have permanent damage to her memory and will more than likely have to relearn all the basics like eating, talking, and walking.” Closing my eyes, I blow out the breath I was holding. She’s alive. That’s all that matters right now. We can deal with anything else that is thrown at us.
The hand on my shoulder tightens and I look at my brother. He’s got a pissed off expression on his face and I know that once we find out who did this shit, he’s not going to go about it nicely. Neither am I though. I’m going to burn this fucking town to the ground until I take out every single person involved.
“The baby incurred trauma when she fell against the dresser.” I feel my heart stop. “We are currently monitoring the baby, but we are unsure if the baby will make it through the next few days.” I feel my legs give out, but Stavros grabs me and keeps me upright. I feel like my whole fucking world is crumbling right in front of me and there isn’t a damn thing I can do to stop it.
“Can I see my wife?” I finally find the words. All eyes are on the doctor as we wait for an answer.
“She just got out of surgery so I’ll let only you in the room. We put her in a medically induced coma in order to help her body heal on its own. We won’t know how long she will be unconscious.” Closing my eyes, I nod my head. I can’t get any more words out.
“Let’s get you inside to see your wife,” Stavros says quietly in my ear. I nod my head, but don’t even feel like I’m walking as I follow the doctor, Stavros still holding a majority of my weight.
When we stop in front of an open door, I hear the sounds of the machines beeping. When my eyes meet the body on the bed, I suck in a breath. Last night was one of the best nights I have had ever and it will always be tainted by the shit that occurred not even a few hours after she gave me the news.
I release Stavros and slowly make my way towards the chair that is sitting by the bed. Dropping my ass into it, I stare at the side of her face. She’s pale, way too fucking pale. The white bandage wrapped around her forehead hides the damage that I’m sure is obvious. Grabbing her hand, I feel how cold it is. The last time her hand was in mine, she was warm. She had her head on my chest and her leg thrown over my hips.
A tear falls down my cheek and I bring my face to her hand and breathe in her scent. She smells like antiseptic instead of her flowery body wash. I put my hand to her stomach and I just lay there. I can’t move. I might lose the two best things I’ve ever had because of some war that I’m not even sure how it got started. They wanted me dead, not her.
The constant beeping and sounds of the ventilator helping her breath do nothing but make me angrier, this shouldn’t have happened. The fast heartbeat next to one of her monitors takes my attention from anything else. Our child. It’s not a steady rhythm and I wonder if that’s what they mean by the baby might not survive.
My phone rings and I don’t even bother to grab it. If I was at home last night instead of at Viktor’s this shit would have never happened. I would have protected her.
My phone rings for a second time and I finally pull it out of my pocket, never letting Ivelisse’s hand go. “Yeah?” I answer. My voice is off and I have no idea what I’m even doing right now. My mind is a mix of chaos, but the only thing that I can even think about is how this shit happened.
“Uncle Viktor is here,” Stavros states. “Mom just beat the fuck out of him. I had to pull her off of him. He said he has some information on the hit on you. I have a shitty feeling about this, brother.” His voice is low and I wonder if he’s trying not to give away anything to anyone standing by him.
“Okay,” I answer. I don’t even care at the moment. I know I should be trying to find these fuckers, but I can’t. Not when the only woman I’ve ever loved besides my mom is laying in a coma in a hospital bed after taking a bullet to the head.
“Ilias isn’t leaving. If you need anything he will be outside the door. I’ll find out what Viktor knows and let you know when I’ve got something.” I don’t even realize that he’s gone before I say anything to him.
A soft knock on the door brings my head up and towards the opening. My mom has tears streaming down her face and I motion for her to come over to the bed. “Мой ребенок. Мне так жаль / My child. I am so sorry.” Her voice catches and I wrap my arm around her.
“You didn’t do it, Mom, nothing for you to be sorry about,” I murmur. The beeping of the machines increase so I stop talking.
“No baby, you need to keep talking. They increase when she hears your voice.” She urges me to continue, but words fail me. I don’t know what to say to her. She’s unconscious. I should have been there. “Nikolai, just say something from your heart. She can hear you even if she’s unconscious.”
I look up at my mom like she’s crazy, but she urges me to talk. “Doll, I… I…” The words don’t come to me. My mom gives me a sad smile and motions for me to continue. “I love you. I’m so sorry I wasn’t there when you needed me, like I promised I would be.” I close my eyes and put my forehead against her hand. Tears leak from my eyes and there is nothing I can do to stop them. My emotions are getting the best of me and soon her monitors are beeping rapidly.
“I can’t lose either of you.” My voice trails off on the word ‘you.’ My mom’s hand rubs up and down my back as she tries to comfort me the way she did when we were kids.
Nothing helps. The only thing I want right now is unconscious, and pretty much fighting for her life still. I don’t know if she will wake up or how she will be if she does wake up. “Nikolai, she was responding to your voice. Never stop talking to her, sweet boy. She will come back to you, I just know it.” She presses a kiss to my forehead before she tells me that she should get back to kicking Uncle Viktor’s ass.
I crack a smile at that. I hope she rains down hell on him. We all know he deserves it.