21. -20-
Nina
Dorian scared the shit out of me. For three days, I sat in my room and watched him fight the overdose through the hospital cameras.
The doctors had no idea what I’d injected into him, and I couldn’t help because my dealer disappeared without telling me the name of the drug.
Day and night, the medical staff fought to stabilize him while I prayed he was strong enough to survive.
I ignored Dad, my aunt, and Sonny’s mother, claiming I was too sick to discuss the wedding.
Only Lucas entered my room, but other than hacking the cameras, there was nothing he could do.
We weren’t doctors or magicians. And when Dr. Smith told Dorian’s family that their only hope was to have faith, I almost lost my mind.
I crossed every possible line and nearly killed the man I considered my only hope.
My heart was overwhelmed by guilt. I knew the risks when I injected him with the drug, but I chose to ignore them because my own ass mattered more than his life.
However, confronted with the terrible reality of seeing him in cramps, held down by four nurses so he didn’t fall off the bed, I had to admit I deserved everything that Malin had in store for me.
But then, the morning came, and Dorian opened his eyes.
After three days near death, he somehow woke up full of smiles and sharp replies, joking as though nothing had happened.
His mother hovered while the doctor explained that he still needed more tests, but he looked reborn.
His cheeks were rosily pink, his plump lips were red instead of a terrifying purple, his hazel eyes gleamed with playfulness, and he made fun of Malin like it was his daily job.
Clutching my stuffed giraffe, I beamed at his last text message.
I knew it was a threat, but it didn’t stop me from imagining all kinds of inappropriate things.
However, I should be more concerned with the unsigned marriage certificate.
Lucas repeated, like a broken radio, that without signatures the paper was invalid, and now I could finally focus on it.
“What about kidnapping him again?” I mused, frowning at the screen. The camera showed Dorian in his room, talking to the young blond nurse. There was nothing wrong with him talking to another woman, but jealousy ignited in my chest and feasted on my common sense.
“He is guarded better than the president,” Lucas replied, typing on his laptop. His fingers moved quickly as if he was defusing a digital bomb. “Right now, we can only sit and observe.”
That wasn’t the response I hoped for. Still, what did I expect? He disappeared for twenty-four hours and returned drugged. I was lucky he replied to my messages without telling Malin about them.
Speaking of Malin…
“What about my phone?” I asked casually, ignoring the rapid increase of my heart rate. I risked my life by texting Dorian, but I couldn’t resist when he woke up. “Has Malin sniffed out something?”
“No.” Lucas shook his head. “I programmed the signal to keep changing identities. It’s a ghost borrowing new names. Malin might follow the trail, but he won’t catch you.”
“You’re very confident,” I said, switching between cameras because Dorian left his room. Throughout the day, he underwent so many examinations that the only thing missing was a finger up his ass.
“My skills are the only thing keeping a killer from you, Nina.” Lucas interrupted my admiration of Dorian’s face. “If I’m not confident about it, you’re screwed.”
“Okay, okay,” I mumbled, watching Dorian play with his phone. He scrolled through our conversation, a half-smile lifting one corner of his mouth, but he didn’t reply to my latest message. Instead, he slipped the phone into his grey sweatpants and continued down the hall.
“Zoom in on his face,” I whispered, ignoring Lucas’s exasperated eye roll. The camera flickered for a millisecond before sharpening, bringing Dorian’s impossibly gorgeous expression into perfect clarity.
My heart clenched painfully before going into overdrive. Three days of watching him slip in and out of consciousness turned me into a pathetic mess. And now, seeing him walk, breathe, and joke with his colleagues like nothing happened made my stomach flutter and ache all at once.
“I swear, I’m becoming a junkie,” I muttered, pressing the giraffe to my chest. “His scent is probably imprinted on my DNA by now.”
Lucas groaned, the sound reminding me of an animal in terrible pain.
“Yeah, that’s definitely what you should tell him next time.
” He cleared his throat, imitating me. “Hi, babe, I memorized every pore on your face while you were unconscious and I miss how you smell.” He shook his head, his expression almost disgusted.
“It’s super romantic, and also super homicidal. ”
I bit my lower lip, ignoring him. Under normal circumstances, his sarcasm would’ve earned him a pillow to the face, but Dorian consumed every thought I had.
My attention drifted back to the blurry corner of the screen where Dorian walked down the hall, running his hand through his tousled hair like he owned the damn universe.
The simple gesture sent a shiver through me.
My fingertips twitched with the desperate need to touch him, to smooth that same messy strand back into place.
My chest tightened with a longing so fierce it almost hurt.
I wanted him close. No, “wanted” wasn’t the right word.
I needed him, like he was oxygen in my lungs, like he was the only thing keeping my heart beating.
“Where is he going?” I leaned forward, almost climbing into the computer screen.
“His office,” Lucas answered, frowning at his computer. “He’s been sneaking there between the tests. Nurses complained, doctors complained, and his family threatened to tie him to the bed, but nothing helped. The man’s addicted to work.”
My eyes widened when Dorian disappeared behind the massive dark wooden door, and from my screen, too.
“There are no cameras in his office,” I mumbled, clicking on different videos.
“Obviously,” Lucas deadpanned, lifting a brow when I violently hit the keyboard. “Patient privacy. Doctor’s privacy. Also, rich psycho privacy,” he recited, moving the laptop from my reach as if he worried I wished to break it for lack of source material.
But my mind was preoccupied with something else, something dangerous, stupid, yet magnificent. Something that would feed the hunger inside me only his presence could satisfy.
“Lucas—” I started, but he instantly cut me off.
“No.” He firmly shook his head, moving misbehaving curls that fell to his eyes away from his forehead.
“You didn’t let me say anything yet,” I complained, pouting.
“You didn’t have to,” he pointed out matter-of-factly, finally looking at me. “I know that deranged gleam in your eyes very well. Every time you look at me like that, I lose five years of my life expectancy.”
“It’s not that dramatic.” I poked him with my foot playfully, casting him my best innocent smile. “Just hear me out.”
“No,” he refused, returning to typing, but I wouldn’t waste this idea for anything.
“What if,” I began slowly, tasting the insanity on my tongue. I moved closer to him, trying to catch his attention. “I go to the hospital?”
Lucas snapped his gaze to my face, staring at me like I suggested we juggle grenades while on fire, in a pool full of gasoline. I almost laughed at his flabbergasted expression. Well, it wasn’t my best idea ever, but he’d already kidnapped a mafia prince with me.
“Oh, fantastic,” he drawled sarcastically. “Because the first attempt to meet him ended so well.”
“I have to see him,” I whispered, ashamed of the desperation in my voice
Lucas’s expression softened for a second before he returned to his realistic self.
“Nina,” he exhaled, his tone suggesting he was about to lecture me. “You nearly died. Malin’s killers were centimeters from blowing your head off, and now you want to walk willingly into the hospital guarded by the same men who literally shot at you? Are you clinically insane?”
“Clinically, no.” I raised my chin. “Emotionally, absolutely.”
He groaned loudly, massaging his temples.
“Of course,” he mumbled. “Why not? Let’s just jump into the lion’s throat and tell him to chew slower.”
“Lucas.” I took his hand. “I miss him. His presence, his scent, even that stupid cocky smile. I know I barely spent a day with him, and I know the risk, but watching him through cameras isn’t enough.” I tightened my grip on his hand. “And I can’t do this without you.”
His jaw clenched, eyes narrowing at the edges. Every inch of his face screamed disapproval.
“Fine,” he muttered, defeated. “If you’re determined to commit suicide, at least let me choreograph the dance.”
My lips stretched into a smile.
“Does that mean you’ll help me?”
“I’ll help,” he sighed heavily, returning to his laptop. He typed something furiously, lines of code flashing across the screen.
“Best entrance?” I prompted, jumping from the bed because I couldn’t sit still.
“Normally? The roof,” he replied, grimacing. “But Malin stationed four men there. And six more in the hall outside Dorian’s room. So unless you’ve learned to turn invisible, that’s out.”
I frowned, chewing the skin on my thumb. My legs paced the length of my room mindlessly, but my mind was razor-focused.
“Invisible…” I repeated in a low voice, my brows almost connecting above my eyes.
“Oh God,” Lucas grunted. “Please tell me you’re not planning to pretend to be a ghost.”
“No.” I smiled wickedly, an idea striking me at the best possible moment. “Better. I’ll use the doors.”
“The…” Lucas almost choked with incredulity. “The front doors? Like walking in? Like a visitor?”
“Yes,” I confirmed, insane determination dripping from my tongue. “The darkest place is under the lamp. Not even Malin would expect his brother’s kidnapper to march through the front entrance.”
Lucas stared at me in horror. He surely thought I’d lost my mind, but it was an excellent plan.
“If I had a gun, I would shoot you just to stop this madness,” he said, but eventually, he still helped me. He always did.
Ileft Lucas at his hacker den with his equipment. He pulled up the hospital schematics and blinded every camera that might catch me. And because the mission’s success depended on his skill to override Malin’s security system, it was understandable that he wanted to use everything at his disposal.
My hands trembled as I carried a plain black bag through the hospital parking lot. Inside were my new mask, leather outfit, gloves, an untraceable gun, and a tiny camera for Dorian’s office. If I was already risking my life to see him, I might as well make future visits easier.
I inhaled deeply, hoping this wasn’t the last time my lungs tasted fresh air.
The hospital lobby welcomed me with sterile brightness and the soft humming of the air conditioning.
No one looked at me twice. I was just another visitor with a bag.
I hurried to the elevators, and one came as soon as I pushed the up button.
The door slid open, and Lucas murmured in my ear through the tiny earpiece.
“When the door opens, you’re free to go. Dorian’s office is on the opposite side.”
I hastily marched into the hall. My palms were sweaty; the blood rushing in my ears was deafening, but I focused only on the dark door.
“Walk slower.” Lucas’s voice made me flinch. Thankfully, no one was around to see me startle for no reason. “Nina,” he hissed. “You’re not fleeing a murder scene. Slow down!”
I rolled my eyes and followed his cues.
“Ready?” Lucas whispered when I placed my hand on the silver knob. “Keycard bypass in three… two… one… Go.”
The door clicked, and I slipped inside, immediately releasing a sharp breath. My chest eased, and relief flooded my bloodstream. I did the hard part. I was safe.
Glancing around, I walked into the office, a tiny smile appearing on my lips. The place smelled like him, reminding me of the short time we’d spent together, and it gave me another piece of the picture I’d been assembling in my imagination of the man I’d grown attached to.
Dorian’s office was a perfect contradiction, elegance wrapped in absolute, unapologetic chaos.
The dark walnut desk was sleek and expensive, but buried under a landslide of files, medical charts, half-finished reports, and pens scattered like fallen soldiers.
A white coat was tossed over a chair. Two towering bookshelves lined the wall, filled with medical textbooks beside stacks of printed articles he clearly reread a hundred times, the pages bent and marked with obsessive notes.
A faint scent of antiseptic mingled with cedar and something warm and unmistakably him, giving the room an oddly comforting aura.
It was a place built for a perfectionist with the soul of a hurricane.
Sharp, brilliant, and impossible to tame.
I sucked my lower lip into my mouth, the pang of guilt striking my heart unprepared. This was Dorian, his world, and I invaded it again. However, before I would let the wave of emotions drown me, I acted.
Hastily, I stripped and pulled on the leather outfit, wincing when it brushed the fading bruise on my ribs.
The almost-healed scab on my forehead disappeared beneath the edge of my new mask.
With Lucas’s guidance, I secured the camera high in a shadowed corner where it captured the entire office without drawing attention and set it up.
In the end, I attached the gun to my thigh and sank into the soft couch beside the thick book that looked like a Bible, but its name was Trauma. Underneath was another one, but I only read the words Top Knife, because Lucas’s voice crackled in my ear.
“Brace yourself, psycho bride. He’s out of the elevator.”
A shuddering breath escaped me as my pulse raced. Finally, I would see him again.
“Lock the door when he comes in. And don’t listen,” I ordered, a disgusted wail piercing my eardrums.
“I would never—” Lucas started, but I pulled out the earpiece and tucked it into my leather jacket.
Dorian’s footsteps approached across the polished floor, each one sending my heart higher into my throat.
Soon, I would have him alone in his office with nowhere to run.