18. Mia #2
We stay like this, him gently holding me while I cling to him, until the door opens and a nurse walks in.
Dario reluctantly lets me go so she can check my bandages and look me over.
She works quickly but there’s a gentleness to her touch, and when she speaks, her accent is thick, but her English is good.
“How are you feeling, Signora Alessi? Is the pain too bad?”
I look down at the huge diamond that’s still on my finger, knowing we’re going to have to end the charade soon. I’ll miss it, but judging by the look Dario is giving me, it won’t be long before I really am his wife.
“I’m okay,” I say, and then prove myself a liar when I try to move and hiss out a breath. Dario is immediately at my side, telling the nurse something in Italian.
“I’m sorry,” I tell her. “He’s overprotective.”
“I’m not,” he says while the nurse tries to hide her smile. “I’m the perfect amount of protectiveness. You shouldn’t be in pain if you don’t have to be.”
“I can give you a stronger painkiller,” the nurse says, “but it will make you drowsy.”
“No,” I say. “I’m tired of sleeping, and I want to be awake when my family gets here.” I look over at Dario. “How much longer do you think? ”
He looks at his watch, making me remember the feminized version he’d given me, and I make a mental note to ask him where it is because I really liked that thing.
“About another hour. They’re on their way to the house now. Sandro and Sasha are meeting them. My parents are going to watch Isabella and Enzo,” he says, explaining why they didn’t drive straight here. “Nat insisted on coming, and you know Dominic can’t refuse her anything.”
“I’m glad she’s here,” I say, wanting to see my sister and mom so badly it makes my throat start to constrict. I swallow hard, refusing to cry again.
Missing nothing, Dario squeezes my hand. “They’ll be here soon, streghetta mia .”
The nurse checks a few more things, and when she’s satisfied that everything looks okay, she leaves the room. As soon as she’s gone, I say, “It’s going to be harder for me to get in front of any weapons when I can barely move. Maybe you should stand behind my hospital bed when my dad gets here.”
I’d laugh at the look he gives me if I knew it wouldn’t hurt so bad to do it.
“Maybe I should always keep you in bed then, amore mio . It’s safer this way.”
“You wish,” I mutter, but he just grins and gives me a wink.
“I absolutely do. I love it when you’re naked and in bed, little viper.”
“I have a feeling it’s going to be a long time before I’m physically capable of doing all the things you’re thinking of right now.”
“You don’t need to do anything. All you need to do is rest and get better.”
“Sounds fun for you,” I say.
“It will be,” he says, and I have to hand it to him because I don’t hear even a drop of sarcasm in his voice.
He brushes back a strand of my hair, letting his fingers linger on my face as he traces a line along my jaw and down my neck.
“Don’t forget, amore , that your piercing should be fully healed by the time we leave this hospital.
You can lay in bed and rest, and I’ll be able to feast on that sweet pussy of yours like I’ve been dreaming about for weeks. ”
“You make a really good nurse, Dario.”
He grins before kissing me. “I have many talents, amore .”
“Ah, there’s my cocky man,” I say, making him laugh.
“I’m glad you’re no longer fighting me on that. It broke my heart when you kept trying to push me away.”
“You wore me down,” I tell him.
He grins and kisses me again. “I’ll take you any way I can get you, sweetheart.”
Staying close to my bed, he sits with me until we hear a commotion in the hall. Loud, fast Italian filters through the thin walls, but when I hear the angry Russian, I squeeze Dario’s hand and say, “Brace yourself. He is pissed.”
Before he can respond, the door opens and my family comes rushing in, followed closely by an angry nurse and Alessandro, who’s desperately trying to make up for the furious Russian who just told her to go fuck herself in the hall.
“Mia,” my mom sobs, wrapping her arms around me while my dad rests his hand on my head and kisses my forehead.
“I’m okay, Mom. I promise,” I try to say, but she’s crying too hard to hear me.
“Little witch.” My dad’s voice cracks on the words as he strokes my hair. “We were so scared. We got here as soon as we could.”
Dario’s stepped aside to give them access to me, but he stays close, and when Nat and Dominic walk in, the room really starts to feel small. Dominic starts talking to his cousins in Italian while Nat gets in on the family hug. Sasha stands at the end of my bed and squeezes my foot.
“I’m okay,” I say again, trying to make them feel better. I’ve missed them like crazy, though, and I know how close I came to never seeing my family again.
“You’re not okay,” my dad says. Keeping his hand on my head, he stands up and looks down at me, and I’m incredibly grateful the long- sleeved gown is hiding the cut on my forearm.
One of the nurses must’ve removed the stitches while I was out of it, but the red scar is impossible to miss.
“You were hurt, seriously hurt,” he says, and then he stops.
His entire body freezes when he notices the huge diamond I’m still wearing.
When he looks up, meeting Dario’s eyes, I see the rage on my dad’s face, and I quickly grab his hand to stop him from lunging across the bed and killing the man I love.
“Dad, it’s okay,” I start to say, but he ignores me, looking instead from Dario to Sandro and then finally to Dominic.
“What the fuck is going on?” He growls the words, and I’ve never seen him so angry before.
“We had to make everything look believable here,” Dominic says. “She was posing as Dario’s wife.”
“You failed to mention that very important detail when I trusted you with my daughter.” The words are harsh, the tone hard, and this is all going exactly like I’d feared it would. One look to my mom, and she’s reaching over to grab my dad’s hand.
“Honey, it’s okay. Mia’s going to be okay, and you know they didn’t mean for any of this to happen,” she says.
His face softens when he looks at my mom, but I can tell he’s still pissed. “But it did happen, malinkaya .”
“Only because I jumped in front of a guy with a knife.” Gesturing to my stomach, I say, “This was all me, Dad.”
“Why would you do that?” he asks.
I reach out for Dario, and he’s at my side and squeezing my hand in the next second. “Because I couldn’t just stand there and let Dario get stabbed.”
My dad is silent, and it’s eerier than if he were screaming. He scrubs a hand over his face and then rubs at his neck, trying and failing to get himself under control.
“Jesus Christ,” he finally says, still shaking his head in disbelief.
“Someone please tell me what the fuck is going on here, because it looks like someone forgot to tell Dario that this was supposed to be pretend. Dario,” he says, spitting the word out like it has a bad taste, “who has been teaching my daughter since she was barely seventeen!”
“I never touched her like that, Lev. Never,” Dario says.
My dad’s eyes go to where our hands are still joined. “But you are now.”
It’s not a question, so neither one of us says anything. The answer is already screaming itself into the too-cramped room.
“Okay, let’s just take a breath,” my mom says, trying her best to keep my dad calm. Usually it would work, but this is the second daughter he’s lost to the Alessi family, and the man can only take so much.
When Dario tries to help by saying, “I love her, Lev,” it ends up being the last piece my dad needs to completely lose it.
“You fucker,” he yells, coming around my hospital bed.
My mom’s hands immediately go to my shoulders, holding me in place because she knows me well enough to know I’m about to lunge out of the bed.
In all the chaos, it’s my brother who steps in front of Dario.
He’s an inch or two taller than both of them, and strong enough to be a deterrent.
My dad looks at him, shock written all over his face.
“What are you doing?”
“He’s family. You said we can’t hurt family,” Sasha tells him.
“He’s a part of Dominic’s family, not ours.”
Our dad still looks furious, but Sasha’s as calm as ever when he says, “He’s a part of our family now, and Mia loves him. You can’t hurt him, Dad.”
“I can’t believe you’re throwing the rules in my face,” our dad says.
Sasha shrugs. “If I have to follow them, it’s only fair you do, too. Plus, Dario and I already had a talk about this. I would’ve killed him if I’d needed to.”
“I thought he was family,” our dad says, and I can’t help but huff out a soft laugh at the sarcastic tone he’s using.
“That doesn’t matter if it involves one of my sisters,” he says, and my dad nods, because all he can do is give his approval on that one .
Nat shoots me a quick, relieved smile when our dad’s shoulders relax enough to make it clear he’s not going in for the kill anytime soon.
“I want to talk to my daughter,” he says, looking around at everyone. “Alone.”
Dominic and Sandro both pat my feet as they leave, Nat gives me another hug, and Sasha gives me a grin.
I remember what he’d whispered to me before I’d passed out earlier.
He’d welcomed me into the family and told me he’d take me to Benny’s when I was ready to get my Grim Reaper tattoo.
I know it’s not the official welcome, but if he thinks I’ve earned my way in, then I have.
“Are you okay?” Dario asks, leaning in close and kissing my cheek.
“I’ll be fine,” I tell him.
“I’ll be right outside, amore. ” He kisses me softly and then stands up. Ignoring the glare my dad is giving him, he says, “You have my word that I never touched her before she turned eighteen, Lev, not once. I would never do something like that, but I do love her, and I want to marry her.”