Chapter Forty-Two
In which Liria is really going to hold a grudge.
Liria…
"I can't believe you tortured Roan!"
"I've already explained why we took him," Alexsey says tiredly. I can hear his patience stretching thin and I don't care.
"Did you use a branding iron on him or something?"
His head shoots up and he stares at me. "What?"
"It's a reasonable question," I say harshly. "What else? Did you cut off a toe? I didn't see his feet, is a toe gone?"
Alexsey runs his hand through his blond hair, groaning. "For the love of Christ, Liria. No. I did not brand Roan. I did not cut off any of his toes." There's a pause. "I might've broken a rib or two, though," he admits.
"You are such an asshole!" I push away from him. We're standing in the master bedroom, which is pretty much the only space left in the loft that hadn’t been peppered with bullet holes, and where the furniture remains unbroken. Though miraculously, my piano was untouched in the battle.
Alexsey takes a slow, deep breath, putting his hands on his hips.
His shirt is still covered with blood and it better not be Roan's.
"I need to get you out of here. It isn't safe.
" He speaks calmly, evenly, like it's taking everything in him to still sound rational.
"When I get you to somewhere safer, you can scream at me all you like, all right? "
I chew my lip, still so angry, but knowing my emotions are wildly all over the place and it is possible that I might have a concussion from those flashbang grenades. "All right," I say crossly. "We'll wait."
Quickly packing an overnight bag, I try not to look at myself in the mirror.
I'm pretty sure half of my hair has been ripped out. When I lightly touch my scalp, my fingers come back bloody and it feels like someone took a couple of passes with a cheese grater. I find two Tylenol and swallow them down, though I’m not sure what they can do for nearly being scalped.
When I come out of the bathroom after grabbing our toothbrushes and toiletries, Alexsey has changed into a clean shirt and he's waiting for me with a smile.
"What are you smiling at?" I ask defensively.
He gives me his best shark's grin. "To be honest? I'm just happy to see you. It's been a fucked-up day but at the end of it, you're still standing here in front of me alive and…" His gaze sweeps over me. "Mostly intact. And I love you so much."
Damn him.
He opens his arms, and I move into them, squeezing mine around his waist as hard as I can. "That was the most disorienting, horrifying thing I could imagine," I admit. "I knew you would come, there was no question. I was just so scared that they would kill you."
"You should know better than that by now.
" He kisses me, and his mouth is so nice and warm.
His hand is steady against the side of my face, cradling it, and I kiss him again, feeling his tongue slide across my lips.
"If they haven't killed me by now, baby, it's not going to happen.
So now, we focus on rebuilding our life together in the way we want, and making space for these babies.
And then…" Again, with that shark's grin.
"Continuing to fight and fuck, though I prefer not at the same time. "
This makes me howl with laughter. I don't know why. I think I'm still giddy.
"Come on moya lyubov'." He puts his arm around me. "We're going home to Mother."
That just makes me laugh all over again.
If I'd been given a moment, I probably would've preferred some quiet, just Alexsey and me. In a giant family of overprotective Morozovs, that was probably an unlikely hope.
Roan waits for me at the door, reaching to take my overnight bag, even with those possibly broken ribs.
"Kenge e Vogel, Little Song," he murmurs, "I have taken worse beatings from the nuns at the orphanage when I was a child.
While I do enjoy your husband's existential suffering, you can forgive him.
What you have is rare and precious. And it is new. It is all right."
"I'm still going to hold it against him and bring it out in moments of weakness," I mutter.
"I know you will, dear," Roan says. "I find your ability to hold a grudge one of your most Albanian attributes."
Alexsey is giving last minute instructions to Tolya, who looks startlingly untouched by the battle, his dress shirt still white and his blazer unwrinkled. When my husband glances over at me, I give him a smile and watch his shoulders relax.
Ella is waiting for me at the door of their massive brownstone and she helps me inside, wrapping an arm around my shoulders.
"I'm going to be worried about your hearing until we can get a proper auditory test," she says. "But in the meantime, let me give you a brief checkup and then you can take a bath. A nice, hot bath with some lavender oil and some peace and quiet probably sounds pretty good right now, doesn't it?"
I melt into this amazing woman's embrace. "Oh yes," I say gratefully. "So much."
Alexsey insists on carrying me down the hall to her home office and settles me on the exam table. "Thank you, honey," I smile up at him, appreciating his kiss before he leaves Ella and me alone. "Ella, what about Danyl and Matvey? Are they okay? Did Matvey lose too much blood?"
"They're both fine," she assures me, checking my pulse.
"Matvey did need three pints of blood, but he's stable and I don't think there's any long-term damage from the bullet.
He's got a massive goose egg on the back of his head, though there's no sign of a concussion.
He was lucky. Danyl, on the other hand…" she frowns, shaking her head.
"They cracked him on the back of the head with a rifle to knock him out, and that man is so huge that he fell like a redwood.
He might've left a dent in your kitchen floor. I’m going to bring in a plastic surgeon in on a consult for his shattered cheekbone. "
"This is so wrong," I say sadly. "They didn't deserve to get hurt. They might have died for me."
"You're going to have to get over that," she says sternly. "Every single member of this Brava - including us - knows exactly what we're in for. We know what can happen. And we will always try to protect and look after each other, right?"
Sighing, I nod, letting her shine a light in my eyes, and then her practiced fingers go into my hair, feeling for lumps on my scalp and she frowns. "I'm afraid you're going to lose quite a bit of hair. There's a lot of damage on your scalp."
"Why do they always grab you by the hair?
Is there a villain's handbook or something?
" I'm trying to be stoic about it, but this is a woman who understands my pain.
She flinches sympathetically as a simple brush of her fingers pulls out a handful of loose strands.
The two of us have the longest, thickest hair in the family and I can tell she's a bit vain about hers.
As she should be, it's beautiful. An ebony color with elegant silver streaks.
Not boring gray. An elegant, shimmering silver.
"Do you have a lot of ringing in your ears?" she asks. "You might experience that for another twenty-four hours or so."
"It's not anywhere as bad as it was," I say. "I mean, I can understand everything you just said, so that's a step up."
Ella breaks into a grin. "I know Alexsey is standing outside this room, shifting from foot to foot and probably making very loud sighs of aggravation.
He will keep that up until I finally let you out of here.
" Her smile fades and she takes my hand.
"Is there anything else you want to tell me?
Do I need to conduct any other examinations? "
It takes me a second and then I shake my head fiercely, instantly regretting it because now my dizziness is worse. "No," I say, vehemently. "No, thank God. He didn't get that far."
She sighs in relief and nods. "Tomorrow, Dr. Okumura is going to be very adamant about you getting an ultrasound at the clinic, but for the rest of the day, why don't you just try to relax?"
As she predicted, Alexsey is indeed waiting outside the door for me and when he scoops me back up in his arms, I protest. "Wait, you jumped out of a window today! Your mother should be checking on you."
"I'm fine," he says, taking the steps two at a time which seems unnecessary for a man who was in a gunfight today.
"Would you tell me if you weren't fine?" I loop my arms around his neck.
"Probably not," he says, pushing a door open with his shoulder.
It's a huge suite, a bedroom with heavy, dark furniture and richly colored oriental rugs.
There's a separate sitting area with couches and chairs gathered around a fireplace.
He carries me through this and into the bathroom, which is a glorious, pristine white.
White marble floors, white tiles, white walls, and after a horror-filled day punctuated by blood and bullet holes, the sterility seems comforting.
Alexsey sits me on the counter and I watch him pull off his shirt, all his muscles on display, and the gold and black tiger tattoo sprawled across his back seems to move with them. He glances at me in the mirror and smiles slyly.
"Are you objectifying me, wife?"
"No!" I'm indignant. "Yes." I flinch in sympathy when I see a long, black bruise forming on his thigh and hip, but he shrugs it off.
"Nothing's broken." He shamelessly distracts me by pulling down his jeans and boxer briefs before leaning over the big clawfoot bathtub and turning on the faucets, holding his hand under the water to make sure it's right.
"You like it really hot, with those flowery oils.
" He looks around and finds a basket of bath products.
"Let's see… there's vanilla… pine-scented?
" He picks up the bath bomb and smells it, his nose wrinkling.