Chapter 13 Vincenzo
Iwake up groggy and in pain. My arms are tied down, and I start to worry I’ve been kidnapped, for real this time.
My eyes finally manage to open all the way, and I realize I’m in a hospital room.
My left arm is in a padded sling that wraps around my waist to keep it immobile.
When I turn to look at my right hand, I realize I wasn’t able to move it because Harper is currently using it as a pillow to sleep on.
There’s a soft knock at the door before a nurse walks in. When she sees me awake, she smiles. “How are you feeling?”
I wince. “Sore.”
She nods. “The doctor will be in soon to talk to you, then we can get you some pain meds.” Her eyes fall to where Harper is still sleeping, and her smile softens.
“Your fiancée has been by your side the whole time. She waited right here for you to get out of surgery and refused to leave the room to even get something to eat this morning.”
I can’t help the spasm that goes through me at the word fiancée. “Yeah, she’s really great.”
The nurse nods. “I’ll let the doctor know that you’re awake.”
“Thanks,” I tell her.
The door closes behind her, and Harper startles awake.
She looks around like someone is going to attack us, and then her eyes fall on me.
She smiles so big I’m surprised it doesn’t hurt her face.
Then she’s kissing me. Her hands are buried in my hair, and she’s kissing me like I have the last bit of oxygen in my lungs in the entire atmosphere and she wants it.
When she pulls away, tears are falling down her cheeks.
“I’m so glad you’re okay. The doctor said you would be, but I couldn’t believe him until you woke up. ”
I grin. “It makes sense that you would be worried about me. You are my fiancée, after all.”
Her cheeks redden. “They said only family could visit. Also, I totally broke into your phone with your face to call Nic and let him know what was going on. He decided it was best not to tell Ava. He doesn’t want to worry her.”
“That’s a good call. Besides, I have my fiancée to take care of me. How about a sponge bath? That would make your future husband very happy.” I tease her.
She frowns, then flicks me in the forehead. I gape at her. “You shouldn’t be mean to people who have been shot.”
She shrugs and then looks down at her toes. “You only got shot because you were protecting me.”
I reach up with my good arm and cup her cheek. “And I would do it again. You’re my hostage. Mine to protect. Mine to cherish. Anyone who tries to get in the way of that has no chance of living very long.”
Tears flow down her cheeks once more, and I wipe them as best I can with just one functioning arm. Pulling her into me, I press a soft kiss to her lips. There’s another knock on the door, and then someone walks in. “Oh, I’m sorry to interrupt,” a male voice says.
Harper pulls away and sits down in her chair, giving me a look that tells me I better behave.
The man walks further into the room. “I’m Dr. Martin.
I’m glad you’re awake. The bullets went into the back of your left shoulder.
They managed to fracture your shoulder blade, but the gun was low caliber, so it didn’t do too much damage.
We’re going to keep you for another day for observation.
You’re going to need to keep the sling on for about six weeks for your shoulder to completely heal. ”
I nod. The shoulder thing sucks, but it’s not like it’s my first time being shot. Usually, I have a private doctor I go to for stuff like this, but Harper didn’t know any better. “Sounds good. I’ve got my fiancée to take care of me anyway.” I wink at Harper.
Her lips roll in, and she rolls her eyes before she looks to the doctor. “Is there anything we need to know for home care?”
“Not really. It’s more about just keeping the area dry and clean. I’ll give you some pamphlets about the signs of infection and how to care for wounds. Other than that, he just needs to take it slow for a bit and let that arm rest, so it heals right.”
Harper nods. “Thank you.”
“Of course, I’ll go ahead and send a prescription for pain meds down to the pharmacy. The nurse will be able to administer them shortly,” he says, giving us a nod.
I stop him. “Actually, we’re going to need some privacy for a bit. Please make sure we’re undisturbed for the next hour.”
The doctor doesn’t even hesitate. “Of course, sir.”
When he walks out, Harper gives me a glare. “You need pain meds.”
I pat my lap. “Not when I have you here to make me feel better.”
She frowns. “Don’t even try it. I don’t want you to hurt yourself.”
“That’s why you’re going to do the work for me. Now get up here and make me feel good.” I demand.
“We don’t even have a condom.” She counters.
“Where’s my wallet? There’s one in there.” I tell her.
She grumbles but gets up and rummages through a drawer. I watch, amused, while she flips through my wallet before pulling out the foil square. “Do you always keep condoms in your wallet?”
“You jealous?” I ask.
Her eyes narrow as she pulls a crinkly shirt off over her head. I groan as I realize she wasn’t wearing a bra under it. “Maybe a little,” she admits, shimmying out of her pants and underwear.
She helps me out of the similar pants I have on. Carefully, she climbs up and settles into my lap. “As my fiancée, you have all the right in the world to be jealous. Don’t worry, though, I only put that in my wallet when you said sex was on the table.”
She bites her lip. My eyes roll back when she gives my cock a few firm strokes before she opens the condom and slowly rolls it down my length. “You only get hospital sex because you literally took a bullet for me,” she says, notching the tip of my cock at her entrance.
Slowly, she lowers herself onto me. My right hand grips her hip before running up her back to knot in the hair at the base of her neck. I pull her in for a kiss. “Actually, I took two bullets for you,” I say against her lips.
Her hips roll, and I kiss her deeper. I pull away so I can watch her face as she fucks me. Gripping her hip, I push her down harder than she was intending to. “I thought I was doing all the work,” she gasps.
I grin. “Where’s the fun in that? It’s just a couple little holes, I’ll be fine.”
She slams down on me harder, her hand bracing herself on my right shoulder.
Her pussy feels so fucking good. I reach between us to circle her clit with my fingers.
A moan leaves her as I match the speed of my fingers to her thrusts.
Her pussy starts to flutter around my cock, so I put more pressure on her clit. “Fuck!” she gasps.
Her head falls on my right shoulder as she begins to shake, her pussy clamping down on me, taking me over the edge with her. As we’re both riding out our orgasms, the door bangs open. I try to move to cover Harper and protect her from whatever new threat has entered the room, but she holds me down.
“Seriously? You get shot and decide the best way to recover is to fuck in the hospital?” Nic asks in an unamused tone.
Harper relaxes when she realizes it’s just my brother.
She carefully gets off of me and starts pulling her clothes back on.
Nic watches her with hooded eyes. When he looks back at me, though, his eyes flame with fury.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing getting shot?
Harper could have gotten hurt. If I knew something was going on at home, I would have rescheduled my meeting.
” He puts a tote bag he’d been holding on the chair.
Harper froze and looked over her shoulder at him. Her bottom lip was clamped between her teeth. She obviously didn’t tell him that the bullets were meant for her.
“So, umm… Yeah, that gun was aimed at me. Vin got me out of the way, but then the idiot got shot instead.” She looks at me with a soft expression.
She takes the few steps over to my bedside and leans down to press a soft kiss to my lips.
“I’m going to go grab a coffee so you guys can talk.
If you ever get shot again, I’ll beat your ass. ”
I grin. “Mmm, sounds kinky.”
The glare she sends my direction is more murderous than anything else. She turns away from me and leaves the room without giving either of us a chance to say anything. Nic is standing there, confused. “She was the target? Why?”
I shake my head. “I know about as much as you do. It doesn’t make sense. I’m starting to wonder if that mugging last week was really a mugging. You might have been right about that being weird. The guy didn’t try to take any money from her, did he?”
Nic looks back at the door like it’s going to give him answers. “Not that I know of.”
The nurse comes back in. “Okay. I’m just going to check your wound site and vitals, then I’ll get you some pain medicine.”
Nic steps toward the door. “I’ll go grab Harper.”
The nurse takes the bandage off the back of my shoulder and re-bandages the wound. After a quick check of my vitals, she’s about to give me something for the pain. She’s got the needle poised at the port going into my arm when Nic barges into the room again. “She’s gone!”
I pull away from the nurse and look at Nic, suddenly feeling a pit of dread opening up inside of me. “What do you mean she’s gone?”
He looks at me, and I can see the same fear I feel reflected back at me. “Harper. She’s gone. Someone must have taken her.”
I start ripping things off of me. The nurse grabs my hand to stop me from yanking the IV out of my arm. “Just give me a sec, and I’ll take it out. We just put all that blood back in your body, there’s no reason for you to spill it again.”
She rushes to grab gauze pads and cohesive bandage to take the damn thing out. She does it so quickly that I barely even feel it while I’m barking orders at Nic. “We need to see the security tapes. I want someone in here now that can give us some answers.”
Nic nods but frowns and looks at the floor. “What if she wasn’t taken? What if she just left?”
A pang went through my chest at that thought, but I shake my head. “No. I won’t believe that until there’s proof. She sat next to my bed the entire time I was unconscious. If she wanted to leave, she would have done it then. I won’t believe that she left us.”
Nic’s confidence starts to come back as his shoulders straighten, and he gives me a firm nod.
He leaves the room just as the nurse has finished wrapping my elbow.
I get up from the bed and walk over to the bag that Nic brought.
“I’ll leave you to get dressed,” the nurse says as I pull out a pair of pants.
The door closes behind her, and I carefully put my underwear and jeans on with one arm.
I look at the shirt wondering how in the world I’m going to manage that.
I end up just pulling the long sleeve shirt on over my head and only putting one arm through the sleeves.
There’s not much else I can do. I’ve just given up on figuring out how to button my pants with one arm when Nic walks back in with a man wearing a security uniform.
He’s carrying a tablet. Nic sees the state I’m in and hurries over to help me.
Without me even having to ask, he buttons my pants, then grabs one of my shoes.
I feel like an invalid as I sit on the edge of the bed and let him put my shoes on for me.
The security guard stands in front of us.
“Okay, we have footage of the woman in question from the moment she left this room until she was taken from the hospital.” He holds the tablet out for me with a video cued, and I want to pause.
He said taken, not left. I didn’t want to see anything happen to Harper.
I force myself to look at the tablet and press play.
Harper fills her coffee and looks down the hall.
A large man wearing scrubs next to her slips something into her cup.
She puts some cream and sugar into it without even noticing.
Taking a step away from the coffee station, she sips at her coffee and closes her eyes like the caffeine is relieving.
After a few more drinks, she makes this confused expression.
The back of her hand goes to her forehead, and she wobbles on her feet.
The man who spiked her drink goes up to her and says something. Harper shakes her head.
The man rolls a wheelchair up behind her and coaxes her to sit down. Once she’s in the chair, she kind of just droops. Her head dips to the side, and her body goes lax. At least the video quality of the security cameras is good enough that I can see her chest is still rising and falling.
The scene cuts to the man rolling her down a long hallway and out a side door. Then it cuts again to show him loading her up into a van and getting into the passenger seat. The vehicle takes off slowly like they don’t have death breathing down their necks.
But they do. Because I will be their deaths, and I’m coming after them.