Chapter 33 #3
As Sloane inspected the wound, Lena said, “Tara is bringing the car to the front. Naomi is bringing all the women downstairs. We can’t take all these women with us.
We have no idea where they came from. I’ve called in an anonymous tip to the cops.
They should be here in ten minutes. So we need to hurry the fuck up. ”
Dominic tried to move again, and I growled at him. “Do. Not. Fucking. Move.”
His words were slurred. “Hurry. Get out. Here. Now.”
The moment Sloane finished tightening the cloth around his wound, I clutched Dominic’s arms and hauled him out of the chair. “Hold on, baby. Don’t move.” I bent lower and pulled him over my shoulder in a fireman’s carry, making him groan.
“Stay still. ”
“Too heavy.”
I slapped his ass. “You’re not.”
I clutched him tight to me and walked to the front. Naomi rushed down the stairs with all the ladies and asked them to stay near the front entrance. I ignored all of them and let the others handle the logistics of getting the women to safety. I stepped outside the front entrance.
Right then, our large van came screeching down the main gate of the warehouse and stopped right in front of me. Tara jumped out and opened the back door, and with a quick move, I had Dominic lying on the back seat of the van. I turned to her and barked, “The hospital.”
Sloane and Lena jumped in beside me, while Tara took the driver’s seat and started to drive like a madwoman.
Good. Otherwise, I’d have to scream my lungs out at her to hurry the fuck up.
I was still tempted, but Lena kept me focused on other things than the thought of losing Dominic to a fucking bullet wound.
I kept my eyes on Dominic while I heard Lena say, “Naomi is going to stay here hidden and make sure the cops get all the girls out safely. I’m sure once they find the big bust of the operation and fifty dead men, there will be an investigation.”
I ran my hands through Dom’s hair, soothing him as he groaned in pain. My eyes blurred with tears as the guilt of not protecting him sooner tried to pull me down. “We’re on our way to the hospital.”
He clutched my other hand. “It’s okay. I’m…I’m right here.”
I didn’t look anywhere else as I heard Sloane asking Lena, “You think anything could get back at us?”
“I’m sure there were some cameras there that the cops might find. Since we were all in our gear and our masks, we should be fine. They might get a hint that the killers are all women. They might find Dominic. And he might be called in for questioning.”
“Let’s just hope they don’t find any cameras.”
Tara must have been listening to the conversation because her voice crackled in my earpiece. “No cameras. I stole the tapes from their IT room. And shot through all their systems. The cops wouldn’t have the authority to go check the servers of the Russian mob, so we should be good.”
Lena called Naomi on our device and asked her to conduct one final sweep of the warehouse and dispose of all the evidence.
When we screeched to a stop, Sloane opened the back door, and we jumped outside. By the time I moved Dominic forward in the seat, Sloane rushed to me with a stretcher and four nurses.
From there, it was a mad dash into the reception and a few violent demands from my end to get Dominic into the operating room.
It was when the four of us got seated in the waiting area that I finally dissolved into tears.
Three sets of arms wrapped around me as I cried for the man I almost lost. “This is what I was afraid of. To love someone so much and then lose them.”
Lena cooed in my ear. “He’s going to be just fine, Sami. You know it was a flesh wound.”
I sniffled as my voice wobbled. “What if it’s more the next time?”
“Then we protect him again. We get him bodyguards.”
I nodded. “That’s a given. If something happens to him, I’d never be able to forgive myself.”
Tara ran her fingers down my back. “We won’t let anything happen to him. He’s part of our team now.”
After about ten more minutes of losing myself to tears, I wiped my eyes. “I need to call Dominic’s family.”
Tara hummed. “They might get us out of this crowded waiting room and bring us all to some good VIP section. People are staring at us.”
We were still in our gear, and my fingers were coated in dried blood. “I should probably wash my hands,” I muttered.
Sloane snorted. “You need a shower. You are covered in blood. You reek of it.”
“Fuck you. Your hair is covered in dried blood.”
She shrieked as Tara handed me my phone.
I dialed the call to Sophie, someone I knew would be able to handle the news. Sophie took the news fairly well and said they’d be here within an hour.
By the time I came out of the bathroom, one of the nurses called us and took us to the top floor of the building.
She was extremely apologetic as she said, “Ma’am, you should’ve told us the man was the Dominic Park and you were his fiancée.
We would’ve immediately moved you and your friends to the VIP rooms.”
My jaw dropped open at that. But why did my heart give a happy little bounce at being called Dominic’s fiancée? It certainly had a nice ring to it. Dom’s family must’ve lied to the hospital to get us access.
Tara waggled her eyebrows at me while I turned to the nurse, trying not to dissolve into panic. “How’s Dominic?”
She gave me a sympathetic smile that I instantly hated. “He’s still in surgery, ma’am. The doctors will come speak with you as soon as they’re done.”
Lena cleared her throat as the nurse led us to a massive room with an empty bed and an attached bathroom. “Could we get some change of clothes?”
The nurse moved her eyes over all of us, wide with worry. “Um…sure. Do any of you need a doctor?”
Lena gave her a confident smile. “No need for a doctor. Also, if you keep this…” She gestured to all of our blood-soaked clothes and continued, “To yourself, we’d really appreciate it. ”
The nurse quickly nodded. “Of…of course, ma’am.”
“That’s wonderful. Thank you.”
By the time we were all freshly showered and changed into scrubs, my patience had run extremely thin.
Sloane was handing me a cup of coffee from the coffee machine in the corner of the room when the door slammed open.
Dominic’s mother rushed into the room, her eyes moving over us.
As soon as she found me, she rushed to me and pulled me into a hug.
Her soft arms squeezing tight around me had me in tears.
The guilt of her son landing in the hospital had me shaking. “I’m sorry I couldn’t protect Dominic.”
She pulled out of the hug and looked me in the eyes, her gaze stern. “None of that, Samaira. You saved my boy. Again.”
“I should’ve checked in sooner. Or maybe kept being his bodyguard for another week. I would’ve been able to prevent his kidnapping if only I were there.”
She held my cheek and gave me a stern motherly look. “It wasn’t your fault. None of it has been your fault. Let’s not take the blame for criminals, honey. We’re above that.”
My lips wobbled as I nodded at her, her words soothing a deep ache inside my chest that had been festering and festering. I wiped my eyes, and she handed me a bottle of water.
I’d just cracked open the cap when the door to our room opened, and a doctor walked in. Instantly, every person in the room forgot all that they were doing and rushed to the doctor, with me at the front.
Before I could even grab the doctor by the collar of his lab coat and shake some answers out of him, he raised his hands as if trying to calm a rabid animal.
“Mr. Park is out of danger. We’ve removed the bullet from his leg.
It will take some physical therapy for him to regain the strength in that leg, but he will be just fine.
We’ll be bringing him to the room in just a few minutes. ”
My legs gave out in relief. I forgot all about the water in my hands and accidentally spilled it on myself when I squeezed it too tightly. My chest heaved as air finally entered my lungs properly with what felt like the first breath I’d taken after hearing about Dom’s kidnapping.
Someone took the ruined bottle and pressed another bottle into my hand, pushing it to my lips and making me drink all of it. Someone ran their fingers through my hair, softly coaxing me back to the present. “There, Samaira. You need to be strong. Who’s going to take care of Dominic?”
Nobody but me , my mind answered.