Chapter 24 Andrej #2
“Got it.” Cartier watches her run through the regular checks, pulse, temperature, blood pressure, her expression unreadable.
When the nurse has finished recording my vitals on the chart at the foot of the bed, she studies Cartier. “Have you—”
“I’m fine.” Cartier cuts her off. “Is there any news on Ivana?”
The nurse smiles. “She just got back from surgery an hour ago. That’s what I came to tell you. The next twenty-four hours are critical, but she’s a fighter.”
Tears streak Cartier’s cheek, and I squeeze her hand.
“Can I go see her?” she asks.
“I’m coming with you.” I’m already swinging my legs over the side of the bed and tugging the drip tube from the back of my hand.
“You’re not going anywhere.” The nurse comes back and stops me before the tube is fully released.
Our eyes meet, and I see in her expression that she’s testing how far she can push me before I rebel and discharge myself.
“Not without this drip. Not unless you want me to extend your recovery period.”
I dazzle her with my usual disarming smile and congratulate myself when I see her visibly soften. “You’re the best—” I check her name badge “—Dasha. I’ll take the drip along with me.”
She crosses the room, hovers by the door, and turns around to address me. “This doesn’t mean that you’ll get out of here any sooner.”
We find Ivana in intensive care, connected to multiple machines supporting her body until she is stable enough to exist without them. Her skin is still ghastly pale, fine blue veins visible beneath the surface.
She doesn’t stir when we enter.
Cartier takes her hand and shivers at the cool touch of Ivana’s skin. “Do you think she can hear us?” she asks. “She never regained consciousness before she went down to surgery.”
“I’m sure she knows that we’re here.”
I sense Cartier’s uncertainty. There’s a whole lot more that she wants to say, and it hits me like a sledgehammer that I was unconscious for fuck knows how long, and anyone could’ve gotten to her without me knowing.
My chest feels as if it’s going to cave in with the force of this lost period of time.
This isn’t how we do things.
“Who was with you?” The question sounds gruff, which wasn’t my intention. “Did my bodyguards stay with you while I was in surgery?”
Her smile softens the anxiety raging through me. She’s here. She’s alive.
“They’re here, Andrej. The hospital is crawling with bodyguards discreetly keeping their distance. But there was no way they were going to keep me away from you and Ivana.”
Relief washes through me, and my body has no choice but to steel itself for this lifetime ride we’re on. Because I’m never letting this woman out of my sight again.
The steady rhythm of the monitors surrounding Ivana’s bedside settle around us like a flimsy blanket.
I don’t want Ivana to die. The twins have been a part of the family since Leonid found them, and even though there’s never been any warmth between us, or any real connection, life would not be the same without her and Tamara around.
“I need to make a call.”
I sense Cartier’s eyes follow me out of the room, but I don’t turn around. Outside, in the sterile corridor, I locate Tamara’s number on my contacts app and wait for the call to connect.
“Andrej?” Even from 5,000 miles away, I can hear the panic lacing in her voice.
She knows.
“Is she…?”
“She’s in intensive care, but she came through surgery.”
The relief is palpable in the silence that follows.
“How did you know?” I have to ask.
“Cartier called me. I’m at the airport now.”
Just when I thought that I couldn’t love Cartier more.
“Andrej?” Tamara drags me back to the conversation. “Take good care of her.”
She ends the call with a click.
Back inside the room, Cartier is still sitting by the bed, clinging to Ivana’s hand. “I told her that you’re alive.” She smiles at me over her shoulder as I drag the drip stand closer to the bed. “I thanked her for saving us. I don’t know if she’ll remember, or if this will help her recover.”
I sit beside her and raise her free hand to my lips. “Thank you. For calling Tamara.”
Cartier swallows. “It was the least I could do.”
Her eyes widen then, and her gaze snaps back to Ivana. “Ivana?” she whispers. “Can you hear me?”
I lean closer to the bed. Did her eyelids flicker? My pulse is racing, and my heartbeat sounds louder and clumsier in my ears than it ever has before, but I stare at Ivana, willing her with every fiber of my being to wake up.
Another flicker. I sense Cartier’s excitement even though she doesn’t move. If this were anywhere else, a stadium or an arena, we would be the guys on our feet, waving banners and cheering the loudest.
“Ivana.” Cartier squeezes her hand. “I’m right here. Andrej is here too. You’re in the hospital. You’re safe now.”
Ivana’s eyes open a crack and settle on me first.
I force a smile. “Welcome back.”
With a lot of effort, she drags her eyes towards Cartier without moving her head. Her lips part, but no sound comes out.
“You don’t have to say anything.” I jump in before she tries again. “But know that we’re both eternally grateful to you.”
Tears squeeze from Ivana’s eyes, and trickle down her cheeks and onto the pillow.
Cartier lets out a strangled gasp. She stands abruptly and dashes from the room, a hand over her mouth. I follow her with my gaze, but quickly return my attention to Ivana, whose fingers are tapping on the bedcovers. The monitor recording her heartbeat picks up speed.
“What is it?” I slide into Cartier’s seat, dragging the drip stand beside me. “Do you need pain relief? I’ll call the nurse.”
I’m half on my feet to press the red button behind the bed when she manages to croak, “No.”
I sit back down and lean closer to the bed so that I can hear her. “You saved our lives, Ivana. We’ll never forget what you did for us. I’ll never forget that you saved the woman I love.”
Fresh tears well in her eyes as Cartier returns to the room, looking even paler.
Ivana follows her with her eyes as she sits beside me, blinking hard and dabbing her lips with the back of her hand.
“Are you sick?”
I should be devoting my attention to the woman in the bed, but I remember now that Cartier was sick before this happened. Before her uncle broke into my family’s home and tried to kill us all.
“Did they check you over when you arrived at the hospital?”
Cartier shakes her head, smiling. “I don’t need a doctor, Andrej. Look at me. I’m fine.”
She isn’t fine, but I’m not going to argue with her. Not here. I’ll wait till I get back to my room and speak to the nurse in private.
The sound of Ivana’s hoarse whisper makes us both turn back to the bed. Her lips are trying to form the words, but no sound is coming out.
“Don’t worry about us, Ivana.” I’m firm. “You just need to rest and recuperate. What would we do without you?”
But she isn’t giving up. Her lips bump together around a word that still doesn’t quite materialize.
“Tamara?” I fill the void with what I think she’s trying to say. “Your sister is on her way, Ivana. Cartier called her when—”
But her eyes flash a warning at me: that isn’t what she’s trying to say.
“Bay… bee…” Her voice is barely there, but Ivana’s determination hasn’t taken a backseat to her life-threatening injuries.
“Baby?” I feel my brows knitting together. “Is that what you said, baby?”
Ivana’s eyes close, and I wonder if she has drifted back into unconsciousness so that her body can heal naturally.
Moments pass by, and neither of us speaks.
Then, she opens her eyes and murmurs again, louder: “Ba-by.”
“What baby, Ivana?” I’m confused.
I glance at Cartier, who refuses to make eye contact, then back at Ivana, realization blossoming slowly as her lips twitch with the beginnings of a smile, and she allows herself to fall asleep.
Cartier slides onto my lap and wraps her arms around my neck.
I place a hand over her abdomen and kiss her lips. “Are you…?”
I never imagined myself with a family of my own.
I don’t know the first thing about being a father, and when I saw Leonid with his baby girls, it filled me with trepidation.
If I was in his shoes, how would I know what to do?
How does anyone keep another human being alive when they’re dependent on you for everything?
How does a Bratva Pakhan switch from being the boss to being Daddy?
But now, sitting here in a hospital room with the woman I love, I can’t think of anything I want more.
“I don’t know. Maybe.” Cartier scrunches her eyes and inhales deeply. “How would you feel—”
“Shh.” I place a finger on her lips. “You already know how I feel about you, don’t you?”
She nods.
“So, I think you already know how I would feel about you having our baby.”
Her face glows with happiness, and the tiredness seems to magically vanish from the dark circles under her eyes.
“Can I speak now?” she murmurs against my finger, and I smile. “I love you, Andrej Ivanov.”