Chapter 4
Gaven
Angel’s soft features tightened in slumber as I carried her from the car and into the house that I’d had specially arranged for her.
Already, the doctor awaited us at the entrance.
The second he saw me, the slim man jumped to the door and held it open for me as I entered, only to follow closely behind a moment later.
I strode through the house and into the bedroom where my sweet, betraying wife would spend all of her time until I’d fully trained her in the ways of domestic obedience. I laid her gently upon the surface of the bed as her lashes fluttered.
“Give her something to keep her asleep,” I commanded.
The doctor jumped forward as I stepped back. His bag settled onto the floor as he bent over and withdrew a small vial of clear liquid and a pre-packaged needle. I watched him like a hawk, well aware that my men were hovering at the door with only one stepping forward to risk entering the room.
As the doctor prepared the drugs, I strode back to my right-hand man.
As tall as he was stone-faced, Matteo Vanini, despite his Italian roots, didn't care that I was an American in their world. He’d been with me for the better part of the last four and a half years—having left Raffaello’s house not long after the man’s passing.
“I want the men out,” I commanded. “I don’t want her to see them when she wakes.”
Matteo’s eyes shifted from the bed to me. “Do you think she would be frightened?”
No. She would likely recognize a few of them—the majority had followed Matteo from Raffaello’s reign. I wanted them gone for a different reason, and they didn’t need to know why. All they needed to do was obey.
“Just get them out,” I snapped before turning back just as the doctor slid a needle into her arm, earning a flinch from her sleeping form.
Her lashes fluttered open, but as the doctor compressed the syringe and the sedative entered her bloodstream, the combination of it and the groggy confusion she was likely feeling had her quickly slipping back under.
I watched as her brows pinched together and then eventually relaxed once more. She seemed to sink further into the bed as her whole body loosened, and she fell into a deeper sleep. Behind me, Matteo barked orders as he stepped to the door and gestured orders at the others.
Once the doctor was finished administering the sedative that would keep her unconscious for a while longer, he began his physical examination.
I could practically smell the body odor wafting from the man as he sweated.
No doubt it was caused, in part, by the fact that I was now hovering over him, watching his every movement.
I couldn’t seem to help myself. It’d been five years since I’d been this close to my own fucking wife.
I was curious to know what she’d done with the body that was to carry my children in all that time.
After taking her temperature, blood pressure, and heart rate, the doctor glanced back nervously. “Um … sir? I-I need to perform a more invasive examination. Perhaps you could step out of the room while I—”
“No.” The word ripped from me as I flashed him a dark glare. “I will assist. What do you need?”
The doctor visibly gulped and turned back to Angel’s sleeping form with trepidation. “A-as per your request,” he said. “I-I need to undress her and … erm … check for signs of sexual intercourse.”
“Understood.” Slipping out of my jacket, I tossed it onto a nearby chair before striding around the bed and crawling onto it.
Ignoring the doctor’s wide-eyed and curious stare, I leveraged Angel’s limp body up and began unbuttoning her blouse, slipping it off of her form as I moved down to the rest of her clothes.
Once I was done and she was laid naked before my gaze, I snapped a look back to the doctor. “You will only look at what you need to in order to finish your examination,” I growled. “You will only touch what you need to. Is that clear?”
He nodded sharply. “Yes, sir. Of course, sir. I-I would never—”
“A simple yes will suffice,” I said, cutting him off.
He nodded and jerked his gaze down to Angel.
I reclined against the side of the bed that wasn’t taken up by the woman lying there and stared down at her upturned face.
My gaze fell lower as the doctor’s fingers prodded at her stomach and then he lifted her arm, turning it one way and then the other before setting it down and withdrawing a notepad to scribble something down.
She was thinner than I remembered. Too thin. The softness of her cheeks had evened out. The child she might have once been was long gone and in its place was a woman—a conniving, fleeing runaway.
She had scars that weren’t there before.
Shallow lines across one wrist and another on her stomach.
Blade marks? Who would dare have hurt her?
A man? An enemy? Was there more I needed to be aware of?
Whatever the case, I would soon find out.
Everything I wanted to know, I would pull from her very lips even if it meant I had to torture it out of her.
So help her, if she’d given herself to another …
I’d find them all and slaughter them right in front of her.
“I-I’m going to start the lower examination,” the doctor stuttered as he moved to the end of the bed.
With gritted teeth, I offered a singular nod. One wrong move and the Glock sitting in the holster on my chest would get its first workout in a while. I dared him with my eyes to make one wrong move, but he never did. Once the man had been given the go-ahead, he was all professional.
With careful yet gentle hands, he pressed Angel’s legs apart and then pulled on a pair of gloves. “This would be easier in stirrups, sir,” he said.
“She’s not going to an office,” I said.
He nodded. “I understand. I’m just saying, though, that in the event you need a second examination—this should be done with the woman awake and in an appropriate and sanitized setting.”
“This room is clean,” I snapped.
The doctor didn’t respond as he moved forward and, with a gloved finger, moved to her pussy.
Rage poured through me at the vision of another man touching her in a place that belonged only to me.
Even though this was my choice, even though I’d ordered him here, I should have invited a female doctor.
Then, at least, I wouldn’t have this incessant voice in my head ordering me to slaughter the man at the end of the bed.
I held my breath and briefly closed my eyes, pinching the bridge of my nose as I waited for it to be over.
Thankfully, the doctor was speedy. Barely a few minutes had passed when I heard the telltale sound of his gloves being snapped off.
My eyes shot open, and I sat up as the doctor reached for a throw blanket hanging over the edge of the bed.
He drew it over Angel’s form before returning to his bag.
“This woman is quite healthy, sir,” he began his observations.
“She appears fit and has no current issues that are externally noticeable.” The man wrote something on his notepad as he continued.
“Without a conscious patient, however, I won’t be able to determine if there are any other concerns with her health. ”
“Has she been with another man?” The question burned out of my throat, but I had to know.
My gaze found Angel’s sleeping form once more.
I had to know just how far her betrayal had gone.
I’d drain the corpses of anyone who’d thought to touch my fucking wife and toss them into the bay without a second’s hesitation.
The doctor shook his head. “There’s no evidence of recent sexual intercourse,” he replied, pausing before lifting his head away from his notepad.
“And as for your other … concern, I saw no evidence of childbirth either.” My chest eased, but only slightly because in the next moment his words sent another wave of anger washing through me.
“Her birth control implant appears to be nearing the end of its life—if she would like to continue, I recommend bringing her in to have it removed and a new one placed in.”
Birth control? My eyes snapped down to the woman slumbering so peacefully at my side. Oh, no, that wouldn’t do. Now that Angel was back in my grasp, she would perform her side of our little deal. Of that, I would make sure.
“Remove it,” I commanded.
The doctor paused and gaped at me. “H-here?”
Lifting my attention away from my wife, I focused on the spindly man. “Yes,” I growled. “I want that thing out of her now.”
Dropping his notepad, the doctor turned my way. “Sir, that requires a safe and clean environment. I will need to cut down into the dermis to remove it with a scalpel.”
“Do you have one?” I demanded.
The man continued to gape at me as if he couldn’t believe the words he was hearing. “Y-yes,” he finally answered, “but I—”
“Then you’ll perform the procedure.”
“Without her consent?” He stared at me.
My lips twisted into a cruel smile. “You’re here, aren’t you, doc?” I asked. “Don’t start acting like you have a conscience now.”
The doctor trembled. “Th-this is unethical,” he said. “I-I can’t possibly—”
“It’s also unethical to give drugs to an already unconscious patient.
” My anger was quickly rising. I got off the bed and stood to my full height, rounding it as the elder doctor stumbled back.
The big eyes beneath his glasses rounded even further.
I reached out and slammed him into the wall opposite the bed, gripping his throat tight.
“I recommend that you do everything I tell you to and you don’t ask any more fucking questions, doc.
You were brought here to perform your duties, not offer unsolicited advice. ”
“As a doctor—”
“As a doctor, you’ve already betrayed your craft and whatever bullshit oath you took when you got your fancy little degree.
” I stopped his pathetic attempt at maintaining his self-righteousness.
There was no room for it in this world. I leaned into him and tightened my hold until his face grew red.
“Take. It. Out.” The words slipped through my gritted teeth like shards of glass.
Nothing would be between my seed and my wife’s fucking womb. If she were pregnant this time then maybe … just maybe she would be too tied down to leave again.
The doctor wheezed out his agreement finally and I released him. He collapsed before me, gasping for breath as he felt around his throat. I stepped away and strode to the door, opening it.
“Get on with it,” I ordered.
The man didn’t speak again as he picked up the bag and set it on the bed before he got to work.
Turning, I placed my back against the hard wooden door and watched as he removed her arm from beneath the throw and then prodded at a place at the inner part of her upper arm.
Despite his obvious fear, his hands were steady as he reached into his bag and withdrew a leather case.
He withdrew another needle and then took the medicine out before applying the numbing agent.
As he waited—or so I assumed—for it to take effect, he began unrolling the leather case.
Metal flashed as he removed a sharp blade and with one quick glance back at me, he set its sharp point to Angel’s skin and cut quickly.
I shoved away from the door frame, moving forward until my hands gripped the bottom of the mattress and I watched him carefully remove what looked like a tiny little rod.
It was barely longer than an inch. My nostrils flared as I maintained my stance while the doctor quickly put it into a small plastic baggy and then slathered something else across the small incision before covering it with a bandage.
That was it. Angel’s last little betrayal had been taken care of. That thing she’d put in her body to stop me from taking what was mine was gone. When she woke and realized, she’d likely be angry, but it didn’t matter. I’d gotten what I wanted—just like I always would when it came to her.
“That will be all,” I informed the doctor.
He nodded once and said nothing more as he began packing his things.
I took a step around the bed to her side as the doctor stood up with his bag in hand.
“You may take your payment from my man in the hallway,” I said.
“You understand what will happen if you breathe a word of this, yes?”
With an almost mousy squeak, the man jerked a nod back at me and said a quick, “Yes” before fleeing the room.
With the door closed, I was left alone—finally—with the woman I’d spent the last five years searching for. It was a heady feeling. All that I’d been seeking was right here before me, splayed out on the bed I’d prepared for her. I smoothed a finger over her cheek as she breathed deeply.
My hand descended, pushing the blanket out of the way as I uncovered her body. Her breasts were barely a handful, but her greedy little nipple was hard against my palm as I gripped her tit and squeezed.
Soon, I’d deliver the punishment she deserved for her actions. Soon, I’d have all the answers that had since escaped me. Even if it meant I had to break her to get them.