35. Konstantin
KONSTANTIN
I ’d tasted death three times.
The first time was when I saw my mother murdered in front of my eyes. The second time when I saw Tatiana in the rolled up vehicle, bloody and bruised, while her piece-of-shit husband tried to flee.
The third one was now. And it just about brought me to my knees.
The world turned in slow motion as that fucking knife flew through the air. I pushed her out of the way but gravity worked against me. I watched with horror as blood spread over her dress, like a nightmare determined to swallow me whole.
Bullets flew. I didn’t hear them.
Panic unlike any I’d ever felt before froze me in place. My hands gripped my fragile wife, pressing her to my chest. Pain tightened through my chest, making it hard to breathe. I couldn’t breathe without her.
She’s my air. She’s my life.
Fuck no!
This wasn’t how our story would end. We had just barely gotten started.
I put my fingers on her slim neck and waited for the pulse.
There! It was there.
The knife was lodged in her abdomen. My heart lodged in my throat, I held her gently, my mouth skimming over her cheeks.
“Don’t you fucking dare leave me,” I murmured. Her light strands of hair shone like gold against the white background. She needed medical help. Now!
“We can’t pull the knife out. It may cause her to bleed out,” Alexei said, his voice monotone but I caught a slight tremble of his hand as his fingers wrapped around the handle of the knife.
I stared at him. Sasha and Vasili behind him, falling to their knees. Boris shot another bullet into Adrian’s corpse. Straight between his eyes. No reincarnations.
Except none of it meant shit without her.
“I’ll keep it steady while you move her to the SUV,” Alexei said. Fuck, my eyes burned. My throat hurt. My chest constricted with the kind of fear I hadn’t felt since I saw my mother die in front of my eyes.
“Konstantin, you hear me?” Alexei snapped.
I nodded.
Alexei’s cold composure fed me strength. It kept panic out of my head and dread out of my heart. I have waited too long to have her to let anyone, even God, take her from me. She was mine - my future, my heart, my life.
I touched my hand around the knife wound, tracing the flesh lightly while the warm liquid drenched my fingers. The scent of copper and roses thickened the air.
Just like that night!
No fucking way. She couldn’t die. She wouldn’t die. Our story wasn’t done yet. It had barely begun.
“She needs a doctor!” I shouted, keeping my hand on the knife and getting to my feet. Carrying her to the car, Alexei’s hand steady on the knife, I barked “The hospital. Now!”
Her beautiful red lips paled a shade. Life was leaving her.
It wouldn’t be. It couldn’t be.
She’s mine. Death can’t have her.
I made a promise. I’d always come for her and save her and I meant to keep it. She was fucking mine, and if I had to kill Death itself, I would.
Because the two of us had a future to look forward to.
* * *
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Back at the hospital. A year ago, our story started back up in the hospital, but fuck if I’d let it end here too.
That annoying machine was what kept me going. Each beep meant she was alive. Each beep brought her closer to me. Each beep during the last two days kept my promise to keep her alive.
She was strong and stubborn. Fierce. She’d never let Adrian win.
She’d pull through. She had to - for me, for our own happily-ever-after.
Sasha couldn’t stop talking over the last two days, filling my head with all the shit Tatiana made him do when they were kids.
Playing fairytales was one of them. He said she insisted on having happily-ever-afters.
Because anything else was unacceptable, she’d tell him.
The doctor came back to check on the monitors and Tatiana’s vitals.
His gaze flickered hesitantly my way. He suggested I shower or change.
I refused. Dr. Sergei at the Moscow hospital used to be on my father’s payroll.
Now he was on mine. However, after Nikita’s betrayal, I didn’t trust anyone.
Not with my wife’s life. So I refused to leave Tatiana’s side.
I watched the doctor and nurses work efficiently as they stitched her up. No internal organs were harmed. And by some miracle, the babies were safe. Healthy and strong, the doctor said. But I couldn’t find any peace, not as long as their mama’s eyes remained closed.
“I can’t believe she’s having twins,” Sasha blurted out, sitting in the corner of the hospital room while Dr. Sergei performed another sonogram. Sasha tried to hide it but he was worried. Vasili and Alexei too.
“Not that shocking,” Isla muttered. “After all, my brothers were twins. Unless you’ve forgotten.”
“We didn’t forget,” Sasha retorted. “He tried to kill my wife.”
“He needed help,” she snapped back. “Not a bullet in his skull. Which one of you did it? Maybe you’d like a bullet in your little brain?”
Sasha glared at her. Vasili shook his head, glaring at his younger brother. Alexei did nothing. I was too exhausted to tell them all to fuck off.
Needless to say, Isla had found out all my secrets. It went over like a ton of bricks. But she had a soft heart and it was the reason she flew back as soon as she learned of Tatiana’s condition.
She forgave her. She didn’t forgive me.
“Twins are usually from the mother’s side,” Dr. Sergei chimed in, writing down his prognosis. “But as you can see, it’s possible to have surprises.”
“Maybe we get to beat those Morrellis who breed like rabbits after all,” Sasha remarked, although his humor was wasted on everyone. Including himself. At this point, it was probably a habit to drop ridiculous comments.
“Don’t you have a wife to go back to?” I snapped. He had to get out of here or I’d lose my mind. “You know, the one you kidnapped.”
Sasha glared at me. “She’s at the hotel. I’m not leaving until Tatiana wakes up.”
Until. Not if.
And just like that, I liked Sasha a bit more. We were moving in the right direction, I guess. After all, we were brothers-in-law.
Silence followed again. Broken only by the doctor’s shuffling of the equipment.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
And the beeping. He pushed the equipment to the left and the sound went off. All of our heads snapped in his direction, our breaths cut off.
“Oops, too far,” Dr. Sergei grumbled, quickly fixing the wires. A round of relieved breaths followed. Jesus, this fucking doctor was supposed to save lives not fucking end them by giving us heart attacks.
“When a body is chopped up into pieces, can you identify its DNA?” Isla broke the silence. She said it as if she were asking if aspirin was better than ibuprofen.
All the Nikolaev eyes as well as my own shifted to my sister. I thought Alexei’s mouth might have parted in shock before he shut it. Probably mine too.
“I don’t know if that’s an appropriate question,” Dr. Sergei responded when the rest of us were at a loss for words. “I will give you all some privacy.” His eyes met mine. “No changes. Babies are good. Mother’s vitals are good. Now we just wait for your wife to wake up.”
Dr. Sergei headed out of the room. Silence followed, while I ran my thumb over the soft flesh of my wife’s wrist. I couldn’t deal with cut up bodies and Isla’s questions right now. I’d give her a lesson on how to kill someone - hopefully Marchetti - and dispose of a body some other time.
Right now, I wasn’t in the right frame of mind.
I wanted to make the entire world pay for shit going wrong at that fucking parking lot. After I ensured the cargo inspection would take extra-long and would require them laying over for an extra day, I coordinated the plan with Vasili.
It was supposed to be easy. Kill Adrian. Kill Nikita. Save Tatiana.
Goddamn it! She was never supposed to get hurt. It was my job to protect her.
Vasili broke the silence. “I’m not a DNA expert, but chopping up the body won’t remove his or her identity. Not unless you burned it to ashes.”
Jesus H. Christ. Was this conversation really happening in my wife’s hospital room?
Isla tilted her head studying Vasili. “Burn the body, huh?” Why in the fuck was she even asking this question? Vasili, Alexei, and Sasha nodded in unison. “Hmm, that’s good to know.”
“Just make sure there’s nothing left of the body,” Sasha chimed in. “Burn it to ashes, then get rid of the ash.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I snapped at him. “She’s twenty-three.” My eyes narrowed on him, hoping I could kill him with just a look. Of course, I’d resurrect him eventually. “You don’t tell my sister shit like that.”
Sasha shrugged. “Seems she needs to know. After all, she is a Konstantin.”
Isla let out a sardonic breath. “Killing is in our blood, isn’t it, Brother?”
Vasili’s eyebrow shot up. Alexei’s lip twitched. And Sasha put his hands up in the air. “I sense a conflict.”
You think, motherfucker!
“Why don’t you all go get lunch?” I suggested tiredly. I needed them all to leave. Or I’d lose my cool and say something that would be impossible to take back. My wife needed me to stay calm. Not go killing her brothers.
“You’ll call us if she wakes. Da ?” Alexei said, more than asked. I nodded, then watched them all disburse out of the hospital room.
Vasili was the last one to leave. “I’ll keep an eye on your sister.”
“Thank you.”
The door shut with a soft click and I let out a breath. My eyes found my wife, the rising of her chest barely visible but it was there. The touch of her hand against mine kept me sane.
“Come back to me, moya luna ,” I murmured, pressing a kiss on the soft flesh of her wrist, where her pulse drummed.
It had been two whole fucking days. Beep.
Two whole days since I saw her blue eyes. Beep. Beep.
Two whole days of holding her hand in mine, whispering all the things I should have told her a long time ago.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
There were so many things I had yet to tell her. There was so much we left unsaid and unresolved.