Chapter Fourteen #2
I realized that I still didn’t know her name; she had never introduced herself. That alone spoke of some sort of disdain that she held for me or some need for secrecy. I would let her speak, but this woman certainly didn’t have my best interests in mind.
“I will tell the world that my son was mistaken and that your Renai tests were negative. You will promise me and will sign several legally binding documents with heavy penalties, that you will never come back here again, and you will never knowingly speak to a Renai again. To settle you into your new life, I will offer you a lump sum of five million dollars and a comfortable house in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, worth two and a half million dollars. I have been told that you are a consultant. I have connections with every major consulting firm in Boston. If you wish, I will arrange a position for you there.”
It was a mind-boggling offer. What must be a beautiful house, enough money to never work again, travel, and a life of leisure and learning if I wanted it, and a job that would satisfy my ambition if I wanted that instead.
All I would have to do was give up this world and four men, three of whom I had only met a few days ago.
I could have a life. A better life than almost anyone I had ever known.
I could have everything I wanted, but I would be alone.
I would never hear Ettore call me his little savior again, I would never mess with Bartosz or see his burgeoning pride again, I would never taste Jin Woo’s skin or bask in his good-natured smile.
I would never have that missing piece of myself that I had known all along was Oskar.
I would have it all, but I would be alone.
My mind was made up in an instant.
“No, thank you. I would like to stay, I would like to see the men I love and care for, and frankly, I would like to thank your son for his help. “ I do not take your offer,” I said. I saw her mouth open as she went to speak, but I didn’t give her the chance.
“Nor any other offer that you dream up.” I am Renai, and while I am still learning what that means in totality, I want to live like a Renai. ”
The woman’s eyes narrowed, and her upper lip curled in disgust, a disgust that had been lurking underneath all of her words the entire time.
“You will live to regret your choice, girl,” she snapped, but I just reached back and once again tapped the button with the bell on it. I was done with this conversation.
“I don’t think so. If that’s all,” I gestured to the door and looked at her pointedly, making sure that she got my meaning.
I was close to yelling, ‘Get the fuck out of my room, you hag,’ but that couldn’t be good for my stitches.
The woman strode to the door in a huff, not looking back, basically body-checking a nurse who was entering the room.
In his hands was a glass of water, which he told me to drink in small sips, which I did as I glared at the door where the woman had left from. Once I finished and he was adjusting something on one of the machines, I turned to him,
“I need to speak with Ettore, Jin Woo, Bartosz, and Oskar? They came and visited me before. Can you bring them to me?”
The nurse smiled at me.
“They have barely left your side. It was only because they had a hearing that they weren’t here when you woke up.”
When he saw how I flinched when he said hearing, he gently patted my hand.
“Don’t worry at all about the hearing, honestly, it’s mostly just everyone heaping praise on them for finding an unregistered female Renai after all this time.
They are even talking about holding another conference in a couple of months with just the most eligible bachelors this time, for you to pick.
Everyone is interested in you, and everyone wants some of your genes! ”
The way he was speaking of my genes skeeved me out a bit, but I had to tell myself that I didn’t have all the context and that I was sure that they wouldn’t hold an entire conference just for me. So biting down my apprehension, I smiled at the nurse and watched as he promptly flushed.
“The man opened a drawer that almost blended in with the wall and removed a Jell-O cup and spoon from within it.
“Have that, just take very small bites. I think they’ll be back within the hour. They’ll be happy to see you up and speaking, you’ve been unconscious for more than a week, and your surgery was a long and risky one.”
I nodded, and once he saw that I was able to eat a bit of Jell-O without choking and dying, he turned to leave the room, leaving me alone to wait until my men finally returned to me.
***
I must have fallen asleep, but it must have been only a light sleep because I could feel the heat of fingertips close but not quite touching my skin.
My eyes fluttered open, revealing a four-eyed monster that it took a while to separate into Oskar and Bartosz, their faces so close to mine that I couldn’t see anything else.
“Mina? How do you feel?” Bartosz asked. In a gauzy sort of way, I noted that it was unusual for Bartosz to speak first; he was usually more likely to sink into the background.
“I’m feeling better, my stomach is tender, and whatever drugs they are giving me are making me sleepy, but other than that I’m good.”
It ended up being Bartosz's fingers hovering over my skin, and I luxuriated in the feeling when he finally touched my skin, trailing a long stroke down my skin, catching my cheekbone. I felt that heaviness hit me again, now that I had my men back with me, something inside me settled. But I couldn’t sleep now, I had to talk to them, had to hear how things went, and tell them about the strange interaction I had with Constantine's mother.
“Help me sit up, one of you,” I said, and received not two but four hands gently pulling me up until I was sitting propped up against the pillows.
Bartosz walked around the bed when I was settled and climbed up next to me, an arm slung on the pillows behind me, not quite touching as if not to jostle me or add any weight to my already tired shoulders.
Now positioned and able to have a good view over all my men, I looked them all over properly.
They were all in what looked like clean clothes; they had most likely changed into them before they went to court.
Jin Woo was in a business suit with a crisp white collared shirt with the top button unbuttoned.
Bartosz was in a thick navy sweater and professional-ish athleisure pants.
Oskar was in a traditional Norwegian sweater and corduroy pants, and Ettore was in expertly tailored maroon pants and a silky, black long-sleeved shirt that I could just tell was expensive.
It occurred to me that this was the first time that I had seen them properly dressed and not bedraggled.
Their clothing seemingly fit them, and another piece slid into the puzzle of who they were as people, and once again, it soothed something within me.
While their clothes looked put together, the rest of them were less polished. Jin Woo, for example, looked peaky; his face was thinner than it had been on the island, his cheeks slightly hollowed in. It broke my heart.
“How was the court?” I asked Bartosz, but he didn’t seem caught up in what was bothering the other three.
“Pretty much fine,” Bartosz replied, “we’ll have a small fine for the damage to the boat, apparently some of the seats were damaged in the scuffle, but that was it.
Renai laws are notoriously lax when it comes to actions taken in defense of a female Renai.
The soldier who shot you is from a prominent family, and since he didn’t know you were a Renai, and because you lived, he is not going to get the death penalty, but they were still debating his punishment when we left.
I shook my head in disbelief.
“We literally held the son of the Renai council at knife point, and we got off with a fine? That’s crazy!”
Bartosz shrugged nonchalantly.
“Again, in the defense of a female Renai, almost everything is permissible and warranted.”
It reminded me that I still had a lot to learn when it came to the world of the Renai, a world that I now belonged to.
I wanted to talk to them about Constantine’s mother, but whatever was going on with the other three boys had to be ironed out before anything else could be figured out.
Ettore, his lower lip no longer the smooth plush thing that I loved to run my tongue against, and instead rough and bitten and not in the fun way, approached. He stood in front of me as if I were the judge that he had to answer to and not the judge or judges that he had to face in the courtroom.
“Mina,” he said solemnly, “I have failed you. By unnecessarily striking the Rat, I upped the tension, and by making him bleed, I aggravated everyone, putting you in a dangerous situation. By continuing to fight in the boat, I caused the brawl that allowed the soldier who shot you to be able to get a shot in.”
He looked me straight in my eyes and spoke with so much certainty that I knew that he believed what he was saying down to his very core.
“I have failed you, Mina. I don’t deserve to be with you. I’ll stay with you until you are healed and healthy, and then I will leave.”
I pulled myself up as straight as I possibly could, once again pulling my stitches.
“Do you no longer care for me?” I asked him evenly, no expression on my face, as impartial as a goddess.
“No, no!” He said vehemently, “It’s not that, I-” I cut him off.
“Do you think I am self-possessed? Do you think that I am intelligent?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Will you go along with the decisions that I make about what type of people I want around me?” I asked him finally.
“Yes, of course,” he replied resignedly.
“Good, then I want you with me until I heal, and then, what did Jin Woo say? I want you with me forever.”
Shock and then relief flashed across his face, and I reached my arms out and pulled him into me.
“You were an idiot, but the whole situation was honestly fucked. I’m just glad that none of you were seriously injured or killed. All of you were doing something incredibly risky and illegal and putting your lives on the line for me, if any one of you had been hurt, I couldn't have handled it.”
Jin Woo spoke next.
“I shouldn’t have left your side. I knew that was where you were vulnerable, and it was my job to make sure that no one did what that soldier did. I’m truly sorry.”
I reached out and cupped Jin Woo’s cheek, drawing him closer to me.
“Thank you, Jin Woo. I know that this wasn’t your fault.”
Oskar pressed his face against my thighs for a long moment before he pulled away from me.
“You took a bullet that was meant for me. Thank you for protecting me.”
I smiled warmly at him.
“Of course, always.”
There was a chorus of ‘no’s, ‘hell no’s, and ‘never agains’.
“Mina, you’re Renai,” Jin Woo said seriously, “you can never try to sacrifice yourself for us, never again. It’s not negotiable.”
I nodded my agreement, not meaning it. There was no way in hell that I would allow one of them to be harmed when I could have prevented it. No, I would protect my men.
“I had an interesting visitor while you all were in court.”
All four of the guys were suddenly in defense mode, looking around as if the intruder was still in the room with us.
“She’s gone now,” I reassured them.
“She?” Ettore raised one elegantly arched eyebrow.
“Yes, she rudely didn’t introduce herself, but I think she was Constantine’s mom.”
“I don’t even like his name fouling your mouth,” Bartosz grumbled, surprisingly lyrical.
“Yeah, well, she offered me several million dollars and a job and a house if I went along with the lie that I wasn’t Renai and left this place and you all and never talked to another Renai again.”
They all froze like idiots.
“I obviously didn’t take it, you numbnuts. I like you all too much,” as they relaxed, I added a little quip, “And really, am I only really worth 5 million dollars? Pah!”
Ettore looked truly offended on my behalf.
“Salvatrice, that is practically an insult! I would be offended. Jin Woo would give you five million right now for no reason.”
Jin Woo shook his head slowly, and if I thought he was going to call Ettore out for his foolishness, I was dead wrong.
“If you wanted it right now, it would mostly be in assets, as my bank can be annoyingly intrusive whenever I try to move quantities larger than a million U.S.”
“Please stop,” I half begged, worried that they would actually send me the money, and by the glint in Bartosz’s eyes, I was already too late.
“Anyways, I think that she may be an issue. She was very ominous.”
“Did she threaten you?” Oskar asked seriously.
“No, she didn’t, she just really wanted me to leave.”
Ettore was all business again, even as he drew circles into Jin Woo’s arms.
“That means trouble. Yda, Constantine’s mum,” he added when he saw my confused face, “is a force to be reckoned with. Honestly, there are many things that we will have to deal with.”
Oskar nodded his agreement.
“Yes, since every family wants an injection of new DNA and everyone who is not attached will want you too, the conference in a few months will be half-matchmaking session, half-gladiatorial fight to the death. They’ll try to get you to take at least three more men into your family, along with us, of course. ”
I smiled at all of them.
“But I am more than happy with just you all. I don’t need anyone else.”
Jin Woo kissed my forehead with a rueful smile.
“You’re Renai, it’s in your nature, keep an open mind.”
“Yeah, I have some people in mind that would probably not be the worst,” Bartosz mused. Ettore hit him jokingly, and there was a scuffle before Oskar dragged everyone close to me until they were all on the bed.
Surrounded by my men, I closed my eyes, knowing that no matter what came next, we would handle it together.
The End