28. Dimitri
28
Dimitri
T his is arguably the most insane thing I’ve ever done.?
But I’m desperate.?And a desperate man will do just about anything.
I didn’t want to leave Gabriella, but the only thing that helped ease my frustration was that she was safe with her brothers. But now it's a problem because they refuse to leave their sister’s side like a pair of fucking hell hounds, and I really need them to, so I can put my desperate and insane plan in motion.
I’m on the verge of calling in a bomb threat when I finally see them exit the hospital a little after midnight, get in a car and leave. Once I’m sure it’s safe to make my move, I grab my bag with supplies and head to the front sliding doors. I don't bother concealing my face from the cameras or anyone else because it won’t make a difference after tonight. Her family knows about us now, so there's no point.
The best way to avoid suspicion is to act like you belong there and know what you’re doing. Makes it easy to sneak past the night nurses on duty and get to Gabriella's floor.
I pause and cautiously look around the corner of the hallway where her room is located. A man is sitting in a chair right outside her door. I don’t recognize him, but it’s clear he’s there to guard her room. Having planned for this, I step away and locate the supply closet I tagged earlier. Slipping inside the room, I put on a white doctor’s coat, take a wheelchair, and then hang my bag on the handles.
The guard is so engrossed in whatever it is he’s watching on his phone; he doesn’t look up at me until it’s too late. I fire two rounds of tranquilizer—strong enough to take down a bear—into his chest. He slumps out of the chair, and crashes to the floor like a heavy weight. I really need to have a conversation with the DiAngelo men about their pathetic excuse of guards. Can’t even pass out in a helpful manner.
I grab the lapels of his jacket and tug his limp and heavy body up with a grunt. Shoving him back into the chair, I position him in a way where it appears like he simply just fell asleep on the job.
Gabriella’s room is mostly dark, except for the light filtering in through the blinds. The thin rays cast shadows across her sleeping form, resting peacefully on the bed. I love watching her sleep. There’s something so soft and innocent about it. At this moment, she looks like the angel that she has always been in my eyes.
I reach out and stroke my hand down her cheek, enjoying how a small smile tugs at the corners of her lips and how her face turns toward my touch.?
“Gabriella,” I whisper before I bend forward to brush my lips against hers. “Time to wake up.”
Her face scrunches adorably, like she hates the idea of that. A few seconds later, she takes a deep breath and slowly opens her eyes, revealing a pair of my favorite color. For a moment, she stares up at me with a happy look before it twists into confusion.
“Dimitri?”
“Hello, angel.”
“What-what are you doing here?” Her eyes scan the room nervously, like she’s worried her guard dogs are here.
“We’re alone.”
Her eyes snap back to me, a little fire starting to brew in the amber depths. “You didn’t answer my question.”
“I’m here to talk.”
“I said I’d call you,” she reminds me with a hint of attitude. I clear my throat and look at her pointedly, which makes her purse her lips at me before she tries a different excuse. “It’s the middle of the night, Dimitri.”
“And?” I argue back. “It’s the only time I could get you alone and away from your pair of twin gargoyle guards.”
“Those are my brothers you just called gargoyles.”
“I said what I said,” I defend myself. “If they didn’t act like them, I wouldn’t call them that.”
“They just want to keep me safe.”
“From who? Me?” The very thought that she needs or wants to be protected from me stings.?
Gabriella latches on to my hurtful tone and sits up, reaching out for me with her hand. When she does, the blanket shifts, revealing her sprained wrist wrapped up nice and snug. The sight bothers me. It reminds me of how I was the one responsible for the accident. I step back before she can touch my hand. The pain of rejection is clear on her face, and I have to look away before the guilt digs too deep.But, of course, she notices.
“Dimitri,” she says my name on the whispered end of a sigh. “It’s not your fault. You know that, right?”
“If it hadn’t been for me, you wouldn’t have gotten in your car and been distracted enough to crash.”
“The guy ran a red light, Dimitri. Even if I had been paying better attention, it wouldn’t have mattered.”
“You never should have been driving. That’s the point,” I grumble.
Gabriella sits back with a huff, leveling me with a stare I can feel. She silently applies the pressure until I finally cave and meet her eyes. “We’ll agree to disagree.”
“I agree that your disagreement is wrong.”
Gabriella’s eyes narrow. “You are the most insufferable man I have ever met.”
I raise a brow. “Have you met your brothers?”
The corner of her lips twitch. “You know, you three would get along if you just tried. You’re more alike than you realize.”
“Agree to disagree.”
Gabriella smiles at me then and the sight is like a breath of fresh air, unlocking the gate that keeps the pain from the last couple of days free. “Will you please come hold my hand?”
I step forward, eating away the distance between us before I finally take her hand in mind. She squeezes and I lightly squeeze back, running my thumb over the back of her hand, being careful to avoid the IV lines.?
“You know I’m not marrying Sophia.”
Gabriella chews on her bottom lip and glances down at our hands, keeping silent. I lift her hand and kiss the back of it. She meets my eyes then and the raw pain is clear in her unshed tears. “I’m. Not. Marrying. Sophia,” I speak each word in between kisses on her hand. “How can I convince you that I’m not?”
“Rose had a crazy idea.”
I place her hand down on the bed but keep hold of it. “What’s that?”
“That maybe we could…get married,” she says that last bit quietly under her breath, but I catch it and freeze.
The thought has certainly crossed my mind several times, but I’ve always struggled with the daunting question of how . There are just a few rather large things standing in our way - my identity and her family to name a couple. If we were to get married, she wouldn’t be marrying the real Dimitri, and I can’t bear the sight of her walking down the aisle to marry a lie. She deserves more than that.
“I’d love nothing more.”
“But?” she whispers, hearing the grim undertone in my voice.?
“But you need to know the truth.”
She peers up at me, her honey eyes damp with unshed tears. “I know the truth. You’re engaged to Sophia.”
“That’s not the truth I’m talking about.”
“Then what?”
“I want to tell you everything, angel,” I say, emphasizing my words with a squeeze of my hand. “But not here.”
She frowns and tries to pull her hand free. When I refuse, it only makes her more upset. “I’m tired of the excuses, Dimitri. You want to tell me, but you can’t. You want to tell me, but not here. Which is it?”
And here enters my insane plan.?
“Will you come with me somewhere?”
She just stares at me. "Are you serious?"
"Yes."
“Okay, fine, I'll play. Where?”
“Somewhere private, where I can tell you everything without prying eyes or noisy ears.”
How serious I am finally seems to dawn her. "And you'll really tell me what's going on?"
"Yes."
Gabriella runs her eyes down my figure and across my face, as if assessing my honesty. It'll me a true test of her trust in me if she agrees to go with me without more context. "Okay." But she does.
With her help, we unhook her IV lines and get her dressed into a warmer pair of clothes. It’s a battle of stubbornness between her and me to convince her to sit in the wheelchair, but I quickly win when she nearly stumbles walking toward the door. Donning the white jacket again, I wheel her out of the room, peering out first to make sure our “friend” is still unconscious.?
“What happened to him?” she asks as we pass by his snoring body.
“He’s just taking a nap.”
She looks up at me, and I glance down at her with a sly smile. “What? He’ll be fine. Although he may wake up with a hell of a headache.”
“Dimitri,” Gabriella reprimands, but I catch the small smile on her lips before she looks away.
At the car, I go to pick her up and she promptly smacks my hand away. When I try again, she gives me an exasperated look but finally relents to my help. Once she’s buckled in, with the blanket over her lap, I push the wheelchair toward the bushes and jog around the car to the driver’s side.
“Are you one of those people who doesn’t return the cart to the store or even to the corral?” she asks me as I pull out of the hospital parking lot.
“It’s not a shopping cart,” I say back without actually answering her question.
Gabriella sighs, but then settles back in her seat as the city flies by. After a minute of peaceful silence, she asks, “So, where are we going?”
“My home.”
I feel her eyes studying my profile and I resist looking at her.
“Your apartment?” She’s never been to my place in the city because of the Bratva constantly watching, and I’m not about to take her there now.
“No. My home outside of the city.”
“I didn’t know you had a place outside of the city.” She sounds surprised and a little hurt that she didn’t.
I glance at her and take her hand across the console. “No one does.”
“Oh,” she says, my answer soothing her briefly hurt feelings. “Okay then.”
Gabriella remains silent for the rest of the drive, but I can sense her growing excitement as we venture further away from the city, while my own anxiety intensifies. I’m looking forward to showing her the cabin, but I’m worried about what she’ll do when I finally reveal the truth. Will she run? Will she lash out? Will she hate me?
When I turn off the road, only my headlights illuminate the dark road that leads to my house. I’m still not feeling any better, but there’s no going back now. Whatever happens is up to Gabriella. She will literally hold my future in her hands after tonight. The motion sensors pick up my car and the soft lights blink on, highlighting my cabin.?
Gabriella leans forward to stare out the windshield. “Wow. I can’t wait to see the house in the daylight. I bet it’s beautiful.”
“It is,” I agree absently as I pull into the drive.
It’s nearing the witching hour by the time I park and help her out of the car. I’d like to get her inside and settled before throwing a gallon of gasoline on us and striking the match.
Gabriella enters behind me as I disarm the security system. When I turn around to face her, I find her spinning in a circle in the living room, her mouth open in awe and her eyes sparkling in the dim light.?
“This place is incredible, Dimitri,” she admits, her attention bouncing from the furniture to the decor.?
I’ve imagined bringing her here for so long, my mind playing multiple scenarios of her reactions. All of them fail compared to the real deal. She looks so natural standing here in my living room. Like she's always meant to be here.
“Why have you never brought me here before?”
I shrug, unable to think of an answer that isn’t terrible, so I settle for the truth. “I rarely come up here myself.”
“So why did you need to bring me here to tell me whatever it is you’ve been hiding?” she asks, her voice hesitating for a moment. “This isn’t like one of those…I’ll have to kill you if I tell you kind of things, is it?”
I approach her, pleased when she doesn’t back down, but instead stands her ground and raises her face to peer up at me when I stop right in front of her. Lifting my hand, I caress her face before I brush my fingers along her hair, pushing it back behind her ear. All the while she stays still, her eyes wide with innocence, oblivious to the catastrophic consequences that will unfold when the truth finally is revealed.
“Gabriella, I need to tell you the truth about me.”
“Okay."?
“I just want you to know that it changes nothing about how I feel for you.”
“You’re scaring me, Dimitri.”
I step closer and press my lips to her forehead as I whisper, “Please forgive me, angel.”
"For what?"
Leaning back, I cup her face, staring into her beautiful face, entranced by her honey eyes like a bee. “My name is not Dimitri Volkov. It’s Special Agent Dimitri Clark of the FBI.”