7. Chapter Seven
Chapter Seven
Sasha
T he private doctor is truly a private doctor. Nico takes me to the home of a man named Elio Rocci, a certified physician.
“Why not a hospital?” I ask as Nico carries me over Elio’s threshold and into a small room that has an exam table in it and other medical equipment.
“Elio is a real doctor and this way, no one will ask any questions. I don’t need any doctors wondering if I beat you. And knowing you, you’d tell them that I did beat you and I’d get thrown in jail.” He sets me down on the exam table.
“That’s a good thing. You’re a murderer.”
Nico doesn’t comment on that and instead, turns to the doctor and speaks to him in Italian. Elio motions for me to lay down.
“Where are you hurt?” he asks in fluent English.
“My stomach. I was kicked. Multiple times.”
“Was it…” He glances at Nico.
“It wasn’t me,” Nico snaps. “I saved her from the asshole doing that to her.”
“Right.” He presses down onto my stomach and I let out a yelp. “I’ll need to inspect your body. Can you please take off your dress?”
“Not with him here,” I mutter, nodding at Nico.
“I’m staying.” Nico smirks. “And besides, I’ll see you naked soon enough.”
With an eye roll, I slip my dress down but I keep my underwear and bra in place. My stomach is already bruising.
The doctor inspects it for a long moment, making my heart pound, before he grabs an ultrasound machine and checks for any internal bleeding.
“Everything looks good inside. It’s just surface level bruising.
You’ll heal within a few days, though it may be hard to inhale fully for a while just because of the pain.
I can give you some medication to help with it. ”
“No medicine,” I grit out.
“May I ask why?”
I look at Nico. “I don’t want to be drugged.”
“Meaning, she doesn’t trust me,” Nico says. “She wants to be sober, I take it.”
“Exactly,” I snap.
“Well, all right then,” Elio says. “But keep it easy for the next few days. Rest. Re-gain your strength. The pain should go away and if it doesn’t, come back to see me.”
“Ok.” I try to put my dress back on but it hurts too much. Nico steps forward and slips it on over my head, his hands lingering on my waist. I shoot him a look and he only smirks.
“Let’s get you back home, Sasha.”
“One moment.” I turn to the doctor. “Can I use your restroom?”
“Of course. I’ll show you where it is.” Elio walks me out of the exam room and down a hallway to his bathroom. Nico isn’t with us.
I take this moment to grab Elio’s arm, making him look at me with raised eyebrows. “Can I trust you?”
“I’m not sure what you’re asking.”
“How loyal are you to Nico?”
“Loyal. He pays me well to work for him.”
“So if I ever came to you for help, would you tell Nico?”
Elio extracts his arm away. “I would. He would kill me if I tried to harbor you, I’m afraid. But if he ever beats you, you can come to me and I’ll fix you right up.” He pats my arm before walking away. So much for the help.
Nico has a vice on this city and I won’t receive any help here.
An idea hits me.
I sneak further down the hallway and inspect every room until I find the doctor’s office. The door isn’t locked so I can walk right on it. He has a landline phone in it. Thank god.
It takes me a moment to figure out how to make a call on it from Italy to New York but I manage and soon, I’m dialing Natalya’s number.
She answers right away. “Hello?”
“It’s Sasha,” I whisper, glancing at the door.
“Sasha. Oh my god. Are you ok?”
“Yes. Is Mikhail ok?”
“He’s doing better. His face is still bruised but he’s alive. He didn’t suffer any serious damage.”
“I’m in Italy,” I blurt out.
She goes silent on the other end before she inhales sharply. “He took you out of the country.”
“He did. He says it’s for our honeymoon so I’m not sure if we’ll be returning to New York any time soon, if ever. I’m not sure. I’m in Rome. I can give you the address of Nico’s home.” I rattle it off to her.
“This is great. I’ll send Mikhail there to save you.”
“Nico has a ton of guards around his property. It won’t be easy.”
“We’ll get you back. I promise.”
I squeeze my eyes shut. “I wish I could believe you.”
“Then why even reach out unless you have hope?”
“I’m desperate?”
Natalya huffs. “I’m always here for you, Sasha. When will you believe it?”
“I don’t know,” I admit. “I’m sorry. I have to go. But I hope this helps.”
“It helps a lot.”
I hesitate a moment before I hang up, then I sneak out of the office and return to the exam room where Nico and Elio are talking.
“I didn’t beat my wife,” Nico is saying. “So stop looking at me like I did. I saved her from a man who was beating on her. She has a bad habit of sneaking out. Now, I don’t need your judgement, doctor. I pay you to fix any injuries. I don’t pay you for advice.”
“I know. But I’m still a doctor. I can’t help but worry.”
I peak around the doorframe to see Nico stand tall over Elio. “You know what will happen to you if you intervene.”
“I do.” Elio backs away, ducking his head. He’s for sure no help to me. He’s too afraid of Nico. I think most people are.
Nico glances over in my direction and spots me and an easy smile spreads across his face. “Ready to go?”
“Ready.”
When we return home, Nico carries me up to our bedroom.
“I can walk,” I tell him, trying to ignore how strangely good it feels to be in his arms. “My legs aren’t broken.”
“Oh, I know. But I can’t be kind to my wife?”
I stare at him. “I don’t know. Can you?”
“Well, there’s a different reason for my kind action.” He drops me right onto the bed, making me gasp. The pain in my stomach swells up. “You have a bad problem of sneaking out and that needs to end here and now.”
“What are you doing?” I ask as he heads into the walk-in closet and comes back out with rope. Honest to goodness rope.
I try to get up and run but I double over, gasping from the pain.
Nico uses that to his advantage. Grabbing my wrists, he brings them above my head and ties them to the headboard.
My legs flail out, trying to kick him, but I cramp up as a spike of pain seizes me.
He smirks as he ties my ankles to the end of the bed.
“There.” He steps back, eyeing his handiwork. “That will keep you from going anywhere for a while.”
“Why are you doing this to me?” I cry out.
“Because you are my wife and I need you to not run. You keep sneaking out of the house and it gets you into trouble. I’ve had to kill two men in two days because of your actions.”
“Poor baby,” I mock.
“Fine. Yes, I do like to kill. But I don’t like to draw unnecessary attention to myself from the police. Now I have to go deal with the man I killed in that alleyway.”
“You only care about yourself and your job.”
“I also care about you now too.”
I scoff. “If you cared about me, you wouldn’t have tied me up right now.”
“I care about you, Sasha. I married you for a reason. I don’t want to see you get raped or beaten up. I may be a monster but that’s one thing I don’t want to see.”
There’s a sincerity in his eyes that draws me up short. I can’t even make sense of it.
“That’s why I’ve tied you up,” he continues. “So I can make sure you’re safe in our home tonight while I go clean up your mess.”
“I never asked you to kill that man.”
Anger flashes in his eyes and I flinch back. But he doesn’t hurt me. “If a man is attacking my wife, then yes, I’m going to kill the motherfucker. If you had never left, then we wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place.”
“If you had never forced me to marry you, we wouldn’t be in this mess.”
“Touché. I’ll give you that one.” With a wink, he leaves me alone, tied to his bed, with nothing to do but feel the pain in my stomach and backside all night long.
Nico doesn’t untie me until the morning. The bastard even slept by my side all night and ignored me every time I asked him to let me go. Eventually, I stopped asking.
Now, the moment I’m free, I rush from the bed, ignoring the pain in my stomach, and run to the ensuite bathroom. I moan when I can finally relieve myself.
“I wish you would moan like that for me,” Nico comments on the other side of the door.
“In your dreams,” I say as I wash my hands. “Now, I’m going to take a bath. Leave me alone.”
“I can join you.” His tone is suggestive.
“I was just beaten up last night. I’m still bruised. Why would I want you to join me?”
“Not for sex. I give a mean back rub.”
“I’m not going to take a bath with you.” I can’t help that my cheeks are flushed and my words stutter. The thought of being with Nico, alone, in the bath, is too much to bear.
“Well, if you change your mind, come get me.”
I’m expecting Nico to wait outside my door but I hear him walk away and I can’t deny the slight sense of disappointment. Is there a tiny part of me that likes the way he challenges me? I’ll be honest: it’s the most excitement I’ve gotten all my life.
I slip into the bath and let myself relax under the bubbles. The warmth of the water helps ease the pain in my stomach.
My eyes flutter closed.
Nico enters the bathroom and kneels beside the tub, giving me a smirk as he lowers his hand beneath the water. I gasp when I feel his hand on my thigh and before I know it, I open my legs wider for him. His hand moves up, up, up…
I gasp awake.
I must have dozed off for a moment because Nico is not in the bathroom. I’m all alone. Which is fine , I tell myself. I don’t want Nico to touch me.
I can’t deny though that he has saved my life two times now. Granted, he’s the reason I’m in this position in the first place. But he still saved me.
It must be doing strange things to me. That’s the only reason. There’s no other reason I would want Nico to touch me like he almost did in my dream.
He did look strong and brave both times he saved me. He also looked incredibly frightening from the anger in his eyes. Anger at the men who tried to hurt me.