Chapter 70 Ivan
IVAN
Gabriella closes her eyes and slumps in my arms.
“FUCKKKK!” I growl into the abyss, being ripped apart as her body goes limp. “No-no-no-no…fuck no—”
Time…I thought we had time, too.
“Lay her down.” Dominic is by my side, dropping to his knees as he strips off his jacket. “Bring the fucking emergency kit!”
I can’t let go. It feels as if the warmth is already slipping from her body, and her blood on my hands…it’s me. I did this to her. I brought her here, insisted on—
“Ivan,” Dominic urges me, his hand on my shoulder, steady, calm. “You’ve got to trust me. Lay her down. On her left side. She got shot on the right.”
Yuri is next to me, his hand on my other shoulder. “You can hold her later. She isn’t dead, but it’s serious.”
Then Matteo is there, wheeling in a massive cupboard, already opening its double doors to a plethora of medical shit.
I glance down at Gabriella’s beautiful face, pale, blood spluttering from her mouth as she exhales.
Relief zaps through me, but I know the signs.
This is as bad as it gets. I carefully lay her down, Dominic’s jacket a pillow.
He is already pulling surgical gloves on, and then I see how they move like a paramedical team, working together, knowing exactly what to do.
“There are no front exit wounds. Roll her on her side,” Dominic says, and I gently ease Gabriella over.
I’m sick to my stomach. My wife…my gorgeous, golden-hearted girl took two bullets to protect me, and now her white shirt is stained red with blooms of blood. Matteo is cutting open Gabriella’s shirt, and he is even paler than she is.
“She will not fucking die on our watch or under my roof,” he hisses as he shoots me a glance. “Trust us.”
“Here,” Dominic says, checking her back.
“Bullet went in, between the spine and scapula, but hit the upper right lung, therefore the strained breathing and blood in her mouth. Her lung’s collapsing.
We need oxygen and a needle decompression to stabilize her.
Lower—” He pauses to inspect the blood and where the bullet tore through skin.
“No exit wound so it’s stuck, but by the look of it, didn’t hit the spine or kidneys.
We stabilize her and get her to the clinic. Call the surgeon.”
“Already did. The clinic’s ready and on standby.”
I look up, and there’s another man I’ve never seen before. He’s tall, like his brothers, hair longer, dark eyes like all of them, but the leanest of them all.
“Benedict Scalera,” he says with a rushed nod. “We’ll figure this out. You keep a hand on her. The shock made her pass out.”
I look down at Gabriella. For all I’ve killed men, I’ve never experienced a situation where a loved one died in my arms. I had to kill Dimitri, but that was different.
Maybe it wasn’t. He was my best friend. Or so I thought. For me, it was brotherly love, and I had to kill my chosen brother to survive. No wonder I can’t get over the Fourth of July.
Now she’s here…a loved one. A beloved. Love.
I close my eyes, praying for the first time to a God I’ve never believed in.
Because I’m in love with a woman who’s changing everything.
Who has been everything I needed without me realizing it, undeserving of her…
of this sacrifice. And she’s in love with me…
she prayed that I would fall in love with her, not knowing that I already had.
My little bird, with the heart of a dragon, protecting what is hers with her life.
I said I treasured her, but I was too scared to admit that I’ve developed feelings for a wife I married by arrangement, to meet needs I put on a to-do list, never knowing she’d go and subconsciously meet needs I didn’t even know I had.
Being open, talking to me, creating trust between partners where all I’ve ever known was silence and cold distance.
She’s never turned me away from her beautiful warm body in my bed, but the gift of her soul is purer than the rarest diamonds, the finest gold.
I stroke Gabriella’s hair, wipe away at the blood that trickled from her lips, as her brothers do what they need to do. I bite down on my jaw when Dominic pierces her between the ribs to release trapped air from her punctured lung.
“Now we get her to the clinic,” he says.
“Transport is here,” Benedict says, and I realize I’ve been zoned out, praying quietly for her to survive this.
Gabriella’s eyes flutter open, her hazed gaze meeting mine.
“Moya ptichka—”
For a long moment, we just stare at each other as I sink deeper into prayer, begging God.
“You lied,” she whispers. “These bullets hurt like a motherfucker.”
A round of chuckles eases the tense atmosphere, and my heart stutters. God. She’s going to pull through, isn’t she?
“See the cursing has finally rubbed off on you, cara. Our little Mafia princess,” Dominic says as he squeezes her hand. “You’re fighting fit.”
“I’m a Scalera,” she whispers. “Of course I’m fighting fit.”
“And a Petrov.” I drop my head to hers. “Stay with me, Gabriella,” I beg with a broken smile, not caring that her brothers can see my desperation or hear my words.
“I love you already, a step ahead of you with only falling in love, see? And you can’t die on me.
You only discovered now that you’re a dragon, with treasure to protect. ”
“You were right,” she says with a weak smile. “You said this is how the next chapter ends. You…the girls…my brothers…you’re all my treasure.”
“Yes,” I whisper, recalling that night ages ago. “More chapters, moya ptichka. There are so many more chapters.”
I lean in and press a gentle kiss to her lips.
“Hmm,” she hums. “I can’t die. I like that too much.” She softly touches my face. “I didn’t get to watch the shower video…from this morning. You promised we could watch it together…later.”
Oh, boy…this one…she’s barely started living, and there’s so much more life ahead of her.
I’ll hold her, walk with her, carry her, crawl with her all the way.
Tell her about all our chapters, how we will end them all with kisses, and how we’ll shoot a million shower videos if that’s what’s going to keep her going and help her pull through.
“Your brothers are here, listening in, moya ptichka.”
“Yes, I know. Aren’t they wonderful?” She closes her eyes as we wrap our fingers together. “Don’t worry about them…I bet they approve.”
I shoot glances at her three brothers, all focused on keeping my love alive, but with sly smiles playing in the corners of their mouths, my thought is also, Yep, I bet they approve.