Chapter 46
Chapter Forty-Six
“I’m here!” Shaun’s voice sounded in his ear. When he turned, her gaze dropped to his hands and she gasped. “Oh my god.” She turned and shouted, “Give me the blanket.”
He handed the baby over, the sharp scent of blood lingering in the air. “Saskia,” he said hoarsely as Shaun quickly wrapped the baby in a brightly coloured blanket. “She’s….”
Shaun handed the swaddled infant to Ayaan and leaned into the car, her gaze concerned. “I need you to get out so I can help her.”
Radik didn’t move. He couldn’t.
Hands wrapped around his arms and pulled him from the car. Havel. Radik shook him off, rushing around the vehicle to the other side, yanking the door open.
He caught Saskia as she lolled backwards into his arms. He crouched on the pavement, holding her while Shaun pressed a towel between her legs.
She checked Saskia’s pulse. “It’s steady.”
“Why did she faint?” He demanded, panicked. “Why hasn’t she woken up?”
“I don’t know,” Shaun said in a calm tone. “There are any number of reasons. We won’t know until she’s checked.”
The wail of an ambulance cracked the silence around them and Radik turned to look as it made its way slowly up the driveway. Jozef’s people had finished moving bodies and cars before the ambulance arrived at the scene, as efficiently as if they practiced this sort of thing on a weekly basis.
Radik was forced to move again as the paramedics took over, Shaun rapidly explaining the situation to them. As she climbed out of the car, she said to Jozef, “I’m going with her.”
Jozef nodded, snapping his fingers at Halil who stepped forward. I want three vehicles on the ambulance and my people inside the hospital. Don’t take no for an answer if security tries to stop you from protecting her room. Use my name if you have to. Make sure there are people on my wife as well.
Saskia was quickly loaded into the ambulance by the paramedics, Shuan following them with the baby.
“I’m going!” Radik shouted, rushing to jump in after them.
A paramedic held out a hand. “You can’t come. You’ll have to meet us at the hospital.” He slammed the doors to the ambulance shut, cutting off Radik’s view.
“Saskia!” he bellowed, rushing forward.
“You’re too big, brother.” Ayaan tried to hold him back while Shola stood in his way, her hands on his chest. “You’ll be in their way.”
He wasn’t listening though. He shoved Shola into Ayaan, neutralizing both at once as they toppled to the pavement in a tangle of limbs. He took a handful of steps toward the ambulance before Havel stepped in front of him.
Instead of trying to reason with him, Havel drew back his fist and punched him.
Radik’s head snapped back, but he didn’t go down.
A haze of red blinded Radik to anything but the man standing between him and the departing ambulance. He jumped on Havel, knocking him to the ground, pummeling him.
The moment the ambulance was out of sight, several of Jozef’s security team peeled Radik away from Havel, who lay sprawled on the pavement, his lips bleeding, a dazed expression on his face.
Jozef pulled up next to Radik in a Bugatti. Opening the passenger door from the inside, he signed, Get in.
Radik folded his massive frame into the sports car. Jozef drove him to the hospital, the silence between them fraught with tension.
The moment they stepped through the hospital doors, Shaun rushed toward them, relief written on her face.
“Saskia and the baby are both fine,” she said, out of breath as she reached them. “Saskia’s blood pressure shot up from the stress of the delivery and then dropped immediately after the birth, which is why she fainted. She’s awake now.”
Radik fell to his knees before he knew his legs had buckled. It felt like he was being offered life again after having it ripped away for a few precious minutes. “I want… I need….”
Shaun’s compassionate gaze landed on him. “Of course, you’ll want to see them. Your daughter is being cleaned up and checked. She’s premature, but I don’t think she’ll need much more than a few days in the postnatal unit.”
Radik nodded, grateful that Shaun was giving him this information freely. She could have hated him for the things he’d done to Saskia, but she didn’t. Her compassion in such a moment, for a man such as him, was humbling.
Jozef helped him to his feet and to both of them, Radik said, “Thank you.”
“This way.” Shaun turned, leading them to an elevator bank.
Saskia was in a room on the third floor, the hall outside her door filled with several of Jozef’s security staff, milling around, trying to look like they belonged in the maternity ward of the hospital.
Shaun peeled away to speak to the head nurse on duty while Jozef stopped to talk to Halil. Radik pushed the door open, poking his head inside.
Saskia was in the room alone. She looked small and fragile on her bed, propped up against a wall of white pillows, her arm attached to an IV. A machine next to the bed beeped steadily.
“Muhammed.” She held out a shaking hand.
He sank into the chair next to her bed, then took her hand, kissing it. “I’m so sorry,” he said, his eyes burning with unshed tears. “You would not have been in danger if I hadn’t sent you away. None of this should have happened. This is my fault and I will do whatever it takes to atone.”
She shook her head at him. “I don’t have the energy to fight about ‘what ifs’ right now. You did send me away, and this did happen, but I don’t blame you. I blame the person who tried to kill me.”
Rage slammed into Radik and he had to forcibly shove it down so as not to alarm Saskia. “I will find the person who did this and I will deal with them.” By dismembering them alive.
“You don’t have to find anyone.” Her voice grew in strength.
He caressed her face, touching her hair where sweat had matted the curls against her head. “If I don’t hunt your attacker, they could try again. Our daughter could be caught in the crossfire. I must be allowed to do this for you.”
Her lips tilted in a half smile. “Of course you must deal with them. What I mean is that you don’t need to find them.
I know who attacked me. It was my old boss, Prime Minister Branislav Makovsky.
He’s the one who had Aurelia killed. I’m not sure why exactly, but I think it has something to do with securing the President’s next term. ”
Radik straightened, his chair creaking under his weight. His cyber security team had looked into Branislav and dismissed him as a suspect in Saskia’s attack. There was nothing linking him to the men who tried to kill her.
“How do you know?” he asked.
“He told me,” she replied, then explained how she discovered the crime.
“I don’t know why I called him. It was stupid of me.
If I’d gone to Jozef with my discovery, the baby and I would’ve been safe.
I never imagined Branislav would have me attacked in my apartment while I was surrounded by security personnel. ”
He stroked her arm, his fingers lingering over the injection site of the IV. The cold steel of the needle penetrating her skin seemed barbaric. He hated it, hated that she’d suffered a traumatic delivery.
“You didn’t know he would attack you,” Radik said gruffly.
She looked at him seriously. “I would have gone to his office to see him in person if I’d been able to. He might have succeeded in killing me if I’d done that. In killing our baby.”
Radik held his shudder in. It terrorized him that she could have put herself in such danger, but he hated the idea that she would blame herself more.
She was a member of an intergenerational crime family.
She would always see the world a little differently, react differently.
Confronting a situation rather than running from it was in her blood.
He folded her hand into his. “I know this,” he said, his lips quirking in a smile. “You aren’t one to run to a man for help with a problem. You’re a Koba. No one will be surprised that you tried to confront Branislav alone.”
“You aren’t mad at me?” Tears made her eyes shine but they didn’t fall. “I almost got our baby killed.”
“You did not,” he said, his voice hardening.
“You will not accept the blame for something your boss did. He murdered your colleague and friend and he tried to murder you as well. None of this is your fault.” He caressed her hand.
“I don’t deserve to say this to you, not after sending you away, but I will say it anyway.
Your passion for independence and justice are things I love about you.
I don’t want you to change because it’s safer. You must be who you are meant to be.”
She blinked at him, her tears disappearing, a slow smile spreading across her exhausted face. “You’re such a strange man. You say you love me for the very things you’ve tried so hard to protect me from. The things that drive my family crazy.”
He shook his head. “You don’t drive them crazy. They fear for you while also admiring your independent streak. It’s why they want to protect you from yourself.”
Saskia’s smile faded. “You broke my heart when you sent me away.”
He ducked his head. “It was only ever meant to be temporary, until I got better.”
“And you’re better now?”
“Not entirely, but I realized there was no point in getting better without you there.”
“I wish you’d realized that two months ago.” She looked away from him, toward the window. “I don’t think I’m ready to forgive you.”
Her words gave him hope even if he didn’t deserve to feel the emotion. “I’m sorry I made that decision without you. I realize now that a partnership means both parties get a say in how the relationship is conducted.”
“Your therapist told you that, didn’t she?”
He grinned. “She did.”
“Smart woman.”
“Smarter than me.”
“That’s not hard,” she said, her cheeks dimpling with mischief.
He deserved the rebuke. Kissing the back of her hand, he said, “I will do whatever it takes for as long as it takes to earn your trust. This time I will do it right.”
“No more kidnapping?” Her tone sounded disappointed.
He carefully chose his words. “If I thought you were in danger, and you agreed with my assessment, a kidnapping might be in order.”
She nodded. “I suppose that’s reasonable.” Her eyes shone with happiness and he knew he was on the road to forgiveness. “Now that we’ve sorted that out, I have one question.”
“What’s that?”
“What should we name our daughter?”