Chapter 54 I’m Free, Hubby
CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
I’m Free, Hubby
IRINA
Beep … beep … beep …
I cracked my eyes open. Pizd?, they felt like craters of sand on my face, and my mouth was fuzzy.
“Catnip.” The word was spoken like a sigh at my ear, and I turned my head, wincing. I peered up into a pair of concerned green eyes. “Hey there. You thirsty?”
“Henry,” I rasped. “How did you—”
“I’ll tell you everything once you’re sitting up and you’ve had some water. You were lucky—the concussion was only mild. The doctors think that you’ve been unconscious a lot because …”
His words trailed off and the bed buzzed as he moved it up into a reclined position.
He handed me a cup of water with a straw, his fingers cool and gentle on my forehead as he smoothed some wayward strands of hair and helped me get the straw into my mouth.
I took a sip and could have cried at how soothing the cold water felt hitting my tongue.
“How are you?”
I reached up to touch the back of my head. It felt bruised, but not overly painful. “I feel … better than I expected to, I guess. I’m hungry though,” I admitted.
“No wonder; you haven’t eaten in almost a day. I can get you some food once the nurse comes in and checks you over.” Henry, eyes glistening, stroked my cheek with his knuckles.
Everything had happened so fast, and the last thing I remembered with any clarity was hearing his voice in the hallway and shouting for him. I remembered a surge of hope, knowing he was near, but …
“How did you get us out of there?” I asked, taking another sip of water. “What happened to—”
“To C?lin?” he finished. I nodded, shame creeping up my neck, hot and sticky.
“I was planning to tell you everything, Hub—Henry. I promise. I was just waiting for you to come home, to explain … when Josie lured me—Josie! Where—”
“She’s back at the island, under guard. River kept an eye on her and Atlas until Lucian arrived.”
I wrinkled my nose. “How? Atlas had a gun?”
“Cockerels Cap helped to … liberate the weapon.” Henry clasped my hand, but his expression remained tight.
“Lucian’s got them detained and is sorting things out.
Atlas will be stepping down from his position with Tickle, effective immediately.
He’ll find out soon enough that he’s burned a lot of bridges in the tech world. ”
I put a hand over Henry’s shaking one, squeezing rhythmically. “I’m sorry Atlas turned out to be such a cunt.”
Henry huffed out a tired laugh. “Listen to you, using Aussie slang the right way. I think I knew for a very long time that he was not who he tried to portray himself as. I just hadn’t wanted to acknowledge it.
” His green eyes met mine, and my chest bloomed with heat at the intensity of emotions written all over his face.
“And please don’t ever correct yourself again when you want to call me Hubby.” His fingers twined in mine. “I feel very privileged to be your husband.”
My throat closed over. I coughed and pushed on, voice rough. “But what about C?lin? Is he still going to want me to go through with our marriage? I won’t go with him. I won’t leave you.”
Henry straightened, his own eyes damp with tears. Gently he brushed mine away. “You never have to leave me, Catnip. C?lin and I have come to an agreement.”
My heart stopped. “You didn’t … did you kill him?” I breathed. Henry’s eyebrows shot up, and he barked out an astonished laugh.
“No, Ri! I figured out his problem, and I solved it.”
He launched into an account of everything I’d missed while unconscious, explaining that all I needed to do was sign a legal document relinquishing my interest in the Rusnac family ‘business’. Stefan was to do the same, being the next in line after me. Apparently he had jumped at the opportunity.
“And … Uncle Bogdan?” I asked, almost afraid for the answer.
Henry’s lips thinned. “C?lin and Stefan will deal with that side of things. I think it best we stay in the dark about it, to be honest.”
He had a very good point. I tried to feel … anything about the idea that my uncle might meet the same fate he’d dealt my father, but all I could muster was a bubbly feeling of relief.
“So, I’m free?” I asked, trying the word out on my tongue.
Henry smiled softly. “We’ve still got to convince the government that we’re a real married couple, so as long as you count being chained to me for the foreseeable future as freedom.”
I gripped his hand and tugged him down beside me, wrapping my arms around his neck and burying my head in my favourite place in the world—his solid, warm chest.
“Well.” He cleared his throat, voice raspy when he spoke again. “On that note, I got an email from Bek. Your bridging visa has been issued.”
My breath caught in my chest, and then a ragged sob ripped out of me.
“Hey! Catnip, this is good news, isn’t it?” Henry asked tentatively.
“I’m free, Hubby,” I mumbled against his T-shirt.
There was a clatter at the door, and I glanced up, wiping hurriedly at my cheeks when a nurse bustled into the room.
“I’m sorry it took me so long to get to you! We’re understaffed today—oh!” She grinned at me. “The patient is awake. That’s fantastic, makes taking obs so much easier!”
Henry went to move away from the bed, but I grabbed his wrist. “Stay,” I pleaded. His expression softened, and he wound his fingers through mine.
“I’m not going anywhere, Catnip.”
“I won’t be long. You two have a lot to catch up on …” The nurse gave Henry a pointed look before strapping a blood pressure monitor to my arm and shoving a thermometer into my ear.
“We do?” I asked, confused. I glanced at Henry, who suddenly seemed very interested in something out the window. “I feel like we’re pretty well caught up, now.”
“Oh, so you told her?” the nurse asked. Henry’s head shot in her direction.
“Not everything,” he admitted sheepishly. “To be fair, it’s been an eventful forty-eight hours, and she only just woke up.”
The air felt suddenly charged with tension.
“You know,” I mumbled, taking another sip of water, trying to alleviate the weird vibes.
“This is the first time I’ve been a patient inside an actual hospital.
Isn’t that insane? I had my IUD inserted in a grimy little clinic out the back of a real estate agency in Bucharest, on a fold-out table …
I can look back at it now and laugh, but at the time … la naiba, why am I telling you this?”
“No more secrets, Catnip.” Henry murmured, as the nurse scribbled on my chart. “But, uh … speaking of your IUD …”
He glared at the nurse, who was standing by the foot of the bed, eyes wide and trained on me. “Any chance you can get my wife a sandwich, maybe some orange juice? She hasn’t eaten in a day.”
The nurse’s expression turned from excited to business-like. “Yes … well, I’ll just be on my way. Good luck!” She winked at Henry before she darted out the door, closing it firmly behind her.
“Why is she wishing you luck?” I asked, taking another drink. “And why do you want to talk about my IUD?”
Redness crept up his neck, spreading to his face. “It’s been removed.”
I blinked. Was I still out of it? I watched his face, but aside from looking flustered, he was clearer than ever. No, I was definitely not hallucinating this.
“Why?”
“Because you’re pregnant.”