Lie To Me In Diamonds

CHAPTER 4: STITCHES AND LIES

The first thing Nadia heard was the sound. Not the gunshot but the sound that came after.

A wet, heavy thud. Like a bag of sand dropped on marble. And then Damian’s breath catching. Cutting off.

Time stuttered.

“Nadia, don’t—”

A red flower bloomed across the white of his dress shirt. Right over his heart.

Nadia’s brain didn’t process it. Her body did.

“Damian!”

Her voice ripped out of her. It didn’t sound like her. It sounded like someone else.

_”NADIA! NADIA, RUN!”_

A memory slammed into her so hard she staggered. Blood on tile. A voice, raw, desperate. The same pitch Damian’s made now as he hit his knees.

She was running before she realized her legs were moving.

“Damian! Damian, look at me!” She dropped to the floor. Her hands were shaking so bad she couldn’t find the wound at first. Just blood. So much blood. It was between his fingers where he was clutching his chest. It was on her hands the second she touched him.

His eyes found hers. Gray. Usually sharp enough to cut glass. Now hazy. Pain made his jaw tick.

“Nadia” he gasped,pain rippling on his face

“Shut up. Don’t talk.” She pressed both hands over the wound. The heat of him shocked her. “Help! Somebody help!”

Footsteps. Shouts from outside. Varela’s men. Of course they were already inside.

Two men in black burst in. Not to help. But to drag him on the cold floor,without little or no resistance from him, Nadia pounced on the man dragging Damian,yelling,yanking him by the hair as he trashed around the place.

“Get off him,” the other man snarled, grabbing Damian’s arm. Blood dripped from Damian’s sleeve onto the floor. Drip. Drip. Drip.

Nadia threw herself over him.

“He’s bleeding out! Leave him alone!”

The second man yanked her back by her hair. Pain exploded across her scalp.

Damian’s body was dead weight as they hauled him up. His head lolled.

“No!” She clawed at the man’s arm. “He needs a hospital, you idiots!”

She throws her head back and hits the man pulling her hair, rolls to the ground, picks a gun and shoots him on the leg and forehead and the other on his chest,sure that it pierced his heart as they both slump to the ground.

Nadia stood in the middle of the blood, breathing too fast, The ringing in her ears was so loud it hurt.

The memory wouldn’t stop. _“Save her! You have to save her!”

She forced air into her lungs. One. Two. Three.

Phone. She needed a phone.

She rushes back to Damian, searched his pockets for his phone. While pressing her hand to his wound as the red liquid oozed continuously.

“Stay with me Damian, stay with me”

HOSPITAL - 37 MINUTES LATER

Chaos.

“Trauma alert! GSW to chest! BP 70 over 40! We’re losing him!”

The doors burst open and they wheeled him in.

Damian on a gurney, oxygen mask over his face, blood soaking the grey fabric of his suit jacket. An IV in his arm. A nurse pumping his chest.

Nadia tried to follow. A nurse blocked her.

“You can’t come in.”

“I’m with him!”

“Wait here!”

The doors swung shut.

The sound hit her all at once. The beeping. The shouting. “Prepare for surgery! Now! Get two units of O-negative!”

“Doctor!”

“Scalpel!”

Nadia’s knees gave out. She slid down the wall until she was sitting on the floor. Her hands were still red. She couldn’t stop staring at them.

This was her fault. The deal. The diamond. She dragged him into this. She hadn’t spent up to 48 hours with Damian, it just seemed like trouble had a way of following her.

Her chest felt too tight. The lights were too bright. The air wouldn’t come in.

_Panic. Don’t panic. Breathe._

“Hey.”

A hand on her shoulder. Gentle.

She looked up.

Elias Vance.

He’d been at the gala last night. The one with the suspicious but flirty eyes, he was again in a suit.

“Nadia.” He crouched in front of her. “It’s Elias. From the gala. Can you hear me?”

She nodded. Couldn’t talk. She just stared aimlessly.

He sat next to her on. Didn’t touch her. Just close.

“They’re good here,” he said quietly.

“He got shot because of me,” she whispered. It hurt to say it.

“I don’t know that.”

“You don’t know that? I am telling you that, is your rivalry with him going to shut your eyes to the truth?”

Elias was quiet. “You’re freezing.”

“I’m fine.”

“You’re not.”

Something in the way he said it made her look at him. He wasn’t pitying her. He was just... there. Steady.

For a second, it would’ve been so easy to lean on him,there was just something comforting about his presence there, made her not feel…alone.

She didn’t, couldn’t bring herself to lean on him knowing that Damian was fighting for his life all because of her, she couldn’t bring herself to…. damn it!!! She felt too guilty.

She pulled her knees up and wrapped her arms around them.

“Thank you. For staying.”

He gave a small smile. But before he could answer, the ER doors banged open.

The surgeon stepped out. Mask down. Exhausted.

“Ms. Reyes?”

Nadia was on her feet instantly. Swaying. Elias caught her by her waist and she looked eyes with him for a second before focusing on the doctor

“How is he?”

“He’s stable,” the doctor said. “The bullet missed his heart by less than an inch. We repaired the damage and stopped the bleeding. He lost a lot of blood, but he’s out of surgery. He should wake in a few hours.”

Nadia exhaled. It felt like her ribs might crack.

“Can I see him?”

“Once he’s in recovery. Give it an hour.”

Elias squeezed her arm once. “I should go. But call me. Anytime. Okay?”

She nodded. He hesitated, then left. Nadia watched him leave, controlling the urge to ask him to stay, just so she won’t slip into loneliness,again.

RECOVERY ROOM 214 - 2 HOURS LATER

Damian looked wrong in a hospital bed.

Too pale. Too still. Tubes and wires everywhere. The heart monitor beeped steady. A bandage covered most of his left side under the thin gown.

Nadia stood in the doorway for a long time.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered when she finally went in. “This is my fault. All of it. Varela. The deal. You should’ve never—”

No answer. Just the beep. Beep. Beep.

“I should’ve been the one who got shot,” she said. “I’m leaving. As soon as you wake up. I promise. You don’t owe me anything.”

She turned to go.

A hand shot out and grabbed her wrist.

Nadia spun.

Damian’s eyes were still closed. His brow was furrowed. His grip was weak but desperate.

“Nadia,” he murmured. “Don’t go. Don’t leave me again, please”

Her breath caught.

And then the memory hit.

White lights. People shouting.

_“Save her! You have to save her! Please!”_

A man’s voice. Desperate. Familiar. Damian’s.

Hands on her. Pain. Machines beeping.

She jerked back so hard she almost fell. Her heart was racing. That wasn’t possible. Was she daydreaming now? The flashes she was having,the things she was seeing,they looked like memories. Memories?

Damian’s hand fell back to the bed. His breathing stayed even.

Nadia stared at him, shaking. What the hell was that?

2:17 AM - HOSPITAL ROOM 214

She couldn’t stay away.

She’d gone home, scrubbed the blood from under her nails, and came back. The deal was dead. But she wasn’t leaving him.

The hallway was quiet. Too quiet. Only the nurse’s station light at the end

A figure in scrubs walked past her. Mask on. Cap low. Nothing unusual. Except he wasn’t looking at charts. He was looking at room numbers.

He stopped at 214. Looked both ways. Slipped inside.

Nadia moved. She moved too fast

Inside, the room was dark. The only light was from the machines.

The figure was at Damian’s bedside. Covered from head to toe in a tall frame, she could tell it was a man from his build. He was holding up an injection, trying to inject it into the drip.

“Step away from him,” Nadia said.

The figure froze, then he lunged dropping the injection in the process.

He was fast and brutal and silent.

He swung the knife. Nadia blocked with her forearm and drove her elbow into his throat. He gagged and came back with a punch to her ribs. Pain exploded.

They crashed into the IV stand. It toppled with a crash. The heart monitor started screaming.

“Security!” Nadia shouted as she grabbed his wrist, twisting. The knife clattered to the floor.

He was strong. He drove his shoulder into her stomach and she hit the wall. The air left her lungs.

But she’d been fighting since she was 14. She won’t loose to this criminal, oh she was so sure of it

She ducked under his next swing and got behind him. Arm around his throat. Her other hand went for his mask.

He thrashed. Elbow back. Knee up.

Something hot and sharp sliced into her thigh.

The knife. He had another one.

She hissed but didn’t let go. She tightened her grip, dragging him back. Her fingers found the edge of his mask—

He bucked, slamming her into the bed frame. Pain shot up her spine, he twisted, bringing the knife down again. This time into her calf.

Nadia cried out and let go.

He ripped free, mask still on, and ran. Out the door. Down the hall. Gone.

The door slammed open a second later.

“Oh my God!” A nurse exclaimed.

She was on the floor. Her leg was on fire. Blood was soaking her leather trousers.

“Get a doctor! We’ve got a stabbing!”

As hands lifted her onto a gurney, as the painkillers started to pull her under, the only thought in her head was:

_Varela. It was one of his._

_I’m not letting him die._

THE NEXT MORNING: 10:24 am

Six stitches. Crutches. Painkillers that made her head fuzzy.

She didn’t care.

She limped back to room 214, her mind running through the attack. The height. The build. One of Varela’s. Had to be.

She pushed the door open.

And stopped.

Damian was awake.

Sitting up in bed, pillow behind his back. Still pale, but alert. His grey eyes were clear. And they found her the second she walked in.

Sitting next to him, arranging a massive bouquet of white lilies on the bedside table, was a woman.

Blonde. Perfect. Cream dress. With a thick red lipstick that had Nadia wondering how early she woke to be able to apply all that make up and beat time.

She turned and smiled. Bright. She looked… perfect, beside Damian, just the perfect woman wearing feminine things. Right, she couldn’t just shake why she felt weird that she was with Damian or the close proximity they were in.

“Oh! You must be Nadia,” she said, standing. “I’m Charlotte.”

Nadia’s crutch squeaked on the floor.

Damian didn’t look away from her. His gaze was steady. Intense. Like he was trying to tell her something.

Charlotte extended a hand.

Nadia took her hand. Her grip was steady. “Nadia Reyes. And you are?”

Nadia looked at Damian. He was still watching her. Only her. Jaw tight. Something unreadable in his eyes. Something…. thankful and longing?

“Oh darling, I am Damian’s Fiancee” she said with a cheery smile, a smile too cheery for Nadia’s liking.

What the hell is going on??!!