4

KONSTANTIN

   You have to prepare for the worst.

I couldn’t process those words. I refused to accept them. I had lost my shit on the doctors more than once over the last twenty-four hours. I had paid them all off, but it was only a matter of time before her brothers learned of this accident.

Doctors here understood the risks if they slipped my name to them. I wouldn’t hesitate to use their families to make them pay. And my wrath wasn’t a nice thing to bear. But that wouldn’t be necessary because they knew to keep this secret for me.

Now, they just had to save Tatiana and all would be well with the world.

Her forehead needed stitches, as well as her shoulder and forearm, but fortunately she didn’t have any internal injuries. She endured a head injury that might have caused some brain damage. But she has been in and out of consciousness, and until she was fully conscious, the extent of the damage couldn’t be determined.

The accident happened yesterday.

Twenty-four hours of anguish. A whole day of pacing the length of this hospital room over and over again. A whole day of watching her face, praying for the first time in my fucked up life. I couldn’t endure not having her in my life, but the knowledge of her not walking this Earth would fucking end me.

Without her, there was nothing.

A sardonic breath left me. How fucking ironic? She didn’t even know I existed, yet she was the reason for my being. And somehow, I had almost ended up in the same place as my father.

I sat down in the same chair I had occupied and took her cold hand into mine.

“I should have taken you all those years ago.” My thumb glided over her faint blue veins. “It was you all along. Didn’t you recognize that?”

Fury at Adrian mounted and heightened. He put her in this position. He started to fuck with the Omertà. Instead of being thankful I stopped my father from ending his life, he came back to fuck with us all.

Motherfucker.

That was the reason second chances weren’t worth giving. Adrian was smart, too smart. And he hid behind the Nikolaev family. It was the reason it took us so long to figure out who kept hacking our system, copying our data, and then taunting us with the sins we’d committed.

Nobody in the underworld was innocent.

Some of us were worse than the others. Nonetheless, that chip could put all of us behind bars and get us executed. It would expose our world, but not only the Thorns of Omertà’s world, but also all of the others. Kingpins. Billionaire Kings. Cosa Nostra. Cartels. Yakuza.

It was the Yakuza who grew the most impatient. It was the Yakuza who attacked them first tonight. Marchetti got a tip from Dante Leone that they’d attack in their attempt to snatch the chip from Adrian. The moment I learned about it from Bitter Prince, I came swiftly. Except, it was almost too late for Tatiana.

The door to the hospital room slid open and Nikita’s heavy footsteps echoed on the floor. I was surprised he insisted on staying. He hated hospitals with a passion. I figured he felt bad for the woman. It was the first time he witnessed a woman almost dying.

Boris had witnessed it once before - that night my father executed my mother. He came from the slums of Russia. No parents. No connections. No relatives. It was the reason my father pulled him into his world. Men like him made the best recruits. But it didn’t take long for Boris to switch alliances from my father to me. I suspected it had something to do with Papa’s cold blooded execution of my mother.

Nikita joined us much later, but he proved his loyalty many times over.

“How is she?” Nikita asked.

“No change.”

“Her brothers learned of the accident and Adrian’s death.” Fuck, I had hoped for another day. Just until she was out of the woods. I needed to see her blue eyes one more time before I let her recover on her own. “Isabella Nikolaev has connections with medical staff everywhere due to her profession.”

“Did the doctors talk?” I hissed, my breathing harsh.

“No. But they’re on their way here. They’ve checked every other hospital in the area already.”

I released a long breath, wishing things were different. But wishing was for fools. I had to act. “How much time do we have?”

“An hour.”

I nodded, dismissing him without a word.

Tatiana’s eyes opened and she blinked a few times.

Relief slammed into me, and I thought my eyes were burning. They better not be fucking tears. I brought my hand to her cheek and stroked it softly.

“You’re going to be okay,” I rasped, emotions thick in my voice. “Because our story has barely begun.”