Total pages in book: 37
Estimated words: 34381 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 172(@200wpm)___ 138(@250wpm)___ 115(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 34381 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 172(@200wpm)___ 138(@250wpm)___ 115(@300wpm)
Nicholas had been a doctor in San Diego until he did an appendicitis operation on a pregnant woman. Her appendix was already about to explode, and he warned her of the consequences of the procedure, that while he would do everything he could to protect her pregnancy, there was still a chance she could miscarry. And that small chance happened to her. While the young woman had signed off on the paperwork to have the procedure done, her husband lost his shit and sued both Nicholas and the hospital.
Nicholas was immediately terminated, stating malpractice as their reasoning, which put a black mark on his career forever. Rico, having heard of him and how good of a doctor he was, offered him a salary twice of what he was making at the hospital if he promised to only work for Rico and turn a blind eye to the shit we all did.
Nicholas Allman had been with us since, living his best life, if I had to hazard a guess.
“You want to fucking explain?” Rico growled as he came to stand beside me.
I crossed my arms over my chest. “Maksim is mine,” I told him, my eyes never leaving my boy. A warning threaded through my words. “Don’t try to take him from me, Rico. You will not succeed.”
Rico frowned at my boy, who was now out of his jacket, the bloody garment tossed into the trashcan. His dark t-shirt was stained even darker by his blood, and when Nicholas ripped his shirt open, I snarled.
Someone had shot him.
Someone had dared to shoot what belonged to me.
“Who?” I snarled, leveling my gaze with Maksim’s. “Who the fuck shot you?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know,” he rasped, his voice thick with pain and his words a little slurred with blood loss. His head lolled, his eyes shutting. I stepped forward and gently tapped his cheek again, forcing his eyes open. “Hard to think.”
“I know, mouse,” I rasped, my heart in my fucking throat. “Just stay awake, okay?” I looked at Nicholas. “He’s lost a lot of blood—clearly. Find out his blood type so we can get a transfusion going.”
Nicholas sighed. “I know you’re worried, Alfonzo, but let me do what I do best, okay? He won’t die on this table. I promise.”
Rico pointed his finger at me. “My office. Now. Your… boy is in good hands, Alfonzo, and you fucking know it. But you and I need to fucking talk.”
I clenched my jaw, looking at Maksim once more. He forced a small smile to his face. “Go,” he whispered, his voice weak. “I won’t die. I swear.”
I blew out a harsh breath, then nodded, leaning down to mold my lips to his in a hot kiss that was still gentle—for him. Just for him because clearly, he’d been through fucking enough.
“I’ll be back,” I promised.
He nodded. “I’ll be here.”
He better fucking be. And the glare I threw Nicholas’s way made my threat clear. The man swallowed thickly and nodded once. “I’ll take good care of him.”
Gritting my teeth, I forced myself to turn and leave the infirmary, heading up the hall to Rico’s office.
Chapter Twelve
Alfonzo
Rico didn’t break his stride until he was standing behind his desk. Turning to face me, he crossed his arms over his chest, narrowing his eyes at me. “If you were anyone else bringing the enemy in my fucking house near my fucking boy, you’d be dead,” he growled.
I knew that. But even if he hadn’t given me the benefit of the doubt, I knew if he’d tried to stop me from getting Maksim medical attention, I probably would have put a bullet in Rico’s head. When it came to my boy, there was no limit to the lengths I would go to protect him and take care of him. I was feral for him. Fucking obsessed. And just as Rico would burn this fucking world to the ground to make his husband happy, I’d obliterate the goddamn universe for Maksim.
“He’s mine,” I snapped at him. “And if you so much as look at him wrong, Rico…”
Rico held up his hand. I clenched my jaw, keeping myself from saying anything else. With a sigh, he gestured to one of the chairs near me, and I took a seat, watching as he did the same behind his desk. Steepling his fingers together on his desktop, he regarded me for a moment in that eerie way he did when he was trying to decide someone’s fate, then leaned back in his chair. “I need you tell me everything you know if you want this family to help protect him.”
“Right now, I only know what you know,” I admitted. “He was hired to take me out. I was given the job of taking him out. I toyed with him like I always do, and somewhere along the line, killing him became a no-go. A hard boundary.” Rico nodded once. “We fucked last night, and now, he’s here and goddamn bleeding out on Nicholas’s table.”