Page 105 of Born into Mayhem

I nod, trusting him at his word and then look to the nurse. “You’ll be safe with him. Get him looked at as quickly as possible. He’s going to want to be here when his sister gets out of surgery.”

“I’ll be as fast as I can,” she says and then leaves with Sasha right behind her. I briefly wonder if letting her go with him was a wise choice, but Sasha’s never lied to me before, and I have too much to fucking worry about without having to add whether or not he’s going to murder a nurse at the hospital.

“She’ll be fine,” Sandro says, trying to make me feel better, but then after a few seconds he adds, “Probably.”

“I only have so much I can worry about at once,” I tell my brother. “That nurse is at the bottom of my fucking list.”

“Agreed,” Sandro says, leaning back in his chair again. “And the odds are in her favor. I mean, how many people can one person kill in a day? Surely he’s hit his quota.”

“One would think,” I say and then brace my elbows on my knees and rest my head in my hands. I can’t stop thinking about Mia, and the terror I feel with each passing minute keeps building until I feel like I’m about to burst.

When the door finally opens and a doctor stepsin, I’m on my feet in seconds. When I meet his eyes, it suddenly occurs to me that maybe I don’t want to know. I’d rather stay in the hell of waiting if it means there’s still a chance, still a small grain of hope that she might survive. If I’ve lost her, then I don’t want to know.

“Wait,” I say before the doctor can speak. I look over at Sandro, and he must see the war I’m having with myself because he squeezes my shoulder and takes over, knowing I’m unable to.

“Did she make it?” he asks.

“She did,” the doctor says, and my knees buckle in relief right before my ass hits the chair I’d just been sitting in.

“She’s alive?” I ask, needing to hear it again.

The doctor nods. “She is,SignoreAlessi.” I’m so relieved it takes me a second to notice that he still has more to say.

“What?” I ask, as a million different scenarios run through my mind. Was an organ hit? Did she lose too much blood? Is she in a coma? When he hesitates, I say, “For fuck’s sake, Doc, tell me.”

He glances at my brother. “It might be better if we spoke in private.”

“No, my brother stays,” I tell him.

“Your wife sustained a lot of damage.” His tone is soft and his words slow, and I’m two seconds away from grabbing him by the shoulders and shaking him. “The knife went in deep, and the trauma to her uterus was severe.”

“Just say whatever it is that you’re trying to say,” I tell him, forcing air into my lungs as my heart quietly breaks for the stubborn eighteen-year-old who swears she doesn’t want kids, but should’ve had decades to change her mind.

“She’s going to have severe scarring,” he says. “The likelihood that she’ll ever get pregnant is slim, and if she does manage it, it would be unsafe for her.” He pauses and adds, “Life-threatening, even. I’m very sorry.”

“When can I see her?” I ask, refusing to fall apart in front of this man.

“She’s being brought into a post-op room now. It’ll be anothercouple of hours before she wakes from surgery, but I’ll have one of the nurses bring you to her.”

“Thank you, Doctor,” I tell him, reaching out to shake the hand of the man who saved Mia’s life. It’s such a small gesture, two simple words to show an intense gratitude that can never be adequately expressed.

The doctor nods. “I’m sorry I couldn’t do more,” he says before leaving the room.

Before the door’s even shut, Sandro wraps me in a tight hug. “Fuck, I’m sorry,” he says.

“She’s alive. That’s all that matters,” I tell him, and I mean it. I don’t love her any less because of what’s happened, and it doesn’t change the fact that I want to spend the rest of my life with her. I’m terrified it’ll change how she feels about me, though. She sacrificed something precious to save me, and it’s not something I can ever fix or give back to her.

“I don’t know what I’ll do if she hates me for it,” I whisper, confessing the fear that’s slowly eating away at me.

“She won’t,” Sandro says. “She loves you too much for that, Dario. Don’t start doubting her now.”

He’s right, and I feel a sharp twinge of guilt after he says it.

“Fuck, she’s turned me into a giant pussy,” I say, wiping at my eyes and taking a shaky breath.

Sandro squeezes my shoulder. “I wasn’t going to mention it, but she absolutely has.”

I can only manage a soft laugh, but he smiles when he hears it. “You two will get through this, brother.”