Page 38 of Captive Vows (The Dubinin Bratva #1)
LUKA
“ G abriella, stay with me.” The nurse didn’t move away from her, staying between her legs as she singlehandedly worked to deliver this baby. “I need you to push.”
I blinked, leaning against the door as more Cartel fuckers rushed in.
They’d surrounded the facility with too much practiced ease. I couldn’t be sure it was only the Vipers here, or if they’d brought along professional help. More hitmen. Maybe the Riveras.
It didn’t matter. So long as I was here and could breathe, they were not getting to the woman I loved.
“I can’t,” Gabriella said, her voice weak and trailing off. “I just can’t.”
“One more push,” the nurse said. “You can do this. You can.”
The sound of her in agony broke my heart. But I couldn’t take this from her. I couldn’t spare her this pain.
More men came, and Alexsei joined me in shooting them back.
“One, two, three,” the nurse counted sternly, a no-nonsense woman who would be rewarded for her bravery not to flee like all the others had with this ambush and attack. “Now, push!”
Gabriella growled, straining, but I couldn’t turn back and hold her. I couldn’t be there to take her hand and let her squeeze it as she bore down.
That last hit I’d taken was bleeding too damn quickly. My energy waned. Staggering to stay standing, I blinked again and warded off this lightheadedness.
I’d come in here in such a rush, fueled by adrenaline and the bloodlust to kill anyone who targeted Gabriella, that I was running on fumes now.
Still, these assholes tried to get to her.
Too many Dubinins blocked the way now. Casualties lined the floor, both theirs and ours, but the tide was turning.
More of my loyal men were holding back the gunmen.
As the screams, shouts, and rapports of gunfire ceased, my soldiers chased the Cartel members out of the building.
But then another sound reached my ears.
A beautiful cry.
The result of tiny lungs wailing loudly.
Again and again, the baby cried.
Perhaps he or she wasn’t too happy about the chaos that heralded this moment.
Turning slowly, knowing the men would have my back, I lowered my gun and sought out my love on the floor.
It was too much of a spin, too fast. I blinked again, unable to stand. Dropping to one knee, I gave up the fight to be upright.
“Gabriella…”
Tears streaked her face. Sweat matted her hair down.
As she smiled and cradled our child against her chest, I swore my heart swelled so much and burst from the deepest love I never could’ve imagined feeling.
Love wasn’t a joke.
While I crawled toward her, damning my injuries for threatening me to pass out, I knew that love was a miracle. A salvation.
“Gabriella…” I whispered it again, in awe. I couldn’t tear my stare away from them. Mother and child. The mother of my child. The woman I would love until I no longer breathed.
“You…” I huffed a weak laugh, working on reaching them. “You did it.”
“ We did it,” Gabriella corrected, giving me a weak smile.
The nurse kept working on cleaning up and tending to the afterbirth, not getting in my way. But she was watchful of me, too. “Easy, sir. You’re bleeding.”
“Fuck that.” Ten seconds ago, I’d been in a fight to the end, not caring if I died to protect Gabriella and this baby.
Hearing Gabriella call us a team, partners, made me damn near ready to cry myself.
So grateful she’d come into my life, and so proud of her to stay strong no matter what happened, I reached her and the baby.
“A son,” she said, her voice heavy with emotion, too.
“I love you,” I told her, holding her close. My arm was on fire. Pain radiated from the gunshot wounds I’d acquired to save her. But nothing would stop me from telling her that and touching her. “I love you so fucking much, Gabriella.”
She sniffled, crying happy tears as she leaned over. I kissed the top of her head, watching our son pout in her arms.
“I love you, too, Luka.” She rested against me, holding our son close.
“Don’t hate me for ruining the moment, but you’re both losing too much blood.” The nurse shook her head, eyeing us both.
I wasn’t in the mood to argue with her. I wouldn’t protest medical advice to keep Gabriella and our son safe. I was a tough old guy, though. They came first.
As the building was cleared out and law enforcement arrived, my men handled the situation.
Emil showed up, dealing with the cops who tried to interfere on the scene.
It was a mess out there, but with the help of a few nurses and doctors, my family was taken to the hospital next door where we were checked over.
I didn’t make it easy. Insisting on keeping Gabriella in my room, within my sight, I ensured that she was stabilized where I could see her and keep her safe.
She was traumatized from the birthing process happening like it had, delivering our son amid the violence, but physically, she was fine.
Our son was healthy, too.
It turned out that the doctors had tried to guess at the gestation timing all along.
Gabriella hadn’t been having cycles before she was kidnapped.
With an athlete’s physique from dancing and malnourished from scarce food at home with Miguel there, she’d missed her periods so often that it wasn’t easy to determine how far along she was.
Based on the baby’s measurements, an older, more experienced doctor said the baby was more like thirty-seven and a half weeks.
What mattered was that no time in the NICU would be needed. The baby was healthy, showing no signs of distress or concerns, but we would keep him overnight for all the necessary precautions and checks.
I was checked over as well. Emil and the others would continue to handle the technical matters of reports for the pesky cops who’d get in the way. But while they took care of those details, I was free to relax in the room I shared with Gabriella and our son.
Stitched up, X-rayed, and checked over, I was on my road to recovery. The gunshot wounds I’d obtained weren’t life-threatening in the end. I would survive. Just like Gabriella and our son, I was a survivor.
Surgery wasn’t necessary, but it seemed like it took hours to be sewn up and cleaned up from the injuries I’d collected in my pursuit of protecting my love.
When night fell and the sky turned dark out the windows of our private suite, I got out of bed.
“Luka, what are you doing?”
I tugged off the straps that connected the monitors to me for the vital checks. “Coming to you.”
She smirked, watching me pull out the connector to the IV they’d insisted on giving me.
“Stubborn man,” she teased as I crawled into bed next to her.
“Stubborn woman,” I replied, tucking her against me. “I told you not to come too hard.”
She laughed lightly, resting her head against me as she sighed.
“I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to see you like this.”
I threaded my fingers with hers. “I can’t believe you picked up a gun off a dead man.”
“I knew you’d come and save me, but still…”
I kissed the top of her head, at peace. “But still, you’re such a badass you would step up and handle it yourself, too.”
She smiled up at me.
“What do you mean, it’s taken you this long to see me like this?” I recalled when I’d come home bloodied and wounded before. The last thing I wanted was for her to be scared she’d lose me.
“Like this.” She lifted our hands and kissed the back of mine. “Not as my captor, but as the brave, strong man who loves me.”
I tipped her chin up so I could claim her lips in a tender kiss.
“Not as my captor, but as the fearsome boss who would risk his life to save me.”
Again, I kissed her, savoring the sweet serenity of her gentle smile.
“Not as my captor, but as the powerful leader and lover who’d be willing to die for me and our son.”
I sank my fingers into her hair, reveling in the love she gave me. The allure of keeping her in my life had paved the way for us to get together, but it was this intrigue, this thrill of adventure and how much her love made me a better man, that excited me for the future.
“You’re the captor,” I told her as a nurse came into the room to do the routine check on our son’s vitals. He slept in the bassinet at the foot of Gabriella’s bed.
She gazed up at me, mesmerizing me with the adoration in her eyes.
“You’ve captured me. Heart, mind, and soul.”
This time, she leaned up to drug me with a deep kiss.
I can’t wait to make you mine for good.