Page 47 of No Longer Mine (Rags & Riches #2)

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Dimitri

“Why are you here?” Scarlett gasped out as blood dribbled between her fingers. My eyes zeroed in on the movement, and it was like the whole world stopped. I’d been at dinner with my mother, but when I saw her name flash across my screen, I knew she needed me more.

She’d gasped out, “My penthouse.”

I thought it was a sexual gasp, but now that I was here… I rushed toward her and dropped to my knees. I pressed my hands against hers before I pulled them away. I needed to see how bad it was.

“You called.” It was that simple. I’d been waiting for her call, but I had never expected this. Right now, nothing mattered except for stopping the bleeding.

“What happened?”

I didn’t need her to tell me. I knew what happened. She’d been shot leaving someone’s home. I closed my eyes briefly before I looked up into hers. “I told you not to steal anymore.”

“I told you I wouldn’t make promises I couldn’t keep,” she let out weakly.

“Tell me you didn’t make a mess,” I gritted out as I dabbed at the wound on her side. As I pulled her forward, she let out a scream, but I needed to see if there was an exit wound.

There wasn’t. I let out a breath.

Her teeth pressed into her bottom lip. “How did you get home?”

“Taxi.”

I closed my eyes. “Tell me you didn’t make a mess.”

She shook her head, and I watched as sweat began to roll down her temples. “I-I didn’t. I was already on the other balcony when he shot me. The uniform is too tight.”

I pressed the cloth back into her skin and she let out a hiss. “I hate to leave you, Little Fox, but I need to make sure there isn’t a blood trail. I will send help if you aren’t willing to go to the hospital.”

She squeezed her eyes closed. “There isn’t one.”

“I need you to tell me where you were. I need to make sure.”

Tears streamed down her face, and she kept her lips pinched tight. “No. I didn’t.”

“Scarlett. I’m not asking.” I ground out.

She just continued to shake her head. “I can’t.”

“Fine.”

I pulled my phone out and dialed the one number that I knew would come help quickly. Little did I know she would bring a partner.

Nana arrived on Scarlett’s doorstep not even five minutes later. She held up a bag and then shoved it into my chest. I went to close the door behind her, but of course, a cane whipped out and stopped me from closing it all the way. Grandmother was here too.

They took one look at the woman on the couch and rushed forward. Grandmother’s cane rained down on me like a vengeance. “Why didn’t you bring her to the hospital?”

Nana tsked her tongue as she got down on the floor to inspect Scarlett’s side. “What happened, my dear?”

Scarlett looked at me with wide eyes. “What’s going on?”

“This is Nana and Grandmother.”

Nana patted her hand sympathetically. “Audrey enjoys calling us The Grannies. It has a nice ring to it, if I do say so myself.”

I closed my eyes. Grandmother whacked me with her cane again. “You didn’t bring this poor girl to a hospital.”

“I can’t go to a hospital.”

Both women turned their eyes on me. Nana was the first to speak. “This isn’t some kinky gun play shit gone bad, is it?”

Scarlett managed to let out a small laugh. My eyes widened. “Are you kidding me? She needs you to stitch her up and get a bullet out.”

Nana deadpanned. “Why didn’t you do it?”

“I cut off appendages, I don’t sew them back on.”

Grandmother put her weapon down. “We need to know what happened.”

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”

Nana patted Scarlett’s hand. “In due time, my dear.”

I didn’t think so, but I also wasn’t going to voice any opinions. Grandmother’s cane was fast.

Nana peeled away the makeshift dressings we’d put on it and shook her head. “You’re lucky that I’ve patched up many bullet wounds, in my day. Poor Alexei loved to get into gun fights growing up.”

I pressed my lips together, waiting for her to tell a story about the one incident I had, but she didn’t and I was somewhat grateful.

“I need to go make sure…” I stopped. “I need to go take care of some things. I’m calling Oliver.”

I didn’t actually have Oliver’s number, but I had Benson, and I knew if Benson couldn’t find it, he could get in touch with the other man easily enough.

Scarlett sat up quickly, ready to protest, but let out a groan and fell back to the couch. “Please don’t.”

“Then you tell me.”

“Your father.”

My blood went to ice. “He did this?”

Her eyes bounced between Grandmother and Nana. Grandmother held her cane up. “He shot you?”

“Put your weapon down,” I let out a sigh.

She shook her head as Nana cleaned her wound. Her brows pulled together with each touch of the rag. “No.”

Nana took a deep breath as she looked down at the bullet hole in Scarlett’s side. “This is going to hurt.” I couldn’t be in here when Nana got to work.

My father was her mark. I clenched my jaw before I marched out of her penthouse.

I didn’t know what to feel, what to think, or even how to manage.

While I’d been at dinner with my mother, she’d been stealing from them.

I exhaled hard. Was that why she was at his club?

She was trying to get close to him? I could hardly believe this.

“I need a favor,” I growled into the phone. There was no way I could let her blood be all over the place at my father’s home. I needed to make sure.

Scarlett’s screams were hardly muffled by the door, and it took entirely too much effort to remain outside of her penthouse, instead of beside her, holding her hand like I should have been.

This was more important, I needed to make sure she wasn’t going to have a hit on her head.

I’d already learned the hard way that there were only so many things I could protect against my father.

“Yes?” Ace’s voice held a tone of suspicion. I didn’t blame him. I didn’t ask him for anything, but this was different.

“I need you to go to Father. I need you to make sure whoever broke into father’s apartment tonight didn’t leave a trail.

” My words came out fast, clipped. I could hardly believe what I was saying.

I didn’t trust Ace completely, but I needed help.

I didn’t know why I was asking. I didn’t know why I cared, I shouldn’t have cared, but then there was my mother…

She’d stolen from my mother, that was where I was drawing the line emotionally.

“Wait, what’s going on?”

“I don’t know how to even explain this right now.”

“I’m going to need more of an explanation than that.” Ace’s tone was clipped.

“I don’t have one. You spend enough time up his ass, what does it matter?”

Ace paused. “It matters.”

“I care about her.”

“It was a woman?” He laughed, a harsh sound.

I let out an exasperated sound. “I don’t have time for this.”

“Okay.”

“That’s it?”

“Make sure whoever it is doesn’t ever go near him again; he will know.”

I closed my eyes as the call ended.

“Who’s Audrey?” I heard Scarlett’s weak voice as I entered the penthouse again.

Nana chuckled like she was thirty, instead of a million years old. “Alexei’s bride-to-be. Sorry, we thought you’d met her already. Good, now I’m no longer offended.”

My eyes inspected the area around her. There was more blood on the couch, some on the floor, and there was a bullet on a white plate next to it all. Scarlett’s face was pale, and there was more sweat rolling down her face than there had been before. “Scarlett and I aren’t dating.”

“We did go on a date, though.” The small curve at the corner of her mouth was enough to confuse me, but I knew better.

She just wanted to see Grandmother hit me with her cane again.

I tried to keep my eyes to myself and not look over at the work my nana was doing.

She was an expert seamstress which she’d proven many times on Alexei and a few times on me growing up.

Grandmother turned her gaze on me while Nana kept her eyes down on the work she was doing. Scarlett’s eyes were squeezed shut with every pull of the needle. As much as I wanted to go to her, I knew I couldn’t.

“A date?” She hummed and shook her head. “I see you didn’t kill her.”

Nana looked up then with a mischievous smile. “That means you?—”

“Nope.” I shut it down quickly.

They both snapped their mouths closed. “When is she going to come to dinner with the rest of the family?”

Besides her being in my parents’ apartment and her stealing from them? “Never.”

“He’s back to wanting to kill me,” Scarlett bit out as Nana pulled the thread tight.

My grandmother’s exchanged looks. “There’s a thin line.”

I covered my face. If this hadn’t been the only option, I would have brought her to a hospital. “Neither one of you can tell anyone about this.” My tone hardened.

Grandmother’s eyes flicked between us. “Is there anything you need to share so we know who we aren’t speaking to about this besides Sinclair?”

My jaw worked as I thought about what she was saying. “You can’t tell anyone. I would even prefer it if you didn’t talk to each other about this. But, I know you two, so I won’t request the impossible.”

Scarlett smirked. “But you asked the impossible of me.”

Anger flashed through me. “And look at where it landed you!”

She sat up as pain shot across her face. Nana clipped the thread. “You do not understand!”

“I understand perfectly who my father is!” I was yelling now, but I couldn’t stop. She was messing with a monster and didn’t even know it. He would find her. He was too careful.

Sweat poured down her face as she tried to get up from the couch. Nana pushed her back down. “You two can hash this out when I’m done.”

Scarlett narrowed her eyes at me as fire lit in her gaze, but she did what Nana required. Nana pulled gauze and a few bandages out of her bag and began covering her wound.

I frowned. “Where did you get that uniform?”

If she said she worked for my parents, I was going to lose it. I was going to throw something. Probably a tantrum, but it was something.

Scarlett cleared her throat. “Oliver had it made for me.”

She had posed as one of their housekeepers. “You just put a death wish on the woman you pretended to be tonight, I hope you know that.”

Her fiery gaze left mine as she gazed down at the carpet. “He’d do that?”

Nana let out a breath. “He’s done much worse for much smaller a crime.”

“None of you know who he truly is,” Scarlett whispered, and I leaned against the wall.

I didn’t want to get into this in front of the only woman that could ever love a man like him.

She knew what he was capable of, but she didn’t need to know the dirty details.

At the end of this, someone still needed to love him.

At least that was what I told myself so I could protect two of the hardest women in history.