Page 100 of Thorns of Love

“Oops, too far,” Dr. Sergei grumbled, quickly fixing the wires. A round of relieved breaths followed. Jesus, this fucking doctor was supposed to save lives not fucking end them by giving us heart attacks.

“When a body is chopped up into pieces, can you identify its DNA?” Isla broke the silence. She said it as if she were asking if aspirin was better than ibuprofen.

All the Nikolaev eyes as well as my own shifted to my sister. I thought Alexei’s mouth might have parted in shock before he shut it. Probably mine too.

“I don’t know if that’s an appropriate question,” Dr. Sergei responded when the rest of us were at a loss for words. “I will give you all some privacy.” His eyes met mine. “No changes. Babies are good. Mother’s vitals are good. Now we just wait for your wife to wake up.”

Dr. Sergei headed out of the room. Silence followed, while I ran my thumb over the soft flesh of my wife’s wrist. I couldn’t deal with cut up bodies and Isla’s questions right now. I’d give her a lesson on how to kill someone - hopefully Marchetti - and dispose of a body some other time.

Right now, I wasn’t in the right frame of mind.

I wanted to make the entire world pay for shit going wrong at that fucking parking lot. After I ensured the cargo inspection would take extra-long and would require them laying over for an extra day, I coordinated the plan with Vasili.

It was supposed to be easy. Kill Adrian. Kill Nikita. Save Tatiana.

Goddamn it! She was never supposed to get hurt. It was my job to protect her.

Vasili broke the silence. “I’m not a DNA expert, but chopping up the body won’t remove his or her identity. Not unless you burned it to ashes.”

Jesus H. Christ. Was this conversation really happening in my wife’s hospital room?

Isla tilted her head studying Vasili. “Burn the body, huh?” Why in the fuck was she even asking this question? Vasili, Alexei, and Sasha nodded in unison. “Hmm, that’s good to know.”

“Just make sure there’s nothing left of the body,” Sasha chimed in. “Burn it to ashes, then get rid of the ash.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” I snapped at him. “She’s twenty-three.” My eyes narrowed on him, hoping I could kill him with just a look. Of course, I’d resurrect him eventually. “You don’t tell my sister shit like that.”

Sasha shrugged. “Seems she needs to know. After all, she is a Konstantin.”

Isla let out a sardonic breath. “Killing is in our blood, isn’t it, Brother?”

Vasili’s eyebrow shot up. Alexei’s lip twitched. And Sasha put his hands up in the air. “I sense a conflict.”

You think, motherfucker!

“Why don’t you all go get lunch?” I suggested tiredly. I needed them all to leave. Or I’d lose my cool and say something that would be impossible to take back. My wife needed me to stay calm. Not go killing her brothers.

“You’ll call us if she wakes.Da?” Alexei said, more than asked. I nodded, then watched them all disburse out of the hospital room.

Vasili was the last one to leave. “I’ll keep an eye on your sister.”

“Thank you.”

The door shut with a soft click and I let out a breath. My eyes found my wife, the rising of her chest barely visible but it was there. The touch of her hand against mine kept me sane.

“Come back to me,moya luna,” I murmured, pressing a kiss on the soft flesh of her wrist, where her pulse drummed.

It had been two whole fucking days.Beep.

Two whole days since I saw her blue eyes.Beep. Beep.

Two whole days of holding her hand in mine, whispering all the things I should have told her a long time ago.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

There were so many things I had yet to tell her. There was so much we left unsaid and unresolved.

“I love you,moya luna,” I murmured softly. I had to tell her now. Maybe she’d hear me, wherever she was, and she’d come back. For me. “I have loved you from the first moment I saw you. I’ll give you the moon. The stars. The fucking world. Anything you ask, it’s yours. I’m yours. I’ve always been yours.”