Page 109 of Wanted

“It matters to me. I already lost my mom.”

“Baby, that’s what you’re worried about?” Alex grabbed my ankles, massaging them. “We’re not going anywhere. He can’t touch us.”

If Aram wanted to, he could. He had Spencer on his side.

WESTON

My brother needed me now. I wouldn’t let him down.

Being in the midst of her second trimester, Valentina helped Mandy out of the car while I ordered food on the phone. I let the women settle inside the house while I stayed in my car.

Was I next? Who had hurt my brother?

This hadn’t been an accident. If Valentina hadn’t decided to eat a snack with my sister, she’d be in that hospital now, too. The thought twisted my insides.

Seeing Aram and Spencer in one room today had put it all in perspective. We were due for a showdown, and I had no idea where the next bullet was coming from. My sister was protected in her home. Her men weren’t letting anyone close, and the display of her bodyguards earlier had proven just that. Not even Aram dared to touch her inappropriately. That had been a first for me.

I failed. It took a family of strangers to protect my sister.

“She’s more exhausted than I am, and I’m carrying another being inside of me,” Valentina commented, stepping back into the garage. I exited the car, hanging the keys on the wall. “You look like shit, by the way.”

“I feel like shit, too,” I told her.

Ever since Valentina started staying with us, she’d insisted that Mandy sleeps in the same room as her. They slept in my mother’s former bedroom for a good reason. Valentina was plagued with nightmares. Instead of sleeping, Mandy spent most of the time, reassuring Valentina that everything would be okay.

That was up for debate.

We sugarcoated Aris’s condition in Valentina’s presence. If she knew that his chances were slim, she’d not only lose it, she’d walk up to my father and attempt to strangle him. We couldn’t have that.

Valentina’s dedication to Aris was something I had never experienced before, and I knew that I would never experience it again. She wasn’t here with us. Mentally, she was by her husband’s side. We had to drag her out of the hospital, which she insisted that we visited every day.

“Penelope Jade needs her father,” Valentina reminded me.

I nodded. “Of course, she does.”

“She keeps asking for him. We were supposed to go for a swim…” The rest of her statement never found its way out of her mouth. She lowered her gaze, hiding her red eyes from me. “What is there to do? Should we get better doctors? I know there’s something you’re not telling me.”

“We’ve done everything we can,” I assured her. Aris was out of surgery today. He had stitches on his face, his chest, his shoulders, and his arms. He hadn’t broken any bones. He’d fractured four ribs because of the airbag. His knees had barely gotten away with a couple of scratches. The burns weren’t as bad as we’d initially been told. The second-degree burns would heal at some point.

What was troubling was that he had brain damage, and the doctors couldn’t tell when or how he would wake up.

Seeing that Valentina was already mid-pregnancy, we were anxious.

“You hate me, don’t you? You still think I’m the cockroach,” Valentina said, staring at the Wraith now. Her eyes were wide.

I shook my head. “I don’t think you’re a cockroach.”

She insisted, “I should’ve been there with him. Now, he suffers alone. He doesn’t get to hold that over my head…”

“What are you talking about?” I approached her. “Aris wouldn’t want you or the baby harmed. You mean the world to him. It took him a long time to finally show it, but you’re everything to him.”

“He always showed me,” Valentina commented, tucking a strain of her raven hair behind her ear. “You just never looked close enough.”

I let that sink in. “Look, for what it’s worth, I’m here. Mandy and I will help you with whatever you need…”

“It’s not you that I need,” she spat. She took a deep breath. “Although I appreciate the gesture. Aris made promises. If he stays in that hospital, we lose what we had built up until now. He wanted to be there for her birth. For everything.”

“You don’t know whether he’s going to be awake by then.”