Page 114 of Wicked Sinner

Dr. Ackley emerges from the operating room, what feels like hours later, her scrubs wrinkled and her expression unreadable. My heart stops as I search her face for some clue about Caesar's condition.

"How is he?" I ask, my voice barely above a whisper.

Dr. Ackley pulls off her surgical cap, and the second before she speaks feels like an eternity, filled with all of my worst fears.

And then she smiles.

"He's alive."

28

CAESAR

The last thing I remember before the darkness takes me is Bridget's voice, fierce and desperate, telling me she loves me. Her hands pressed against my chest, warm and sticky with my blood. The feeling of her close to me, wanting to be near me, at last. Wantingme.

I wanted to say it back, but I couldn’t. Everything went black, and I lost my grip on her. On reality.

The darkness is strange—not peaceful like sleep, but heavy and suffocating. I'm aware of floating somewhere between consciousness and oblivion, catching fragments of voices and sensations that don't quite connect into coherent thoughts.

Bridget's voice, pleading with me to stay with her. The smell of antiseptic and the beeping of machines. Someone speaking in rapid Spanish and then English—a nurse, maybe, giving orders I can't fully parse together in my foggy state. Pain that comes and goes in waves, sometimes sharp enough to drag me closer to wakefulness before fading back into nothingness.

And through it all, one constant: the memory of Bridget's voice as she told me she loved me. The way it broke on thewords, like she needed to get them out. Like she couldn’t live without me hearing them.

Did that really happen? Or was it just my dying mind giving me what I wanted to hear?

The question follows me through the darkness, along with the fear that I imagined the whole thing. That when I wake up—if I wake up—she'll go back to looking at me like I'm her captor instead of her husband. That the walls she's been slowly lowering will snap back into place, higher and stronger than before.

I can't lose her. Not now. Not when I've finally found something worth fighting for.

The thought pulls me back toward consciousness, a lifeline in the dark. I have to wake up. I have to make sure she's safe, make sure she knows how I feel about her. Make sure our child grows up knowing both parents.

Light creeps in slowly, along with the steady beep of heart monitors and the antiseptic smell of a medical facility. My shoulder and chest feel like they’re on fire, but the pain is manageable—which tells me I've been unconscious for a while, long enough for the worst of it to pass.

"He's waking up."

The voice belongs to Dr. Ackley. I try to open my eyes, but they feel impossibly heavy.

"Boss?" Another voice, this one familiar and worried. My new head of security, Cruz.

I manage to crack my eyes open, squinting against the bright lights. The room comes into focus slowly—white walls, medical equipment, the concerned faces of a couple of my men watching from the door where they’re guarding me.

"Boss, thank Christ," Cruz breathes, relief evident in his voice. "You've been out for eighteen hours."

Eighteen hours. I try to sit up, but pain shoots through my shoulder and chest, forcing me back down. "Bridget," I croak, my voice coming out like sandpaper. "Where's?—"

"She's safe," Cruz assures me quickly. "At the penthouse, under guard. Dr. Ackley examined her yesterday after you got out of surgery—she and the baby are both fine."

Relief floods through me, so intense it's almost overwhelming. She's safe. They're both safe.

"She wanted to be here," Cruz continues, "but the doctor put her on bed rest as a precaution. The stress from yesterday, the adrenaline—she was worried about the pregnancy."

Bed rest. Which means she's not here, not where I can see her and touch her and make sure she's really okay. The memory of her bloodstained hands pressing against my chest flashes through my mind, and I have to close my eyes against the wave of emotion that follows.

"The sniper?" I ask, forcing myself to focus on business for now.

"Dead. Tristan's men took him out while we were getting you to safety. Must’ve been the one Matvey threatened you with if you didn’t comply. He probably saw you come out and decided to take matters into his own hands.”

"Matvey's people are all accounted for?"