“If you’d stop chatting and do as you’re told, we will follow the ambulance,” he growls.
I nod my head and get into the van, where a young guy gets off his seat and offers it to me. “I’ll take the floor.”
I smile at him. “Thanks.”
He shrugs. “It’s nothing.”
I get into the seat and twist my hair around my fingers, feeling anxious. If Adrik doesn’t make it, then the city will be in even more chaos than before. Andrei Petrov has been making waves up and down the country. He wouldn’t think twice about claiming the crown of the Estrada Cartel for himself.
And yet that’s the least of my worries right now. All I can keep thinking is if he doesn’t pull through, then our baby will never meet his or her father. Even if I believed that man was a monster, I want a family with him. Perhaps that makes me broken or damaged, but I don’t care. All I know is that he has to survive. If he dies, it will shatter me into a million pieces.
30
ADRIK
The first thing I see is the blur of bright lights over my head. For a moment, I wonder if I’ve passed away and I’m on the other side, until my vision returns to normal and I realize I’m in a hospital room.
That’s when the memories return. Those motherfuckers tried to take out Eliza, their own sister, all because I’d backed them against the wall where I was concerned. They had every intention of killing me in that casino until I revealed who would inherit.
I sit up suddenly as I blacked out and don’t know if she made it out alive or not. The pain that shoots through my abdomen is excruciating and the beep of the heart-rate monitor elevates the moment I sit up, but it’s worth it when I see her hunched over asleep in a chair opposite the bed.
“Eliza,” I say her name quietly, but she doesn’t stir. “Eliza,” I say her name louder, and this time she sits up, eyes wide.
“Adrik, you’re awake.” She jumps to her feet and rushes to my side. “I thought you were going to die.”
I tilt my head. “A few weeks ago, that’s exactly what you were hoping for when I got shot.”
Her eyes flood with guilt. “True.”
I’m glad she doesn’t deny it. My beautiful wife has been honest since the day we met, which is a tough thing to find in anyone. “I can’t believe Thiago tried to shoot you.”
Unshed tears gleam in her eyes. “I can’t believe you threw yourself in front of a bullet for me.” Her brow furrows. “Unless you just did it for the crown.” Her lips pinch into a straight line.
I chuckle. “And what use would that crown have been if I was buried six feet under, baby girl?”
Her tongue darts out over her bottom lip. “Not much use.”
“I threw myself in front of that bullet because I couldn’t watch you die.” A tightness constricts around my chest as I search those beautiful, dark brown eyes of hers. “You’re mine in every sense of the word.” I cup her cheek and brush away stray tears falling across her tanned skin. “I didn’t believe I could love anyone until I met you.”
The tears come faster. “I don’t understand it.”
“Neither do I.” This connection I felt with Eliza baffled me from the first day we met. The desire that was present almost instantly. “But it’s how I feel.”
“I think I love you too, if that’s even possible.” She shakes her head. “You killed Papá.”
I’m surprised to find I feel guilt as I look into her eyes. Guilt that I caused her pain like that, even though it was necessary for my plan. “I’m sorry,” I say, and I mean it. “It was a means to an end. We barely knew each other and…” My jaw clenches. “There’s really no way for me to excuse what I did to you and what I put you through.”
She takes my hand and squeezes. “No, but we can move past it.” She places the flat of my palm on her stomach. “Have a family together. Be happy.”
The hope in her voice almost brings me to my knees.
Can I be happy?
All my life I’ve been drowning in pain. It’s driven me forward, made me ruthless and ambitious. Happiness was never something I strove for. It is such a foreign concept and yet as I look into those hope filled eyes, I want to try to be happy. I want to try for her.
“I’ll try.”
Eliza swallows hard. “In time, the wounds will heal if you let them.”