Page 3 of Regal Queen

As soon as he was gone, I walked back to Coulter's side, doing a visual check over his body to make sure the doctor hadn’t missed anything. When I didn’t see anything wrong, I slumped back onto the sofa, sighing heavily and running my hand through my hair. God, what a clusterfuck.

"Rose?" I managed to grunt out.

Dante came to sit next to me. “We found them."

"Where?"

"They're returned to his estate Bykovo, it's a city outside of Moscow."

I scowled. "I know where that is, it's his stronghold. Did they all make it there?"

"Yes, all three of them, though Coulter's mom wasn't tied up like Knight and Rose were."

"How did Rose look?"

A chuckle burst from Dante. "She was fighting them like a spitfire."

I grinned. Of course.

"And Knight?" I felt obligated to ask about him, even though I didn't know him very well.

At this, Dante's voice grew more subdued. "He wasn’t fighting back, but he didn't look happy about it either."

“Do you think he betrayed us?"

"No. Never."

I cocked my head to the side. "Would Coulter say the same thing?"

"Yes." There was no hesitation in his voice, no doubt.

Fuck. I ran my hand through my hair again, the need to leave here and rescue my woman was so strong, but the beep in the background were the reminder that if Coulter woke up and I wasn't here... if Coulter died and I wasn’t by his side... I would never forgive myself.

"Are you one hundred percent certain Rose is okay?"

"She looked a little roughed up but, otherwise, she was fine."

I nodded, intuition telling me that she had information Dimitri wanted, and that was why he'd bought her in the first place.

Her defiance would keep her alive, for now.

At this reassurance, I turned to to stare at Coulter. His skin was pale, his face clammy. Sweat pooled on his forehead, making the edges of his hair wet.

I stood up, walking to the sink to grab a washcloth. After wetting it and wringing it out, I walked back over to Coulter, wiping him down. The nurse had mostly cleaned off his blood but there were still streaks of it and antiseptic across his chest.

After wiping his brow, I began to clean the rest of him off.

"Bourbon, there's something I need to tell you."

The hesitation in Dante's voice was a first but I didn't answer him, just waited for the ax to fall.

"That night, I took Danny in.”

"Danny?"

“The pusher that met with the Bratvas at Luna Azzurro"

I nodded, briefly recognizing the name now. "What did he say?"

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