Page 30 of Angel's Forever

“Hello?”

“Is that Nico?” A think Russian accent immediately caught my attention.

“Yes. Who is this?”

I walked into the kitchen where I knew Hudson was and put the phone onto speakerphone, gesturing for him to keep quiet.

“This is Aleksandr, one of Mr. Koslov’s men.”

A sudden feeling of dread came over my body. I looked over to Hudson, and his expression mirrored mine. I was about to speak when Hudson suddenly spoke.

“Where is Gaby?”

The silence from the other end of the phone was clear. Something had happened.

“We don’t know, Mr. Bryce-Stanton. I am currently here in the ER department with Gino. He’s in a really bad way.”

“What hospital are you at?”

Aleksandr gave us all the details, and we said we would be there as soon as we could. If we could find out who did this to Gino, perhaps we could find out where Rosa was.

Hudson and I rushed out of the apartment and headed toward the parking lot. As we went down in the elevator, I asked the most obvious question.

“Have you called the clinic?”

It was worth a chance that someone was still there and would know what happened. I hoped they did, anyway. I should have known the reaction I was about to get from Hudson.

“Of course I’ve fucking called the clinic. No one is answering because it has now closed for the day. What do you think I am, fucking stupid?”

I could tell that Hudson was already starting to lose it, and we didn’t even know what had happened yet. There was no way I was going to put up with his antics for the rest of the afternoon, not when I was just as worried as he was.

“Hud, I know you’re fucking worried. I am too. It might have been an obvious question, but I don’t know if you are thinking straight and thought of it. So don’t fucking bite my head off like that again!”

I watched his expression as realization hit him. I couldn’t blame him, really. If he’d asked me the same question and I’d already called, I probably would have lashed out the same way. However, we both needed to stay calm throughout this. There was no point in jumping the gun when we didn’t know what was going on. We didn’t even know if something had happened to Rosa, or if she was on her way back.

The elevator doors opened, and I walked out into the parking lot, not saying another word. I was stopped in my tracks when Hudson spoke and placed his hand on my shoulder.

“I’m sorry, babe. I shouldn’t have spoken to you like that. I know you were just checking. I do realize you are just as worried about both Gaby and Gino.” He leaned down and pressed a kiss to my lips before pulling back. “Come on. Let’s get to the ER to find out what has happened.”

WE ARRIVED AT THE ER and were greeted by Aleksandr at the door.

“Nico, I’m sorry I had to call you this way. We wanted to get Gino to the hospital as quickly as possible. He’s being checked over now, but is still unconscious.”

Again, I was shocked when Hudson replied to him first.

“What the hell happened?”

“I don’t know how Gino ended up how we found him, if I’m honest. I know Viktor is looking into it. He said he would call you in a while.”

I felt a little better knowing that Viktor was looking into it. He would leave nothing to chance in finding out exactly what happened. I needed to know how they’d found Gino, though, and what exactly they were doing there.

“Aleksandr, what exactly were you doing there? It’s not a place I would expect you to be.”

He sighed. I was certain I wasn’t going to like his answer.

“I can’t tell you everything. You will have to ask Viktor that. All I can say is we were working on some information that something was going to happen. We didn’t know who to, and we had no idea that Gino was there or why. I only realized that Gaby was there after I spoke to you. When we arrived, we saw the car with the door open. Then we saw Gino on the ground, covered in blood. Luckily, he had rolled onto his side. If he hadn’t…”

I didn’t need him to explain any more. He was basically saying that Gino was lucky to be alive. I could feel the panic start to build inside me. I had just gotten Gino in my life as a partner, as opposed to a friend and underboss. However, now there was a real chance that I could lose him. Add to that the fact that no one knew where Rosa was, and I was in the same place Hudson had been only a while ago.

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