Page 81 of Under His Protection

As soon as I found Vanessa in my room, I ran out to find Nina at the spa and make sure she was safe. Eva was already rushing from the spa, calling me and alerting Romeo and a team of soldiers that the Devil’s Brothers had attacked and taken Nina. Eva was shoved aside and hit—not so badly that she needed care here at the hospital. Franco led the chase toward the MC’s clubhouse. He was shot and stitched up. In a matter of minutes, it became a crusade to invade the Devil’s Brothers’ compound.

I arrived just as Romeo and Franco were about to storm in, and when we did, it was a goddamn bloody mess.

“They’re triple-checking all the blood work, too,” I told her.

It would take me a long time to get over the memory of Nina covered in blood and body matter. At first, when she didn’t speak or react to my shouts, I feared the worst. That she was dead. That she was injured so badly that she couldn’t move or talk. That she was shell shocked and locked within herself in a mental defense.

That wasn’t the case. She simply avoided opening her mouth or eyes because she was coated with nasty bodily fluids.

I hurried her here to the hospital, and I didn’t need to tell them to check for any contamination. They saw her, and they responded swiftly. After cleaning her up, they coaxed her to open her mouth. An oxygen mask went over her mouth, though, and they checked her nose and eyes for any sign of anything getting in. Nothing had. Still, they took every precaution, expediting labs to make sure nothing was in her system.

Irrigating the gunshot wound on her shoulder quickly turned into an emergency surgery. The hit had her losing too much blood. While I understood how Eva would think Nina was suffering from a brain injury, the scans showed that she had a minor concussion but nothing else.

“But shouldn’t she be awake?” Eva asked.

I smiled at the concern she couldn’t hide in her voice. “No. She needs the rest. Her body does. All those blood tests explained why.”

Eva frowned up at me. “Huh?”

“She’s pregnant.” This was the first time I said the words out loud, and I felt that same overwhelming sweep of amazement as I did when the doctors showed me the results.

“She’s…” Eva’s mouth dropped open.

“She’s pregnant. So, with the loss of blood, the doctors aren’t surprised that she’s so fatigued.” Not to mention the mental toll this whole incident would take on her. She was kidnapped. Hit her head. Faced off with men wanting to rape her. My blood boiled at that. Her phone had been recording all the way to the hospital, and as I listened to it all, I hated that she’d feared those bikers gang raping her.

Thank fuck we got there in time.

Romeo came forward, rubbing his forehead. He had been visiting Franco while he was stitched up, and between the both of them, the cleanup was underway. Bodies had to be removed from the spa. Witnesses had to be paid off.

The MC clubhouse could deal with the dead on their own. No Constella men had fallen. Some were wounded, but no one had died on our side. We’d come in with so many, there was no way the bikers could win that fight. Many fled the compound, anyway, taking off and avoiding our shootout. Reaper, unfortunately, wasn’t there. Nor was Stefan, but I hadn’t counted on his being there.

“Go home. Get some rest,” I told my son.

He nodded, looking so damn tired, but he paused long enough to ask Eva if she wanted a ride with him.

“Yes. I have a feeling the lovebirds will want some privacy.”

Romeo rolled his eyes. Eva glanced at me, though, brows raised. I took her expression as her way of asking permission to tell Romeo what I just shared with her, and I nodded.

I turned my attention back to the window, watching the nurses finish up with checking her vitals.

I’d almost lost her, and the experience only sharpened the fact that she was my world. She’d become my world, and if I ever had to charge into the enemy’s lair and shoot my way to her to rescue her, I would. Time and time again.

The Devil’s Brothers were, without question, my number-one enemy. Both the bikers and the Giovannis. With his enabling Vanessa to break into my home and also in helping Nina be kidnapped, he had solidified his standing as my enemy. Now and forevermore.

I would wage war, and both the Mafia rivals and the motorcycle club would know firsthand how stupid it was to ever team up against me and try to interfere with my future.

Right now, though, my focus was on Nina. I would help her to recover. I had to break the news to her, too, about her family, and that was a delicate matter that would change who she was.

I entered the room once the nurse left, and I was pleased when Nina stirred and woke up.

“Sorry. I keep dozing off.” She covered her mouth with a long yawn, and I couldn’t help but smile at her.

“Don’t apologize.” I sat and took her hand between mine. Then I lifted it to kiss her knuckles.

“You looked like you were going to say something before I fell asleep.” She peered at me as she sipped from the water in her cup.

“I was.”

---