Page 90 of Psychological War

I must have stared at him longer than I thought. The next thing I knew the sun was setting and his phone was going off. Zane jerked awake, his hand immediately going to his phone before answering.

“Da.” I would never get tired of him speaking Russian. “Net, net novostey. Mila byla zdes', no ushla.”No, there’s nothing new. Mila was here, but she left.

Whoever was on the other line spoke for a long moment before Zane hung up and pocketed his phone. His eyes closed, before tightening his hand in mine. He still had no idea I was awake.

Squeezing his hand back, I felt his whole body tense, unsure if it was just moving in my sleep or if I was awake. His head shot up, his eyes burning into my own, just as they widened. He dropped my hand, rushing closer to my side, clasping my face in his hands.

“Fuck…” His lips pressed against my own in a punishing way. Pressing his forehead against mine, he said, “Please tell me this is real.” Pulling away, tears filled his eyes. For the first time I actually witnessed this man cry. It broke my heart.

“Is this the part where you grovel?” I deadpanned, trying to hide my laughter that I want to let go so desperately.

“I will grovel for the rest of my life. I’m going to buy you everything you ever wanted. A new farm, animals, weapons, those weird bellbottoms you wear, or even those sexy black boots.”

He continued kissing my cheek before resuming talking. “You want anything in the world, it's yours. We can go anywhere. You want to kick my ass once you’re healed enough, please do it.”

I could fall into him, that was if my body didn’t ache and wanted to fall apart. Instead I began crying, crying so hard my body shook, and surprising me the most was Zane holding me. He held me as I cried because he was okay with me never having children. He was okay with me.

“I want a new car. Mine was trashed. New boots would be nice. I’m sure the ones I was wearing are destroyed. Also a farm would be nice. I think you’d look super-hot in some cowboy boots and a hat,” I muttered into his chest.

He laughed, pressing a kiss to the top of my head. “Anything, Kitten.”

***

“Tobias, be careful please.” Mila's voice was soft but strong.

“Mama, I just want to be close to her.” God, I missed that voice. I missed him so desperately, his smile, his laugh. Everything about the little man made me miss him.

I felt his hands trying to ease his way on my other side. I could still feel Zane pressed against my other side. It warmed my heart that they were both here with me.

“Dada, I thought you said Aunt Sey was awake,” Tobias tried to whisper but failed. But I didn’t mind at all. I wanted him to yell, and laugh, and whatever else he wanted to do.

“She is, right now she’s just resting her eyes with Uncle Zane.” Dimitri surprised me with how soft he spoke. This was the first time I had ever heard him speak nicely and calm.

“I want her to wake up,” Tobias declared. If I hadn’t been awake before, I would be now. I could feel Zane beginning to stir next to me, his arm that was wrapped around my waist tightening.

“Tobias, you need to be quiet, they’re resting,” Dimitri said somewhere closer.

“Yeah, be quiet, Tobias,” Zane muttered into my neck, his hot breath clinging to my skin. “We’re resting.”

The door opened and closed before I heard, “Well, I see she has a lot of visitors today. I’m Dr. Beckett. I heard she woke up last night.”

After Zane and I talked a little, he fell asleep curled up next to me. The doctors had come in trying to get me up and moving but I asked to just be left until the morning. It was surprising they allowed it, but I guess they did since it was only a few hours. I felt Zane moving up, so my head was lying on his chest, his thumb rubbing circles into my hip.

“Well, I’m glad everyone is here. Has she woken up again?” Dr. Beckett asked.

Deciding it was time to stop fake sleeping, I opened my eyes and was met with three sets already focused on me.

“Well good morning!” Dr. Beckett was a little too chipper for me.

“Salem!” Tobias squealed next to me, his arms wrapping around my sore waist. I tried to hide the groan, but it still hurt, nonetheless.

“Tobias, be careful!” Mila jumped from her seat rushing over to remove his arms from me.

Shaking my head, I smiled at her. “It’s okay.”

“Well, since you’re awake I would love to go over your chart,” Dr. Beckett announced, waiting for everyone to get comfortable.

“Alright, so when you were brought in, you were dead.” Dr. Beckett's words should have surprised me, but they didn’t. I remembered Dante beating me and Luca shooting me. I remembered it all. “You had internal bleeding that we stopped, multiple wounds that had been reopened, along with three new stab wounds, and a gunshot wound.” I wish she could’ve stopped there, but I knew that wasn’t the end. “You had four broken ribs on your right side, and three on your left. You had a collapsed lung that we had to repair, and your throat was terribly damaged. We’ll need to run tests on, well, basically everything to see where we need to do work.” Dr. Beckett's sad eyes burned into me. I knew this was going to happen. I’d gone through this more times than I’d ever wanted to do.

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