Page 4 of Coerced Queen

He averts his eyes briefly before meeting mine again.“He’s still in the operating theater.”

Alive.

He’s alive.

That’s all that matters.

“Here?”I ask.

Dante nods.

I try to wet my cracked lips, but my tongue is dry.“I want to see him.Ihaveto see him.”

Dante takes my hand.A part of me vaguely registers how furious Saverio will be that he touches me.They have these unwritten rules.Then why is he breaking them?

“His injuries are extensive, Anya.He has second degree burns and multiple gunshot wounds.Damage to his right knee from shrapnel.One of the bullets entered his kidney.The rest…” His voice breaks.“Christ.The rest we don’t know yet.”

I stopped breathing at second degree burns.I don’t listen to the rest.I can’t.

“You have to be strong,” he says, giving my hand a squeeze.“For him, for you, and most of all, for your baby.”

“Take me to him.”I grimace with pain as I throw back the covers and swing my legs over the side of the bed where the rail is lowered.“Now.”

Dante grabs my arm.“You have to listen to me.You can’t go to him.We can’t.He’s in surgery.”He dips his head.“The doctors, they’re doing everything they can.”

He’s alive, but it’snotall that matters.He can still die.

I collapse under the weight of that thought.It’s like the blast all over, the knowledge tearing me from limb to limb.

Dante comes around the bed.“There’s nothing we can do for now but be strong and wait.”

Be strong.

Wait.

It feels as if I may need a straitjacket.I want to fight like a lunatic.I want to claw my way through every person standing in my way until I’ve seen my baby and Saverio, but the logical part of my brain still functions.Understands.

“Here.”Dante sweeps an arm beneath my knees and lifts me back onto the bed.“You have to keep still.”

The skin of my stomach burns.My muscles protest when he pushes a pillow behind my back.

Wait.Wait.Wait.

Helplessness and anguish assault me.

He hands me a cup with a straw.I drink, battling to swallow the water.

“How many?”I exhale a shaky breath.“How many dead?”

His jaw bunches.“Too many.”

“Who?”

He pauses for a second, his nostrils flaring as he finally says, “Luigi, Giorgio, and most of their men.”He adds in a strained voice, “The assailants targeted the people on their side of the church first.”

Dear God.

I don’t know how to process that.“The priest?”

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