Page 75 of Corrupt Vows

I pull her down to the floor as another explosion blasts through the air. Her delicate fingers, covered in sticky blood, trail over my face.

“Stay awake, damn it,” she demands.

I open my mouth to tell my dramaticprincipessato calm down, but my jaw refuses to move. She slaps me and sensations return to my battered body. A masculine groan filters through the cotton in my ears.

“Stop bleeding.Mio Dio, why is there so much blood?”

I hiss and force my eyelids open as she presses down on my shoulder and I absently enjoy the view as her breasts nearly spill out of her bra. She uses her shirt to staunch the flow of blood from my wound.

My head feels hollow.

When I try to lift my hand to cup her face and assure her everything will be okay, she pierces my soul with her desperate brown eyes.

“Don’t move. Just keep breathing and stay awake. I fuckingneedyou, Nico, so don’t you dare die on me now, youstronzo.”

If I could move my lips, I’d smirk and call her a good girl. Her eyes flare in panic as she reads my expression.

“No. No goodbyes. We’re not done. I have so much more to say to you, so don’t go to sleep.”

Gravity tugs at my lashes.

Serenity yells. Footsteps pound closer.Mia principessa’svoice cuts through the chaos as she screams her demands, and in my fleeting moments of lucidity, I realize she’s no longer a mafia princess.

She’s a queen.

She rallies the troops and builds a team to escort me out of danger, and since she never leaves my side—the agony in my shoulder as she applies pressure to my wound never waivers—I hear her command a safe retrieval of Ermanno and at least half a dozen other injured Russo soldiers.

The world fades to black. An engine hums. Serenity’s voice calls me away from the abyss. My pain worsens. Lessens. Surges.

Bright lights streak over my closed lids. Doctor Hennessy’s voice joins Serenity’s. Machines beep. Doors shut. The world stops spinning.

Liquid warmth infects my veins and pulls me into the void. My pain drifts away.

A machine beeps beside my head on one side while a feminine voice murmurs on the other. Strength seeps into me, but drugs blanket me in numbness. I peel my eyes open and blink through the haze.

Serenity stares down at me. Although her face is a lot cleaner than the last time I saw her, her hair remains a tangled mess and her green scrub top sports blood stains. She frames my face with shaking fingers and says something, but my brain turns the words into sludge. I blink and pull my mind into gear by sheer force of will.

A tear lands on my cheek. Serenity’s tear. My left hand listens when I tell it to cup her face, but my right won’t move.

“You scared the hell out of me. Thank fuck you woke up. Are you hurting? Do you need—”

I press my thumb over her lips, stopping her outburst. She blinks and another tear lands on my cheek.

“I told you I’d be fine,amore mio. You should know better than to doubt me by now,” I manage through my dry throat.

She huffs a half-sob, half-laugh.

“You coded during surgery, you asshole. I thought—”

“I’m not dead,mia principessa,so choose your words wisely.” Exhaustion threatens to pull me back into sleep, so my voice emerges much weaker than I intend.

“I’m so glad you’re alive. I was so worried,” she admits as she trails her fingers over my features.

“I told you he was just being dramatic,” Natalie says from the cot in the room’s corner. I jump and curse my delayed reaction as I expand my senses beyond my woman for the first time. Natalie stands and limps the first few strides until her joints loosen. Serenity straightens and moves one hand to my shoulder while weaving her fingers within mine.

“How long was I in surgery? What did I need?” I ask. Worry worms through me.

Pregnant women shouldn’t spend hours hunched over a hospital bed, especially not after such a traumatic and stressful experience.

---