Page 49 of Broken Prince

As we lowered him down in the water, he started to jerk and moan.

He opened his eyes and looked at me. “Tesorina,” he croaked before closing his eyes again.

“What is that?”

Dom shook his head. “I don’t know.”

“Just stay with him for a few, please. Make sure he doesn’t drown.”

“Where are you going?” Dom asked as he settled his arm behind Luca’s back to hold him up.

“I’m going to open the window to freshen the air and change his bed. I’ll be right back.”

I opened the window and the whiff of fresh air made me realize how bad that room smelled. Why did he let it get that bad? Couldn’t he show any weakness? He was just sick or was it something else? Something much more terrifying. Did he actually want to die? I didn’t want to think it was the case but he had been quite anchored on a path to self-destruction when I moved in. I thought he was better; I thought I was helping but maybe it was what I wanted to see.

I shook my head as I moved Dom’s guns carefully before stripping the bed.

Was that what my life was now? Being around guns? Fixing sick Mafia bosses? I shook my head. It was not just any Mafia boss. It was Luca, and despite everything, I saw his light shining through the cracks and I wanted to see more. I changed his bed and rummaged through his chest drawers for a pair of pajama bottoms. We didn't need him to overheat.

“Okay, I think we’re good now,” I told Dom, rushing into the bathroom a little breathless.

“Hey, just take a second. You don’t have to be so rushed.”

“Actually I do, he let it get really bad. He could die. I just…” I looked at Luca and despite still being out of it he looked less flushed. “He needs to be okay.”

Dom nodded silently.

“Okay.” I pressed the button to empty the tub. “Just hold him up. I need to dry him.” I was pleased with how mechanically I could do it, and now that the initial shock was over at seeing his naked body in all his glory, I could finally concentrate on getting him dried off.

Once we were done and we’d settled him back in bed, I let out a small breath of relief as I touched his forehead. It was still hot but not as insane as before.

“The fever is down for now but we need to act fast. Could you go check if we have everything we need?”

Dom made two trips to bring everything back upstairs, and I realized that doing all that didn't even make him breathless. It was insane how fit that man was.

I asked Dom to help Luca up and despite my basic training with a stethoscope, I could say straightaway that he had a severe chest infection. The wheezing and crackling were unmistakable.

“Okay, as I suspected, it’s a bad chest infection. I even suspect pneumonia.” I shook my head. He had been so reckless with his health. Idiotic, self-destructive man.

Dom just leaned against the wall, his face grim. He was genuinely worried about Luca, and once again I noticed that their relationship must have been much more than just bodyguard and boss. They had been friends once upon a time.

“He’ll be okay. I’m going to fix him.” I said that with much more certainty than I felt. I hadn’t even finished my nursing training and while I took care of many patients at the hospital, I’d never done it on my own and certainly not unsupervised. Yet here I was making stupid promises I wasn’t sure I could keep.

“If anyone can do it, it’s you.”

No, it’s a properly trained ER doctor in an actual hospital,I thought bitterly as I set the oximeter on Luca’s finger before setting up the IV with the saline then injecting the antibiotic directly into the bag.

I looked at the oximeter reading. His oxygen was in the low 90s. Definitely a source of concern. I took his temperature and it was still 102… Lord, how high must it have been before?

“You know I’m not an expert, right?” I told Dom after I was done setting Luca up. I covered him up with a thin sheet. I had to be careful not to overheat him.

He jerked his head toward the drip. “You seem like one to me.”

I let out a weary laugh as I sat on the chair by Luca’s bed. “I’m—I was just a nursing student. If he is not better in the next twenty-four hours, we will call a doctor, okay?”

He ran a hand over his face. “He won’t like it.”

I shrugged. “I'd rather he be mad at me than dead, so I'll take it. You can go and rest now. I’ll keep watch tonight.”

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