Page 134 of Beautiful Beast

“And I’m her sister,” Nadia adds. I didn’t even realize she was right behind me.

“Ok. Just wait here. Is she on any medication?”

“No,” Nadia says.

“Not that I’m aware of,” I add.

“Ok.” The nurse looks between us with sympathetic eyes. I fucking hate her for it. Her expression implies Anya might not make it. But she has to.

She just has to.

“Stay out here. We’ll keep you updated.”

Nadia sobs the moment the nurse is gone. I pull her into my arms, and she clings to me, crying hard for her sister.

Crying for the woman we both love.

Anya is transported to surgery to remove the bullet and stop the bleeding. All that means is Nadia and I have nothing to do but wait.

“She put herself in danger,” I say, rubbing the heel of my palm into my eyes. “How could she do that?”

“She was trying to save you. That’s why she stabbed Dante.”

“She shouldn’t have tried to save me. It was my job to save her.”

“You know my sister. She thinks it’s her job to save everyone she loves. I think you’re on that list now. That means something.”

Nadia’s words punch me right in the gut, and all the pain and anger and fear I’ve been keeping inside comes rushing out. I let myself cry in front of my sister-in-law, and she doesn’t judge me for it.

The tears subside within a couple of minutes, and I straighten up, pretending like I didn’t just bawl my fucking eyes out like a baby.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Bratva man cry before.”

“You’ve ever seen your father cry?”

Nadia shakes her head. “Never. You’ve met him. He’s not a crier.”

“I’m not normally, but Anya has done something to me.”

“It’s love.”

I look at Nadia sharply. “I …”

“It’s love, Erik. You love her; otherwise, you wouldn’t be so scared for her right now. You wouldn’t care at all. Embrace it. Be happy with my sister when she makes it out of this. Ok?”

All I can say is, “Ok,” because there’s nothing else to say.

“Do you think my father is dead? Or Dante?”

“Only one way to know. I’ll have to go see for myself.”

“Can you go now? Anya won’t be out of surgery for at least a couple of hours. I just need to know if my dad is dead. Please.”

All I want is to stay here and wait for news about Anya, but Nadia is right. It’ll be a while before Anya is out—if she makes it out at all. There’s nothing for me to do here. What I can do is do my job, and that means seeing if Sergei and Dante survived or not.

Nadia promises to call if anything changes, so I drive back to my home. It’s a pile a rubble now. Nothing left.

Sergei isn’t in the spot where we left him. I call him, and he answers.

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