Page 10 of Savage Boss

“Uh, there’s a gentleman at reception filling it out.”

Vlad smiled grimly. On a normal day, the idea of anyone calling Leo a ‘gentleman’ was hilarious. “Can we get on with this?” Vlad demanded.

“You’ll have to be patient, sir,” the doctor told him calmly. “We’ll do what we can for your wife, but we have protocols for a reason. We need to protect our patients, including your wife.”

“Jane, her name is Jane,” Vlad growled. Clearly the man was forgetting that Vlad could and would get trigger happy if he wasn’t pleased with the progress toward Jane’s recovery. “And I will be holding you personally responsible if anything happens to her.”

The doctor looked unfazed as the nurse came back with another nurse in tow. They pulled the bed away from the wall and began wheeling it down the hall. Vlad reached out to pick up Jane’s limp hand, holding it as they hurried down the hall.

The doctor reached out to take a clipboard from the nurse. “Is your… Jane… allergic to anything?”

“No,” Vlad said right away, and then thought about the question. He didn’t actually know for sure if Jane was allergic to anything. She hated anything apple related. Apples, apple juice, apple pie. It was all disgusting to her, but he didn’t think she was allergic to anything. He should know this. Should’ve asked her.

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “She was shot about a year and half ago and was given all kinds of medications. She didn’t have any reactions.”

“Okay, good,” the doctor nodded as they entered a room and the nurses pushed a bed out of the way, making room for Jane’s. “I’ll check the chart from her last visit.”

Vlad could do nothing but stand aside as Jane was poked and prodded. A needle was inserted into the back of her hand and then a bag of fluid hooked up to a line going into the needle. He blinked back the tears that stung his eyes as her delicate hand was covered in tubes and tape.

His gut felt like it was falling through the floor. He wouldn’t be able to breathe properly until someone told him Jane and the baby were going to be okay.

“Jane, my name is Dr. Coffman and I’m going to be your doctor today. Can you open your eyes for me?” the doctor was leaning over Jane’s bed, his concerned gaze on her face. He looked back at the nurse. “We need to find out why she’s unconscious.”

Vlad lunged forward, his face twisted in fear. Was she dying? Why wasn’t she waking up? Fucking god dammit, he would force her to wake up. She would open her eyes, smile and tell him she was playing a game to get back at him for locking her up.

Except Jane would never do that. What you saw was what you got with Jane. She always said what was on her mind regardless of the consequences. She didn’t play games.

Before he could reach for her, a heavy hand came down on his shoulder. Vlad snarled, twisting around to face the man who would dare touch him, try to stop him from grabbing his wife. Seeing Leo didn’t stop him, but the words Leo spoke did.

“Boss, you have to let them work,” he said quietly. “They know what to do. They’ll make her better.”

Leo’s thick accent and the look of concern on his face stopped Vlad in his tracks. They had grown to respect one another over the past several months. Leo had bonded with Jane as well and Vlad knew he was afraid for her too. Vlad nodded sharply and turned back to the bed, watching as they cut away Jane’s shirt, baring her small chest. Leo and Maxim turned respectfully away.

A few minutes later an ultrasound machine was rolled in. Vlad recognized it from when he and Jane had gone to their 20-week ultrasound appointment, when they’d gotten pictures of the baby. They’d been grainy and hard to see, but Vlad treasured them. He kept one on his desk in a prominent position so everyone would know just how proud he was to become a father.

He’d argued with Jane that day. She’d had half a cup of coffee and he’d forbidden her from drinking caffeine. She’d laughed at him and told him she’d quit when he quit. So Vlad had quit. He suspected she occasionally snuck in a glass of Coke or a watered-down coffee, but he knew she cared about the baby as much as he did. She wouldn’t put it at risk.

At least, not on purpose. And that was the root of the problem. Vlad saw a dangerous world that could kill the people he loved at every turn while Jane saw a world filled with possibilities and places she wanted to explore.

As soon as the ultrasound machine was set up and they were pulling Jane’s sleep shorts down her delicately rounded belly, Vlad flew to the bed and took her hand.

“Sir, we need you to step…” a nurse started to say.

“He’s fine where he is,” the doctor said mildly. “Focus on the baby, I’ll take care of the mother.”

The nurse nodded and spread gel on Jane’s belly. Though she didn’t open her eyes, Jane gasped as the cool viscous liquid touched her. Vlad smiled down at her and stroked her bangs back off her forehead. She hadn’t liked gel at her first ultrasound either. Even unconscious, Jane was complaining.

Vlad counted every single second in his head until the baby was located and checked for abnormalities. His desperate eyes searched the doctor’s and when he finally nodded, Vlad could’ve thrown up in relief.

“The baby looks good,” the doctor reassured him. “We’re going to do some bloodwork to make sure, but there’s a strong heartbeat and it appears to be the correct size for this stage of gestation. Of course, I’ll have an obstetrician check in too, but things look good.”

Vlad could do nothing more than nod. He feared he would burst into tears if he tried speaking. This is what Jane did to him. He was once one of the youngest and most feared mobsters in Russia. Then he brought his reputation to America and terrorized the American Underworld with his brand of brutal efficiency.

Yet, this one tiny woman could bring him lower than he’d ever experienced in his life. Even the death of Svetlana, which had shaped who he would become as an adult, hadn’t done to him what Jane was able to do.

He bent over and kissed her forehead. “You open your eyes and look at me, malysh, or you will be in very big trouble.”

Obeying him for the first time in a long time, she opened her big brown eyes and blinked up at him then licked her lips. “You’ll be in trouble, not me,” she croaked at him.

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