Page 11 of Savage Boss

Vlad laughed and touched his head to hers. “Terrible comeback.”

“I’m dying, I have an excuse.”

Chapter Six

Considering Vlad pulled a gun on the man, Doctor Keith Coffman was surprisingly calm around a room full of mobsters and their noisy girlfriends and wives. A nurse tried to limit the number of guests in the room, but her objections had been completely run over by Anya, Vlad’s sister, who’d arrived in a surprisingly timely manner. She must’ve heard what happened to Jane from the housekeeper, who held a soft spot for Anya, and immediately jumped in a vehicle.

Anya’s bulky tattooed boyfriend, Ash, was playing sentinel by the door. The blond giant was clearly uneasy in a hospital. Next to him was Mack, Jane’s business partner and her sister’s off-again boyfriend, looking as grumpy as ever, but his concerned gaze continually strayed to Jane who was still pale and drifting in and out of consciousness.

Dr. Coffman had assured Vlad that Jane was doing well, that she’d been dehydrated with elevated blood pressure. He believed that her body had collapsed under a great deal of stress. Vlad’s relief that both Jane and the baby were going to be alright was indescribable. If anything had happened to Jane in the bunker, the guilt would’ve eaten Vlad alive. Thank god she’d collapsed while he and his men were around to get to her quickly.

“But how do you know the baby’s really okay?” Anya demanded, having cornered the doctor. “How do you know it didn’t hit its head when she fell? Huh? How do you find out if there’s a possible cranial fracture in there?”

Jane’s eyes popped open and she surged up in the bed, her eyes on the doctor as she waited for the answer to Anya’s question.

“Anastasia,” Vlad growled in annoyance.

She looked at her brother innocently. “Yes, Vladimir?”

She only called him by his full name when he was about to give her shit. Vlad couldn’t help it, he softened. His sister had him wrapped around her tiny finger from the moment she came out of their mother’s womb. She’d come screaming into the world, a whirlwind of chaotic energy and she never stopped.

“I can assure you the baby is just fine,” Dr. Coffman spoke up. “It needs some rest, same as its mother. The womb is meant to protect the baby from trauma if anything happens to the mother.”

“But - ” Anya tried to ask another question, but Vlad cut her off.

“The obstetrician will be in later today to check on the baby,” Vlad assured everyone in the room. “She’s already had an ultrasound and it showed the baby is fine. They just need rest.”

There was an edge to the word ‘rest’ as Vlad glared at the group piled into his wife’s hospital room. Besides Anya, her boyfriend Ash, and Mack, Jane’s business partner, also in attendance were Jane’s good friends Addison Sterling and Claudia King and their partners, Tyson King and Daniel Mercer. Mack’s sister, Tawny, had arrived holding her two children by the hands and begging them to behave. She stood next to Mack, rubbing his arm and making reassuring statements.

The only person who was missing was Lucy, Jane’s sister. Traumatized by her near-death experience in the junkyard, she’d gone back to her childhood home to spend time with her parents. Vlad suspected Mack missed the energetic young woman more than he was letting on and it was making him grumpier than usual.

Vlad wished Lucy was there for Jane’s sake, but the roomful of well-wishers took her mind off her missing family. He glanced down at the hospital bed and shook his head fondly; she was pretending to sleep again.

“I think it’s time for us to leave and give Jane and Vladimir some time alone.”

This was spoken quietly by Addison as she stood next to the bed. Addison was particularly protective of Jane since Jane had hunted down her stalker and ultimately helped save Addison’s life. Vlad liked Addison; she was a confident, competent and talented young woman who had more than air in her head.

“Da, it is time to leave.” This was from Leo who stood next to the hospital doorway, his arms crossed over huge biceps, his glare sweeping the room.

“You take care of our girl,” Anya said, punching Vlad hard in the arm. He wondered if her MMA boyfriend was teaching her how to lift. She was already a force to be reckoned with, but if she was growing in strength, she would truly be a formidable opponent.

“We’ll be back to visit,” Claudia said to Jane, leaning over to kiss her cheek.

“We’ll bring snacks,” assured Addison who patted around the blanket until she touched Jane’s hand, giving it one last squeeze. She turned and reached out. Daniel stepped up and took her hand leading her to the door as she flipped open her walking stick.

Slowly their visitors filtered out. Just as Vlad was about to collapse into the nearest chair and exclaim to his wife that they needed to start weeding out their friend list, Mack stuck his head back in.

“Poker, Friday,” he said to Vlad in his gruff tone. His gaze flicked to Jane. “If you’re up for it. You owe me from last time, man. I don’t forget a debt.”

Mack left without another word.

Vlad joined the men’s poker night after Boris moved to Russia, leaving a vacancy. It allowed him to hang out with some business associates in a casual, no pressure setting. And his wife enjoyed having the house to herself on Friday evenings. At first Vlad had been suspicious, but after watching camera footage, he discovered she spent her time wandering around the house in one of his T-shirts and a pair of panties eating spoonful’s of either peanut butter or Cheese Whiz straight out of the jar.

As soon as the door closed on their last guest, Vlad turned back to the bed, his lips tugging upward. “You can stop pretending, malysh, they are gone now.”

Without opening her eyes, she said, “Remind me to get an infectious disease next time I have to come here.”

Vlad sat on the bed next to her hip and picked up her hand, placing it in his lap and running his fingers lightly over the back of it. He was careful not to displace the needle and tube, but he hated the sight of them. They made him feel unreasonably angry.

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