Page 74 of Beautiful Enemy

She should be celebrating my death. It would free her of all her problems.

Matteo speeds through stoplights until he reaches the private residence of Sampson, the forensic pathologist who got me the finger of the dead girl.

He’s not a doctor in the traditional sense but he’s had medical training. I’m currently blackmailing him into working with me. I have no one else to help.

Matteo helps me out of the car and up to the apartment building. It’s a shoddy place. Doesn’t look clean but beggars can’t be choosers right now.

Nadia follows right behind.

My head slumps back onto my shoulder as I look over at her. “What are you still doing here?”

“Are you angry with me? I thought you’d be happy I stayed.”

Matteo buzzes on the intercom until Sampson answers. “It’s Matteo. Dante’s hurt. Let us up.”

Sampson grumbles under his breath but he buzzes us up anyway. There’s no fucking elevator in this place so Matteo has to practically carry me up the stairs.

Sampson is waiting by his open apartment door and urgently motions us inside. “Quickly. Before anyone sees you.”

Matteo deposits me onto the couch.

“No,” Sampson groans. “Don’t get blood on my white couch.”

Matteo shrugs. “Too late. Fix him.”

“I don’t even know what happened.”

“He was stabbed,” Nadia explains. “In the side. There.”

With a sigh, Sampson peels back the bloody fabric on my wound and inspects it. “Fuck. The cut looks small but you’re bleeding out bad. There’s a good chance you hit an artery inside. Or maybe even an organ. I don’t have the equipment to fix you up.”

“Can you stop the bleeding for now?” Nadia asks. “Until we can get Dante to a doctor.”

Sampson hesitates before nodding. “I can stop it. But if you want him to get better, he really does need professional medical training.”

“That’s fine,” Matteo mutters. “Just stop the bleeding for now.”

Sampson packs my wound with gauze. It hurts like a motherfucker.

“Is there nothing you can give me?” I ask.

“Do you want to be unconscious? A man like you seems to always want to be alert.”

“I don’t fucking care right now. Just give me some fucking pain meds.”

With another annoyed sigh, Sampson retrieves a bottle from a locked cabinet and tosses it at me. “There. Take only one. You don’t want to fucking overdose.” He turns to Matteo. “Now get him to a hospital. That’s all I can do.”

Matteo grabs Sampson by the shirt, making Sampson squeak in terror. “If you tell anyone we were here…” The threat is clear. That’s what makes Matteo a good right hand man. He’s loyal and knows how to instill fear into anyone.

“I won’t. I swear.”

“Then let’s go,” Matteo grumbles, helping me back up. Nadia continues to watch with a worried, little expression on her face. I have the urge to tell her that she’s cute.

But I still don’t understand why she’s worried at all. It can’t be for me. I’m her enemy. I’m the man who kidnapped her. She should despise me.

Matteo helps me back into the car. I’m still weak but now that Sampson helped stop the blood from leaving my body, I can think a little bit clearer.

Without a word, Nadia gets into the back beside me. “How do you feel?”

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