Page 52 of Surrogate for the Bratva
“And it’s bad enough he has to be here in this germ infestation with his health problems. We don’t need you both engaging in this kind of risky behavior.”
I appreciated the sentiment, but my mind was made up. “I’ll see you soon,” I told her and ended the call, yanking my bedroom door open to go in search of Maxim. I took the stairs quickly but carefully as I worked out all arguments I could use to get Maxim to listen and take me seriously.
“April, what is the matter?”
I stopped just shy of the last step and looked up at Maxim’s worried expression. “Just the man I’m looking for. I need to get to the hospital immediately.”
His body stiffened as his gaze slid down my body to rest at my growing belly. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s not me,” I assured him with a protective hand over my belly as I launched into an abbreviated version of what happened to Jacob. “I have to get there, Maxim.”
“I understand,” he began in that calm almost sympathetic manner. “But I cannot.”
Emphasis onalmostsympathetic. I shook my head and reached for any semblance of patience I could find. “You misunderstand, Maxim, I am only asking you for a ride. Not permission.” I hit him with my best determined stare to let him know that I wouldn’t budge on this.
“April,” he sighed as if I was the unreasonable one.
“No Maxim. I have done every damn thing required of me, but this is my brother. My and if you think you can keep me from going to the hospital to seefor myselfthat he’s all right, well you don’t want to know what will happen if something happens to him and I’m not there.” I turned around and marched right back up the stairs to put on shoes and grab my phone.
Behind me Maxim spoke quietly into the phone, no doubt tattling on me to the boss.
Two minutes later I walked down the stairs once again with my phone clutched in my hand, determined to summon a rideshare if Maxim continued to be an obstacle. Instead what I found was Igor wearing an unhappy expression that closelyresembled mine. He opened his mouth to say something, but I was sure that I didn’t want to hear it, so I shook my head. “Let’s go then.”
The tension in the car was thick enough to cut with a knife with me on one side of the back bench seat and Igor on the other side. The tension didn’t bother me, not when I couldn’t think about anything but getting to Jacob. Sometimes his breathing issues could go away as if they never existed and other times required days in a hospital bed.
It wasn’t lost on me that the last time Igor and I were in the back of a car together things were much different.
“What happened with Jacob,” he asked in that gravelly tone that skittered over my skin like a live wire.
A heavy sigh fell from my lips and I shook my head. “He’s having trouble breathing which happens often. Listen you don’t have to pretend to care, I appreciate you making sure I could get here safely.”
“Who says I don’t care?”
Your silence.“It doesn’t matter,” I replied as the hospital came into view.
“It matters to me.”
“No,” I sighed again. “It doesn’t and that’s okay. I don’t expect you to care Igor, that’s not what our agreement is about.” I said it out loud as much for his benefit as for my own.
He didn’t reply and I was grateful, but what I wasn’t grateful for was his constant presence as I stepped from the car and weaved through people inside the hospital to get to the nurse’s station and then to my brother’s room. He wasrightthere, too close and smelling too good for me to hang on to my anger, but I tried.
Oh, I tried like hell.
I stopped in front of the door with the number on it the nurse gave me, and I sighed. It was time to be strong, like usual. I couldn’t rush inside all frantic and worried because it would annoy Jacob as much as it would stress him out. I was the calm presence so that he had the room to freak out overhisillness.
Igor’s hand pressed against my back, and I froze. “It’ll be all right, April.”
I shrugged off his touch and his reassurance. “You don’t know that.” There could be anything on the other side of the door. It could be worse than I imagined or better, the only way to find out was to push the door and step inside. To see for myself. “Stay here.”
“No. Absolutely not,” he growled and laid a possessive hand on my shoulder.
“I’ll be fine. Nobody will kill your child while I’m in that room checking on my brother and I don’t want to add stress by reminding him that my safety is an issue because of him.”
He frowned. “You are doing this for-,”
“I know and he’s grateful but that doesn’t mean he has to like it. Please just stay out here?”
“Fine.”
