Page 25 of Twilight Tears
Mariya is doing okay. Better than I would have guessed after being gunned down in her own house. I don’t want to be the one to remind her how much there is to be scared of.
Angela grabs Mariya’s hand while she’s distracted and gently stretches her fingers back. Mariya winces, but manages not to explode with creative cursing. Improvement.
“I was going to wait and tell you at the end of the session, but I think you could use the motivation now,” Angela says. “I’m going to recommend to your doctor that you are ready for outpatient treatment.”
Mariya’s eyes go wide. “Really? Like, I can go home?”
“That’s not up to me entirely. But as far as I’m concerned, yes. You’ll have to talk to your other doctors and see what they recommend for your?—”
“She isn’t ready.”
Angela lowers her head, all of her attention suddenly focused on the exercises. Mariya shoots me a glare. “You may be a know-it-all, but you’re not a doctor, Yakov. You don’t know what I'm ready for.”
“I do know. I’ve been talking to your doctors.”
“Threatening my doctors, you mean.” She rolls her eyes. “They won’t let you keep me here forever.”
“They would, actually. For the right price, I can get whatever the fuck I want.”
“I feel fine. I’m ready to g—” As the words are coming out of her mouth, Angela bends her fingers in the other direction. Mariya yelps. “Holy shitfuck. Fuck fuck. Ow.”
Luna walks out of the bathroom. “Not your most creative combo, Mar.”
Mariya uses her good hand to flip her off. “Something about excruciating pain isn’t getting my creative juices flowing.”
“Which is why you’ll stay here until you aren’t in excruciating pain,” I tell her.
Angela deepens the stretch and Mariya’s lips turn white with the effort not to scream profanities. She isn’t fooling anyone.
Luna raises her brows at me as she crosses the room. She swapped her hospital gown for a pair of joggers and a matching tank yesterday. It’s good to see her looking more normal, but I still grab her hand and help ease her down onto the bed.
Her breath smells like peppermint toothpaste when she leans in to whisper, “What did I miss? Is Mariya almost ready to be discharged?”
“She thinks so. But no.”
“Well, what do the doctors think?”
“I don’t give a fuck what they think. It’s too soon.”
Luna flinches at the sharp tone in my voice.
This is all new for me. Anxiety sits like a clenched fist in my chest. But there’s fucking nowhere for that energy to go.
I killed Akim. He’s dead and disassembled at this point. Give it a week and there won’t be a trace of him left on the planet. But it feels like there’s something I should be doing. I’m positive that if we leave the hospital, something bad is going to happen.
It’s why I told Isay to look into the Gustev Bratva’s line of succession. If this mess with Akim proves anything, it’s that there is always someone left behind to pick up an old grudge. This feud between our Bratvas is already two generations deep. Why not add a third?
Akim may be gone, but there will always be enemies to face. There will always be someone coming after what is mine.
I won’t let myself get blindsided again.
Isay pokes the Salisbury steak on his tray like he’s expecting it to move. “Are you actually eating this shit three meals a day?”
“Only when Mariya doesn’t break hospital protocol and have food delivered to her room.” Which is often. “She always orders me something so I don’t take her phone away.”
I don’t like hospital food any more than the next person, but between taking care of Luna, making sure Mariya doesn’t make a break for it, and sitting with Nik, I don’t have time to leave to grab anything else. I wouldn’t want to.
“I don’t blame her,” he mutters, shoving the tray away. “It’s fine. I’m not here to eat anyway.”