Page 81 of The Bratva's Bounty
"Think you gave him too much pain meds, Alexei." Stepan cracked a soft laugh with his joke.
Everyone held it in much better than me, but I could see it in their eyes. They were all relieved and elated that I was up and talking. Although, I could see some puffiness around their eyes that weren't bags.
Sucking in a sharp breath, I twitched my hand in Alexei's direction when he pressed against my stomach. "Son of a… A warning would have been appreciated…!" I hissed through gritted teeth. "Fuck…"
Squeezingmy eyes shut, I breathed deeply. "What even happened anyway? And what's the damage to my body?" I could still feel and move everything, so that had to be a good sign… Right?
Taking a deep breath, Alexei stuffed his hands into his jacket, then listed off everything wrong with me, like some grocery list. "Slight concussion, busted eardrums, right dislocated shoulder, bilateral fractures to your ulna and radius, a few broken ribs, some bruised ribs, left lung puncture, mild internal bleed, right fractured tibia, and the rest of your body is scattered with various scrapes, cuts, and lacerations." It creeped me out a little at how nonchalant he sounded, but I knew he cared because of the little warmth and worry in his eyes when he looked at me.
Blowing out a heavy breath, I tried to lighten the dense air with a chuckle. "Well, that would explain why I feel like I've been mauled by a hippo." At least my awkward joke got a few chuckles.
With my condition out of the way, all that was left was, "So, what happened then?"
Immediately, everyone's head turned to Nicole accusingly, who returned all the gazes with an offended scoff. "You were all taking too long, and they could have killed Lev by the time you got to him," she defended herself with her chin held high.
Groaning from the growing headache, I brought a hand up to rub my aching temples. "Zhizn moya, what did you do?" I already sounded fed up and ready for the chaos that would come from her mouth.
Don't get me wrong; I wasn't upset or angry. I just knew it wouldn't be anything good given everyone's deathly glares, and given how she was as a person.
Giving me a lopsided smile, she chuckled very nervously. "I uhh might have gotten a little impatient with waiting for your rescue mission to get under way… Sooooo I uhh…" Her eyes slowly trailed around the room as she rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet. "I might have gone a little crazy with the explosives…"
"A little?" Arseny questioned while looking at her with calculating eyes as if he was trying to figure out whether or not she was sane. "You blew up awhole fucking building until it was dust after turning everyone's phones into bombs."
"Well, it took care of everyone faster than you guys would have," Nicole retorted smugly.
"You could have hit Lev, or he could have been caught in a blast," Stepan interjected with his own worries.
Deadpanning at Stepan, Nicole loosely crossed her arms and rolled her eyes at him. "Seriously? You think I'm that careless?" she asked with mock offense. "I might have only had thermal to go off of, but I guessed right and avoided the right person."
If I had a drink in my mouth, then it would have ended up all over everyone in the room. "You what?" Maybe I misheard?
"Well, who else would look like they're bound and in one spot?" Nicole tried to defend herself with a nonchalant shrug of her shoulders. "And, I mean, I was careful not to drop any bombs close enough to actually do real damage… Maybe just a popped eardrum or smack to the gut…"
I had to take a minute to accept the fact that Nicole really gambled with my life. There was no doubt that she was mindful of where she dropped the bombs, but there was no way she could have known the exact results of the damage. Stunned, I stammered out, "You dropped bombs close to me without being a hundred percent sure that I would survive?" My question came out closer to a statement rather than a question.
"Woman, you are fucking psycho." I had to take a moment to really look at her and recollect myself.
Waving her closer, I waited until she was within reach before grabbing her and pulling her into my lap with a pained groan. "And I fucking love it." Grabbing her face, I pushed through the pain of my screaming body and planted a hard one on her lips. "But please don't do something like that again."
An awkward chill weighed the air around the bed down, making me look around at everyone who eyed me like I was some alien.
"What? Don't act like you haven't kissed your woman in front of me."
Chapter 35
Nicole
~1 month later~
"Zhizn moya, that's enough."
Lev's large hand engulfed my wrist, putting an immediate stop to my mindless scrubbing.
Snapping out of my daze, I blinked a few times before looking at Lev with furrowed eyes. "Ã?i ca… What are you…? You're getting yourself all wet."
Lev was still fully geared in tactical clothing as he stood there under the showerheads, getting completely drenched. But he didn't seem to care about it with how he kept his concerned eyes trained on me and remained unmoving despite my shoves.
Sighing heavily, he took the coarse sponge from me and dropped it onto the tiled floor beneath us. "Empress, you're going to hit bone next if you don't stop," he joked flatly with a troubled smile.