Page 80 of Den of Thieves

The man fisted Vladimir's hair and exposed his neck before jerking the blade across his throat, finally causing him to lose consciousness.

**

“To Venchi!” Aksana said, tossing back another shot of vodka. Karina decided not to remind her that she already drank five shots in his honor. Anymore and she would be dancing around without her crutches.

“I’m going to call it a night, AK,” Karina said over the music. She stood, tossing Vladimir’s blazer over her shoulders. It was technically summer, but the warm days had already transitioned into cooler nights.

“Aw, but it’s so early.” Aksana pouted.

“Its 2 am!” she yelled back, laughing.

“Here, I don’t need these,” Aksana said, tossing her the keys to her Bugatti.

Karina wondered where she got them because Aksana and Dimitri rode with her to the club. Her sister was truly something else. She made partying on one leg look like a cakewalk.

“Thanks, boo. I’ll see you tomorrow,” Karina said, kissing her cheek.

Instead of heading toward the front door, Karina turned towards the back entrance. Vladimir begged her to go with him to the strip club.

What’s two more hours? Karina shrugged and headed to the exit to surprise her husband.

Aksana was right. It was still early. And they just won a freaking war!

Karina opened the back door and froze. Her heels slipped from her fingertips and clattered against the sidewalk, but she didn’t hear them. A frantic cry left her lips as Karina crawled on her hands and knees to her husband, that lay still in a pool of blood.

It took some work, but she was able to turn him onto his back. There was blood everywhere! There wasn’t an ounce of white left on his button-up shirt. Karina ripped off the blazer and pressed it against the reddened slash against his neck.

“Vlad? Vladimir, please answer me!” Karina cried.

Her fingers shook too much to find a pulse. She resorted to slapping his cheek for a response. Her chest heaved when his eyes fluttered.

“Vlad! Hold pressure on this baby!” He was too weak to press the material against his neck, so she placed her clutch on top of it and scrambled to the parking lot for Aksana’s sports car.

With the adrenaline pumping through her veins, Karina pulled her husband’s six-foot-five frame into Aksana’s Bugatti. She sped off in the direction of the nearest hospital, thankful that they were already downtown.

Vladimir clasped her hand that wasn’t steering the car. The one currently applying pressure on his neck with strength she didn’t know he possessed.

“We’re almost there, baby. Hold on!”

Vladimir tried to speak, but coughed up more blood instead.

“I love you, Vladimir. You are stronger than this. You have to fight to come back to me and our children,” she cried as she ran numerous red lights. “I can’t do this without you, baby. You are the moon to my stars. The oxygen I need to breathe. I am nothing without you, Vladimir Kovalyov. Please! Loving you is life’s greatest gift,” she said, pulling into the emergency awning. She jumped out and rushed around the car.

“Come on, baby.” She lightly tapped his bloody face, again to keep him conscious. He blinked in fierce determination, even though she could tell it took a concerted effort to keep his eyelids open.

Doctors and nurses surrounded her shortly after. To Karina’s surprise, Vladimir stayed awake until they got him on the gurney and wheeled him back to the operating room.

“What the hell happened?” The surgeon asked.

“I don’t know. He was stabbed, I think. We were at a party, and he left to go to the afterparty. I stayed behind but changed my mind.”

“I’m going to level with you here, there is a large chance your husband won’t survive the night.”

“Then neither will you.” Karina’s eyes blazed with desperation and barely hinged anger.

“E-excuse me?” He gasped and then winced when she fisted the front of his scrubs, and a few of his chest hairs, bringing his face level with hers.

“You will do everything you can to save him and if you don’t, I won’t stop with you. Everyone you hold dear will die painful deaths. So, if I were you, I would turn around and get prepped for surgery!” she yelled, releasing his chest.