Chapter 95 Worried

Chapter 95 Worried
Once the doctor and nurse finish examining Dante and leave the room, I return to my seat next to him. From the looks of it, Dante has already gained more of his consciousness in the past few minutes. Despite the very apparent fatigue on his face, he seems to have gained more consciousness in the past few minutes.

"Did you get shot?" Dante asks. His eyes stay on my left arm, which is wrapped in gauze and a sling. His stare shows his unmistakable worry and a hint of anger. Despite knowing his reason to worry and be angry well enough, I'd rather not have him stress over my condition. He just woke up. So, I'd better change the topic of our conversation and stop him from feeling worried about me.

"Yeah, but it's fine now. How about you? How are you feeling? Your wound is worse than mine," I say.

My attention moves to his shirtless torso with a gauze covering the wound on his abdomen. I frown as I notice the speck of blood on the gauze. Just looking at it reminds me of the day I almost lost him. It's the situation I'd rather not experience again. Losing him like that would be hellish. I'd rather him die because of old age than something as painful or even worse than being shot.

"I'm fine," Dante says. He moves in his place, trying to push himself up to sit. He wants to act tough in front of me, but I wish he didn't. I guess that's just how men are typically, always putting on a strong facade just to not be seen as weak. However, I'd rather him be vulnerable with me and just let me take care of him.

I put an arm over his chest, stopping Dante from moving further. His body is still too weak after losing so much blood and being in a coma for days. He should be taking things easy and slowly and stop pretending that he's okay when he's not.

"Don't. Stay down," I say.

I grab the bed controller and raise the bed upright so Dante can sit up. As the bed moves up slowly, I can't help but frown at Dante. I can clearly see the pained look on his face. He tries to hide it, but his expression and the way he furrows his eyebrows betray him. Once the bed is angled better for him to sit, he turns to me as I hold onto his hand.

"Where's your father?" Dante asks, looking around the room. His worried look makes me smile a bit. I can't believe he's still worried about my father and getting caught being too close to me above his own health. After what my father said, I'm eager to tell Dante about how my father has given us the green light to be together, but unfortunately, I can't just yet. I have to wait for a bit longer until my father is done with testing Dante.

"Don't worry. He's out doing something. He won't be back in hours," I say.

I stare at Dante and sigh as I notice how pale he is compared to how he usually is. Feeling his hand move and wrap around mine, I shift my gaze to our intertwined hands and frown. My chest feels heavy again as I remember how close Dante was to death. If we were a minute late to the hospital, holding his cold body would be my last moment with him. Just the thought of it makes tears well in my eyes. As I blink, the tears fall from my eyes and onto the back of Dante's hand.

"I thought I was going to lose you," I say, sniffling as more tears form in my eyes.

It's a miracle that Dante is still alive now after losing so much blood. He could've died from shock, but I'm glad he didn't. I still want us to spend time together. After all this shit with the Romanos and the Ricci is over, I want us to live together peacefully. Dangers might still surround us, but once the bigger problem is solved, life wouldn't be as crazy as it is now.

"Death can't take me away from you that easily. I still have someone I need to protect," Dante says. I smile and shake my head at his words. I can't believe he still has the energy to joke like that after what happened. It's a good thing, though, because that means he's recovering well.

"What really happened? How did you get shot?" I ask.

From my guess, he just got reckless and decided to fight two men who have guns with his bare hands. It was stupid of him to do it. If only he had waited a bit longer, Carlo could've helped him take down those intruders. He wouldn't have gotten wounded like this and gone into a coma if he had just been a bit patient.

"I couldn't just hide and let them get to you, so I fought them. While I was punching one of them, the other shot me. Those fuckers beat me up too well and left me bleeding on the floor. I then tried to stop them from getting into the closet, but I got knocked out instead," Dante says.

I knew it. Dante should've been more patient and waited for the others to help him. He was outnumbered without any weapon at hand. I know that he's a skilled fighter, but he's already on a losing team fighting with men with guns while he doesn't have any.

"Don't do things like that ever again. That was reckless. You should've waited for reinforcement," I say.

"I couldn't let them hurt you and take you away. I saw one of them drag you out of the closet, and I hate that I couldn't do anything while he was hurting you," Dante says.

I frown at his response. I can't believe Dante has to witness that. It was not his fault that I got hurt, yet he still blamed himself for what happened. He tried his best to protect me, and he got hurt more than I did in the process.

"Don't say that. They did hurt me, but I'm okay now. You should be worried about yourself. What's in the past is in the past. You've done enough to protect me," I say.

"With the gunshot wound in your arm, no," Dante says.

"It's just a small wound. I'll be fine. It doesn't really hurt anymore," I lie.

"No, it's not. I know how a gunshot wound feels," Dante says with a scowl.

Welp, he caught my lie there. I guess I couldn't really lie to someone who's also been shot before. From what I know, he's been shot twice. It could be more. Without the painkiller, the wound would've hurt like hell. Thank goodness for painkillers.

"Okay, fine. It still hurts, but it's not like it's unbearable. You should worry more about yourself. You almost bled to death," I say.

"But I'm fine now," Dante says. His gaze pierces into mine and tries to convince me that he's all right, but I don't believe it. I roll my eyes at his response. I can't believe he just turned my words around. Well, two can play at this game.

"Yeah, no. You said it yourself that getting shot is painful. Please don't move too much and rest more. I don't want you to bleed too much again," I say, staring at his bloodied wound dressing. I frown as I notice it has a bit more blood on it now. It's definitely because he tried to push himself to sit earlier.

"You're really worried, huh?" Dante asks. I look up at his face and scowl when I see his smirk.

How could he say that? Of course, I'm fucking worried. He was dying in my arms and then fell into a coma because of blood loss. And now that he's awake, he still needs extra care for the next few days. The doctor hasn't allowed him to eat anything yet, so he still needs the tube to get his daily nutritional needs into his body. He also needs to be supervised because there's still a chance that something might go wrong because of his deep gunshot wound.

"Of course I am! You were bleeding so much in my arms on the way here. Other than that, you were in a coma for days!" I say.

"But I'm awake now, am I not?" Dante says.

"Yes, but please don't do things like that again," I say.

Dante truly lucked out this time. Some people died from blood loss in just a few minutes. He might not be so lucky next time if something similar happens to him again. I don't want that to happen. I can't let it. Witnessing him dying in my arms makes me realise that our time together could've been cut short. Unless we've dealt with the Romanos' shenanigans, we won't be truly safe from danger.

Dante shakes his head, disagreeing with what I said. As I expected. I give him a look, but his gaze only turns even more serious as I look deeper into his eyes.

"I would if it meant to keep you safe," Dante says.

Dante really takes his job seriously. I wish he wouldn't, and that he'd keep himself safe instead of trying to protect me, though. Yes, I know it's his job, but I can't bear the thought of losing him. I don't want to lose him like that. I hope our fate and destiny will be kinder to us in the future and allow us to spend the rest of our lives free from life-threatening situations. For that to happen, we must fight against the Romanos, and this time, we should not show them any mercy and let them taste their own medicine.