Chapter 59 59

Chapter 59 59
Dominic's POV

In recovery, I awoke to an orchestra of pain. My shoulder was pounding off of every beat. I felt my chest throb with a knife wound that had narrowly missed my heart. My leg was on fire from the grazing bullet. Every breath hurt. The littlest movement sent new waves of pain coursing through my abused frame.

But I was alive. Somehow, and against all odds, even after everything Cassius had done to make sure I wasn’t, I was still breathing.

I turned my head, and the smidgen of motion barely registered before the pain hit, and saw Vivian in the chair beside my bed, asleep. She was bunched up in an uncomfortable position, and her body would ache when she woke; not to mention there was still dried blood on her clothes. Mine. Cassius's. Most likely her own where she’d been slashed during the fight.

She had hurled herself into the arms of Cassius. For me. Could have died. Nearly died when his hands wrapped around her neck. This wife I’d married under false pretenses. Whom I’d controlled and punished and objectified. Who should hate all of me and this life. All the same, she’d risked her life without a second thought to save mine.

Something in my chest clenched, and it wasn’t just the knife wound.

"You're awake." Her voice was soft, husky with sleep that she had been woken from. She stirred, blinked and found me watching her. “She was on her feet and by my side in an instant. "How do you feel?"

“Like I was just shot and stabbed and beaten half to death, then stitched together by someone who hates me.” I attempted a pathetic joke. “So, pretty much business as usual for a Tuesday.

"It's Thursday, actually." She threw him a half-smile. "But I'll allow the joke."

She held my hand gently, her fingers warm against my chilled skin but careful not to touch the IV lines protruding from an unknown reason into my arm. "You scared me. “Because when that knife was coming at you —”

"I scared you? You wrestled an armed killer to the ground with your bare hands.” I squeezed her fingers gently. “That’s either the bravest or dumbest thing I’ve ever seen.”

"I couldn't let him kill you. Couldn’t do nothing and watch you die.”

"Why not?" The question was sincere, wanting to know. "You'd be free if I died. No more lies to maintain. No more danger. No more living with me pulling the strings.” No more me."

She squeezed my hand tighter. “Because I’m in love with you, you idiot.”

The words lingered between us, loaded with innuendo. I jabbed at her, reading her face for any sign that she didn’t really mean it, that this was strategy or manipulation or anything but the truth.

“You don’t want to love me,” I spoke at last, my voice more hoarse than it should have been. “You would be wise to flee me for good.

"I know I shouldn't. But I do anyway." She leaned closer. "I love you, Dominic. And you don’t have to say it back.” I just needed you to know. Just wanted you to know why I did that.”

"I'm going to prison, Vivian. The federal case against me is crushing. “I have good lawyers but I don’t have miracle workers.” I tried to be brutally honest. “Pretty sure I’m going away for life.”

"I know."

"My empire is crumbling. My enemies are winning. It’s a disaster for the region,” he said in a telephone interview from his home. The admission tasted bitter. I ain't the mighty Don no more. I’m not a hero or anything special, doin what I have to blend in among criminals.facing the justice I deserve!!

"I know that too."

"And you love me anyway? Even knowing I have nothing to offer you now but a life of prison visits and being married to an inmate we both know is guilty?”

"Apparently I'm a masochist." She was truly sad but her smile was genuine. “Or maybe I just see something in you that others don’t.”

I laughed, then yelped in pain as the action tugged on my stitches. "Don't make me laugh. Everything hurts when I laugh."

"Everything hurts with you period. That’s sort of our relationship in a nutshell.”

"I know. I'm sorry." My apology seemed woefully insufficient for all I had done to her. "For all of it. For every way I've hurt you."

“I love you too,” I replied, the words strange in my mouth yet absolutely real. "You know that, right? Despite knowing I shouldn't. Even though it’s also what makes me vulnerable in ways that could get us both killed.”

“You don’t have to say it, cause I already said —”

"I'm not." I held her gaze. "I love you. I'm terrified of it. Hate what it means. But it's true."
“Love isn’t weakness,” she said quietly.

“It has been, in my world anyway. Love gets people killed. Gets them used against you.”

“Then maybe your world has had it wrong all along.”

Before I could reply, before I could scrutinize too closely that subversivethey came into the room like they always do — federal agents. Two of them, with trying to appear official and unswayed by a medical environment.

“Mr DeLaurentis we’re here to talk about your transfer to federal holding.”

"When?" I already knew the response was going to be bad.

"Tomorrow morning at eight o'clock. You are medically stable to be transferred according to your doctors.”

Vivian's grip on my hand was almost painful. "No. He’s just recovered from a big surgery —”

"Ma'am, please step back." The agent's voice was businesslike - neutral and unyielding.

"You can't just—"

“We are a legal authority and we have court orders, ma’am. Please get away or we’ll have you escorted out of the room.”

They were separating us. Already. Robbing us of what little time we had.

"Vivian—" I started.

"I'll fight this. I'll find the best lawyers. I'll do whatever it takes." Tears came to her eyes, but she spoke with a reckless vehemence. "I promise.",

But we both knew the truth. Now that I was in federal custody, this could be the last time we would ever see each other as free men. It was all about to end, and there wasn’t a thing either of us could do to prevent it.

Once the agents had left, after having arranged my transfer, and leaving guards on my door, Xavier came in to update me on current events. His grim face held the news I already felt would not be good.

"Cassius is in custody. Serious condition but the M.D.s are hopeful he'll pull through. Xavier read from notes on his phone. “Which means he’ll have his day in court.”
"Good. I want him to be alive so he can face justice. What him rot in prison for the next few decades.” I moved around, looking for a spot that didn’t hurt. Failed. "What about my trial?"

"Starts in three months. Judge rejected your bail application again. Slapped you with the label of an ongoing threat to the community.”

"Expected. What about operations?"

"That's the question. With you in captivity, someone has to be the one calling shots. Someone the organization will follow." Xavier met my eyes. What I then would recommend is that you give me operational control. You go inside, let me worry about work a little bit.”

"Done. You have my complete authority." I paused. "And Vivian? What about protecting her?"

"What about her?" Xavier looked over at Vivian, who was trying to make it look like she wasn't listening intently, but she couldn't keep her eyes off of us..

"Protect her. With your life if necessary. She's your priority now."

"You know I will. She's family." Xavier's expression softened slightly. "She saved your life tonight. That makes her one of us."

Once Xavier exited to put their plan for the transition of power in place, Vivian and I were alone once more. The face of the clock on the wall was counting down how many hours we had left together, which is all they were now. Hours, not days or weeks or months.

"What happens to us?" she asked quietly. "After tomorrow?"

"I don't know." The truth sounded more necessary than empty consolation. I don’t actually know where this goes from here.

"Will you...” She paused, as if wrestling with the question. “Do you want me to wait for you?

"For how long? Years? Decades? An entire lifetime?" I made myself meet her gaze. “That’s not fair for anyone to have to put up with.”

“That’s a long time to hang around for somebody.” Her voice was small, uncertain.

"It is. It is asking you to put your entire life on pause. To live half a life while I rot in federal prison.”

She was silent for several moments. Then: "Ask me anyway."

My heart, which had survived bullets and knives and beatings — seemed as if it might really break. "Will you wait for me? Will you stick with me when I go to prison? Visit me behind glass partitions? Construct your life” around a convicted criminal?”

She bent over cautiously, bearing in mind my condition and the medical apparatus. She kissed me softly, her lips gently grazing mine. "Yes. To all of it. Yes. I'm patient for as long as it takes."

‘It’s the right thing to do, baby.’ Before I could answer her, before I could tell her she was goddamn beautiful and crazy and the best thing that ever happened to my shitty life, the heart monitor near my bed went off. The cadence became a jumble of noise.

There were nurses rushing around the room, this time with a sense of urgency but also with organization. “He’s responding to something —”

"To what?" Vivian hollered, and her voice raised in hysteria. "What's happening?"

"We don't know yet. Ma’am, you have to evacuate the room." Already they were nudging her toward the door, jostling past as if to assess my condition.

My vision blurred. The room spun. My body stiffened, muscles involuntarily tensing up. The last thing I remembered was Vivian's terrified expression when they pulled her out of the room.