Chapter 94

“Rosaria!”

I opened up my eyes and realized I had fallen asleep. Kamilia was crouched down, her hand on my cheek. Damir was behind her, looking worriedly down at me. Closing my eyes again, I leaned into her touch.

“Hey…” My voice was quiet.

“You…I can’t…” Kamilia sounded like she was crying.

I opened up my eyes to find just that. The woman who I’d never seen cry or even bat an eyelash at anything. She had tears falling down her face. Lifting up my hand, I brushed them away.

“Don’t…cry. I’m n-not worth i-it. Too…much trouble.”

Kamilia chuckled quietly. “You are far too much trouble. Come on. Let’s get you fixed up.”

Damir stepped up and lifted me up. I was surprised. He was such a slim guy with glasses but he didn’t seem to have an issue with me. They walked to a waiting car and I was placed gently into the back seat.

“Mrs. Baranov!”

Keenan was sitting in the back seat and helped Damir pull me into the seat. The door shut behind me and I let my head rest in Keenan’s lap.

“I’m sorry. Just…deal with this for a moment. We’ll get you all fixed up, okay?”

I smiled as I touched his face. “You’re alive.”

He nodded. “Thanks to you and Mr. Baranov. So is Lec. He got a bullet in the butt but he’s okay.”

Chuckling, I shook my head. “And…Marek…”

Keenan’s face fell. “I’m sorry…we haven’t…”

“We’ve been looking everywhere.” Kamilia cut in. “We’ve torn this damn city apart.”

My brow furrowed. “Enzo…it’s Enzo…not my father…”

Keenan frowned. “I told them. They started with property specific to Enzo but nothing came up. Vor has expanded to everything your father has. We didn’t think they would keep you two in the same place.”

“You would be right. Enzo has him somewhere. I’d hoped…” I shook my head and sighed. “We will need to move fast. Enzo might come out and use him as bait now. Enzo wants me, but Marek was to ensure that I cooperated.”

“K chertu eto. K chertu vse eto.” [Fuck this. Fuck it all.] Kamilia cursed from the front.

I relaxed into Keenan. “H-how long…has it been?” Really, I didn’t know if I wanted the answer to my question.

“Two weeks. Well, two weeks and a day.” Kamilia turned around in her seat to look at me. “We all thought you would be lost to us after it being that long. So when your friend, Wizard or whatever, messaged me this morning I thought it was a sick joke.”

I smiled. “Wizard doesn’t joke much and when they do, it’s childish.”

“Cut from the same cloth then.” Kamilia rolled her eyes. “We are taking you to the penthouse. You can get in, right?”

“Yeah. Why the penthouse?”

Keenan sighed. “Vor has taken over the house. He’s on a war path. A few of us that are still at the Mr. Baranov’s building have been working separately.”

“Why?”

“Juri has slipped into the darkness. He’s too pissed. Seeing red. Killing everything and anything in his path. He’s not thinking, he’s just blowing up things and moving on.” Kamilia sighed and shook her head. “A few of us are actually trying to find Marek.”

I frowned. Did Juri then think that Marek was dead already? Or did he just think that war was better at this point? Or was he actually waiting for this to happen all along? It was a possibility that Juri wanted a war with my father but it seemed silly to wait until this moment. Unless, he needed an excuse. Looking for Marek in all the wrong places and blowing them up as he went. It was stupid if he was actually looking for Marek but not if he was going to take out my father from New York.

“Rosaria? You doing okay?”

Shaking my head, I kept my mouth shut. It wouldn’t do anyone any good to voice my thoughts. Not now. As long as a few of them were actually looking for Marek, that’s what mattered to me.

“We need to focus on Enzo’s properties. He has a few places where he holds raves and other parties in abandoned buildings. We need to look…” I started to cough.

Blood sprayed out and Keenan tried to help so that I didn’t choke on anything. Enzo’s last session had me take a lot of damage to my ribs.

“Kamilia…I think we need to take her to the hospital. There might be something internal.” Damir’s usually calm voice was far more worried.

“Blin. Khorosho.” [Crap. Fine.]

Damir turned the car sharply, earning a few honks as he did. Still, he picked up speed. Keenan put his hand on my head, probably the most physical touch I’d ever had from him.

“Just hold on. We’ll get you fixed up and we will find Mr. Baranov.”

I reached up and patted his shoulder. “You are far too optimistic for this line of work, Keenan. I’m sorry for dragging you into all this.”

Kamilia chuckled as did Damir. Keenan looked confused but I just smiled. We pulled up to the hospital and Keenan picked me up this time. Kamilia followed closely behind us, barking orders to different people as we walked. We got into an elevator and she pinched the bridge of her nose.

“I swear. If I could just have my own floor and hire my own staff. None of this would be as much of pain.” The doors opened and waved us down the hall. “Come on, Room 423. Set her down there, Keenan.”

She took off in another direction, leaving Keenan to try and find the room. Once he did, he opened it up and I realized it was the same room that I had been in before. Keenan set me down gently and made sure I was good before sitting down next to the bed.

“You okay?” I asked him.

He chuckled and shook his head. “I don’t know what to do. I was supposed to protect you, but instead you made it so Lec and I could get away.”

“Keenan, it’s okay. My brother was never going to let me go. I knew that. I wasn’t going to make it out of there. At the very least I wanted to try and see if I could get you guys out. Two out of three isn’t bad.”

Keenan sighed and rubbed his eyes. “Mrs. Baranov…please…my life isn’t worth it. My job has always been to protect you. Yet every time you get hurt, I end up being the one to find you.”

“Good.”

Keenan’s head lifted up, surprised. I reached out and took his hand, squeezing it.

“Find me, every time, Keenan. No matter what. Keep finding me hurt. Because if you keep finding me, then I can just do it again.”

He laughed but his eyes filled with tears. “Stop doing it in the first place!”

“Never.” I smiled back.

“Ria, please. My heart can’t take this. Pakhan is going to kill me.”

My mouth opened a bit, Keenan actually called me by my first name. That and he picked up Lec’s bad habit of calling Marek pakhan. It made me smile and I felt like I was going to cry again.

“I’ll do my best. First though, we need to find my muzh.”

He nodded. “I’ll work with the guys.”

“Get one of Enzo’s segugi. They are his. It doesn’t matter which one. They will know. Get one and save them for me.”

Keenan nodded. “How do we know, if we have caught one of his…se-seg…”

“Hounds. Segugi in Italian is hounds. They have a tattoo on the left wrist. It will look like a dog bite.”

Kamilia threw open the door and let in a bunch of people with different machines. Keenan stood and moved out of their way.

“Go, boy. I don’t need you. Talk to the guys. Get another search going.” Kamilia dismissed Keenan with a wave without looking at him.

His eyes caught mine and he nodded before disappearing. Next, I was stripped down completely. Kamilia went through and checked every injury, barking orders as she did. A line was put into my arm with what I hoped was pain medication. Having a break from it would be nice.

Kamilia growled at the damage to my legs before order a few tests and what I guessed was a surgery name. She sighed, looking at my body before up to me.

“Do we…do we need to check damage to your vagina?”

I wanted to tell her no. That it was the least of my worries. But I couldn’t. Because I was worried. So, slowly, I nodded. Kamilia cursed and the pen in her hand broke in two.

“We’ll take care of it, Rosaria. Don’t worry.”

A mask was put over my mouth and nose. The air in it made me want to gag but I knew I was being put under. I had to trust Kamilia and I did. My eyes shut and I let my body rest, allowing the gas to take over and hopefully let me get some sleep.