I take in Kronid, noticing his clean-shaven face is no longer clean but scruffy looking.
“Kronid,” I croak.
“Sirenă,” Kronid rasps, moving from the chair he’s sitting in next to me. He moves to the edge of the bed. Reaching across my bed, he grabs a small white foam cup with a straw in it and brings it to my lips. “Take a couple sips of this water,” he murmurs gently.
I do as he says keeping my eyes on him the entire time. I’m exhausted but I’m scared if I close my eyes Kronid will disappear and this will all be a dream within a nightmare. I don’t want to fall back asleep and him not be here.
He must sense my exhaustion as he removes the straw from between my lips and places it back on the table.
“Rest, sirenă, I will be here when you wake up. I swear,” he murmurs, leaning forward to press a kiss to the top of my head.
With a nod, I close my eyes and let the sleep take me once again. This time I know I’ll wake up to find him there with me.
My screams filter throughout the room and my head thrashes to the side. “No . . . please don’t hurt me anymore,” I cry out.
“Shh, easy, Dema, I’ve got you, no one will hurt you ever again.” Kronid’s soothing voice breaks through the dream and I open my eyes, my breathing heavy as I try to catch my breath.
I sigh, realizing it’s only a nightmare and slump into the hospital bed, tears welling in my eyes.
“I’m sorry,” I utter quietly.
“Don’t be sorry, sirenă, you haven’t done anything wrong,” Kronid states, his accent gruffer than usual as his voice seems thick with emotion. He brings one of his hands to the side of my face where he proceeds to wipe away my tears.
Glancing around him, I notice the others in the room. Standing in the corner is my boss, Katya, with her husband. I’m surprised to see her here. I honestly didn’t think I was special enough to gain her attention in having her here at the hospital with me.
Next, I notice Michail who is normally with Kronid when he comes in. Moving on my eyes widen at the sight of Trista standing near the doorway.
“What . . . are you d-doing here?” I croak out the question.
“I got a call from this hunkalicious here telling me you were in the hospital,” Trista comments, causing me to roll my eyes. She’s a bit of a character.
“Okay, but I thought you weren’t coming until you had enough to move here,” I state in confusion.
“Well, when you get a call from a man with this voice telling you your best friend’s in the hospital and there’s a ticket waiting for you at the airport, you pack your shit and hop on the first damn flight,” Trista mutters.
Wow.
I shift my gaze from Trista’s back to Kronid’s. “You did that?” I ask him.
“Yes, Dema. I told you, I’d do anything for you,” Kronid rasps.
“I love you. I didn’t know it until now, but I love you,” I whisper.
Kronid brushes the back of his fingertips against my cheeks. “And I love you. Now how are you feeling?” he asks, changing the subject.
“Um, like I’ve been beaten with a sledgehammer then thrown in front of a truck,” I grumble. I’m sure I look like hell. “How long . . . how did . . .”
“You want to know how long he had you and how I found you?” I nod at his question. “I prefer not to answer right now. First you’ll rest and get your strength back.”
“Okay,” I murmur,
“Your grandparents are on the way up here,” Trista says, drawing my attention to her. I notice her glancing in Michail’s direction as she pulls the phone from her ear and hands it back to him.
“Thank you,” I say with a slight nod. My throat was on fire from talking so much.
“Can you all give us a few minutes?” Kronid asks politely.
“Of course, we’ll go get some coffees and be right back,” Katya states.
Kronid nor I say anything else as they all leave the room and leave us in silence.
As soon as the door closes, Kronid clears his throat.
“Sirenă, can you forgive me?” he rasps.
“Forgive you?” I didn’t understand. Had he done something against me?
“I didn’t protect you as I should have, Dema. I left you unprotected, and I left you vulnerable to be taken by a madman.”
“Kronid, you have nothing to be sorry for. This isn’t on you or anyone else. I knew until the end you’d come for me,” I murmur, wanting him to understand just how much trust I hold in him.
“I promise you, Dema, my sweet sirenă, from now on you will be guarded as you should’ve been and I’ll make the streets of Moscow bleed red if something else ever happens to you,” Kronid declares.
Holy cannoli.
You can see in his eyes he means every word he just said.
And in all honesty if it came down to it, I wouldn’t stop him because I know it is who he is. He will do whatever he needs to, to make me safe.
This is one of the many reasons I love him, and I would never change a thing about him.
Chapter Twenty
Kronid
I bought time waiting for Dema to get better before I told her the reason she was taken. It’s been almost three weeks since she’s been home and every few days, she looks at me in a certain way, with her eyes alone she’s telling me exactly what she wants to know—the truth.
I’ve been here in her grandparents’ home, living with them completely. I’m here not only to help her but with them as well. Playing cards with her grandfather before he goes to bed has become a nightly tradition and I usually have a drink with her grandmother in the evening as well.
I’m sitting beside her grandfather as he’s telling me a story of how things were when he was serving in the militia when Dema walks in through the front door with her grandmother. They’ve been going out on walks around the block for the last week to give them both a good bit of exercise.
Moving in with them has been the best decision I’ve made in a long time, especially since Dema’s best friend, Trista, needed a place to stay. I took everything important out of my apartment and she’s been staying there. She’s simply repaying me by being the new receptionist at Pins and Needles. Unlike her predecessor she shows up and does her work, which is a breath of fresh air.
“Have a good walk?” I ask her and immediately she gives me a nod and smiles.
“Yeah, it was nice. The weather is lovely today.”
“Good. Mind coming upstairs with me. I wanna talk to you about a couple things.”
She narrows her eyes in on me and I rise, telling her grandfather we’ll play again tomorrow. He’s a good sport, so we agree to play tomorrow and I head upstairs behind Dema, not minding watching her as she goes up every step but being here in case she loses her balance. This way I can catch her quickly. She gets to the top of the stairs, walks down the hallway, and then heads into our bedroom. I shut the door behind her and she takes a seat on the edge of the bed, while I lean up against the wall and tell her what she’s been so desperate to find out for weeks now.
“You’re about to tell me everything, aren’t you?”