“Come on,” Cassie says with a grimace at my nose. “I’ll drive.” She runs off to their house, behind Andrius’ property, and comes back swinging the keys to the old Land Rover she drives.
Andrius jogs into his house and comes out swinging his gun around his finger. Justina looks at him and bursts out laughing.
Violet is on his heels. “I’ve called the emergency clinic in Corfu Town, and they can see you. Say they’re quiet today,” she says.
Andrius shouts an order in Russian to the men now loitering around the perimeter of his property. He tells them to escort Maxim and Zoey off the property now, and to make sure no one comes within shooting distance as he’s going to the hospital. Then he turns to Justina and asks her to go be with Violet.
I doubt there’s any danger, but Andrius is always paranoid. The man has two maids who are trained in shooting and unarmed combat. He’s insanely protective of Violet and their little one.
Cassie saunters by me and to her car, which she opens with a press of the fob.
The woman grows in confidence daily. She manages the business side of things for us, and although nothing is fully up and running yet, she’s obviously going to make an excellent manager. Her efficiency is top notch, and she’s already getting organized with ordering things we’ll need for the office once we have the land and buildings handed over to us.
K asked her what car she wanted when we arrived here, and she shrugged and said something old and good on rough terrain as she wanted to use it to go to the beach with Gulliver and swim. K bought her an old Land Rover.
At the time, I asked him if he didn’t want to get her something a bit more expensive. He’d grinned at me and said no, Cassie wouldn’t like that.
I climb in the back and Andrius hands me something. It’s a cloth, which I press to my nose. I pull it away, and it’s soaked in blood. Fucking hell.
Cassie pulls out of the drive smoothly. I glance at K up front and notice him open the glove compartment and take out a gun. Cassie shoots him an annoyed glance.
“I hate having that thing in my car.”
“Baby, it might be needed one day.”
She sighs. “It’s not as if I’m allowed anywhere on my own at the moment, is it? So, why do I need it?”
“In case, okay? Humor me.”
“I always humor you,” she shoots back.
He leans over and kisses her cheek as if she’s just said something nice instead of arguing with him. “Yes, you do.”
She purses her lips as she glances at him again, but there’s a smile there, playing over her full mouth.
For a blinding moment, I imagine Dasha smiling at me that way. Her features are different thana Cassie’s. Dasha is delicate. Tiny nose, big blue eyes, small mouth. She is petite, but graceful. Pale skin and red hair give her an ethereal appearance. She might have looked delicate, but she was tough, deep down where it matters.
Life in Russia, in the endless slums outside of St. Petersburg, made you that way. You either got tough, or you went under.
Andrius takes hold of my chin and angles my face, looking at my nose. I jerk my head out of his hands. “What? You want to kiss me?” I speak in English because K hates it if we talk in Russian around Cassie. Says it’s rude. The girl is learning our language, though. She listens to a tape every night and tries to say the words. Often, she mangles the pronunciation, but if she keeps it up, she might be able to follow what we’re saying.
“Well, you’re pretty enough,” he replies in English with a smirk. He makes a mock sad face and adds. “Now, though, K has made you ugly like us. You will look like a man now, not the pretty boy.”
“Maybe my nose will mend the way yours did, and I’ll be lucky.” I shrug.
“My nose was broken, yes, but yours is splat.”
“Fuck off,” I grouse. “Stop saying splat.”
We pull up outside the private hospital in Corfu Town, and I’m grateful as fuck. My nose is throbbing with a tenacity that makes me want to cut the damn appendage off.
We enter the clinic, and a nurse swoops down on us immediately.
“I seem to spend a disproportionate amount of time in hospitals,” K grumbles.
“Because you spend a disproportionate amount of time doing dangerous things,” Cassie replies smartly.
“We were playing a casual game of sport.” Andrius shakes his head at her as if she’s talking total nonsense.
“No, you were playing rugby, which is a dangerous sport. You’re adrenaline junkies, the lot of you.”
“I’m not,” I say. “I would love a quiet life. A plot of land, maybe olive trees, some chickens.”
“Did you hurt your head?” Andrius taps my head with his fist.
I jerk out of his way. “It’s true. One day I would like the quiet life.”
“Good for you, Bohdan,” Cassie says sincerely as K smiles at her.
A lady at reception with a friendly face asks me for my details and hands Cassie a clipboard, which she passes over to me.
“Do you have insurance?” the lady asks.
I nod.
“I’ll be covering this,” K says and gets out a credit card made of actual palladium and gold. I know this fact because he told me one night when he was drunk. Flashed it in front of my face. Now, he’s using it to pay for my nose.
“You don’t have to do that,” I protest.
“I fucking broke it,” he growls. “I’ll pay for it.”
A doctor has appeared at our table as we talk, and she smiles at me and winces. “Looks like you need some painkillers, an x-ray, and probably a scan to be safe.”
“Just be sure to make him as pretty as he was before,” K jokes. “I don’t want to be responsible for ruining his beauty.”
The doctor gives K another smile, and motions for me to follow her.
After a whole ton of tests and a consultation, the doctor tells me I can either have surgery now or at a later date. I won’t have trouble breathing once the swelling goes down, so the surgery is purely for cosmetic reasons. I tell her I’ll think about it and let her know in the morning whether to book me in immediately. She told me the sooner I have it done, the better the cosmetic results can be. Thankfully, my nose is not a splat like Andrius said, that fucker. It is, however, going to look slightly bumpy if I don’t have surgery.
We head home a few hours later, me doped up on the good stuff. I’m staying in the spare house with K and Cassie. Reece is staying with Andrius and Violet, although he’s in the UK right now. When we arrive, Violet comes to greet us and looks at my face, her eyes filled with concern.
“Does it hurt?” she asks.
“Yeah, it hurts. An elephantine lump of muscle plowed into me and took me to the floor.” I shoot K an annoyed glare.
“Poor baby,” Justina comes out of the living room and smiles at me. “You need a drink.”
“Yes, I do.”
“You’re on drugs,” Cassie says.
I laugh at that and then wince as the pain hits me hard. “I’ve mixed a lot worse than alcohol and whatever this shit is.”
Justina pours a large glass of brandy and hands it to me.
“If you lovely folk don’t mind, I’m going to bed. I’m tired.”