The Bratva’s Locked Up Love by Jagger Cole
29
Maksim
When she opens her eyes,I almost lose it. I almost break completely as the emotions overwhelm me. She looks up at me, blinking in confusion. But then slowly, the corners of her lips pull into a smile.
“You’re real…” she whispers, her eyes wide.
“I’m real, malishka,” I groan. My hands take hers as the smile spreads across my face. “I’m real, and I’m right here, and I’m not going anywhere.”
“I told them you were real, but they told me dragons weren’t…”
Quinn stammers, frowning and blinking before the glassiness over her eyes seems to fade. Recognition spreads across her face like a warmth as she beams up at me and squeezes my hand.
“Maks!” she gasps. She lurches to hug me, but she winces. I ease her back to the bed.
“Easy, baby,” I growl. “Easy.”
She nods, her tongue wetting her lips. She frowns at me. “Did I… were you just… uh…”
“A dragon?”
She frowns, blushing. “I’m on some pretty great drugs, aren’t I?”
I laugh. “Yes, you are.”
She groans, but I squeeze her hands. “I’ll be your dragon any day.”
Her brow knits. “I… what happened…” her face pales. “Oh God…”
Her good hand flies to her shoulder, and she winces when it lands on the thick bandages there. Her eyes fly to mine, full of worry.
“How bad?”
“Not bad,” I grin. “You got very, very lucky doing something very, very stupid.”
“Oh, saving your butt was stupid?”
“Yes,” I grunt. “You and I aren’t in the same weight class in the slightest when it comes to being needed by society. The world can stand to lose a few of me, but you—”
“You talk like that again and I’ll shoot you myself.”
I grin at the feistiness in her eyes and on her tongue. But my hands tighten on her as I replay the memory of Rockland’s shot hitting her, instead of me.
Quinn frowns. “What happened?”
“Your father…” I look away. How do I tell her that he didn’t immediately run to her side? That instead he stood there waving a gun like a despot about to be dethroned?
“Sergeant Kempton—Tom—he told your father it was over and that he was taking command. Your father said something along the lines of ‘you and what army,’ to which Tom said, ‘The US Army.”
“Uh…”
“Yeah, that’s when the Humvees and choppers dropped in.”
She stares at me. “Wait, what?”
I shrug. “I had a little phone conversation with Tom the night they came for both of us. For a minute, I thought maybe I’d weighed his allegiances wrong and that he’d sold me out—traced the call or something. But…”
But that was all her father.Her father sold us both out.
“But that was my dad’s doing, wasn’t it?” she asks dryly.
I don’t have to answer. She knows.
“But I guess I did bet right with Tom.” I smile at her. “I saw the way he looked at you the day you broke me out. He cares about you, and he could tell something was off. He just needed to be pointed in the right directions, to ask the right questions.”
She nods. “And my father?”
I shake my head. “I don’t know. But they took him away in handcuffs, along with a lot of his men. I get the feeling the whole place was divided between good soldiers who answers to Sergeant Kempton, and bad apples who took cash from your father.”
She nods slowly again. Then glances at her bandaged shoulder. “Is there a report around that I can read? I need to speak with the attending surgeon, and see what procedures—”
“Quinn,” I sight, squeezing her hand. “Relax. You had the best—” I smirk. “The second best surgeons around fixing you up. They say you’re going to make a full recovery.”
She swallows. “Will I ever operate again?”
I asked the same damn question when she came out of surgery.
“The doctor said you might not ever go pro with tennis, but there was no damage to anything connected to your hands.”
She exhales a long sigh of relief before she looks up into my eyes. Her brow caves with worry.
“Wait, Maks, you—”
“Pulled a get out of jail free card,” I grunt with a smile.
Her mouth falls open in shock. “How?”
“Turning over Sergei Belsky and exposing his connections to a for-profit, black site prison didn’t hurt,” I chuckle. “But neither did Yuri’s ‘secret contact’ in DC pulling some major strings.”
“Who—”
“No idea. But Yuri Volkov moves in interesting circles and has made some interesting friends. It could be anyone—a Senator, or the goddamn President for all I know.”
She stares at me. “So you’re… free?”
I nod as I lean close to her. “I’m free.”
She chokes as she closes the distance between our lips and crushes her mouth to mine. I slide my arms gently under her, scooping her against me as my mouth claims hers. I hold her fiercely, tightly but not too tightly, and just inhale the scent of her.
There are conversations to have later. “What now’s” to dwell on another time. For now, all that matters is that she’s here, with me. All that matters is that she’s in my arms.
I smirk. “Oh, one thing. I don’t know if you’re up for visitors, but there’s a very bold redheaded girl with a guitar in the waiting room who’s been more than a little anxious to see you.”
Quinn laughs, grinning at me. “June, my best friend. She’s great, you’ll love her.”
“She’s a little terrifying.”
She grins. “Yeah, well so are you at first.”
I chuckle as I start to pull way. “I’ll go tell her to come—”
“In a second.”
Her hand tightens on mine, and I feel her tug me back to her. I grin, turning to see her eyes sparkling into mine. I scoop her back into my arms and let my mouth fall back to hers.
My fresh start. My freedom.
My forever.
