Cursing, I turn back to Sera and Dimitri. She’s gotten the big guy turned onto his back. She’s searching his body for the bullet wound as he labors to get enough oxygen into his lungs. He’s barely conscious.
“Alik, tell me help is already on the way.” Sera gives me a pleading look, her eyes flaring as she finds the source of the blood. “The bullet hit his side. I’ve got pressure on it, but he needs a doctor. Now.”
My soldiers are already rushing into the suite, crowding the small foyer and spilling into the living room. I shut down the raging desire to scream at them, and focus on helping my friend. The first one through the door—Anatoli—is already on the phone with Dr. Ruiz. He disconnects and confirms she’s on her way.
“Gloria is coming,” I assure Sera. “She’ll take care of Dimitri, but we need to move him to the medical wing now.”
Sera doesn’t seem to hear me. She’s whispering to Dimitri, curled over him in a protective position. The pool of blood beneath them is getting bigger and I need to get her off the ground, to find out if Renzo’s bullet caught her.
“Sera. We’ve got him.” Four of my men surround Dimitri, start to gently pick him up. Sera is crying silently, tears dripping off her face and dissolving into her hoodie. I pull her away and Anatoli puts his hands where hers had been, keeping pressureon the wound. I order him to send regular updates as they hustle Dimitri out of the suite. “And turn off the fucking cameras in the medical bay. You know the deal with Ruiz—no proof she’s been here.”
“I’m so sorry, Dimitri,” Sera calls after them, voice breaking. “For everything.”
I run my hands over Sera, searching wildly for any signs of injury. “Did that fucker shoot you?”
Sera turns to me, dazed. “What?”
“Renzo. I saw him shoot you. Where are you hit?”
“I’m not.” She unzips her hoodie, drops the bloodied thing to the floor. The t-shirt beneath is unmarked. “I think he was just trying to scare me. I’m no good to him dead.”
Relief washes down my spine, icy-hot. I grip Sera’s upper arms, twisting and turning her just to be sure. “You’re okay?”
Her expression is tormented. “I-I’m not bleeding. I’m fine. But Renzo—he got away. He blew up your house and attacked your guards and shot Dimitri and he got away.Oddio, it’s all my fault.”
“It’s not. Stop. Nothing about this is on you.” I pull Sera into a crushing hug. For a moment she’s still, then she hugs me back and I can breathe normally for the first time in what feels like hours. “He blew up a car, not the house. And the guards are coming-to. Renzo put some bullet holes in them, but nothing fatal. The doc will get to them after she’s seen Dimitri.”
“Will he be okay?” she asks against my neck.
I hold her even closer. “Dr. Ruiz will do everything she can for him. Dimitri’s a stubborn fucker. He’s been through a lot. Has survived a lot. I’d bet my life that Renzo di Salvo won’t be the one to take him down.”
Sera stiffens when I say her father’s name. “He’s not going to give up, you know. He’s going to keep coming back. He’s going to keep coming until he finally takes me.”
“Assuming he isn’t dead.”
Sera pushes out of my arms. Her eyes, when they finally meet mine, are uncharacteristically flat. “He’s not dead. I know it. He’s too evil to be killed that easily.”
“A problem we’ll rectify when my men find him.”
“And if they don’t?”
“Then we’ll hunt him down, Sera. The plan hasn’t changed. We hunt him down, we find out where he buried my sister, we kill him. Shkodra too. We’re going to get revenge on them for everything they’ve done,moya voitelnitsa. I promise.”
Sera shivers. I start to wrap my arms around her, but she backs away. “That thing you say in Russian, what does it mean?”
“Moya voitelnitsa?”
“Yes. That.”
“It means ‘my warrior’.”
Sera looks at me with surprise. “Why do you call me that?”
“Because that’s what you are.” I let the truth ring in every word. “Like the folklore warrior princess Marya Morevna my mom told me about when I was a kid. You’re a fighter, Sera. I’ve known it from the moment I first saw you. You are one of the strongest people I’ve ever met. A survivor and a warrior, through and through.”
“Marya? Is that where you got that name, why you called me that before you knew my real name?”
I nod.