Page 12 of Brutal Queen

Every passing second is another moment where I plead to any god who will listen to make him breathe for himself. My eyes are fixed on Enzo’s chest, scared to look away for fear that one missed compression will be what steals him from me. From us.

Sinclair doesn’t falter in his efforts, only pausing to check Enzo’s pulse. For a fraction of a second, the fear in his eyes falters and is replaced by a moment of relief when he finds it.

Nico is bellowing into his phone somewhere in the background at who I assume is the emergency dispatch operator, demanding to know how long the ambulance will be.

Benedict’s breath dusts my ear and his words float over me. “We’ve got him, Aurora. He’s safe now. There’s no way he’d ever leave us willingly. Breathe. You just have to be his little warrior a while longer. Till he wakes up and sees your face. Just breathe,mia reginetta.” His words ground me and wrap me in a blanket of solace.

A strangled wheeze punctuates the haze that’s threatening to engulf me, and it’s the most wonderful thing I’ve ever heard. Enzo’s chest begins to rise and fall on its own. It’s like a part of me I thought I’d lost returns to my body. I match my breathing to his.In. Out. In. Out. In. Out.Forcing myself to quell the torrent of emotions that threaten to drown me.

Distant wails of sirens sing out in the silence of the space causing a weight to lift, not from my shoulders, but from my soul.

Nico runs to the end of the alley and waves frantically to make sure the ambulance doesn’t drive by us. The sirens blare, echoing off the buildings that dwarf us on either side before they’re cut short when the rig jerks to a stop. Two paramedics jump out of the cab and rush towards Enzo.

“Sir, give us some room to work,” one says to Sinclair. Only he won’t move. “You’ve got to let us help him, sir. Back up.”

I look across at Nico and nod. He knows what I’m asking. Approaching Sin carefully, Nico leans down and grips him by the shoulders, pulling him out of the way. Sinclair rails against him, refusing to leave his place at Enzo’s side, but he loses against Nico’s brute strength. Suddenly he’s turning on Nico, hand on his throat, marching him back to the wall.

I make a move to rush to them both, but Benedict holds me tight. “No. Let Nico handle it. Sinclair was bound to break eventually, and Nico can handle himself,” he says with an air of calm that surprises me given the situation.

Sinclair’s fingers flex as his grip tightens on Nico’s throat, whose chest strains with every ragged breath he heaves in. Nico digs his fingers into Sin’s forearm, and instead of using the leverage to push him away, he pulls Sinclair into a bear hug he can’t escape.

A heart-wrenching howl erupts from Sinclair, muffled by Nico’s embrace.

“You did good, man. Let them take over,” Nico whispers, just loud enough for me to catch.

The paramedics get to work, and before I can track which one is doing what, there’s an oxygen mask over Enzo’s battered face, a collar around his neck, lines going into the back of his hands, and a portable monitor connected to his chest. We are redundant and I’ve never felt so helpless, watching as they do everything they can to help the man who sacrificed everything for me. He didn’t just risk his life, he gave up his family to make sure I never had to be subjected to Max’s torment again.

My traitorous tear ducts betray me yet again, blurring my vision as fat tears cascade over my lashes.

One of the paramedics looks up at me. “Ma’am, he’s asstable as we can get him in the field. We need to get him to the hospital, but we can only take one of you,” he says while his partner is scrambling to the back of the rig, hauling a gurney and backboard out.

“I’m coming with you,” I reply, turning to three men who are already getting ready to protest. “I’m not fucking leaving him. Benny, follow us in the car. Nico, call Stefano and get him to meet us at the hospital with Doc Em.”

When I mention Doc Em, the other paramedic flinches before he glances up at me with a look of recognition before casting his eyes down. He clearly knows who we are.

I pull Benny with me as I approach my near-broken men. They engulf me in an embrace that feels like we’re pouring every ounce of emotion we have into each other. Their warmth cloaks me. A hand cups my cheek before hooking a finger under my chin, and the words I’ve been holding back can’t be denied any longer.

“I love you,” I declare to them all.

“We love you so much, phoenix,” Nico says, in a rich resonant tone that feels like it’s warming me from the inside out.

Those words have been begging to be confessed for so long, but it never felt right without Enzo, and I hope there’s some part of him that can hear us. That knows that we love him too. They bow their heads, touching their foreheads to mine.

“Go,colibrì,” Sinclair says, his voice gravelly with emotion. “We’ll be right behind you.”

“Go,mia regina.” I squeeze Benny’s hand before letting go and turning to run back to the ambulance.

Climbing in, I take my seat, perched across from Enzo. I gaze down at Zo’s face, trying to ignore the hurried motions of the paramedic furiously working to keep him alive long enough to get him to hospital. This random man is responsible for keeping a man I love alive, and I’m unreasonably angry athim for not being able to wave a magic wand and bring him back to me right fucking now.

The badge on his uniform declares his name to be Paul Scanlon.

Paul has become the most influential person in my entire world and every time he steals a glance at me his expression becomes wary. I want to grab him by the throat and tell him to school his fucking features better because he should be more worried about Enzo than me.

To avoid me throttling him while I jam the nearest needle into his neck, I decide to call him on his shit.

“Worry about the man in front of you rather than who the fuck you think I might be,” I rasp between clenched teeth, making no effort to hide my resentment of his unprofessional behaviour.

He squeaks in surprise, like some kind of yappy little dog. I lean forward and make sure I have his full attention before continuing, “I don’t give a shit about you. I only care that you keep him alive.” He doesn’t look at me again. Not even when we pull up outside the hospital minutes later.

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