Page 65 of The Watcher's Bride

“You were unconscious when they brought you here. You hit your head pretty badly and broke some ribs, but nothing else. No internal bleeding, but they said they wouldn’t know the extent of your head injuries until you woke up. How do you feel?” she asks, surveying me as if I might drop dead at any moment.

“I’ve got a pounding headache and my ribs ache, but it could have been worse,” I reply truthfully. “Nora, I don’t mean to worry you, but it wasn’t a hit and run or an accident. They were deliberately trying to run me off the road.”

“Nikolai said that might be the case. He went to get the doctor when we noticed you stirring,” she explains. “Who would do such a thing?”

“I’m heir to the Russian Bratva, Nora, I’m not short on enemies who want me dead,” I reply wryly, not wanting to hide the truth from her. “I’m sure Nikolai will have some theories on who’s top of the list when we speak to him.”

She strokes my cheek, taking my hand in hers and squeezing it. “I’m so glad you’re okay. When I heard you’d been in an accident, I thought the worst. I couldn’t imagine a world so cruel as to take you away from me when I’ve only just found you.”

“I’m not going anywhere, I promise,” I reply, squeezing her hand. She kisses me gently and I can taste the salt from her tears, which I gently wipe away.

At that moment, Nikolai and a doctor walk in.

“Still alive, I see. If you didn’t want to come to the meeting, you could have just called in sick like a normal person,” Nikolai says with a smile.

“It’ll take more than a car crash to kill me,” I reply.

“Well, you’re very lucky, I’ll say that,” the doctor chimes in as he comes over to run some tests.

After answering all of his questions, and checking my pupil response and other physical signs, he confirms that there seems to be no serious damage and that I am severely concussed, but otherwise fine.

“We need to keep you overnight for observation. If all goes well, we should be able to discharge you tomorrow. But you’ll need a few more days of rest and recuperation.”

“Thank you, doctor.”

With the doctor gone, Nikolai grills me on the events preceding the crash and I tell him everything I can recall. When I’m finished, Nikolai sighs.

“Well, there’s no way of knowing for sure, but the meeting this morning was about the Chinese Cho Dynasty. There have been movements against us from them. Dimitri thinks now that we’ve allied with Quinn, they want to gain some footholds against us to ensure we don’t become too powerful.”

“That makes sense. Will we retaliate?”

“Dimitri and Quinn are deciding our next moves,” he replies with a shrug, his expression betraying that he doesn’t like how ingrained Quinn has already become with the inner operations of our empire.

“Dimitri shouldn’t trust my father as far as he can throw him. He’ll betray him, it’s only a matter of time. Perhaps he already has. It wouldn’t surprise me if he was the one who tried to kill Leo, even if it was if only to punish me,” Nora spits.

We both consider this for a moment.

“She’s got a point. Quinn was our enemy for years, the man who killed our Pakhan, my father, Dimitri’s brother, and yet now Dimitri is his brother in arms. Something isn’t right,” I say.

“I’ll find out what I can. You’re too close to this, given your personal feelings toward Quinn and the fact that you’re married to his daughter. There’s no way Dimitri will reveal even a hint of his motives to you. If he’s planning to take Quinn down, he won’t risk your wife reporting back,” Nikolai says.

“I wouldn’t spit on that man if he was on fire. I’m not a Quinn anymore, I’m a Belyh,” Nora says bluntly.

Nikolai chuckles. “I see why you like her. Still, my point still stands.”

I nod. “Thank you, Nikolai.”

“Be well, brother. Something tells me that we’re heading toward the eye of the storm. I’ll be in touch,” Nikolai says before leaving.

Something tells me he’s right.

***

I’m grateful when the doctor discharges me the next day. I couldn’t have handled another day stuck in bed feeling useless. However, I didn’t bank on my wife’s powers of persuasion.

“Upstairs to bed with you,” she orders the moment we walk through the front door.

“Nora, I’m fine. I can’t stand the thought of spending another minute in bed,” I grumble.

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