Page 81 of Sergei
“Are you okay?” Tabitha asked, still standing beside Preacher.
I nodded, but it was a lie. I was far from okay.
She stepped over and hugged me, then whispered, “He’s going to be okay. I just know it.”
When she stepped back, Viktor gave me a look and said, “You’re a mess.”
“Thanks, Viktor.”
“I’m serious.” He looked around the room as he said, “We have to get you cleaned up.”
He stood and started out of the waiting room. I called out to him, telling him that Preacher had someone bringing me some clothes, but he was already gone. Nikolai and Tabitha came over, and each of them asked if I was okay. They didn’t seem to ask out of necessity. Instead, they seemed to truly care.
Viktor returned with some clothes he’d bought from the gift shop, and Tabitha volunteered to give me a hand in cleaning myself up. I was in no position to turn her down, so I nodded and followed her to the bathroom.
Tabitha didn’t say a word at first. She simply turned on the faucet and started gathering paper towels. She slipped them under the water, then began wiping the blood from my arms and legs like it was the most natural thing in the world.
I didn’t realize my hands were trembling until she held one in her own and gently turned it over before continuing to wipe the blood away. When she got to the gash on my neck, she winced. She cleaned it the best she could before softly saying, “We need to change this shirt.”
I nodded, and she helped me with the buttons. I slipped it off, and the second she saw the other cuts, she sucked in a sharp breath. “What did they do to you?”
“I’m fine.”
I reached for the shirt Viktor had bought me and slipped it over my head. She gave me a look, but she didn’t push. Not yet. She kept wiping, careful and steady, until most of the blood was gone. I slipped on the pants and slippers, and when I tossed the heels into the trash, something deep in my chest gave way.
“This was all my fault,” I choked, barely holding it together. “He’s in there fighting for his life because of me. If I hadn’t come here, if I’d gone somewhere else, then…”
“Don’t do that,” Tabitha interrupted. “None of this is your fault.”
“You didn’t see him, Tabitha. There was so much blood. He could die because of me.”
“You can think that all you want, but I’m here to tell you that Sergei Volkov doesn’t do what he doesn’t want to do,” she scoffed. “That boy has been strong-willed since the day he was born. Those men took you, and there was nothing on this earth that would’ve stopped him from going after them.”
“I hate this so much.”
“I hate it, too, but we will get through this. Sergei cares about you. More than he knows how to say just yet, but he cares. He proved that tonight.”
Her words were still sinking in when she added, “And I’ll tell you something else. He’d never forgive me for not making sure you were taken care of. So, please let someone take a look at those cuts.”
I could tell by the determined look in her eyes that she wasn’t going to give this up, so I nodded and said, “Okay. I will.”
She nodded like she’d already decided that was going to be my answer. “Good girl.”
She gave me a quick hug, and it hit me. I mattered to him, and that meant I mattered to them. That realization eased something inside of me. It wasn’t much. It was far from peace, but it was enough to breathe without feeling like I was about to break.
And for the first time that night, I didn’t feel so alone.
27
ALINA
The room was quiet.
So very, very quiet.
And it wasn’t the good kind of quiet. This was soul-crushing.
There was the occasional beep or click from the machines and a low hum of conversations in the hall, but that was it. I’d claimed the small vinyl chair next to Sergei’s bed, and I’d been sitting there since they’d brought him back from surgery. I kept expecting someone to tell me to move or that I didn’t belong there, but no one said a word.
