Page 9 of Trapped By the Bratva
I fell asleep to the beginning of a plan to escape my sister and this place.
4
DMITRI
Iendured countless surgeries. Broken bones were set. Deep gashes were sewn back together. Pins were placed to keep me whole. Skin, bones, and tendons were all tended to in order to keep my body whole.
“Any changes?” the burly nurse asked as she entered my room.
I glared at her.
My first week in the hospital weaned out the green, new nurses and techs. The second week filtered out the ones who ran out of patience with my attitude. In the third week, Alek suggested that I just not talk, because at the rate I was going, no more staff would be available to assist me in my recovery since I'd pissed them all off or made them run off crying.
“I said…” the formidable older nurse asked, “Any changes?” She enunciated it like English wasn’t my first language.
This stalwart nurse was the lone survivor. She had to be a veteran, nursing for thirty-plus years not to take my shit. Deadpanned, she raised her brows at me.
In her presence, Ialmostfelt like a child misbehaving for my parent. It wasn’t enough to make me consider acting like a decent human.
“Does it look like there’s been any fucking changes?”
Over a month, I’d been stuck here. If not for the surgeries and monitoring for those issues, it was a constant battle against the infections that set in. All those open wounds from Erik’s torture hadn’t fared well in the dark room Nadia had found me in. Back and forth, on and off antibiotics. It seemed like these IVs pumping me with drugs would never be taken out. And I wished they would be removed—all so I could recover at home, in my room, not here.
She smirked at the guards who stood at the door. Two Valkov soldiers stood there, always barricading my door from anyone entering. When the nurses or doctors entered, the door remained open and they stepped inside.
“He’s in another one of those moods today, huh?” she joked dryly.
“Ma’am, he’s been in a mood since?—”
I shot the soldier a stern look. “If you dealt with what I did, you’d be in a fucking ‘mood’ too.”
He lowered his gaze and nodded. I knew he wasn’t making fun of me for the sake of teasing me. Like the other man, he tried to lighten it up for the sake of the medical staff.
“Huh.” The nurse pursed her lips, ignoring the bickering. “Looks like I might be able to get rid of you sooner than later, after all.” She continued checking the bandage on my arm where the worst of the infection had set in and spread. When—if—that woundever healed, I’d sport a big, gaping scar where my salvageable skin was pulled taut.
I didn’t want to get my hopes up, but I had to agree with her. The scar tissue looked normal and didn’t ache.
“How’s the vision?” She checked my eyes next, lingering on the left one, where Erik’s bat had fractured the bones around the socket.
“Same,” I replied.
She nodded. “Doc will be in later,” she said as she filed out from what felt like the hundredth vitals check.
I was moved out of ICU a couple of weeks ago, and I was glad I was spared the commotion and noise of that department.
Still, I was impatient to get the fuck out of here.
I had plans. I had shit to do. At the top of that list was finding Erik and paying him back for landing me in here like this.
“How’s it going?” Nik asked hours later when he stopped in.
All my brothers checked in on me. Alek was considerate to host meetings here, cramped in my room, so I wouldn’t miss out on any information. If they couldn’t crowd in here, I was granted a tablet to watch a video call of the meetings at the mansion.
Nikolai had been visiting me most frequently this week because he was already at the hospital.
“Why do you bother asking?” I replied as he sat in one of the chairs.
When the guards glanced in the door, he waved them off. “You can close it.”
