Monster: Made & Broken (A Mafia Bad Boy Romance) (18 page)

“
I need an ambulance.” It was only when I spoke that I noticed I was crying. My voice was rough and broken, but thankfully the woman understood me. She put me through to medical emergencies, and I managed to gasp out what had happened and where we were. The man on the other end told me to keep pressure on Marcus’ wound and he stayed on the line while I babbled pleas at Marcus to wake up.

When the ambulance finally came I was numb with fear and grief, but after staring at Marcus’ unmoving figure and feeling his blood seep out between my fingers, at least I knew one thing with absolute and frightening clarity.

I loved him.

I loved him, and there was no point in denying it, no point in pretending like the obstacles between us were impossible to climb, because in the end, it didn’t matter whether or not I willingly gave my heart to him. He already owned it, and as I climbed in the back of the ambulance after his still form strapped to a gurney, I knew the only thing I had earned from hesitating was knowing that he might die unaware that I would give anything to be his.

* * *

“
Mrs. Steel?”

I looked up from my still bloody hands. I hadn’t had the presence of mind to wash them while I waited for forty-five minutes as the hospital staff operated on Marcus.

It was one of the doctors I’d seen disappear in behind the doors alongside his gurney.

My heart throbbed as I got to my feet. I was unsure if standing up right now was the smartest thing to do.

“
He’s going to be fine. The bullet in his chest missed his heart and went straight through, and we got the other one out of his side without complications.” The doctor smiled at me as I stared uncomprehendingly at his face.

“
He’s okay?” I croaked, wanting to make sure I’d heard right.

“
Yes. He’s a tough one. He woke up while I was still stitching him up and threatened one of the nurses when she tried to give him more morphine. He’s asking for you.” He put a hand on my shoulder. “He’s in recovery now, but I think you best come along so he doesn’t attempt to get out of bed and come looking for you. You’ll be doing him a big favor if you convince him to settle down and rest.”

Relief so powerful it nearly knocked my legs out from underneath me flooded through my body. He was okay. He wasn’t going to die.

“
Thank you,” I said, once more choking on a flood of tears I could do nothing to stem. “Thank you so, so much.”

“
Just doing my job,” the doctor said as he led me through the double doors. “But be prepared. The police will have questions for the both of you. Especially since they found a gun on your husband, as well.”

I nodded, not really capable of caring too much about that, because just then he opened the door into a single room and my eyes locked on Marcus.

He was propped up in a hospital bed with white bandages around his chest and torso, but the look on his face was not what you’d expect from a man who had just taken two bullets. He looked
furious,
and the poor nurse by his bedside looked like she was about to tear up.

“
Please, sir, you really need to let me put a drip in,” she said, her voice quavering as she held out a needle.

But instead of rebutting her, Marcus’ attention snapped to the door as I entered alongside the doctor—and his expression changed completely. Relief washed over his handsome features and the rage that had clearly been bubbling just underneath the surface vanished like snow on a hot summer’s day.

“
Evelyn!
Are you hurt?”

I laughed, which came out as a sad hiccup thanks to the ample amounts of snot and tears still clogging up my sinuses. “I’m fine. I’m not the one who got in the way of a loaded gun, remember?” I walked over to his side, the nurse happily stepping back to let me take my place. “I thought…”

“
Let’s give them some space, Edwina,” the doctor said from the door. “We can come back in a little while and see if Mr. Steel has calmed down a bit.”

I didn’t hear the nurse’s response, but from the way the door shut seconds later, I took it she had no problem with that suggestion.

“
Are you giving the staff a hard time?” I asked, eying the abandoned IV next to his bed. “They’re only trying to help.”

“
They wouldn’t let me get up and look for you,” he said, a frown making itself known between his eyebrows. “I didn’t know if you’d been hurt.”

“
No, you saved me,” I said quietly, letting my hand find his. “He was going to shoot me too, but you diverted the bullet when you shot him. I thought he’d killed you.”

“
It takes more than Brigs’ scum to take me down,” he said, and I couldn’t hold back a small laugh.

“
I hadn’t pegged you for being one of those boneheaded guys who thinks being taken down by a bullet is a sign of weakness.”

He arched an eyebrow at my mocking, and my laughter died down as the thoughts I’d had while I sat by his lifeless body came rushing back. But saying it out loud now, while he was looking at me proved harder than I’d anticipated.

“
Marcus, I…”

“
I love you, Evelyn,” he said softly, cutting me off before I could force myself to continue. “I understand if you cannot return my feelings. I know I am… not someone a good woman could envision her future with. But from the first time I saw you, I knew I was meant to love you, and I can’t do anything to change that. All I ask is that you let me be around you. Let me provide for you and ensure you’re safe. I don’t need anything else.”

“
I love you too.” It flowed out between my lips more easily than I could ever have imagined.

Marcus stared at me for a couple of seconds, and then realization seemed to dawn on his face. A broad smile that lit up his eyes spread across his lips and radiated into me like the warmth of the sunrise after a long winter’s night. He pushed himself up and reached out for me, clasping both hands around my waist and pulling me closer, even as a pained groan escaped his lips as he did.

“
Be careful!” I cried as he pressed me in tight against his bandaged chest, but Marcus didn’t pay me nor his injuries any mind. He clasped the back of my head, and then closed his mouth over mine in a desperate kiss.

I gasped against his lips, overwhelmed by the passion and urgency, but when he moaned
“
Evelyn”
into my mouth so softly it sounded like a prayer, I lost the will to fight it.

When the doctor walked in some time later, I was laying halfway across his lap, still so swept up in our kiss that I didn’t notice we were no longer alone.

I jolted in Marcus’ grasp and looked over my shoulder as the doctor cleared his throat, a hot flush already spreading in my cheeks.

“
While it’s nice to see my patient’s in good spirits, perhaps it would be best to wait on any
gymnastic
activities until those wounds have had a chance to heal, hmm?”

Marcus’s lip curled up in a silent snarl, but thankfully he didn’t voice his displeasure at being interrupted when I shot him an admonishing glare.

“
Sorry, doctor.”

“
Are you ready for your IV now, Mr. Steel?” the doctor asked, both eyebrows raised at Marcus. “You scared my nurse so bad she refused to try again.”

Marcus opened his mouth, and from the irritated expression on his face it was obvious he was going to refuse it.

“
He’s ready,” I cut in, sending him a warning look.

“
I don’t need—”

I put my hand across his mouth, silencing him. “You need to rest and heal, and medicine will help with that. You let the man do his job—and no more barking at the nurses, either.”

Marcus shot me a baleful look, but he let the doctor put the needle in his hand and hook up the drip. When we were once again alone in the room, he relaxed against the pillows propping him up. From the drowsy look in his eyes, it was obvious they’d put some pretty hefty drugs in his bag.

“
We need to let my family know. They can intervene with the police,” he said, his words a little slurred.

I smiled at his attempt at keeping his eyes open. “I’ll take care of it. You just rest and get better, okay?”

“
Mm,” he grunted, finally losing the battle to the drugs as his eyelids closed.

I thought he had drifted off, but before I could get up from the side of his bed, he mumbled, “Evelyn?”

“
Yeah?”

“
The doctor called you my wife.”

Oh. Right. That.

“
I figured they’d let me stay if they thought we were married.”

A small smile curled his lips, but he didn’t respond. A few moments later, his breathing turned deep and slow.

I took in Marcus as he slept. Marcus, who had just declared his love for me. I had no idea how we were going to make it, with Brigs and his father looming in the background, but I knew I wanted to more than anything else. Even though the thought that he might change his mind and leave me still scared me stiff.

I pushed away  the pang of panic that unwelcome thought brought on and fished out my phone. Now was not the time to angst about my childhood trauma.

I sent Blaine a text explaining what had happened and where we were, and then curled up in the chair next to Marcus’ bed to wait.

Blaine arrived twenty minutes later.

“
You okay?” was the first thing he asked when he pushed in through the door, his eyes quickly scanning over his sleeping brother before they returned to me.

“
Yeah, I wasn’t hurt. Marcus got in between me and the man who attacked us.” I unfolded myself from the chair, stretching tight muscles. The evening’s events were starting to set in, and I wanted to just curl up next to Marcus and sleep more than anything. But I couldn’t. He’d protected me in the park, and it was my turn to take care of him now. “The hospital has notified the police about what happened, and also that Marcus had a gun on him.”

Blaine waved a hand. “It’s taken care of. They won’t be asking you any questions.”

“
Is it really that easy?” I said, frowning despite how the news should have made me happy rather than upset. “You have the right connections and the law no longer applies?”

“
That’s how it is in our world, sweetheart. And since you’re engaged to a Steel, you better get used to it,” Blaine said. “Especially now—Brigs attacked one of us openly and publicly. It’s going to be all-out war from here on out, and paying off the police to keep their noses clear of it is not even going to register on the radar when all is said and done. It’s not pretty, I know, but it’s what you signed up for when you fell in love with my brother.”

I swallowed thickly as I looked down at Marcus’ still face. Blaine was right, of course. I’d known that all along. I couldn’t have Marcus without also taking on the underworld he lived in.

But I knew I didn’t have a choice anymore. I loved him too much to let go.

* * * *

Chapter 20

Marcus

It took three days before the doctor would let me leave the hospital.

Of course, I could have ignored him and left when I woke up from my morphine haze the morning after being admitted, but Evelyn was having none of it. She insisted I stay in bed and let the hospital staff pump me full of drugs, and she was being pretty fucking stubborn about it.

So instead of getting up and getting even with Brigs for his attempt at my life, I’d spent nearly half a week in bed being coddled like a child. But when I tried to protest, she just looked at me with a stern expression in those beautiful eyes of hers, and everything in me sang with pure joy.

She
loved
me.

She loved me, and I knew I had finally found peace. I should have been fighting tooth and nail to keep the monster at bay after being taken down by an enemy, but it hadn’t so much as reared its head. And it was because of
her.
Because of Evelyn.

I was home now, with her. My love. And for the first time in my life, I wasn’t shrouded in darkness. There was light. Despite everything with Brigs, despite everything with my father—there was light.

I hugged her tight against my side, ignoring the twinge from my wounds as I once more made sure she was truly there—that I hadn’t hallucinated the last three days.

“
Careful!” Evelyn protested. “You’ll hurt yourself, and don’t think I’m not going to march you straight back in there for a full week if you pull your stitches!”

I smiled as I looked down at her messy ginger hair. The muscles in my face still hurt a little from the unaccustomed gesture—I’d smiled more in the past three days than I had since I was a child.

“
Yes, ma’am.”

She looked up at me and returned my smile, some of the sternness on her face softening. “You’re way too happy for someone who’s nursing two gunshot wounds, you know that, right?”