Page 42 of His Savage Bride
Detective Tillman meets my glare and stares at me, then drops his eyes to his phone and picks it up. “Do you have a new phone number I can reach you at, Ms. Monroe? I was using Maximo’s to get in touch with you previously.”
“Yes, I’ve retrieved my phone.” I recount the number as he holds his phone towards me.
“Thank you for your assistance, both of you,” he says as he hits the button to stop recording. “I’m going to go work on identifying the men who assaulted you today. I have a suspicion that they’re going to be members of this Gargoyles club who were after revenge for the hit on their clubhouse.”
Before I can protest, the detective holds up a hand to forestall me. “It’s just a suspicion, Ms. Monroe, no need to comment. I will get to the truth of this matter. I hope that you are just innocent victims of retaliation from the Volkov family, and if so, we’ll work together to put them away and keep you safe. I just want to ask, again, that you work with me on this investigation. If you suspect Maximo may have done something on his own, please let me know.”
“I’ll ask him directly, as soon as he’s able to respond. Call me, Detective, and I’ll update you on his condition. In the meantime, I look forward to hearing that you’ve captured this Volkov woman and put a stop to this insanity.” The thought of losing Maximo brings tears to my eyes again, and I see the detective’s expression soften as they begin to trickle down my cheeks.
“I’m sorry for all you’ve endured, Ms. Monroe. Please, keep me updated on Mr. Luciani’s progress. In the meantime, I’ll be assigning a patrolman to stay with you for your protection. We’ll talk soon. Goodbye ma’am, Mr. D’Angelo,” he says to us as he walks towards the door.
As he opens it, the security guard startles and the cup of coffee he is holding slops over on his hand. “Ah, damn!” he hisses as he holds the cup out towards the detective.
“Thank you, sir,” Detective Tillman says to him as he takes the waxed paper cup from him. “I’m all done for now. Please escort Ms. Monroe and Mr. D’Angelo to a waiting room where they can track Mr. Luciani’s progress in surgery. You,” he adds as he points to a uniformed patrolman standing just down the hall. “I want you to stay with Ms. Monroe here until we can schedule a watch for her the next few days. You hang out until they get here, all right?”
“Yes, Detective, of course,” the patrolman agrees as he walks over and peeks in the door to get a look at me. “Ms. Monroe?” he clarifies as I nod at him, then he motions to the hall, gesturing for me to follow him.
“Let’s go.” Trenton sighs as he heaves himself to his feet. “Maybe you can text your friend Melissa to come down and see us while we wait.”
I wipe at my eyes as I follow Trenton out into the hall, then let the security guard and patrolman lead us to a private waiting room. “Do you really think I should?” I let out another bitter laugh. “It’s gotten a bit dangerous to be near me the lastfew days. I’m surprised you haven’t run away and called it quits yourself.”
“Yeah, on second thought maybe it would be better if you just text her and tell her to stay where she is,” Trenton agrees. “This day is already bad enough without dragging Red any further into our mess.”
The next few hours were a blur of anxiety and tears. With the uniformed officer keeping an eye on us, Trenton and I had to be careful of our discussions. We ended up sitting for long periods of silence while we each sent out texts apprising everyone about what was happening.
“I’ve texted Leonard to let Maximo’s mom know he was injured,” Trenton whispers to me as his phone buzzes incessantly. “They wanted to come over right away, but I warned them to stay at the estate and away from the city. I think I convinced them it’s too dangerous out here right now.”
“I’ve been texting Melissa.” I flash my phone at him briefly. “They’re letting her go home tonight. Thankfully. Her mom and dad are going to take her back to her apartment and keep an eye on her tonight. I’m just glad she’s away from the hospital, and from us.”
“Yeah, that’s best,” Trenton agrees. “I told Leonard to keep this shit under his hat for now and not let the word get out. God forbid Maximo doesn’t make it…” Trenton trails off without finishing his thought.
“I imagine that it would cause some…upheaval in the family.”
“That’s a nice way to put it. There are a lot of people who work under Maximo.” Trenton pauses and glances at the officerstanding on the other side of the waiting room. “A lot of people who would be fighting for his empire. It wouldn’t be pleasant.”
“Well, none of that’s going to happen because he’s going to make it through this,” I tell him.
The two of us lapse into silence, other than occasionally tapping at our phones, as time drags on endlessly.
The sun is almost completely set when the surgeon walks into the waiting room. He’s still wearing blue scrubs that have a spray of blood staining the sleeve near his shoulder. He looks exhausted but his voice is strong when he asks, “Are you the Luciani family?”
“I’m his…his fiancée,” I stutter as I stand up and my nerves almost overwhelm me. “Oh please, is he okay?”
“He’s alive and being taken to the ICU as we speak.” The surgeon gives me a weary smile before reaching out to shake hands with both me and Trenton. “I’m Doctor Reddy. Maximo is stable. We’re going to need to monitor him constantly for the next few days, but I’m very optimistic. His hip was shattered, and he’s going to need a lot of rehab to get full function back once it heals, but that wasn’t the worst of his injuries. The bullet that struck his hip ricocheted straight up into his abdomen and lacerated his liver. He lost a lot of blood while we were trying to patch up all the damage.”
“But you think he’s going to pull through,” I clarify as the tears well up in my eyes and threaten to fall yet again.
“His injuries were severe, ma’am, and if he hadn’t been already here at the hospital when he was shot, I’m not sure he would’ve survived. Fortunately, we were able to transfuse blood quickly enough to save him. We’re going to have to make sure there are no other bleeds and no other damage, so we’ll be running more testing to make sure we completely patched him up. He’s not out of the woods yet, and it’s going to be a long, grueling process to get him walking again, but he’s relativelyyoung, and in excellent shape. As soon as he’s situated in the ICU, you can see him. I’ll tell the nurses to let you in tonight, ma’am, even if it’s a bit past visiting hours.”
“Thank you. Thank you so much,” I tell the doctor as relief crashes through me.
“Yeah, thanks Doc, for everything,” Trenton agrees. “Come on, Constance, you go see him and I’ll wait for you. Whenever you’re ready, I’ll take you home tonight. Ah, hell, that reminds me, Joey had the car keys on him…” Trenton trails off and looks so lost for a moment that my heart aches for him.
“I can go down to the morgue and get the keys if you need me too,” the patrolman still standing by the door volunteers.
“That would be a big help, thanks,” Trenton says. “Can you get those and then come find me outside the intensive care unit? I’ll be waiting out there for her.” He jerks a thumb at me.
“Of course. I’ll be there in a few minutes,” he agrees before walking away.
