Nothing Burns Like You | 18+ Mafia Romance

31 How To Live Again

DANIEL VOLKOV

A persistent beep cut through my consciousness.

I smelled the sterile scent of the hospital room. The faint murmurs of distant conversations and footsteps.

My body felt heavy and disconnected. It lay inert in bed, in tight bandages and casts. Each movement restricted as I struggled to regain awareness.

"Oh my God!" Andrei's blurry face popped above me, his annoying voice a hammer on my migraine. "You're awake! Oh my God-Niko! Nik! Get over here! He's awake!"

The door swung open, and Andrei's screams and laughter reverberated down the hall.

I already regretted waking up.

Niko peered down. "Wait, why are his eyes closed?"

"To avoid you," I wheezed with a dry throat.

He whooped into my eardrums. "You son of a-You've been out for two weeks! Two weeks! Do you know what they did to you? Do you know you barely survived?"

Women-probably nurses-scolded them out of the way. I hoped they were here to inject more painkillers. I could use about...a deadly amount.

A doctor explained-or rather gloated. "We successfully performed four surgeries to remove the bullets, Mr. Volkov. We also repaired some vital organs and reconstructed one of your bones-"

"W-where are they?" I interrupted.

Andrei answered. "Charlotte and Clara flew back for Tomasso's funeral. Clara wanted to make sure her mother didn't speak to the press on her behalf. Charlotte went with her, so she wouldn't be alone."

Did...Did I hear that right? No. I blinked my eyes open, fighting to clear the blurriness. Andrei was staring back at me with a soft expression, waiting for his words to settle.

"Tomasso's funeral?" I asked.

"CJ had to kill him after you were shot."

Except it was probably a lie, another scheme. "Did you see the body?"

"Of course-"

"Did you check his pulse?"

"They buried him, Daniel-"

"But was it an open casket?"

I brushed off the disturbed glanced from the doctor and nurses. Last time I was conscious, Tomasso had won. He'd captured me, beat me, used me a human shield. Now...after two weeks in a coma, I was supposed to accept that not only did we survive, but we had won? Impossible. They wanted to trick us-

"Give us a moment?" Andrei murmured to the staff. Of course, he understood why I was paranoid. He'd witnessed it for years. Seen it haunt me, keep me up at nights.

When they left, he sat next to me, Niko close behind. Their eyes glazed with emotion-was it relief? Happiness? Love? All in one. All towards me.

"Tomasso is dead," Andrei said, and shook his head with a warm smile as I refused once again to accept it. "He's dead, Daniel. He's not a threat anymore. No one is going to hurt us. You can relax now, brother. We're not in danger. It's over. The war is over."

"What about Marko? And the rest of his men?"

"Imprisoned," said Niko. "Many were killed that day, due to fighting back. But the rest are locked up for good."

"What about the Kowalski siblings? Because they'll come back-"

"Felix helped CJ track them down, actually. Well, except for Malik." Andrei exchanged an amused, cold-blooded look with Niko. "For some reason, no one has been able to find him."