Shaun moaned and doubled over, clutching her middle.
“Jozef!” she gasped.
Something was wrong with her, but she didn’t know what. She’d barely eaten that day, only snacks from a tray in her room sent up from the kitchen. Multiple people, including Jozef, Dasha and Saskia had shared the food she’d eaten and no one else looked sick.
Jozef’s arms wrapped around her from behind as her knees buckled. Together they stumbled through the door onto the garden patio. Shaun collapsed to the ground, the scent of roses rising up as they entered the garden area. She blinked as Jozef’s face floated in front of her face. She reached up to touch him, but missed, her arm falling uselessly to her side.
She let out a soft scream as her stomach cramped again. She tried to roll onto her side, her arms wrapped around herself, but Jozef held her in place, his frantic face swimming in and out of her vision.
Suddenly the orchestra seemed louder. They were playing an instrumental version of ‘The Sound of Silence’. Tears gathered in her eyes as she realized how perfect the song was. With Jozef she was surrounded by silence, and like the lyrics of the song, the silence had become an old friend. Without the constant chatter of voices, she could hear the beat of her own heart, see the expressions on her lover’s face as they sat together speaking their silence.
Shaun knew she was slipping away. Her thoughts were fragmented, and her body was no longer obeying her commands. Her limbs refused to move as dizziness engulfed her, each wave lasting longer than the one before until she knew that soon she would close her eyes and allow the darkness to take hold.
She wanted to call to Jozef, but she didn’t want to use her voice. It wasn’t how they communicated. He preferred when she used sign language and she preferred it too. In one last burst of energy she lifted her arms and crossed her fists over her chest. Vomit rushed up her throat and she turned her head to throw up, champagne searing her throat as she emptied her stomach.
Her lips felt foamy and she knew something terrible was happening. She shouldn’t be foaming at the mouth. She tried to force her doctor’s brain to rapidly diagnose, but the darkness was taking her.
She heard a muffled shout and thought it was her own voice calling out for help. Someone dropped to her other side and she felt hands on her face. Voices rose up around her, but she couldn’t concentrate. She wished she could help the frantic voices, but she had to go.
As the shadows took her, she thought she heard a growl so ferocious it shook the windows next to them. Then she was gone, her world fading to nothing.
Chapter Forty-Three
Jozef’s arms wrapped around Shaun as she fell to the patio deck, her body going limp against him. He kneeled with her, setting her gently on the ground. He couldn’t tell what was wrong and her eyes were closed so he couldn’t ask her. He’d never been so frustrated at his lack of voice before. Shaun moaned and a trickle of white foam spilled from her lips. An unfamiliar sensation hit Jozef at the sight. Burning fear.
He glanced frantically around and, spotting Havel striding toward them, quickly signed, help her.
Havel dropped to his knees on Shaun’s other side, his concerned gaze running down her prone body. He lifted her wrist and felt for a pulse. Havel was the only man on his team with more than basic First Aid knowledge. He’d been forced to patch up their men on several occasions.
“Got it. Steady but slowing down.” He touched her face, leaning in for a closer look. “Poison, I think.”
Their eyes met in a moment of mutual understanding. It made sense: the sudden attack, the foaming around her lips, her garbled speech as she fell. Jozef looked around and seeing Shaun’s champagne glass, now on its side, the contents spilling out, grabbed a napkin and soaked up what he could. He shoved the napkin into his suit jacket pocket. Even while his frantic brain was completely focused on his ailing fiancé, he knew that identifying the poison would be imperative to her survival.
Call an ambulance, Jozef told Havel.
To his credit, Havel didn’t hesitate, though he knew better than any of them the consequences of calling for help. Havel nodded and pulled his phone out of his pocket. He was about to dial 112 for emergency services, when a hand came down on top of his. Havel reacted instantly by lifting his fist to hit the person touching him but lowered it once he recognized Dasha’s stony features.
“No,” she said firmly, turning her gaze on Jozef who knelt at her feet. Dasha spoke quickly. “If we call an ambulance the police will come too. Shaun is too recognizable. They’ll know her as the doctor who went missing from Luhansk.”
Krystoff walked up behind his wife and quickly took stock of the situation. He took her by the shoulders and gently pulled her back. “Dasha, love, she could die without immediate intervention.”
She looked startled as she stared up at her husband. “I know, but we never call the authorities, no matter what.”
Krystoff looked down at Shaun who was beginning to convulse, Jozef’s frantic hands on her face. “This is different.” He turned his gaze to Havel. “Make the call, tell them to drive through the garden entrance. We’ll meet them at the gate.”
Guests were starting to look curiously through the patio doors. Seeing what was going on outside, Leeza grabbed the nearest servant and snapped at them to close the patio doors and draw the curtains. She told another to ask the orchestra to play a livelier tune. Her concerned gaze met Jozef’s as the doors were closed and the curtains drawn, leaving Jozef, Dasha, Krystoff and Havel outside with Shaun.
Jozef touched her face, but she’d passed out. Her cheeks felt like fire and her skin was ashen beneath the rich brown tone. He could feel her life slipping away beneath his fingertips and he was helpless to stop it. Their entire relationship flashed in front of him: the moment he took her, put a gun to her head, the feeling he had when she communicated in his language, the incredible mind-blowing sex, getting to know the kindness and compassion in her heart.
He could not allow her to die. She was a true innocent, too delicate for their world, but too entwined in their lives to set free. And then it hit him. Someone in his own organization had poisoned her. It was the only explanation. She was a threat to everything they stood for. If she somehow managed to escape and give her story to the authorities, she could bring down a multi-generational crime family like they were a house of cards.
Jozef stared at his aunt, anger building in his heart as she dropped next to him and touched his arm. He thought it was for comfort, but then she spoke. “There will be only one end to this evening, Jozef. She will be recognized at the hospital; the authorities will be called in and an arrest will have to be made.” When Jozef didn’t react, she dug her nails into his sleeve. “Don’t you see, they’ll have to take someone into custody.”
Jozef shook her hand away with a growl but didn’t lift his gaze from Shaun’s face. If he did, she might die while he wasn’t looking and he wanted to be with her to the end, if the end was coming. He didn’t care what happened when the ambulance came, didn’t care about the authorities. If there was any chance of saving Shaun then he was taking it, no matter the consequences.
Later, he would do some digging. Find out who had poisoned his beautiful fiancé. If someone on the inside had betrayed him, then he would take down the house of cards himself one card at a time until their entire legacy was dismantled.
The ambulance arrived less than five minutes later, waved onto the garden terrace by Krystoff himself, who’d discarded his jacket and opened the gates. Jozef refused to move back for the paramedics until Havel gripped his shoulder and pulled him away. He understood on one level that the two medics needed to stabilize Shaun so she could be moved, but he had this terrible feeling if he stopped touching her, took his eyes off her, she would disappear.
As he moved back, his hand landed on something. He picked it up and looked down. It was the delicate necklace he’d given Shaun, the delicate chain likely broken in the panic. Jozef shoved it in his pocket.
A
few minutes later Shaun was loaded onto the ambulance, Jozef climbing in behind her. Havel followed Jozef and when the paramedic told him he’d have to leave, Havel set him straight. “I go where he goes and he’s not leaving her side.” When it looked like the man would continue to argue, Havel interrupted. “Besides, he needs an interpreter.”
Not wanting to waste another second of the critically ill woman’s life, the medic simply nodded and slammed the door shut between the two men.
Without looking up, Jozef signed, thank you.
Havel squeezed his shoulder and nodded.
The two men tried to stay out of the way as much as they could but Jozef refused to stop touching Shaun. He held her limp, clammy hand during the entire harrowing trip to the hospital. The paramedic ignored them, focusing entirely on Shaun while the other drove. Jozef’s heart pounded in fear as the man’s hands flew over Shaun.
When they arrived, Havel jumped out of the ambulance and reached for the stretcher. The paramedics looked concerned and tried to argue about protocol, but it was hard to argue with a man of Havel’s size and unmistakable air of deadliness. As Shaun was rushed through the bright front doors of the hospital, more personnel tried to stop the two gangsters from following Shaun’s stretcher down the hall. Jozef was about two seconds from shooting the next person who tried to limit his access to his fiancé, but Havel hung back, smoothing over the ruffled feathers they left in their wake.
Jozef could do nothing but watch helplessly as Shaun was transferred onto another bed and surrounded by doctors and nurses. The screaming in his head got so loud he barely noticed when a young nurse put her hand on his arm.
“Are you a member of her family?”
Jozef looked down sharply, about to shove her away, then looked at her face. The seriousness, the compassion, the kindness reflected there reminded him so much of Shaun he didn’t have the heart to reject the woman. He nodded, his gaze fixating on the bed once more.
“Can you tell us what happened?” she asked kindly.
Jozef shook his head and, without taking his eyes off Shaun, signed that he was nonverbal. The likelihood of this nurse understanding the language was slim, but she would recognize the form of communication and hopefully realize that they wouldn’t be having any in depth conversations without an interpreter.
“Oh, you’re nonverbal?” she asked.
He jerked his head in a nod but was saved from having to make further efforts at communication when Havel finally made his way into the room. Clearly, he’d run into his share of obstructions, because the first thing out of his mouth when he arrived was, “I’m family.” When the nurse looked skeptical, he added, “Her brother.”
If Jozef hadn’t been so terrified for Shaun, he might have laughed. Havel was a big, ugly, broad, bald-headed Caucasian gangster while Shaun was a beautiful, delicate-featured black woman. They were so far from siblings even adoption was a leap.
“Uhh… and he is?” She gestured to Jozef.
“Her husband,” Havel grunted, standing next to Jozef with his bulging arms crossed over his chest.
“Can you tell me what happened? The more information we have, the better able we’ll be to treat her.”
“Poison,” Havel said steadily, his disturbed gaze sweeping Shaun’s bed.
The nurse looked alarmed, her gaze swinging to Jozef for confirmation.
Jozef nodded his agreement and reached into his pocket for the napkin. She was fine one minute, then after drinking some of her champagne she collapsed.
Havel interpreted what Jozef was saying to the nurse. “He says she was fine and then she had a drink and collapsed. When I arrived, she was already down, spitting up and convulsing.” He nodded his head to the napkin Jozef was holding. “He wiped up the leftover champagne with the napkin and brought it in case you need to identify the poison.”
The nurse rushed to the attending physician, speaking to him in rapid sentences. He nodded and replied, which sent her rushing back to their side. She pulled gloves from her pocket, put them on and reached for the napkin. “I’ll get this to the lab right away.”
As she left, Havel turned to Jozef, his back to the room so no one could see his lips as he spoke. “Who would poison her? There were dozens of people there, but they don’t know her well enough to want her dead.” He thought about it for a few seconds, then asked, “Giselle?”
Jozef shook his head. Eyes still on the glimpses he could get of Shaun as the hospital staff moved around her bed. Not her style.
“Then who?”
Jozef finally shifted his gaze to his second-in-command, but he didn’t speak.
Havel nodded his understanding. The only people who might gain from Shaun’s death all lived under the Koba roof. There was an enemy in their home. Havel placed his hand on Jozef’s shoulder and squeezed. “I’ll go hunting. You worry about your girl.”
Jozef hoped Havel could read the gratitude on his face. He didn’t doubt Havel for a second, and hearing the other man pledge his loyalty once more was exactly what he needed. He was too terrified for Shaun to think straight. He needed his men now more than ever. Needed them to have his back while he took care of his woman.
It was a strange sensation. For the first time in his life he was putting someone else first, someone other than his aunt, uncle and cousins. His entire life had been devoted to the Koba clan, yet in the course of a few short weeks, Shaun had come to mean everything to him. If his family had tried to have Shaun killed, he would destroy them.
A terrible beeping sound filled the room as Shaun stopped breathing and her heart rate began to plummet. Jozef and Havel were forcibly shoved from the room as Shaun was being intubated. The last glimpse Jozef was able to get was of her face, ashen and angelic in repose before the doors were slammed shut.
Chapter Forty-Four
Jozef did not get to see Shaun again before he was arrested for murder and kidnapping. True to Dasha’s words, the police arrived shortly after a relieved doctor came into the waiting room to reassure Jozef and Havel that Shaun had pulled through and was currently in a medically induced coma while they assessed her condition and researched the poison.
Jozef’s relief was such that he barely noticed as several police officers stormed through the hospital corridors, clearing them as they made their way to Jozef’s waiting room. Jozef received a message from Halil, who was watching the hospital for activity, warning them that the police were on their way.
Jozef jerked his head toward the door, indicating Havel should leave. I need you on the outside acting as my eyes and ears.
Havel shook his head, but backed toward the door, knowing Jozef was right. “I can’t leave you, brother.”
Jozef gave him a grim look. It’s my time to take this fall. We both knew this was coming the second you called emergency services.
“I’m sorry.” Havel’s eyes were troubled. He hated that Jozef was about to take the fall for the rescue of his uncle.
Go, they’ll be here soon.
Havel nodded and opened the door, glancing down the deserted hallway. Still he hesitated, then his expression grew angry and he pointed at Jozef, stabbing at the air. “I’ll get you out,” he growled. “No matter what happens, I’m coming for you.”
Jozef wasn’t given an opportunity to answer. Havel took off down a side hall, heading toward an exit door. He wasn’t the one the cops were looking for so he shouldn’t have any problems leaving the hospital. He was a known associate of Jozef’s, but Jozef didn’t think the police would grab Havel. They were here for him and he was going to make it easy for them. He would do it for Shaun. He wouldn’t shoot up the hospital that was dedicating itself to saving her life.
Jozef sank to his knees on the cool ugly tiles of the hospital floor and reached into his pocket, pulling out the heart necklace. He held it in between his laced fingers as he placed his hands behind his head. He had to wait about two minutes before the door was flung open and police officers filled the room, shouting at him to get down a
nd stay down. He was roughly shoved to the floor and handcuffed while an officer read him his rights.
To be continued…
Coming Soon…
I hope you loved Sin of Silence. I’m working hard on the next book! Grab your preorder for the next book in Shaun’s and Jozef’s story, A Silent Reckoning (Sinner’s Empire Book 2). Available February 27th, 2020.
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Excerpt: Scarred Queen
Ignacio Hernandez had never before brought a woman to a meet. Then, they’d never met at a club before. The entire scene was unprecedented. Reyes didn’t do unprecedented, but he was willing to make an exception because he was curious. He could sever the Miami connection if he had to. It would cause some shockwaves, but it wasn’t out of the question. Ignacio was beginning to annoy him anyway. His poor decisions were beginning to affect the Bolivian. Such as bringing a woman like her to a meet with a man like him. Something that was meant to show off Ignacio’s power and wealth would become a big mistake.
His gaze flickered over the woman, calmly drinking her champagne and orange juice as though she weren’t sitting at a table with four of the most dangerous men on the continental East coast. Two kingpins and their right hands. Only Reyes didn’t think she was as calm as she appeared. Her wrist trembled slightly, giving her away. She had enough presence to make sure that tiny shake ceased by the time it got to her slim fingers where they clenched the crystal of her glass. It wasn’t the fingers or her ability to remain coolly poised while the men around her talked business that captured his curiosity. It was the mark on the back of her delicate hand, permanent slash lines, viciously marring her porcelain skin.
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