Surviving His Scars (Angels Halo MC Next Gen Book 4)

by Terri Anne Browning

  I wanted to roll my eyes at him, but he looked more than a little pale himself, and my heart melted even more. For several minutes, I sat on the edge of the bed, feeling helpless as I waited for him to return.

  When the door opened again, Dr. Khan was right behind him with his medical bag in hand. Blowing out a soft breath, I explained what had happened, and Dr. Khan took my blood pressure.

  “It is on the low side,” he commented as he put his things away. “Mrs. Fontana, I need you to use extreme caution when you go from lying to sitting, but especially from sitting to standing. Sudden drops in blood pressure could make you lose consciousness and result in a fall, which could seriously harm you and the babies.”

  “I know,” I muttered. “And I’ll be careful, I promise.”

  “Could this blood pressure issue cause any other problems? Will it harm her or the babies?” Gian stood statue-still beside the doctor, his face gray and fists clenched tightly. “Should she be in a hospital?”

  “No, no,” Dr. Khan said with a small smile. “I don’t see any reason to hospitalize Mrs. Fontana. As long as she doesn’t stand too quickly or have any sudden upsets, she should be just fine.”

  “See?” I put my hand in Gian’s and entwined our fingers, trying to reassure him. “I’m fine. So, can I please get up and have a shower?”

  He brought our joined hands to his mouth, kissing my knuckles. “Only if you allow me to assist you.”

  Heat instantly burned through my body. What I was feeling must have shown in my eyes because his own darkened. “Only to help you,” he reaffirmed. “Dr. Khan has advised us not to make love for a little longer.”

  I really needed to thank the doctor, because as long as he was telling Gian to hold off, then I would be able to restrain myself as well—I hoped. Which was a good thing. Sex would only cloud what I was feeling, and I needed as clear a head as I could keep around this man. It was better if we weren’t intimate again until I figured out what I wanted with him.

  I loved him.

  But I didn’t trust him.

  What kind of relationship could we possibly have if I was constantly scared he was going to leave me and break my heart at any minute?

  Dr. Khan excused himself, and Gian carried me into the bathroom. Setting me on my feet, he kept one arm around me as he adjusted the shower temperature and the intensity of the jets from a few angles. Once he was satisfied, he stripped me and then himself.

  While I watched as inch after inch of his delicious body was exposed to my hungry eyes, I realized that even though the doctor was recommending we abstain, my body hadn’t gotten the memo.

  Sweet heaven above, no man should ever look as good as mine.

  I bit my lip as my gaze raked him from head to toe and back again, pausing for long moments during each trip on his rock-hard cock standing at full attention. Unable to stop myself, I wrapped my fingers around his hot, velvet hardness and stroked him from base to tip.

  “Precious,” he groaned, his hand covering my own. “Please, my love. I’m only so strong.” He lowered his head and kissed my lips. “I want you so badly, Monroe. Don’t torment me with what I can’t have.”

  With a pout, I released him. “I want you too. But I was bleeding yesterday, so we should really listen to the doctor’s suggestion.”

  He pulled me under the spray and reached for the bottle of shampoo. “I promise, as soon as Khan says you are clear for lovemaking, I will spend hours making you come on my cock.” Kissing me again, he began to wash my hair. “Days,” he husked at my ear, and I shivered deliciously.

  Chapter 18

  Mila

  I felt as if I were in a daze.

  Dad was home from the hospital in Oregon, with strict instructions from his surgeon and Dr. Robertson to stay off his leg and allow himself to heal more. Like he would actually listen. Mom was trying her best to make him be good, but he was about as close to losing his mind over Monroe as I was. If it weren’t for River, I was sure Maverick would have already lost his. Mom was holding up the best, but that wasn’t saying much. She’d always been the strongest of the five of us, but she burst into tears about as often as I did, if not more.

  My future in-laws and Aunt Emmie—as she instructed me to call her—were still in residence. But they understood we were going through some major shit, and other than stepping forward to help out when we needed them, they gave us our space. It had been three days since Gian Fucking Fontana took Monroe from us, and I was still walking around aimlessly.

  It had been a productive three days, though. Aunt Emmie had given me an amazing gift by calling in her son-in-law, and I didn’t know how I was ever going to repay her.

  I immediately saw why Barrick and Braxton were at the top of the security business. Those two knew exactly what they were doing, and they didn’t waste time finding out all they could about Gian Fontana. Not that it was easy. Fontana was an enigma. Very little was actually known about him.

  Yet those two found out a considerable amount.

  Like the fact that Gian had not only given up the sex trafficking business his adoptive father had made so lucrative. Santino’s business partner in the trade had taken over the business fully. But apparently the same day Monroe and I were taken, the bastard caught one straight to the forehead. The Feds were writing it up as a business deal gone wrong, but I was convinced Gian had taken the man out.

  That theory was all the more believable when Braxton explained he’d found out that the two men who’d taken us and had talked about selling our babies worked for the dead motherfucker. Yeah, Gian took that sick fuck out, and the world was going to be a better place for it.

  But that wasn’t all the cousins found out. They uncovered things I doubted even Gian knew about himself.

  Like the fact that DNA tests had been done on both Gian and Enzo Fontana. But before Enzo could get the results back, he’d died. From what Braxton discovered, no one had ever contacted the lab after the test was done, so no one knew to tell Gian he wasn’t actually the spawn of Enzo Fontana.

  That little piece of news had unsettled everyone, but especially Lexa. She’d left the house in tears, with Ben right behind her. But she hadn’t made it to her car before she started full-on sobbing. Her guilt over making Monroe choose between her and Gian was sitting hard on her now that she knew the man our sweet Monroe was in love with wasn’t the monster Lexa had imagined him to be.

  All the parents had seemed relieved about the discovery of Gian’s parentage as well, although it was unclear who his father actually was. Mom and Dad both breathed a sigh of relief knowing the truth, but I hadn’t been scared of what Gian would do to my sister.

  After I calmed down and began to think clearly again, I knew he wouldn’t do anything to harm Monroe. He’d dedicated years of his life to keeping her safe. She would be fine with him watching over her.

  What I was scared of was never seeing my other half again. Now that he had her, it was hard to tell where the hell he’d taken her. With the money that the bastard had, he could have easily hidden her away on a private island, and no one would ever see Monroe again.

  I felt like I was suffocating without her. There had been no communication with her, and I’d never gone more than a day without being in touch with her in some shape or form. Not knowing if she was okay, worried about her and the baby, was causing a weight to press down on my chest that made it impossible to breathe.

  As I sat on the couch in the living room at home, I stared sightlessly at the muted television. Beside me, Lyric sat with my feet in his lap, massaging my toes. The only time I felt as if I wasn’t going to panic was when he was touching me. Something as little as his thigh pressed up against mine calmed me when everything began to feel like it was too much.

  He was my rock, my only anchor that I could hold on to, who wouldn’t judge me for acting so out of character. No one but Lyric understood why I couldn’t stop crying or fighting panic attacks.

  “Mila is supposed to be the strong twin
. The one everyone knows won’t break down. Yet that is exactly what she’s been doing for days,” I’d overheard Aunt Flick say the night before.

  I wanted to scream at her and everyone else in my house that I was pregnant and missing the other part of my soul. They couldn’t possibly understand what I was feeling, so they didn’t have any right to assume how I was going to react.

  But instead, I’d kept my mouth shut and then cried in the shower until my throat was raw.

  That was where Lyric had found me. Wet, naked, and curled up in a ball on the bathroom floor. Still crying as if my heart were broken. Because it was. It was broken yet still beating, and I felt so fucking lost.

  All I wanted was to hear Monroe’s voice. To know she was okay. That she and the baby were fine. Tell her how much I love her and hear her say it back to me.

  That was all I needed.

  Then maybe I would be able to get back to the Mila everyone said I’d lost.

  “Are you hungry, babe?” Lyric asked as he continued to squeeze my toes.

  “No,” I said with a shake of my head, my voice raspy from disuse.

  “Mila—”

  My phone ringing stopped him from telling me all the reasons why I should try to eat. Looking at the screen, I saw the number and my breath caught. It was obviously from another country, but I had no idea which one.

  Lyric took one look at my face and then snatched the phone from my hand. “Hello?” he demanded, his hypnotic eyes narrowing. He listened for a moment and then offered me the phone back.

  I was already crying before I heard Monroe’s voice. “Are you okay?” I demanded, my voice cracking. “Tell me you’re okay, Mon.”

  “Don’t cry,” she soothed in her sweet voice. I never could understand how we sounded exactly alike, yet her voice was always so much sweeter to my ears. “I’m okay. The babies are okay too, I promise.”

  My breath hitched again. “Babies? But they only saw one on the ultrasound at the hospital the other night.”

  “I know,” she said with a soft laugh. “But Gian found this super-expensive OB-GYN expert who is taking care of me. I’m still cramping, and it scared me to death. But it’s only from my uterus expanding. Then he found the second heartbeat.”

  “Where are you?” I asked when I could finally swallow again. Lyric jumped to his feet and ran upstairs. Barrick and Braxton had worked all night, calling leads and trying to find every digital footprint Gian had ever left.

  “Gian doesn’t want me to tell you,” she said with a heavy sigh. “Mil, I’m so sorry I haven’t called before now. Things have been kind of crazy. Yesterday, we went into town, and I had another ultrasound. Both babies are doing really well, and then I had a dizzy spell. Again. I see what you were talking about before. It’s scary as hell. Gian wouldn’t let me out of bed all day. But when I woke up this morning, I told him he either got me a phone to call you, or I was locking him out of the bedroom.”

  “Just tell me where you are, Monroe!” I heard the sound of running feet and looked up as Barrick and Lyric came down the stairs. Even as he came into the room, Barrick made a motion, telling me to keep her talking. “Mon, there’s something I have to tell you. Lyric’s cousins have been looking into Gian, trying to find you. They found out some serious, OMG shit.”

  “Like what?” she asked, sounding distracted.

  “Like the fact that he’s not Enzo Fontana’s biological son,” I told her while Barrick put something on my phone and then started pressing buttons on his own.

  “What?” she shouted in shock. “How do you know that?”

  “It’s complicated. And I’m sure whatever Barrick and Braxton did to get the information wasn’t exactly legal. But before Enzo died, he’d had a DNA test done. From what the lab said, no one ever contacted them for the results.”

  There was a loud noise on Monroe’s end, like something crashing against a wall or the floor, followed by glass breaking. “Mon!” I yelled when she remained quiet. “Mon? Talk to me!”

  But there was no answer, and then I heard a male shouting and cursing in Italian, followed by a loud, clomping sound, like running feet, before the phone went silent.

  “No!” I cried. Tears burning my eyes, I tried to call her back. “Answer, damn it. Monroe, please answer.” The phone rang and rang, but there was no answer.

  With a sob, I tossed the phone on the couch beside me. “I think she fell.”

  Lyric wrapped his arms around me and pulled me onto his lap as he sat beside me. “She will be okay, baby,” he tried to reassure me.

  “Good news,” Barrick said as he looked down grimly at his phone’s screen. “I got her location.”

  Chapter 19

  Gian

  I took Monroe’s threat to lock me out of our room seriously and finally gave her a phone so she could call her sister. As much as I dreaded Mila trying to convince Monroe to leave me and come home, I knew I wouldn’t ever let that happen.

  But I didn’t go far after I promised her some privacy. I closed the door behind me and then walked a few feet from our bedroom, but that was all the space I was willing to give her.

  Minutes passed, and I started pacing, silently praying that she didn’t want to leave me after she spoke to her family.

  “What?” I heard her cry out suddenly.

  There was distress in her voice, and I took off running. But before I even got to the door, I heard a loud crash. When I opened the door, my heart stopped.

  I’d left Mila sitting in a chair by the window, had made her promise she wouldn’t get up unless I was there to help her. She’d had several dizzy spells over the last few days, and she’d scared the hell out of me every time.

  She must have gotten up too quickly and fallen, because she was lying facedown on the floor. The small table where she’d placed the mug of herbal tea Mrs. Borsa brought her earlier was broken beside her, alongside the cell phone I’d given her to call her sister.

  Cursing, I rushed to her. “Monroe.” I turned her over carefully. There was a huge knot already forming on the side of her head. I pushed her hair back from her face, careful not to touch the painful-looking bruise that was starting to discolor her skin. “Precious, wake up.”

  She didn’t even flinch when I lightly tapped her cheek. “Please, open your eyes,” I begged her in a choked voice.

  Holding her against my chest, I grabbed the phone on the floor and called Ugo. No sooner had he answered than I was yelling for him to get Khan up to my room. With a shaking hand, I felt for a pulse and released the breath I was holding when I felt it beating rapidly. Her chest lifted and fell steadily.

  I heard running feet and looked up as Ugo and Dr. Khan rushed into the room.

  Khan ran over to us and dropped to his knees beside me. “What happened?”

  I shook my head. “She must have stood too quickly. I heard the crash and found her facedown on the floor.”

  He pulled a penlight from his pocket and lifted each of her eyelids, shining the light into her eyes.

  Monroe moaned and then swatted weakly at his hand. “Stop,” she whined, but he continued to shine his light on her. “Gian, make him stop.”

  I shoved the man away from her with one arm before standing with her in my arms. Careful of the mess on the floor, I carried her to the bed and placed her head carefully on the pillows.

  Dr. Khan came over to finish checking her out. “I don’t think she has a concussion, but she’s going to have a hell of a headache and probably a black eye to go with that goose egg on her temple. No NSAIDs for the headache. Acetaminophen only.” He pulled the fetal doppler from the bag he’d sent Ugo to retrieve from his room and placed it on Monroe’s stomach.

  Moments later, the sound of one baby’s heartbeat filled the room, then the second’s. “Everything seems to be fine with the babies,” he said after a pause. “Let me know if you start feeling any cramping or have any spotting.”

  Monroe nodded, touching her hand to her forehead. “Thanks, Dr. Khan.”
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  He shook his head at her. “You keep things exciting around here, that’s for sure, Mrs. Fontana.”

  “Precious, do you need something for the pain?” I asked when we were alone again. Before she could answer, I started for the bathroom to get her some Tylenol from the medicine cabinet.

  “Gian,” she called, making me stop before I could reach the bathroom door.

  I sprinted back to her side. Her eyes were wide as she looked up at me, and she lifted her hand. I clasped hers in mine and bent over her to kiss her palm. “What’s wrong, my love? Is the headache bad? Do you think you should go to the hospital?”

  “No, no.” She stroked her hand over my hair. “I… Mila told me something, but I-I don’t know how to explain it.”

  Hearing the distress in her voice, I dropped to my knees beside her. “Just tell me, precious. Whatever it is, I’ll fix it for you.”

  “It wasn’t about me.” She started to sit up, but then gasped and dropped back down. “Fuck, I whacked my head good, didn’t I?”

  With my free hand, I skimmed a finger down her jaw. “Even with that shiner you already have going on, you’re still the most beautiful creature I’ve ever seen.”

  The beginnings of a smile teased at the corners of her lips. “Charmer.”

  “It’s the truth.”

  “I need to call Mila back. She’s probably freaking out.” Blowing out a frustrated sigh, she glared up at the ceiling above our bed. “Gian, what would you do if you weren’t Enzo Fontana’s son?”

  I pulled my brows together at her random question, and I checked the pulse in her wrist, making sure she was really okay. “Throw a party and celebrate.”

  “Mila said you’re not,” she said in a voice barely above a whisper.

  I stiffened, my heart pounding. She was really beginning to worry me. Maybe Khan didn’t know what the fuck he was talking about, because it seemed as if Monroe had injured her head and was now talking nonsense. “What else did Mila say?”