Taming Seraphine

LEROI

Pain lances through the stab wound, setting my insides aflame. My knees hit the ground, and I yell at Seraphine to stop. She thinks I’m attacking her mother, but she doesn’t understand I was trying to stop her from running. Blood rushes from my abdomen at an alarming rate, and the edges of my vision fill with a dark mist.

Shit.

Of all the times to get stabbed, why is it when I’m still off balance from the explosion?

Seraphine slides in Miko’s car and tears away in one direction, while Evangeline sprints down another. My vision fills with Miko’s frantic features before everything goes black.

I don’t know how much time passes, but the next time I awaken, it’s on a cloud of opiates that fills my mind with fluff. The hard surface beneath my back rumbles, and my nostrils fill with the sharp scent of antiseptic.

The pain in my abdomen floats somewhere on the edge of my consciousness, almost like a memory. I struggle to open my eyes, but it feels like they’re weighted down with sandbags. Where is Seraphine? Can she even drive a car?

A memory resurfaces of her telling me that she got lessons from her driver, when Miko’s voice slices through the haze.

“Leroi?”

All I can think of is Seraphine. She’s out there, frightened and alone and betrayed, maybe even adding me to the list of bastards who hurt her mother. I can’t let her think our time together wasn’t real.

“Doctor,” Miko says. “He’s awake.”

“Let me take a look,” replies a deeper voice.

Footsteps approach, and I peer into the eyes of a dark-skinned man with closely cropped hair. It’s Sal, our resident doctor, who operates without a license.

My gaze darts around what looks like the interior of an ambulance, judging by the rumbling beneath me and how much medical equipment is stacked on the walls of this cramped space.

Thoughts of Seraphine race through my mind. What if seeing Evangeline triggered her to continue tracking Capello’s guards alone? She has no tech, no weapons, and no backup. What if she crashes Miko’s car on the highway and gets herself killed?

A fog closes in on my mind, trying to pull me under, but I clench my jaw and struggle.

I can’t lie here while she’s abandoned and suffering.

When I raise myself up on my elbows, Sal shoves me back down on the cot with a hand on my chest. “Relax,” he says. “You’re in a triage van with a minor laceration on your back and an abdominal wound that’s lost you a fuckload of blood.”

I turn to Miko, whose face is so pale that I wonder if he’s the one who’s nearly bleeding to death.

“You shot Seraphine.” My voice comes out hoarse and gravelly.

He flinches, but before Miko can reply, Sal reappears at his side with a wide grin. “Heard you got taken down by a girl.”

“This one is special,” I mutter.

“You’re lucky to be alive.” The medic chuckles. “Good thing for you this girl of yours had a terrible aim, or you’d be dead.”

My hackles rise. If she missed, it was on purpose. Seraphine’s knife skills are impeccable. Anton would have trained her in advanced anatomy. I rear up, but Sal clenches my shoulder.

“I need to find her,” I grind out.

Sal grips my other shoulder. “Take it easy, or you’ll open up your wound.”

Miko grabs my arm. “I’ll find her. Just focus on getting better.”

Sal injects something into my IV line, and my eyes droop under the weight of the fresh cocktail of drugs. I breathe harder, trying to fight the sedative’s effects, but they keep pulling me under.

All I can see is Seraphine’s pretty features, twisted with hurt and betrayal. I need to find her and explain that I wasn’t hurting Evangeline.

Miko’s voice filters through the growing haze. “The car tracker says she’s heading toward Queen’s Gardens. Don’t worry, Leroi. I’ll make everything right.”

The next time I awaken, I’m staring at the white walls of a familiar-looking infirmary. It’s our firm’s out-of-town building beneath the abandoned warehouse. It’s where I knew Seraphine was the one for me when she drilled through Paolo Rochas’ urethra.

Seraphine.

Claws of worry reach through the wound in my gut and twist my heart until I’m gasping for air.

She’s still out there, injured, confused, and probably thinking she doesn’t have a single ally in the world. The last words Miko said to me as I fell unconscious sit in my gut like lead.

He shot at her. Now he’s going to make things right?

Dread coils through my insides like a garotte.

I have to save her.

“Miko?”

I grip the hospital bed’s metal frame and force myself up to sit.

The door at the end opens, and Sal walks in. “Did you know someone threw a grenade into your apartment?”

“Where is Miko?”

“He left about an hour ago.”

“Shit.”

I swing my legs out of bed. The infirmary tilts, and I reel back under a tidal wave of dizziness.

Sal grabs me by the midsection and holds me steady. “You’re in no shape to go anywhere. Miko said he’d take care of the girl. Rest, and he’ll be back soon.”

“Out of my way.” I shove past him and stumble to the closet door.

“At least pick up the phone and call Miko.”

My stomach lurches at the thought of him getting caught by the bastards who blew up my apartment. I snatch my phone off the bedside table and dial Miko’s number, but it goes straight to voicemail.

Damn it.

When I check my text messages, the last one from Miko reads:

I’ve agreed on a truce and will deliver her to Samson.

“What?”

My fingers grip the phone so tightly that my knuckles turn white. Rage burns through my veins at the thought that Miko has betrayed me and is delivering Seraphine to Samson.

The message is time stamped two hours earlier. I can’t believe what I’m reading without context, so I scroll up to the text he sent five hours earlier:

I’ll take care of it before you wake up.

I move on to the text before that one.

He must know you and S are working your way through the bodyguards.

Before that is the message:

Samson hired the Moirai Group to take you out. They’re the ones who attacked your apartment.

The cold dread pooling in my gut evaporates under the force of my fury. I taught Miko better than to be an imbecile. How could he consider bartering Seraphine in exchange for Samson calling off the hit? He could have called Rita to mobilize the other operatives who work for the firm. Instead, he’s chosen to stab me in the back.

Time is running out. I have to find Miko before Seraphine gets hurt. I fling open the closet door and throw on some sweats and a pair of shoes.

“Boss.” Sal follows me out of the infirmary.

“Give me your keys.” I hold out my hand.

“I’ll drive.” He darts back into the infirmary and reemerges, holding a set of car keys in one hand and a doctor’s bag in the other. “Do you know where we’re going?”

I scroll through my phone to the app that tracks all our vehicles and devices. Miko’s phone has stopped at a location in Alderney Hill. I find the house number and bark out the address.

Sal hurries to keep up with my long strides as I march toward the garage. I make a frenzied call to Roman, barely able to hear him over my racing heart. His mansion is half a mile away, further up in Alderney Hill, and he still owes me for the Capello job.

When he agrees to storm the house, I can’t even feel a flicker of relief. Not when Miko is handing Seraphine over to a rapist so vile that she had no choice but to bite through his penis.

If Seraphine gets so much as a scratch, I’m killing everyone.