Page 107 of Crowned In Blood
She had to be. I had the pill.
I tightened my fist around it. Maybe a doctor had given it to me, and for some reason, I'd imagined it to be Jo. Or maybe she had been here, and this pill was some sort of new, experimental drug.
I didn't care what it was as long as it brought Marco back to me.
I crushed the pill, mixed it with water, and stroked his throat to make him swallow. Then, I waited and hoped with every piece of my heart this would work.
Thirty minutes went by.
Then an hour.
Then two.
Did I make a mistake?
I shook my head.
Regardless of whatever Jo had given me, I still trusted her.
Maybe I’d become too soft. Maybe falling in love with Marco had changed me. But ever since Marco walked into my life, he’d made it better, which meant I had to believe in myself and my decisions.
Marco would regain consciousness, and I hoped it would be before I'd need to leave. Our men were almost done with the raid, and I needed to be there to end Felipe at his mansion. But I didn’t want the first thing Marco saw when he opened his eyes to be an empty room.
I rested my head on his hand, stroking his wrist. Closing my eyes, I focused on the pounding of his pulse. Sometimes I thought it grew stronger, and I’d sit up, thinking this was finally it. He’d open his eyes, be fully recovered, and everything in my world would be right again. But he never did, and each time that happened, my heart sank a little more.
“If anyone would have told me a few months ago that you would come to mean so much to me, that I’d fall so hopelessly in love with you, I would have laughed in their face. Now look at me.” I turned my head up to him, watching his eyes, hoping for a flutter, a movement,something, but he was perfectly still.
“Didn’t you tell me I have a responsibility to you, Marco? Well, you have one to me too. You need to take responsibility for turning my entire world around, changing all my plans. Making mefeel, making me open my heart up to you. And the only way you can do that is by staying with me until we’re old and gray.”
I palmed his cheek, stroking it softly. “I really want to see you like that, with silver hair and wrinkles around your eyes and hands. I want to make memories with you, Marco.”
I opened my mouth to say more, to confess all the secret hopes and dreams I had for our lives, but then my phone beeped.
Joseph: We’re done here and we’ll be at Felipe’s mansion in an hour.
I held the phone to my forehead, squeezing my eyes closed.
I’m almost out of time.
Then I felt something, a small twitch in my hand. At first, I thought it was me. But then I felt it again—a quick, hard jerk—and when I looked at Marco, I saw the impossible. His eyelids were twitching, as if he were about to open them.
I yelled for the guards to get someone—a nurse, doctor—anyone. Nurses ran into the room; they were pulling at his wires and tubing, shouting something, but I didn’t hear them. All I could focus on was Marco. And when his eyes slowly opened and found mine, I collapsed.
He reached out and grabbed me; he was so fast, so strong as he wrapped his arms around me, dragging me towards him, like he’d never been shot at all.
I clung to him, tears pouring from my eyes, and he held me just as tightly.
“Lina,” he whispered. “Lina.” He kissed each cheek, my nose, my forehead, my jaw—anywhere he could reach—saying my name over and over. Tears filled his eyes, and he kissed me again.
I cupped his head, clinging to him, refusing to let go while he fisted my hair and kissed me repeatedly.
Marco, my world, my entire universe, the light of my life, was back to me.
“We need to check your wounds,” a nurse said from somewhere behind me.
"Later. I need my woman," Marco growled, his eyes never leaving mine.
"But, sir?—"
