Crowned In Blood

Chapter 22

22

Catalina

“ I t’s starting,” I breathed, running my fingers through Marco’s hair.

Our men were out there, getting the justice Marco deserved.

He hadn’t moved, not once, and the doctors said it was too soon to know anything. That I had to wait.

I’d always thought I was a patient person. I’d waited for years to be free from my father, spent months working on investigating the trafficking, but for the first time in my life, I couldn't stand it.

Now, when I needed it most, time seemed to move at a snail's pace. I kept checking my watch, thinking hours had passed, only to find it had just been a few minutes.

“If I could, I’d take your place,” I whispered. “I’d take all the pain, the hurt, anything, everything . I’d take it for you.”

I kissed his forehead, tucked the blanket around him again, then smoothed out the wrinkles.

I couldn’t stop myself from moving. If I didn’t touch him, then I’d pace. If I didn’t pace, then I might scream, sob. Wail the entirety of my heartbreak so loudly that every person in this hospital would hear it. And that was the one thing I refused to do.

When this was all over, when my Marco was back to me, then I would. I’d release the bundle of emotions fighting inside of me, ripping apart. But until then, he needed me to be strong, to believe that he’d come back to me, and he would; I just had to wait, no matter how agonizing it was or how long it took.

I'd do anything to bring him back. I’d crawl across hot coals if it meant having one more second with him. If it meant hearing his voice, his laugh, feeling the strength in his body as he wrapped his arms around me, calling me his vicious little queen.

Something changed in the air, like an electric charge surged through the room. And when I looked up, shock flooded through me.

“Jo?”

She rushed toward me, and I barely had time to stand before she threw her arms around me. “I’m so sorry. I came as soon as I heard.”

“Heard? But how did you get in?”

Did the door open? Could I have been so distracted that I missed it?

But two men were outside guarding the room, and another two were guarding the main entrance to the wing. She shouldn’t have been able to get past them, and if she did, my men would have called.

“Yes, it was on the news. Are you okay? Did you get hurt?”

“I’m okay. I didn’t get hurt, but Jo, how are you here?”

A small, sad smile appeared on her face. “I have my ways. One day, I’ll explain them to you, but for now, let’s take care of Marco.”

“I… what? Take care of him? How?”

She simply shook her head, took my hand, and stood beside him.

“Johanna, what is going on?—”

“You would do anything to save him, wouldn’t you?”

My world, which had stilled the moment Marco had been shot, suddenly came roaring back to life. “Yes,” I said, without a second of hesitation.

“Then give me a moment.”

She never moved, but there was something different about her. The air around her seemed denser, humid, as if there was an unseen pressure that shouldn’t exist. I wanted to ask her more, to know how she got here, why she was here, and what she was doing, but I didn’t.

There was nothing I wouldn’t do to bring Marco back to me—no matter the price.

The pressure suddenly dissipated, and Jo turned to me. She took my hand and placed a single small pill inside my palm. “Give this to him and he’ll be fine in a couple of hours.”

I stared at her.

Was she serious?

But there wasn’t a single breath of doubt in her, and the way she stood before me, so confidently relaxed, made me feel like this wasn’t the first time she’d done something like this.

“What is this, Jo? Why are you doing this?”

“I know what you’ve gone through and how hard you had to fight. I don’t want that for you anymore. You've finally found someone who loves you, who treats you the way you deserve to be treated. And I will do anything in my power to defend that for you. It’s time for you to be happy.” Her eyes shifted to my palm, then back to my face. “I know it might be hard to trust me right now, but please, think about the last couple of weeks of our friendship. If you could trust me then, please trust me now.”

Then she turned and walked away.

“Jo!” I called out to her, but she was already at the door, and by the time I reached it, she was gone.

I threw the door open, startling my two guards.

"Where did she go?" I yelled.

"Who, Do?a?" one of my guards said.

"The blond woman that just left."

"Do?a, no one has come in or out of this room for the last hour."

"But—"

They looked at me like I was crazy. Maybe I was.

I stepped back into the room, my legs shaking, as I closed the door slowly.

She was here. Wasn't she?

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 me feel , 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?—"

I glared at her, and she froze.

Of course, she was right. This was a medical miracle. But I could have lost him . Now my Marco was back, and I needed to know this was real, that he was truly here, coherent, moving. Alive .

"Don't make him say it again," I hissed.

Slowly, Marco's lips tipped up, first into a grin, then a full smile with the dimples I loved so much. And he kissed me once more.

Distantly, I heard the door close, but I didn't even care. I would have let him take me right there, even with everyone watching. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered outside of him.

He stripped my shirt and my bra, and I pushed my pants down, while he shifted, dragging the hospital gown off of him.

He opened his arms for me, and I straddled his waist, pressing my lips against his.

I kissed him with reckless abandon. The world could've been falling around me and I wouldn't care as long as I had him in my arms. And when he pulled my panties to the side, and I sunk down onto his cock, we moaned.

He filled me, stretched me to the brink, a sense of completion tearing through my body. Then he thrusted inside of me.

I held him as close as I could as he kissed me over and over, bit and sucked my lips. I parted them for his tongue and he rubbed and wrapped his own around mine.

I rocked my hips in time with his and when he pulled back, he took my bouncing nipple into his mouth. He lavished it, sucked it hard, fucked me even harder. It was wild. Desperate. Everything we both needed.

I held onto him for dear life. And he never let go of me, not once. He smacked my ass, gripped it, my hips, my back, fisted my hair, always making sure I was tied to him.

I dragged his mouth back to mine, needing his taste on my lips once more, needing to feel his every breath, and he fucked me even harder.

"Marco," I cried out. "My Marco."

"Catalina," he moaned.

I stared into his beautiful dark brown eyes—filled with such desire, desperation, and love for me.

"I love you. I love you. I love you!"

He bit my neck, trailed kisses over it and up my ear before biting it too. "I love you too. I love you so much. I'd crawl through hell to come back to you. I'll always come back to you, mi peque?a reina viciosa. Always ."

"You better. You fucking better." I moaned, burying my mouth into his hair to smother my cries.

But he kept pumping faster, harder, ramming into me wildly, and I couldn't take it anymore.

I came crying out into his shoulder, as he turned his head into my neck, shouting, spilling into me.

I don't know how long we stayed like that. Truthfully, I didn't care. But eventually my legs ached from straddling his thighs.

He somehow knew and shifted, laying back on the bed, pulling me with him, holding me to his chest while I slid my legs between his.

I ran my fingers over his back, his sides, listened to the strong beating of his heart.

"I was so scared, Marco," I whispered.

He slid his fingers through my hair, tucking the strands behind my ear. "I know, mi peque?a reina viciosa. I heard you, every single word you said to me. I'm sorry I made you so afraid."

"Did you know, before? That someone was going to shoot at us?"

He shook his head. "I was just lucky enough to see the sun reflect off of the muzzle."

"I'm going to fucking hang Felipe from his balls."

Marco's expression grew stern. "I don't think it was Felipe this time."

"What? Why?"

"Because the gunman wasn't pointing at me. He was pointing at you ."

My eyes went wide.

"If I didn't reach for you right then, you wouldn't be here, Lina. He was aiming for your head."

Someone tried to kill me.

Someone tried to kill me and Marco pulled me out of harm's way.

He took the bullet for me.

Marco almost sacrificed his life for me.

I punched him in the chest, hard.

"Ow! I am an injured man, you know."

For half a second, my anger quieted.

But then he smiled, and I hit him again.

"Don't you ever fucking do that again, Marco. You don't take bullets for me!"

He grabbed my fist, brought it to his lips, and kissed it as though my anger was nothing.

"If the choice is between your life and mine, I'll choose you every single time."