Chapter Sixteen

It had been two days, and Kyle had refused to leave the hospital.

“~Myshka~, you need to come home. You need to spend time with Evie.”

“Are you going to stay with him?”

“Yes, and we’ll be here when you get back. And bring Evie with you—she’s with Ryan and Varina.”

“What if he wakes up?”

“Then I’ll tell him that you were here and I had to force you to leave.”

“He’s right, little bee.”

“Max!”

Kyle threw herself on the bed to hug him.

“~Myshka~, be careful—you’re going to hurt him. I’m going to go get the doctor.”

“I’m so happy you’re awake, Max. You scared me. You scared us all.”

“As grateful as I am that you’re here, you need to listen to Dimitri and go home and take care of yourself and bring Evie back with you.”

Kyle didn’t want to leave Max, but she knew she needed to go home and shower and spend some time with Evie.

***

“Feel better?”

“Yes, that shower was amazing. Thanks for watching Evie.”

“She's a good baby, and it gives me some practice before Varina and I welcome our baby into this world.”

“What happened to mom?”

“Dimitri has her locked up, and Anatoli has been watching over her.”

“Have they gotten any information out of her?”

“No. She wants to talk to us, but I won’t talk to her until you do. We both need to be there.”

“I agree; she owes us an explanation, especially with what happened a few days ago.”

“Dimitri texted me and said Max was up.”

“I’m only home because Max wanted me to take a breather and bring Evie back with me.”

“Well, I’m glad he’s doing okay.”

“Thanks. We’ll talk to Mom when Max is home.”

***

Dimitri was waiting for Kyle outside of the hospital.

“How is he doing?” she asked him as she kissed him.

“He’s asleep, and he said to wake him when you got back.”

Dimitri took Evie from Kyle. “Papa is going to enjoy your visit, ~malen’kiy~.”

Kyle smiled at the term of endearment. “You know, when she’s a teen, she may not enjoy being called little one.”

“She’ll get over it,” he said as he held Evie up and kissed her cheek.

Once they got into Max’s room, Kyle took Evie from Dimitri and placed her on the bed next to Max. She leaned over and kissed Max on the lips before waking him.

“I brought Evie, as you asked.”

Evie let out a coo when Max brushed his hand over her head.

Before Max could respond to Kyle, the doctor came into the room.

“I went over all the test results, and it looks like you’re healing well. I’ll need to keep you here for another day or two, but after that, there isn’t any reason you can’t continue to heal at home.”

“Thank you,” Max said, “You have been with us for years, and I’m thankful for everything you’ve done for us.”

“You pay me well, Max. That’s all the thanks I need.”

***

Max was released two days later and was set up at home to finish healing.

“I know you just got home, but I think we need to deal with my mother.”

“What do you want to do, little bee?”

Kyle looked and Max and Dimitri. “I think she needs to be punished.

“I won’t say she needs to die, but because of her, you almost died, Max. She helped Cannin with planning the kidnapping of Evie, and she doesn’t deserve just to walk away.

“Before we do anything, Ryan and I want to talk to her.”

“I agree with you, ~myshka~, but we can’t stop with her. We need to make sure your father and Cannin’s father are taken care of. If not, this will happen again.

“I don’t think we can wait until Max is better. If Cannin’s father is still alive, then he’s going to be a problem sooner rather than later.”

“Let’s get to planning then.” Kyle was ready to end the threat to her daughter and was willing to do anything to make sure that it happened.