"I'm fine," I said and smiled. "Just a bitch of a headache."
The ER physician came in and stood at the side of my bed, checking my file.
"You have a concussion as well as some minor contusions and abrasions. Your nose was broken, but fortunately you won't need any surgery. You'll have swelling and two black eyes for a while, but everything should be back to normal in about six weeks. We'll turn the rape kit over to police and you should know soon about any exposure to HIV or other sexually transmitted diseases when the lab reports come back. The nurse talked with you about it?"
I nodded. "When can I go home?"
"We'd like to keep you overnight, just to be sure. That's quite a concussion you have so I'd feel better. You can stay in an observation room. It's semi-private, but that's all we have for now."
I turned to Hunter. He nodded. "You should stay."
I turned back to the doc. "Can he stay for a while?"
The doctor turned to Hunter. "Are you immediate family?"
"Yes," Hunter said. "I'm her fiancé."
The ER doc nodded. "You can stay, but there isn’t much room for chairs. No more than one visitor at a time and only immediate family."
"That's okay."
Hunter turned to me, his eyes meeting mine, a sparkle in his eyes. I smiled, amused that he'd played the fiancé card.
When the doc left, I turned to Hunter. "So, I'm engaged, am I?"
"They're not going to kick me out of here," he said and kissed me again. When he pulled back, his expression was serious. "I'm so sorry this happened to you. It’s all my fault. Everything. If only I'd just paid off Graham'
s debt and left it at that, none of this would have happened to you."
"It's Graham's fault," I replied, shaking my head. "If he hadn't lost all our money, we would never have had to come to you, involve you in our trouble."
Hunter nodded and stroked my cheek.
"But then," I said softly. "We wouldn't have met again."
"No, we wouldn't. You wouldn't have been abducted – twice. You wouldn't have been harmed."
"We can't go back," I said and squeezed his hand. "No use crying over spilled milk. All I want is for things to go back to normal. Now that Spencer's gone, Graham and I don’t have to worry about him. I'll finish my law degree, and life can go on."
Hunter shook his head. "Things will never go back to normal, Celia. Not now that Sergei did this."
"We can try to make them normal," I said, frowning. "Won't the police charge him with my abduction and rape? They did a rape kit. There's evidence."
"Celia," Hunter said softly. "They're not going to charge him with rape."
"But he raped me. He abducted me."
"He's the head of the Russian mafia in Boston. He's not going down on a rape charge. They want to get him on something bigger. Racketeering. Money laundering. Gun running."
I frowned, angry that despite the fact he'd abducted and raped me, as did his henchmen, they wouldn't press charges.
"But the rape kit…"
"It'll go where the majority of rape kits go – on a shelf in the police station. Celia, Sergei is a big fish. They'll wait until they have enough to arrest him and keep him. They'll wait until they have a rock-solid case of racketeering before they take him in. A rape charge, an abduction charge…" He took my face in his hands. "They don't want to waste their effort. Most rape charges are never even prosecuted."
"That's not fair," I said, unable to accept that what Sergei did to me would mean nothing for him. Then I nodded, realizing what Hunter said was true.
"I understand." I sighed and closed my eyes, tears springing to them. I was suddenly overwhelmed with emotion and couldn't hold it back.