The Fancy Pants Club — Chapter 26 - The Injured President

~ Daniella ~

“Then, I will just have to wake you up.”

That’s what Erik said but yeah, it didn’t happen really until I woke up in my bed with the early morning sunlight assaulting my eyes.

It’s not like I expected anything to— okay... to be honest, well, I really did expect something to happen to me and Erik last midnight, so I was a bit (just a bit) disappointed that he didn’t visit me at all.

I wondered why as I sat in my bed groaning and massaging my head from a sleepless night, and then it hit me. Karl did mention about Lotus Spade last night and by the mere name of it, it all brought me down to one conclusion — that maybe, possibly Erik and the others went to the nightclub and do what most mercenaries do — attack. And an attack in my head means guns, blood, and more guns.

Hurriedly, I pranced out of my bed and took a quick shower. With a new ensemble of stretchable slim-fit jeans and a plain white tee, I raced to Erik’s bedroom. The main door was slightly opened, unusually, so I grazed inside with my hands involuntarily shaking.

I felt afraid honestly, of what possible things that could have happened. Knowing Erik enough, to break his word was unlike him, so there must be some kind of reason why he wasn’t able to visit me.

The receiving room looked the same, but the minibar didn’t. It was jam-packed with used glasses, some still contained of liquor while the others empty. It had bottles and bottles of Smirnoff exhausted of its contents all grouped in the side of the counter.

I raised a brow when I saw the peculiarity of the mess. Surely, Erik didn’t hold a party here last night, but with all the pieces of evidence, what was I supposed to assume?

“Erik?” I called out tentatively, holding my right hand against my chest. There was no answer, so I decided to proceed to his bedroom.

From there, my suspicion and fears were confirmed. With wide eyes, I gasped as I behold the sight before me.

Suri was sitting at the edge of the bed; her hands were in gloves while she held a bloody gauze. A tray of medical supplies and equipment were near her. Amano was right beside it, standing and offering her a bowl of water. Vincent was stationed near the balcony looking beyond the early morning sky while Rohan was sitting in a leather wingback chair near the bed with his bandaged arms crossed and a scowl on his face.

While Erik... yes, him, was resting in the bed, topless, with the duvet pulled up to his waist and four big pillows propped up behind him. He had a superficial but nasty-looking burn wound in his left shoulder running down to his wrist, and some two or three small to medium-sized lacerations on the same side of his torso. It was cleanly stapled intact. He seemed to be sleeping; his face blank of any expression.

“Mi Senorita, ” Enrique, who I just noticed behind the door, called out to me. He smiled, but it was a feeble attempt. No matter how he beams me his royal smile, it didn’t hide the fact that he looked worn out and sad of something. I didn’t miss out on the square gauze taped along his jaw, but I decided to ignore it.

“Enrique, ” I responded, and with the volume of my voice, all of the occupants in the room turned to look at me.

“Daniella, ” both Rohan and Vincent said.

Suri gave me a weak smile, but then returned to attending Erik’s wound.

“Wh—what happened Vince?” I asked directly as soon as he came beside me.

He attempted to give me a reassuring embrace, but I pivoted to the side to avoid it. I just placed a hand on his elbow and gave him a confused look.

“We had a few setbacks while cornering the enemy, ” he illuminated for me.

I frowned at him and then drew my eyes to the still unconscious Erik. “And him? Why is he like that?” I asked with quivering breaths, but little by little, anger was building inside me. Burning anger directed not to the people looking at me with expectant eyes, but to this unconscious man.

This sly fox was supposed to be omnipotent. Being the President of their elite group, he was supposed to be dripping of badass-ness, to be excellent with his predatory skills, and to exercise caution with their operation. After the incident last year, he wasn’t supposed to show me his weak, helpless side but here he was, begging me to come to his side and nurse him.

What the hell happened? I couldn’t fathom why their President lay with this burn wound while some of them got only a scratch.

“He...was in the blast radius of the bomb Daniella. He took in most of the injuries.”

Injuries? Were there more to these wounds that I couldn’t see? God, I hope not.

“And why are you guys here? There’s a building called hospital. That’s where you are supposed to bring him!”

I know I was panicking, but I was also surprised with myself how I raised my voice to my fellow Club members. They seemed not to mind though and even looked that they agreed with me as they nodded their heads slowly.

“We wanted him sent in the hospital Daniella, but he insisted to be brought here, ” Vincent explained. “Don’t worry about this though. Suri and Amano are the Club’s medical personnel. They take care of our injuries.”

“I can see that.” I watched Suri and from there, we exchanged sisterly smiles and nods.

“But what I don’t understand is why? I know that your President is stubborn, but why does he have to insist on staying here?”

“Daniella.”

To my surprise, Erik’s raspy voice came out. I hurriedly directed my stare to him.

I thought he was sleeping or out of sorts?

“Except for you, everyone...” he drawled without even opening his eyes, “would you be so kind as to vacate my bedroom?”

I heard Vincent visibly clear his throat, while the rest of the gang, after exchanging furtive glances, nodded in unison.

“I’ll see you around Senorita Daniella, ” spoke Enrique at my side. I nodded at him and to the others when they walked past me.

Suri, who was the last person to leave along with Amano, stopped before me. She took both of my hands and clasped it. “Maybe you can change his mind, Dani. He really needs to undergo x-ray and scans in the hospital, just to make sure, ” she stated with enough concern in her eyes.

I don’t think I have the power to convince him, but I might as well try.

“I’ll see what I can do, ” I replied. “Thank you Suri.”

After they left and the door tightly shut, I approached Erik without a word but jerked when he opened his eyes and his piercing gaze fell on me.

“Water. I need water, ” he spoke.

My brow flinched a little. “Ah, of course.” I turned around and went to a tray I noticed near the bedroom door. There was a pitcher of water and an empty glass readied along with morphine and paracetamol tablets.

The room’s atmosphere somehow turned heavy. It wasn’t like this earlier when Vincent and the others were present. I don’t know what possibly could have made this but I have a sinking feeling it was because of our imminent contact.

With the glass of cold water in hand, I stood near his bedside, waiting for him to open his eyes again.

He did and said, “Do it for me, Daniella. I can’t lift my arm yet.”

Again, my brows twitched, but I sucked up the hesitation inside me and confidently sat in his side. After all, I am his personal maid. To take care of him while he is indisposed is my duty.

“Erik, ” I spoke once I neared the glass in his mouth. I leaned close to support his weight with a hand on his back; the whole time his stare was screwed on me.

“Stop staring and drink the damn water, Master.”

A slow smile grew in the corner of his mouth before he drank the liquid halfway.

“Thank you, ” he said once I placed him back against the pillows.

“You’re welcome.”

I readied to stand up, but Erik immediately stopped me by throwing his left arm on my lap.

“I thought you can’t lift your arms yet?” I arched a brow.

“Arm Daniella. I said arm...” he drawled. “My injured arm. My left is just fine. It can move it, see?”

Then he grazed a hand on my waist and squeezed whatever love handle he had amassed.

I shot him a cold glare. For an ill man, he sure is still playful.

“Alright Erik, that’s enough! If you’re playing nurse with me, then you better keep that hand of yours to yourself.”

I swatted his hand away and that made him wince a bit.

“I can’t. I’m sorry. I am just hopelessly in love with my nurse.”

“You—” I paused, instantly silenced by the rogue word. We met eye-to-eye, but I ignored the sudden flip of my belly when he looked at me affectionately. “You should go to the hospital then, ” I continued once I was able to compose myself. Standing up, I paced around the bed intent on returning the glass on the tray.

“I’m not a decrepit, Daniella. I don’t go to hospitals, ” was his reply.

“But that injury of yours sure needs more TLC.” I glanced at him briefly before putting the object in its position.

“This injury is nothing as compared to the others before it. It will heal in one week. And besides, your TLC is enough for me.”

I paused and opened my mouth to fill enough air in my lungs to calm myself.

Cool. Cool Daniella. He is okay. He is fine. He is still the same Erik you know him to be and he was not confessing to you at all!

“Huh, maybe that’s why you insisted on staying here?” I turned to face him and placed a hand on my waist.

“Correct, ” with a straight face, he said.

My heart immediately jumped towards heaven.

Clearing my throat, I ambled back near his bedside and stood there crossing my arms. “Well then, I’m sorry to say this baby, but you’re wrong. Your burn wounds may be nothing to you, but you should get your bones checked. I don’t know why Suri stressed on it, but if the blast you received is as strong as I think it is, then there’s a possibility you have broken something.”

“I didn’t break something, Daniella, ” he stressed. “But if you’re worried, I might as well tell you that mine can stand as good as the Eiffel tower, or even more.”

“Huh.” I rolled my eyes, trying (the best as I possibly could) to avoid looking below his waist and ignore the sexual insinuation he was putting in.

My cheeks immensely heat up though and my throat, with no real reason, dried. It made me think of the subtle promise we had on each other last night about continuing where we left off. If not for this accident, it would have happened, and he seemed to realize it quite clearly as his stare kept on singeing my skin.

“Bones, Erik. I mean bones. Not a muscle, ” I clarified in a gruff.

He grinned at me, although weakly. Amidst the fact that his roguishness was still intact, at least with his weak grin, I know that he was still not feeling his normal self. In the meantime, he becomes my patient and that means I ought to give him TLC in words and in deeds.

“Well now, as far as my first aid knowledge can give me, burn wounds are supposed to be dressed with a low-adherent dressing with antibiotic effect. Yours is still not covered. Do you want me to?”

“No, leave it as is Daniella, ” he shook his head. “Suri had already applied a topical ointment on them. It is her and Amano’s personal medicine mixture which works like magic.”

“It is bothersome to look at though.” I sighed.

“You can’t stomach it?” He arched a clean brow.

“I can stomach it. I am just worried about you.”

From there, he closed his eyes slowly and took a deep breath. When he returned to look at me, I stiffened due to the intensity in his orbs.

“You bless me with your words, Daniella, ” he initially stated. “I wonder what I did to deserve you in my life. You have already jumped in front of a bullet for me. You can’t possibly become a worrywart on my account. You are too precious for that.”

Too much! The swelling in my heart is too much!

“What happened to you anyway?” I jumped into another subject swiftly, unable to keep up with the feels he was giving me. “Erik, why is it that you have most of the injuries and the others—”

“Little to none?” he supplied.

“Yes, why?”

He looked down on his (Holy Mother of—) abs, acting as if contemplating for a moment, but his face turned gloomy all of a sudden.

“Obsessed with bringing a certain man down, I pursued him to the rooftop of Lotus Spade.” I allowed myself to sit near his knees to at least hear his words properly. “As Karl said, this man’s visit was very brief so when we arrived there last night, it was already too late.”

I remained silent and nodded for him to go on when he looked at me.

“When I got there, his helicopter had taken off and one of his bodyguards dropped a short-range bomb on the roof.”

“Hence, your wounds, ” I conveniently condensed.

“Yes.”

I frowned at him a bit and huffed in disappointment. “Is the man really that important for you to be careless like that Erik? I don’t know a lot about you, but I can see you as a cautious man. I believe you know better than to expose yourself easily like that.”

“That man is my father, Daniella.”

I blinked and swallowed.

“What?”

“His nature, personality, and wicked ways are the reason why so many families are broken and left homeless. He is the boss of Iopata Bratva.”

Shit. Everything just turned complicated.

“If you’re his son, then why did he attempt to kill you?”

Confused yet curious, I placed a comforting hand on his left thigh. This was a revelation he somehow doesn’t want to talk about for his eyes turned painful when he spoke, “Oh, but he doesn’t know I still exist, Daniella.”