Hello, y'all! I'm back with a new chapter for Queen of Hearts, as it was the next in line for the order of updates that I've been doing over the past couple of weeks! It's been a couple of months since I last updated, so this chapter is completely told from the perspective of Dimitri since I know a lot of y'all enjoy his perspective, plus it seemed fitting for this chapter, considering the events of the last chapter. This is also the longest bit I've done in his perspective for this story which was interesting for me to write! Anyways, I hope y'all enjoy!

Dimitri POV

I heard the click of the lock on the door as Rose locked it from the outside, and if I listened closely, I could faintly hear the sound of her shoes hitting the ground as she walked away from the apartment.

I could tell from her reaction to me offering to come with her that she wasn't only going to get a pizza if that's even what she was planning on doing in the first place. My gut told me that the mention of pizza was a ruse, but I also knew that if she was hiding something from me, it was because she was being threatened.

It didn't take long for the Find My app to load once I unlocked my phone, and I was thankful that I had shown Rose how to share her location with me last week. The circular icon with her picture was steadily moving further away from the apartment, and it didn't take me long to realize that it was heading in the direction of Vladimir High School.

There was only one person who would want to meet her there.

I ran across the room, into the bedroom, and stopped in front of the closet. Tucked into the back corner on the top shelf was a small lockbox, and I quickly entered the combination. My gun was sitting right where I left it, and I took a moment to load the gun, making sure that the safety was on, before tucking it into the back of my jeans.

I had a bulletproof vest in my car, but I wasn't too concerned about Lissa having a gun, and I was almost positive that even if she did have one, I'd have a faster reaction time and better accuracy than her.

I was out the door with my feet barely in my shoes, dialing Petrov's number with one hand.

"Petrov."

"It's Belikov. I need backup to Vladimir High School immediately," I said, jogging down the stairs. "Lissa Dragomir is blackmailing Rose Hathaway with something, and she's on her way to meet Lissa at the school right now."

"And you know this how?"

"I'm tracking her phone," I said as I reached my car. "Rose knows. She's the one who shared her location with me."

"Rose should have never gone off to meet with Lissa Dragomir, and she especially should have never gone by herself," Petrov said. "But considering their history and the fact that we don't know what she was being blackmailed with, I can understand why she did it."

I glanced at my phone to see that Rose was arriving at the school, and I gritted my teeth. My apartment was twenty minutes from the school in good traffic, thirty minutes or more during rush hour, which was nearly over. Rose must have been speeding to get there as quickly as she did.

"Belikov!"

I jolted, remembering that I was still on the phone with Petrov.

"Sorry," I said. "I was checking how close Rose was. She's at the school now."

"I assume you're already en-route?"

"Yes," I said, pulling out of my apartment complex's parking lot. I quickly flipped on the lights and the siren and was glad to see that the roads weren't as busy as I was expecting.

"Others will meet you there," Petrov said. "Units are also en-route, along with an ambulance for precaution. Their ETA is ten minutes."

I pressed my foot down harder on the gas pedal as more cars moved out of my way. "I'll be there sooner than that."

The parking lot to Vladimir High School was practically empty, save for Rose's car and a black Maserati. I parked behind Rose's car, next to the gym, not even concerned that I wasn't technically in a parking spot. I was at the gym doors when I saw three black SUVs pull into the high school, and I didn't wait around to see if they were friendly or not.

The gym was empty, and the lights were dimmed. There were no signs that someone had been in there recently. I crossed the gym, walking into the back section where the pool was sectioned off. The door was unlocked, and I quietly slipped in.

I walked to the edge of the pool, half-expecting to see Rose floating there, but the pool was empty. I was getting ready to leave and walk back through the gym when I heard something hit against metal. The sound reverberated in the pool room because of the acoustics, but something told me it was coming from the girl's locker room.

I yanked open the door in time to see Lissa rear back like a snake, a chef's knife, or something similar, in her hand. I had barely taken one step before the knife was coming down, finding its target in Rose's abdomen.

"No!"

I ran towards Rose, pulling my gun out at the same time. In the end, there was no need. I didn't see Rose's leg move until Lissa was already falling. I heard the sound her head made when it connected with the wooden bench running between the rows of lockers. I knew based on Rose's horrified expression that if I looked at Lissa, I would find her dead, but she was the least of my concerns now that she wasn't a threat.

"Roza," I murmured. "Roza!"

Rose's eyes met mine for a moment before they rolled up, and she fell unconscious. I quickly put my gun back in my waistband and gently picked Rose up, careful not to move the knife too much. I could see blood staining her shirt and was grateful to see that knife was holding steady and wasn't coming loose.

I walked out of the main doors to the locker room, the ones that led outside, and found myself looking at a handful of guns. They were quickly lowered as they realized who I was, and I recognized Winchester among those sent for backup. He didn't say anything to me but ran ahead to help prepare the ambulance.

"Dimitri?" Rose whispered.

I looked down to see her blinking her eyes rapidly, clearly in pain and also clearly trying to stay awake.

"Roza," I whispered. "We're going to get help. We're going to get you to the hospital. Stay with me, okay?"

"It hurts."

"I know. It'll get better soon."

I reached the ambulance, and they already had the bed pulled out that I quickly transferred her onto. She cried out in pain, and I reached out to grab her hand. They pushed her up into the ambulance, and I quickly followed after, sitting by her side as they put the IV in her arm. As soon as the IV was in, the second paramedic hopped out, presumably heading to the front to drive the ambulance, while the one in the back with me started tracking all of Rose's vitals.

I felt Rose's hand start to slip out of mine, and I tightened my grip.

"Roza, stay with me. Stay awake," I said.

"It's hard," she slurred. "It hurts."

"The doctors are going to help you," I said. "We're almost there."

"Where's Lissa?" she said. "Does she get her own ambulance?"

"I don't know," I said, not able to bring myself to remind her that Lissa was getting a hearse, not an ambulance.

Rose went quiet for a moment before her eyes widened with shock. "Dimitri! There's a knife in me!"

Her other hand started reaching for it, and the paramedic quickly grabbed her hand.

"Let go of me!"

"Roza," I murmured. "You can't touch it. Only the doctors can remove it when we get to the hospital. We're almost there."

She nodded, and I could see the wetness in her eyes from unshed tears, mostly from the pain and especially since she had jerked her body trying to get her other hand free from the paramedic. He released her hand, and Rose calmed down.

"We're almost there," I repeated, pressing a kiss to her forehead.

I'm not sure how much longer we were in the ambulance, but there was a team of doctors waiting by the ambulance bay when we arrived, and they quickly ushered Rose in.

"Sir!" a nurse called after me. "You can't follow them. They're taking her to surgery, but if you come this way, I can show you to the waiting room and get you a change of clothes."

It was then that I noticed that my shirt was soaked through with Rose's blood from carrying her to the ambulance. I followed the nurse numbly and quickly exchanged my shirt for a disposable hospital scrub top. The nurse took my shirt to one of the biohazard bins and tossed it in before taking me to the waiting room. I was given a stack of papers to fill out, though most of the questions I didn't know the answers to. I hadn't been in Rose's life long enough to know the recent answers, and Abe and Janine didn't exactly give me all of her medical histories before they were killed.

I watched the clock for an hour before it dawned on me that I could call someone who might know the answers.

Adrian.

It didn't take long to have his cell phone number forwarded to me, and I quickly dialed it. When I was sent to voicemail after three rings, I quickly redialed it again.

"Hello?" Adrian said, picking up after I called for the third time.

"Adrian?"

"Yes?"

"It's Dimitri. Dimitri Belikov."

There was silence on the other line, and for a moment, I thought he had hung up.

"What can I do for you, Belikov?"

"It's Rose," I said. "She's in the hospital."

"I'm on my way. Text me the address."

I barely had any time to say anything else before the line went dead.

Adrian arrived less than fifteen minutes later, and I noticed that he came alone.

"Sydney, my girlfriend, wanted to come," he explained, "but we were on babysitting duty tonight for her sister, so she stayed behind. And Christian, well, I didn't tell him, but I'm not sure he'd be welcome here even if I did tell him."

"Did he know about Lissa's involvement and her plans?"

"It's hard to say," he said. "He hasn't said much since Rose was rescued and accused Lissa. Lissa going AWOL certainly hasn't helped her case at all."

"I don't think this is public knowledge yet, but I'm sure it will be soon, and I think you can be trusted to keep it a secret until it does become public knowledge. Lissa is dead," I said. "She coerced and blackmailed Rose into coming to the high school tonight where Lissa attacked her. Rose was stabbed. She's in surgery now."

"And Lissa ended up dead how?" he asked.

"Rose kicked her after she was stabbed, and Lissa fell the wrong way. She hit her head. They were in the girl's locker room. Rose didn't intend to kill Lissa, but even if she did, considering Lissa stabbed her in the stomach first, any court would rule it as self-defense," I said.

"How did none of us see it? See what was really going on?"

"Some of the worst people are the best at pretending they're greatest," I said. "I should know; my father did it for years."

Adrian flinched and looked uncomfortable for a moment, but it quickly passed. We sat in silence until I remembered the unfinished paperwork sitting next to me.

"Any chance you'd be able to fill some of this out?" I asked, holding out the stack to him.

He nodded and took it without a word. He worked on filling out the paperwork, and I continued to watch the clock. Midnight quickly came and went, and I stifled another yawn.

I stood to stretch my legs and walked to the nurse's station. We had returned the paperwork an hour ago, and while there was no update then, I couldn't help but ask for another one.

The nurse shook her head and reminded me that a doctor would come out and speak with us if there was an update.

Another hour passed before Adrian turned and tapped me on the shoulder.

"What do you know about your father?" he said.

"No offense, Adrian, but I really don't want to talk about that scumbag with you," I said, standing.

"He's my uncle," Adrian said softly.

"What?" I snapped, turning around to face him.

"Randall, right? That's his name?" Adrian pressed.

I nodded.

He sighed. "Yep. That's my uncle. Rand Ivashkov. Definitely quite the asshole."

"He was more than an asshole," I hissed.

"Yeah, I know," Adrian said wearily. "But that doesn't change the fact that we're cousins."

Before I could process that fully, a doctor walked out of the double doors.

"Dimitri Belikov?" she said.

"That's me," I answered, walking over to where she was standing. "Is Rose okay?"

"Rose's surgery was successful, but she will have a long recovery ahead of her," the doctor said. "If you'd like to follow me, I can take you to her room."

Adrian and I both followed after her until she came to a stop in front of a patient room. I almost laughed when I saw that it was the same room Rose had been in two weeks ago. The lights were dimmed in her room, and she looked just as tiny in the bed as she did when I first saw her in this room after we rescued her a couple of weeks ago.

"We've given her a mild sedative to help transition from the anesthesia so she could wake at any time. Nurses will be occasionally checking in on her to check her vitals and see if she's awake. I'll be back in the morning to check in as well and see how Rose is doing," the doctor said.

"Thank you," I murmured.

"I'll have one of the nurses bring in a rollaway bed so that you can stay here with her since you're listed as next of kin on her paperwork," she said. She turned to Adrian. "Unfortunately, you cannot spend the night, but I wanted you to be able to see Rose before we sent you home. Unless you wanted to spend the night in the waiting room."

Adrian shook his head. "I'll go home. Visiting hours start at seven, right?"

The doctor nodded. "They do. I guess we'll be seeing you then."

He nodded and turned to me. "Take care of her."

"Always."

He nodded again and followed the doctor out of the room. A nurse appeared a short while later, pushing the promised rollaway bed. I helped the nurse set it up as close to Rose's bed as I was allowed. The exhaustion from the events of the day finally caught up to me, and I found myself falling asleep within moments of my head hitting the pillow.

I was awoken sometime later to someone running their finger through my hair. The room was still dark, the sun not yet risen.

"Comrade?" Rose slurred.

I jumped up, dislodging her hand. "I'm here, Roza, I'm here."

I could barely see her in the dark, but I could tell that she was still heavily under the influence of the sedative they had given her.

"I'm so tired," she whispered.

I leaned down to press a kiss on her forehead. "It's okay; you can go back to sleep. I'll be here when you wake up."

"Promise?"

"I promise," I said. Her breathing evened out, and I knew Rose was back asleep, but that didn't stop me from continuing. "I promise to be here every morning when you wake up, forever and always."

I hope y'all enjoyed this chapter and feel free to leave a review with your comments, thoughts, and opinions!