Page 45 of Severance

“I’m sorry,” she whispers and gently kisses my forehead. “This is going to hurt, but I promise everything is going to be alright.”

Taking a deep breath, both of her hands land on my chest and she presses down with as much pressure as she can.

She was right.

It fucking hurts.

This time I welcome the darkness as it pulls me deep below the surface.

Dahlia

“Your brother, he’s a doctor?” I ask Aleksei as we ride in silence.

“Yep.”

Keeping pressure on Kai’s chest, I glance up at the rearview mirror, but Alek stares at the road ahead.

“He’s not legally a doctor, is he?”

Alek glances in the mirror and his cold eyes meet mine. “You can make anything legal on paper if you know how.”

What the fuck kind of shit show am I in now? This guy shows up, Anthony vouches for him and then he magically has a brother who’s a doctor and can help Kai. And now he’s not even a real fucking doctor?

“Take us to Anthony, he’ll know where we can go,” I tell him as I hold Kai tighter.

Looking in the mirror, I see a ghost of a smile on Aleksei’s lips as he stares ahead. “He’ll send you to Nikolai.”

I scoff. “Your doctor brother who isn’t even a real fucking doctor?”

His eyes flash to mine and he glares at me through the mirror. “He is a real doctor.”

Yeah, okay…

“If he doesn’t save Kai, I will slit both of your throats.”

My promise earns me a small, amused smile from Alek. He stays silent and looks back out the front of the car as he drives us onto a gated property.

???

A younger version of Aleksei steps out of the large French doors of the mansion in front of us. He can’t be much younger than Aleksei, but just his body language alone is more vibrant.

“What’s good?” he calls out as he strides down the marble steps.

“In the car,” Aleksei grumbles, pointing toward me, sitting with the door open, holding a balled-up shirt on Kai’s chest. “He took a bullet in the chest and he’s out.”

Nikolai nods and walks over to me with a smile. Reaching across, he gently moves my hands from Kai’s chest and replaces them with his own.

“I got him.”

Climbing out of the car, I quickly spin around as they pull Kai from the backseat. They start up the front steps with him and I follow closely behind.

With little effort, they carry Kai into the house and up the winding stairs into a bedroom. Standing to the side, I watch Nikolai as he assesses Kai’s chest and collects his supplies. He injects a sedative into his arm before he gets started.

“He’s lucky,” Nikolai tells me as he pulls on his sterile gloves. “From what I can see, it’s a clean shot. No major organs or vessels were hit.”

“So, he’s going to be okay?”

Nikolai smiles. “Yeah, babe. He’s going to be okay.”

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