Page 20 of Severance

I always knew that this time would come for me… or us.

Hastily unzipping it, I comb through the contents in the bag, double checking the numerous passports under different aliases and the stacks of cash. For safety measures, I grab the neatly stacked bills from inside the safe and shove them in the bag too.

Zipping the bag closed, I quickly shut the door to the safe and return everything back to normal, as if nothing was ever touched in this room.

Dahlia stands in the center of the room with her eyes on me as I walk back out with the black duffle bag in my hand.Her gaze drops down to the bag before looking back up at me, but she doesn’t say anything.

No words are needed, because she gets it.

She always does.

“Let’s go,” I demand lightly as I grab her hand. “We can’t be here when Luca and his men show up and we can’t waste any more time.”

I lead her back through the penthouse and together we step onto the elevator. Dahlia presses the button for the garage, as if she does this every day.

“So.” She turns her head toward me as we start to descend. “What happens next?”

Raising my eyebrows, I glance over at her. “You don’t have a plan?”

Dahlia scowls and shrugs lightly. “I mean, I didn’t exactly plan on shit going down the way it did tonight.”

Well, that makes two of us.

“Why am I not surprised that you didn’t think any of this through?”

“What the fuck did you expect me to do, Kai?” she demands, with her eyes an angry storm. “Let Stan rape me like he was trying to do before killing me? I didn’t anticipate your fucking father and his lover, who was your fucking fiancée, kidnapping me!”

The elevator stops and it dings as the door slowly slides open.

“Hey,” I say quietly, as I pull her close to me. “I’m not trying to lecture you,bambolina. You fought, like the fucking fighter that you are. And I am so fucking proud of you for that… but there will be repercussions for what happened and we have to be prepared. And if we’re going to take them all down, we need to come up with a plan and fast.”

Dahlia closes her eyes and briefly rests her forehead against my chest. “I know it was impulsive and I’m sorry.”

Sliding my finger under her chin, I tip her head back to look at me and get lost in the swirls of green hues in her eyes. “Don’t you ever, and I mean EVER, apologize for doing what you have to do to survive. You’re a survivor,bambolina… it’s what you do best.”

Dipping my face down to hers, I kiss her lips softly and she melts into me. The elevator dings and I quickly break away from her to keep the doors from closing in on us.

Grabbing her hand, I lead her through the garage to my car and help her in. Opening the backseat door, I toss my duffle bag inside and quietly shut it before sliding into the front seat.

“Where are we going?” Dahlia asks quietly from beside me as I ease the car out of the garage.

“We need to lie low for a little. We’ll find a motel outside of the city and stay there until we have a solid plan.”

“We’re really doing this,” Dahlia whispers, with a small smile on her face as she looks over at me.

Taking her hand in mine, I give it a small squeeze and smile back at her. “It’s you and me,bambolina. Fuck the rest of the world.”

Dahlia

Kai drives us not far out of the city, but far enough that we won’t be noticed. He chose a dingy ass motel, the kind that you can get any drug that you want at.

Also, the kind of motel that any and all bedsheets are questionable with their cleanliness.

I stare out the window, watching the illuminated vacancy sign flicker on and off as Kai goes inside to the check-in desk. Looking around the parking lot, we stick out like a sore thumb in Kai’s sleek Aston Martin.

A man sits in the dark on a chair outside of his room, smoking a cigarette. As he takes a long drag, the cherry illuminates his dirty face and I catch him eyeing the car with ill-intended curiosity.

Leaning forward slightly, I grab Stan’s revolver that I stashed under the seat and set it on my lap, just in case.

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