Chapter 284
Chapter Two Hundred Eighty-Four
Adrik
“What the f**k happened?” Dr. Williams asked as we pulled Sephie from the backseat of the SUV. He
immediately started to look her over as we transferred her to the hospital bed.
“She and Ivan were kidnapped,” Misha said.
Ivan had walked up. “Her left shoulder is dislocated and that arm is likely broken too. She has broken
ribs on that side and I’m almost positive she has a punctured lung. I’m sure there’s more, but that’s all I
know for sure,” he said.
Dr. Williams nodded as we walked quickly down the hallway. He looked to Ivan, “and what about you?
You also look like holy hell, but I’m not gonna lie, I’m terrified to look at you without her.”
“I can manage until she’s fine, doc,” Ivan said.
“We need to get her x-rayed to find out what we’re dealing with. I can hear her wheezing. She’s having
trouble breathing. I know she reacts differently to anesthesia. Anything else I should know about?” Dr.
Williams asked Ivan.
“Yeah, she doesn’t go anywhere without him,” he said pointing to me. “He is to her what she is to me.
Keep him with her.”
“Noted.”
We walked onto an elevator while the guys stayed behind. Dr. Williams looked at me, then looked at
my hands. “I’m hoping the guys that did this to her are in much worse shape than she is?” he asked.
“I’m just getting started,” I said.
“Good. What about the brawn situation? 1 heard about the explosions throughout the city. I’m hoping it
had to do with taking care of that?” he asked.
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“Taken care of. They grabbed her when Ivan was getting her to safety before we blew the warehouses,”
I said.
“That’s a small relief,” he said as we exited the elevator. The nurses gave me funny looks as we walked
into the x-ray room. “Make a note in her chart that this man stays with her, no matter what. There’s also
five more downstairs that are to stay with her overnight. I don’t want any problems from any of the
nurses.” The nurses looked puzzled, but didn’t argue.
Dr. Williams liked to talk while he worked. “What about Ivan? He doesn’t look so good. I’m not sure I
believe him that he can.st until she gets well enough to work her magic on him. Do you have any
other way for me to look at him without him killing me?”
I felt Sephie squeeze my hand faintly. When she did, the memory of Misha recording her ying the
piano came into my head. I knew Sephie put it there. Even unconscious, she was still trying to help
Ivan. “I have one idea that might work. He’s generally okay with minor stuff. If it’s something that would
require anesthesia on a normal person, that’s where the real problem is. She’s the only one that’s ever
been able to calm him like she does.”
I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. What’s your idea, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“She ys no. She’s incredibly talented. Ivan gets stuck in his memories when he has to go to the
hospital. He’ll wake up fighting like he did with you regrly. It’s a waking nightmare for him. In his
mind, he’s back in his past, lighting for his life. In reality, he’s fighting us and we’re just trying to keep
him from hurting himself or someone else. She can break him out of it, but
it means she can’t sleep while he sleeps. One of the guys recorded her ying the piano and that’s
enough to keep him from getting sucked back into his nightmare. He knows she’s close by as long as
he can hear her ying,” I said.
Dr. Williams had continued to take x-rays of Sephie’s entire body while I was talking. He stopped briefly
to look at me. “That’s incredible.” He motioned toward Sephie. “I need to turn her onto her side,” he
said, indicating for me to help him. Her body was covered in bruises already. When he saw her back,
he gasped. “Holy shi t,” he said, looking to me again.
“Her uncle,” I said.
“F**ck,” he half-whispered as he continued taking x-rays.
Once he was done, he let me know what needed to happen next. “Her left shoulder is definitely
completely dislocated. Her humerus is also fractured. She has five broken ribs and one of them has
punctured her left lung. It’s difficult to tell from the x- ray, but she does have some blood in her lung and
air is escaping into her thoracic cavity. Fortunately, her right lung looks fine.. Unfortunately, she’s going
to need to stay in the hospital for a few days to make sure her lung doesn’t copse. She’ll need a
chest tube to help give the air a ce to go, so her lungs can re-expand, and oxygen to help her
breathe easier. She’s going to be in a lot of pain for a day or two,” he said..
“Pain meds knock herpletely out and make it so she can’t eat for days at a time,” I said. “Thest
time she got seriously hurt, she took ibuprofen. When she got those scars on her back, she said she
just took ibuprofen then too.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah. We couldn’t believe it either, but apparently that shi t works for her,” I said, smiling at her. I still
had a hold of her hand, not wanting to be apart from her.
We left the x-ray room and went to a surgery room so they could fix her arm. “We’re going to need to
sedate her to fix her shoulder. That’s going to be painful if she’s awake. I’ll let the anesthesiologist
know about her reaction to normal pain meds. Redheads really do react differently to drugs than
everyone else. That’s a real thing,” he said.
It took them a while to put her shoulder back and set her arm. She would have to wear a cast for a few
weeks while her bone
healed. They put a chest tube in, which made her breathing quieter. She’d been on oxygen since we
got to the hospital, but 1 could still hear her wheezing. Once the chest tube was in, she started to
breathe quietly again. My own anxiety started to calm
down once she started to breathe quieter, too.
We went to a room once they were done. “I’ve sent a nurse down to get the other guys. I’d like to take
a look at lvan, if that’s possible. He looked rough before,” Dr. Williams said.
Once the guys walked into the room, they all looked exceptionally worried. I said, in Russian, “she’s
okay. She’s going to have to stay here a few days, but she’s okay.” I looked to Misha, then to Ivan.
“Misha, do you have the recordings of her ying on your phone still? The doctor wants to look at Ivan,
but Sephie won’t be awake for a while. They had to sedate her to fix her shoulder so it might be a
couple days before she wakes up. You should get looked at before that, Ivan,” I said.
“Yeah, Boss, I have them. Do you think that’ll work?” Misha asked Ivan.
“It’s worth a shot, I guess, but it’s probably best if you guys are there, just in case,” Ivan said. He was
visibly nervous.
“I’m not leaving her. Do you four think you can handir him if it gets bad?” I asked
“We make it work,” Viktor said “You don’t need to lose her
I looked at the doctor. “han
po with you, but Itay is going as well, but in case they need to hold thn dow recording of her ying a
hopefully that will help keep has caly enough Let’s hope you donnel to do anything
invasive on him,” I said, in English.
“You ain’t never lied. Follow me, gentlemen,” he said, walking out of the room leaving me alone with
Sephie.
I leaned over her, kissing her forehead. “I’m so sorry, solnishko. Once again, you were never meant to
get hurt. I’m so proud of you, though. I heard you with Armando. You got the information we needed out
of him. You continuously surprise me with your intelligence. It’s more than that, though. You’re street
smart as well. This business. It takes a certain level of cu nning. It takes most people a lifetime to figure
it out and you juste by it naturally. You’re just amazing, Persephone. You make me want to work
harder every single day to make sure I’m worthy of your love.” I grabbed her hand as I sat next to the
bed to watch over her. I felt the faintest squeeze on my fingers. I picked her hand up, kissing the back
of it. “Sleep, love. I’ll be right here the whole time.”