King of the Underworld by RJ Kane

Chapter One Hundred Ninety-Nine

Sephie

Stephen and Viktor came to the hospital with me and Ivan the following morning to get Ivan’s arm x-rayed. Dr. Williams was expecting us, probably with an extra dose of anxiety meds for his entire staff. Ivan was quiet on the ride there. I knew he was

nervous.

I slid my arm through his good arm when we walked in. Since they knew we were coming, a nurse took us to see Dr. Williams immediately.

“Dr. Williams, thanks for working us in,” I said, somewhat ironically, since I knew he basically had no choice.

“It’s good to see you again. I can’t tell you how relieved I am to see you, if I’m being honest,” he said, shaking my hand.

I couldn’t help but laugh. The trauma was still fresh, clearly. He got to work quickly, as I’m sure he wanted to get us out of there as quickly as possible. Viktor and Stephen had walked into the room with us, but both stepped out once the doctor started to take Ivan’s bandage off. I looked at Ivan, curiously, but he just winked at me. They were working on something else, obviously.

I didn’t let go of Ivan’s hand the entire time the doctor was looking at his arm. “It looks like it’s healed really well. The stitches can come out. We just need to x-ray the arm to see how the bone has healed, but the break in the bone was the least of your worries that day,” Dr. Williams said. He looked to me, a puzzled look on his face. “I’m not sure how to do this x-ray. You can’t be with him.”

“Why not?” I asked. I could feel my anger starting to rise.

“Women need to limit their exposure to x-rays as much as possible. Especially if there’s a possibility you could be pregnant. It’s dangerous,” he said.

just laughed. “No worries there,

concerned. “You still could be

anger starting to rise. Ivan squeezed my hand tighter. I looked at the good doctor, very seriously. “I don’t have

curiosity got the better of him. “You’re so young. Why?”

“it was not by choice. One of your kind took it against her will.” I almost laughed when Tvan said “your kind” to the doctor, like he

of us, his face dropped. He glanced to the open door.

yes,” Ivan said.

Williams got up quickly and sh ut the door. He sat down in front of us again. “Tell me what happened. It was a back-room procedure for cash, no? I’ve been hearing stories like this for years. I’ve been trying to find this doctor, but he moves around to different parts of the city, so it’s been impossible to track him

looked at Ivan, my eyes wide. He squeezed my hand, his face softer. He nodded toward the doctor, indicating I should tell him what happened. I sighed. i told the doctor the short version of the story about

had tears in

that you also had reason to ha te us. It makes what you did that day even more poignant,” he said,

I said. Ivan let go of my hand and wrapped his good arm

the doctor? Where he was when this happened? A name? A physical description? It’s hard for most of the people he’s worked on to remember what he looks like. I’m not sure what cocktail he

I remember,” I said.

are different. She said she remembers being out for a really long time after the procedure. He probably had to change his cocktail

at Ivan, completely surprised. “How do you know that redheads are different? There

Doc. Trust me,”

nodded. “We’ll abandon that line of questioning,

“doctor” the whole time. But I’ll never forget what he looks like,” I