Molly tilted her head to the side, hesitating for a mont before reaching for Kelsie’s hair.
"You look just like her, Kelsie. But a woman as brilliant as she was would’ve recognized the mont I appeared. She was suspicious of everyone. And she was right to be."
"Maybe it’s because you were just a child when she died, but you know nothing about survival instincts and you sure as hell didn’t inherit any of hers."
Retracting her hand, she reached into her gown’s pocket.
Producing a syringe from it, she moved toward the IV fluid.
She injected air into the IV and stepped back to wait, eyes fixed on the EKG machine.
Luca had turned her into many things over the years, but the Langford family prided themselves on two things:
Their vast knowledge in dicine—and their betrayal.
Heart rate: steady.
EKG monitor: normal.
Blood pressure: stable.
The ventilator alarm wasn’t going off either.
Most importantly, Kelsie remained the sa.
Thirty seconds later, Molly frowned and stepped forward to check what was wrong.
No one was immune to air in their IV fluid and since this was the best hospital in the country, surely, they wouldn’t have faulty machines.
But even if they did, how crazy was it that all of them failed at once...?
The thought she just ford when sothing dawned on her and she stared into Kelsie’s face again.
"You’re not in a coma, are you?"
Kelsie’s face, which had been still a mont ago, suddenly stretched into a wide smile.
She pried her eyes open, tilting her head to the side to peer into Molly’s shocked face. "You’re actually very slow, Molinda."
Molly’s eyes darkened, "How are you not in a coma?"
"You still haven’t figured that out? You’re dumber than I thought." Kelsie scoffed, sitting up with great difficulty.
Molly stared at her for a few seconds, then shrugged. "But what can you do? Serbian Howard shot you. Three tis. In your current state, you can’t take and I’ll still end up sniffing you out."
"You should’ve done yourself the favor of staying in a coma instead of waking up so early only to be smothered."
Pressing a hand on one of her band-aids, Kelsie grimaced, "Given you just tried to kill , it doesn’t surprise you’d say such an insensitive thing."
"Five bullets in less than three months—and three barely got taken out of five hours ago—yet you stand there and say I can’t take you even if I tried? Who in their right mind would try to take soone who was just shot?"
Molly’s expression remained the sa.
She was a talkative most of the ti, so even Kelsie found it a little strange she wasn’t saying much.
Stepping toward the bed, Molly sneered, "Trying to talk your way out of death is funny, Kelsie. It’s also foolish that you think it’d work. That we’re cousins doesn’t an I’ll take pity on you and let you live."
Kelsie pursed her lips, going silent for so seconds as Molly approached her.
Then she clicked her tongue, "I already know blood ans nothing to you. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have tried to kill a mont ago."
"But I’m just wondering, what will you give if I help you out of that man’s grip?"
Molly didn’t know when she halted. But the next second, her lips twitched irritably.
"You can’t even protect yourself. How could you possibly help ?"
Kelsie simply smiled and lowered her eyes.
Feeling the wound in her arm, she grimaced from the pain without looking up.
"About a week ago, I found the janitors excited about sothing. It was a pack of cigarettes. They said they found a hoard of them around the practice."
"According to them, it was a big brand mostly bought and smoked by extrely wealthy people."
"Given that none of them were wealthy enough to buy it, and it’s too much of a coincidence that one of my custors just happens to always take the last stick in the box whenever he cos to the practice, I decided to try sothing."
At this, Molly narrowed her eyes at Kelsie—the janitor from this morning at the hotel flashing into her mind.
That lighter.
She still had that lighter.
Scrambling for it, she found it and held it up.
She turned it over several tis before she finally saw it. Sturdily pinned on the bottom of the lighter was a tiny black object. It was so tiny she nearly didn’t see it.
"Look at that, you found it." Kelsie chuckled, raising her eyes to et Molly’s trembling hands.
"I knew that bastard was planning sothing. Since it involved the police and was kept under wraps, I figured it would be sothing huge."
"Sothing that would make him co out of his hideout to hide in plain sight. Sothing like a hotel. So I called all my contacts in top hotels and gave them your picture."
Motel gritted her teeth, tightening her grip around the lighter until she shattered it.
"You’re bluffing. I’ve had my eyes on you this whole ti. There’s no way you could’ve done all that without knowing." She hissed through clenched teeth.
"Didn’t I just tell you? You’re dumb." Kelsie sneered, her eyes hardening.
Glancing at the wall clock across the room, she proceeded to stretch a hand toward Molly.
"The elevator takes about a minute to co up to this floor. Running through the hospital takes about two."
"Hold my hand and tell the n about to burst through that door that the only reason you ca in dressed as a nurse was because you knew the hospital wouldn’t let you see ."
Molly was about to scoff when she heard the rapid footsteps echoing through the hallway.
A mont later, Jett and Serbian kicked in the door, their racing hearts slowing instantly when they saw it was just Molly.
Molly blinked before she lowered her eyes, feigning sadness, "I’m sorry. I knew the front desk wouldn’t let in, so I pretended to be a nurse and snuck in to see Dr. Sutton."
"That’s... that’s such a relief." Serbian exhaled deeply, placing a hand on his chest.
The two n were still too panicked to realize Kelsie was awake and sitting up instead of lying comatose.
"How long have you been up? Shouldn’t you rest a little more? You’ve been in... a coma," Jett was saying, hurriedly striding toward her only to pause mid-sentence, his eyes bulging in disbelief.
Seeing how astounded he was, Molly realized even he didn’t know Kelsie had been faking the coma.
Just how many things was this woman pretending not to know?
Budding Rose Hotel
Executive Suite No. 12
Luca and Jerry drank a few glasses before Jerry stopped and rubbed his chest painfully.
"I don’t know... is it supposed to taste like this?"
Luca grimaced, the painful burning spreading through his body from his chest.
What was wrong? It couldn’t be because he’d been drinking all day. This was just his first ti today opening a... Campari.
His eyes widened in disbelief and he promptly reached toward the now empty bottle.
Grabbing it, he quickly held it up, twirling it for several seconds before his palm caught a sticky note stuck underneath.
"I—I think I’m dying. Call the ambulance. I don’t want to die at such a young age!" Jerry cried from the floor, gasping hard as he suddenly found it hard to breathe.
Luca, however, was horrified, his hand trembling hard as he read the one-liner sprawled neatly across the paper.
"Should’ve hidden well enough. Now your favorite neurosurgeon just found you!"
Reviews
All reviews (0)