Chapter 14 - The Stitch.Dr. Ilya Volkov lowered the shotgun the moment he saw Ethan's pale, blood-soaked face.
"Bozhe moy," the old Russian muttered, quickly stepping aside to let them in.
He grabbed Ethan's good arm and hauled him into the brightly lit, sterile operating room hidden beneath a defunct laundromat.
"Put him on the table, quickly," Volkov ordered Rosa, his demeanor shifting instantly into professional mode.
Rosa helped lift Ethan onto the steel surgical table, her hands stained crimson with his blood.
"Is he going to die?" Lily asked quietly, standing by the doorway and clutching her soaking wet stuffed rabbit.
Volkov glanced at the little girl, his hard eyes softening for just a fraction of a second.
"Not today, malyshka," he rumbled in his thick accent.
"I need you to take the child into the other room," Volkov told Rosa, grabbing a pair of surgical scissors.
"I need to extract the bullet fragments, and it is not going to be pretty."
Rosa nodded, taking Lily by the hand and leading her into a small adjacent office filled with dusty medical textbooks.
She sat in the dark, listening to the horrifying sounds of metal instruments clicking and Ethan's muffled, agonizing groans.
It felt like hours before Volkov finally pushed open the door and wiped his bloody hands on a towel.
"He will live," the doctor announced gruffly.
"The bullet shattered his clavicle, but I removed the fragments and cauterized the bleeding."
Rosa let out a shuddering breath, burying her face in her hands as tears of pure relief streamed down her cheeks.
"But you cannot stay here," Volkov warned, his expression turning deadly serious.
"Victoria’s men are turning Brooklyn inside out."
"They have locked down the bridges, the tunnels, and the airports."
Rosa looked up, panic flaring in her chest once again.
"Then how do we get out?" she asked.
"You don't," Ethan's weak voice echoed from the doorway of the operating room.
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He stood there, heavily bandaged and leaning against the frame, his eyes burning with a terrifying, cold resolve.
"We stop running."
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