The hospital was silent except for the low hum of machines and the occasional cough echoing down the hallway. Adrian sat rigidly in the backseat of Sophie’s stolen sedan, his hand clutching his side as blood seeped through the gauze.
They hadn’t gone to a real hospital. Too dangerous. Too visible.
Instead, Sophie had driven them to an underground clinic known only to the city's ghosts — ex-military, rogue agents, former mercs. The kind of place where no questions were asked, and everything cost twice its worth in secrets.
The doctor, a grey-haired woman with a faded neck tattoo, glanced at Adrian over her surgical mask. “You’re lucky. Another inch and that bullet would’ve pierced your kidney.”
Adrian groaned as she sutured the wound. “Just patch me up. I’ve got a war to start.”
Sophie
