Severance (Entangled Series Book 2)

by C. M. Radcliff

  Dahlia keeps her eyes on mine as I consider her valid points. I’m still pissed that I wasn’t there with her, but I can’t blame her for doing what she did. She did what she felt she had to do.

  Reaching out, I take her hand in mine and gently stroke her soft skin. “I’m sorry that I wasn’t there with you, to hear what they had to say.”

  Dahlia’s eyes soften and she nods lightly. “I didn’t know what else to do.”

  “It’s okay, bambolina.” I give her a small smile. “I’m not mad at you, I just wish I was there, but I get why you went.”

  Smiling back at me, Dahlia jumps as there’s a soft knocking on the door. It opens slowly and Nikolai peeks his head through the opening and he raises his eyebrows as he looks over at us.

  Dahlia rolls her eyes. “You can come in, Nik.”

  Nikolai smiles and pushes the door open farther as he walks back into the room. “We all good?” He inquires, but his question is directed at Dahlia.

  “Yep,” I answer for her and she looks over at me, shaking her head lightly with a playful smile playing on her lips.

  “Sweet.” Nik smiles and he walks to the side of my bed and directs his gaze down at me. “You’re all good to go, man. So, now you can get the fuck out of my house and go heal at home.” He winks and Dahlia drives her fist into his arm.

  “I’m just fucking with you. Damn,” he huffs as he rubs his bicep dramatically. “And here I was gonna be the nice guy and give you a ride home.”

  “You are going to give us a ride.” Dahlia squeezes my hand and she smiles at me as I look over at her. “Let’s go home.”

  Where the fuck is that?

  I stare at her, conflicted and not sure how to respond. Of course, I want to get out of here. I don’t know the extent of what Nikolai and his brother do or what they’re capable of doing and I don’t care to know. They sedated me against my will more than once and that’s enough to make me not trust either of them.

  “Where are we going to go?” I ask her quietly.

  Dahlia looks away as she contemplates our options, which aren’t many.

  “So, our options like right now, right this second, are your place, mine, or a hotel.”

  None of it makes any sense, it shouldn’t be a question of where we’re going. We have nothing that is ours.

  “A hotel doesn’t need to be an option because we’re not in danger anymore.” I smile at Dahlia before my face falls slightly. “I don’t know what kind of mess Luca left at my place, so perhaps we should stay at yours?”

  Dahlia purses her lips as she draws in her eyebrows. “We could stay there, I suppose,” she says quietly and clearly displeased.

  “Would you rather stay at my place?”

  She shakes her head lightly and turns on the bed. “Let’s move and start over together. Something fresh and new… something that is ours.”

  “Yes,” I respond without hesitation. “Fuck yes.”

  I hadn’t suggested it, but it was in the front of my mind. It’s the only option that makes sense for us. We need a clean slate to build a new life together.

  “Then it’s decided,” Dahlia says as her smile touches her eyes. “We’ll stay at my house until we work out the details and come up with a plan.”

  “It’s a deal.” I smile back at her, finally feeling a sense of peace wash over me.

  Everything’s going to be just fine.

  ◆◆◆

  Nikolai pulls his car into Dahlia’s driveway and leaves the engine running as he puts it in park. “You need help getting in?” he asks, turning to us sitting in the backseat.

  “I think we got it from here, doc,” Dahlia smirks.

  Nik scrunches his nose at her in disgust. “We’re on a first name basis, babe. We’re basically family now, so save the ‘doc’ shit for your family doctor.”

  “She isn’t your ‘babe’,” I growl, cutting my eyes at him. “Save that shit for someone who actually is.”

  Shaking his head, Nikolai laughs lightly. “Chill, bro. It’s a term of endearment, not an invitation for her to sit on my cock.”

  “I swear to fucking Christ if you don’t shut your goddamn mouth, I’m going to do it for you,” I bark, ignoring the pain in my chest as I lean forward.

  Dahlia grabs my arm and pulls me back. “Kai, he’s harmless… well to us, at least.” She shrugs.

  “Dude, you need to chill the fuck out.” Nik rolls his eyes at me. “Just because I’ve grown fond of your girl doesn’t mean I’m here to steal her from you.”

  Maybe he’s right and I do need to just relax. He saved my life, he helped Dahlia, and he is clearly on our side.

  I don’t trust him, I don’t have to and I probably never will, but that doesn’t mean that I have to be an asshole to him.

  “Fine,” I resign with a huff. “I may have overreacted, but don’t expect an apology from me.”

  Nikolai chuckles. “Trust me, that’s the last thing that I would expect from you.” His eyes bounce back and forth between the two of us. “Now get the fuck out of my car.”

  Dahlia gets out first and holds the door open for me as she helps me out. As soon as we hit the front porch, Nik’s already backing out of the driveway. Without a second glance in our direction, he whips his car onto the street and speeds away.

  “I don’t know how I feel about him,” I admit as Dahlia unlocks the front door.

  The lock clicks and she slowly pushes open the door. “It doesn’t matter how you feel about him,” she counters as she helps me inside. “If it weren’t for him, you wouldn’t be here and that’s all that matters to me.”

  She’s right… so fucking right.

  “Plus, he’s really not that bad,” she adds. “He’s fucking arrogant and cocky, but you don’t need to worry about him.”

  “We’ll see about that,” I grumble as I walk into the living room and collapse onto the couch.

  Dahlia gently sits down next to me. “It’s me and you, Kai,” she murmurs as she runs her fingers through my unruly hair. “Fuck the rest of the world, right?”

  The corners of my lips curl upward as my eyes meet her bright green ones.

  “Fuck them all.”

  Dahlia

  Ever since the night that Kai was shot, I’ve lost any sense of time. When I glance at the clock and see that it’s almost two o’clock in the morning, it doesn’t change a thing. The sun rising and the sun setting doesn’t make a difference in life anymore.

  Our world was completely turned upside down and the unanswered questions in our lives left us completely shook up. Together we’ll uncover the unknown, but until then just being together is more than enough.

  ◆◆◆

  “So, what did you find out?” Kai asks, peering down at me. “What did your mother tell you?”

  Freezing in his arms, I bite down on my bottom lip. “She told me enough.”

  Kai’s soft brown eyes search mine and he shakes his head. “Not enough, bambolina. Tell me everything.”

  “Fine,” I sigh as I sit up in bed and wrap the comforter around my body. “She confirmed everything that Anthony told us. I was pregnant when we were found at the farm. I had a baby, our baby, and they kept it a secret from us.”

  “So, it wasn’t a lie?” he whispers, as if his mind still hasn’t processed anything that he knows.

  I shake my head. “We have a daughter, Kai.” I pause as my words replay in my head. “Well, technically we do, but she has another family.”

  Kai slowly sits up and shoots back, leaning against the headboard. “She has another family?” His face contorts with confusion and pain. “Why wasn’t she with you and your family?”

  “Because I didn’t know, Kai,” I breathe. “I didn’t know that she existed until you did. They never wanted either of us to know the truth.”

  “That makes no sense.” He shakes his head in frustration and runs his hands roughly through his hair. “Why didn’t Anthony tell us before? He fucking knew about this for almost a decade.”
He pauses and his face pales. “Oh my god. We have a daughter who is almost ten years old. That’s ten years of her life that we missed entirely.”

  “You think that I didn’t think about this already?” My tone is clipped as I glare at him. “I spent those ten years as a fucking train wreck.” I pause. “Please, Kai… enlighten me on what the fuck you were doing that entire time?”

  Tilting his head to the side, he gives me a confused look. “I already did.”

  “No,” I say, shaking my head. “You gave me bits and pieces, if you even want to call it that. If we’re really in this together, I deserve to know how your life ended up perfectly when I ended up in a strip club, fucking John’s for an extra buck.”

  Kai lets out a harsh laugh as his brown eyes grow darker. “You think my life was perfect?” He sneers. “Why? Because of the materialistic bullshit and the money?”

  Crossing my arms, I glare at him as he continues to stare at me with hardened eyes.

  “My life was far from perfect. I was surrounded by the men who ruined you and I was still powerless compared to them.” Kai pauses and shakes his head as a wave of rage swirls in his brown irises. “I did exactly what you did; I did what I had to do to survive. I created a life, one that was an illusion to cover up the fact that I was merely existing.”

  I stare at him in disbelief as he continues to spew his lies. “Were you merely existing as you got engaged and stacked your fucking paper?”

  “I told you, that engagement was practically a business arrangement between Anthony and I. There was never even a real proposal; it was just decided one day and Aliana was informed on it. Everything on the outside was all for show; it was all to appease Luca and to keep you safe.”

  I laugh out loud as I shake my head at him. “Un-fucking-believable.” I chuckle. “Don’t use me as an excuse for your undeniable greed or whatever fucked up reason you have for continuing to associate with them.”

  “Dahlia,” Kai starts as he attempts to move closer. I jump to my feet quickly and move just beyond his reach. A frown falls onto his face. “You don’t get it… if Luca was happy, he didn’t give a shit about what was going on with the rest of the world. I kept him happy and Anthony kept you safe.”

  “But he really didn’t,” I interject. “He made you believe that he was, but in reality, your father knew where I was the entire time, which is more than I can say for you.”

  Kai rolls his eyes as he exhales a breath of frustration. “He knew where you were, but he didn’t make a move, because of Anthony and because of the deal I made with him.” He stops and his frown deepens. “I told you why I didn’t know where you were and why I didn’t come after you.”

  I fucking know, I was there for the goddamn conversation.

  This is all a mess… a goddamn shit show. How did we finally find each other, find out we have a kid and now we’re fighting over the past?

  He looked our past in the fucking face every day and yet, he did nothing.

  My mind is at war with itself and I’m struggling to play the referee. I know which side needs to fold, but demons don’t walk away from a fight, not without a little bit of blood on their hands.

  “Why did it take you this long, Kai?” I demand.

  His eyebrows pinch together. “I already told you that you were safer that—”

  “No,” I cut him off abruptly. “I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about them.” All color drains from Kai’s face as he stares at me. “You spent ten fucking years around those men and you did absolutely nothing.”

  Roughly running his fingers through his hair, Kai drags his hands down his face and takes a deep breath. “My revenge grew and became more than just killing them. I listened to Luca, I went to college and got a business degree like he demanded and took over his company. I wanted to bleed him dry before watching the life leave his eyes.”

  The irrational demon inside my mind grows weaker, as the haze of rage is slowly lifted. It makes sense and in some fucked up way, it almost seems smart. But how can someone live like that, in the company of monsters?

  Perhaps we’re more different than I thought.

  “I get it,” I admit quietly. “That doesn’t mean I agree with it, but I understand. What I don’t understand is how you were okay with associating with them after everything.”

  Kai gently pats the bed beside him and watches me as he waits. Hesitantly, I take a few steps closer and sit down on the soft mattress.

  “We’re not so different, you and me,” he says quietly and I glance over at him, raising an eyebrow. “How were you okay with the life that you lived?”

  It’s a rhetorical question, but he’s right; I was doing what I needed to, to survive.

  “We suit up in our armor and detach from the world and the people in it. We hold our cards close and our guards never fall. No one gets in, because if they do, they never get out.”

  With wide eyes, I simply stare at him, taken aback by his words. He spoke nothing but the absolute truth and knowing that he lived the same emotionless life that I did hit me in an unexplainable way.

  Without another word, I move across the bed and push him onto his back before straddling him.

  “Our past stays in the past?” I ask him hesitantly. It’s the only way that we can move forward into this new chapter in our lives.

  Kai grips my face in his hands and looks up at me with his soft brown eyes. “As long as we stay in the now and our future is our forever.”

  I respond to him silently as my lips crash into his and that’s all the response that he needs. He knows that what we have is forever.

  What started as two kids entangled in a web of chaos will end as two adults entangled in a web of possession.

  He doesn’t possess me… his soul possesses mine.

  Kai

  The soft breeze is warm as it carries wisps of Dahlia’s honey-colored curls across her face. My eyes move past her, to the large white house that stands in front of us. It’s a nice, modest home on a few acres of land, fit for the all-American family.

  Standing here today, it all feels unreal and the reality of our situation leaves an unfamiliar nervousness inside of me. I never imagined that I would one day be meeting our daughter. I never imagined that we would have a daughter that we would have to go meet.

  This wasn’t the way that things were supposed to be, but it was our reality and we were facing it head-on.

  It was a hard pill to swallow, after we uncovered the truth about our daughter and the secrets that everyone had been hiding from us. We both felt betrayed and the unknown weighed on us. Dahlia’s mother threw her a bone, almost as if it were a peace offering, and she gave her word to talk to the family that took our daughter in.

  Mia.

  Our daughter’s name is Mia.

  When Dahlia told me what her mother had offered, it wasn’t even a question. Without hesitation, she demanded that her mother call them immediately.

  Meeting our daughter wasn’t a question.

  Gently squeezing my hand, Dahlia catches my attention and my worried eyes flash back to hers. “You ready to go in?” Her voice is quiet as she struggles to keep her emotions concealed.

  With a quick glance at the house, I look back at her with a reassuring smile and a quick nod. “I’m ready.”

  In an unsettling silence, we step up to the front door and Dahlia lightly presses her dainty finger on the doorbell. My palm grows sweaty in her hand as we wait, for what feels like a lifetime, for them to answer the door.

  In actuality, the door is slowly pulled open within a matter of seconds. A short, thin woman with slick blonde hair, cut just above her shoulders stands in the doorway with a small smile on her face.

  “You must be Dahlia and Kai,” Bonnie says softly, as her eyes scan over the two of us. “It’s so nice to finally be able to put a face to your names.”

  Dahlia gives her a small smile and I nod curtly, unsure of what we’re supposed to say to this woman. We fall into an awkward sile
nce as I stare at her uncomfortably and Bonnie slowly steps backward, opening the door further. “Please come inside. I’m sure you two have many questions.”

  My face hardens and the awkwardness in the air shifts to something more hostile.

  No, we came here to talk about the fucking weather.

  Dahlia pulls on my hand as she starts to follow Bonnie inside and cuts her eyes at me, silently checking me. This isn’t supposed to be an unpleasant encounter but fuck me if it doesn’t feel like it.

  None of this feels right because none of it feels real.

  We follow Bonnie into their quaint home and the silence follows us inside as she leads us into their living room. Dahlia takes a seat on the couch, pulling me down beside her as Bonnie sits down on the loveseat across from us. Her eyes are wide as they linger on us and Dahlia shifts uncomfortably under her gaze. I break through the silence, clearing my throat and Bonnie snaps out of her trance.

  “Oh, my goodness, I’m being so rude.” She laughs nervously. “Please forgive me, this is just a bit of a shock for me. I didn’t expect her to look so much like the two of you.”

  “Well, she is our daughter,” I remind her sharply. Dahlia drives her elbow into my ribs and I suck in a breath, wincing slightly from the blow.

  “Please excuse him.” Dahlia shoots me a pissed off glance. “We’re still trying to process all of this.”

  Bonnie nods understandingly before giving me a nervous look. “Of course. This is new territory for all of us. We were under the impression that the two of you wanted nothing to do with Mia, so I’m sure that you can understand how shocked we were when your mother called me.”

  Dahlia’s eyes widen slightly and she sucks in her bottom lip as her gaze meets mine.

  They were in the dark as much as we were.

  I nod lightly as we both look back at Bonnie. She watches us in confusion, with worried eyes.

  “Until a few days ago, we never even knew that Mia existed,” Dahlia explains softly. “They lied to me about the C-section and kept her a secret for this long. She was taken from us before we even knew of her.”