Page 171 of Wicked Villain

“I’m gonna get Louis with the medical kit!” she calls back, racing below deck.

I run back to the cabin, praying Mama’s woken up, but she’s still lying on the floor in the same position.

I drop to my knees and try to remember what I can about CPR. It’s not a lot, but I do something until Louis gets here. I can’t lose my mother.

I just can’t.

Though my hands shake, I press them to her chest and try to perform the compressions.

Nothing happens, and I don’t even know if I’m doing them properly. My hands are shaking so much I can’t feel anything but panic flowing through my veins.

Tears fill my eyes, clouding my vision, but I keep going. “Mama, please.” I pump on her chest hard, harder. Still, nothing happens.

Suddenly, someone grabs me from behind and pulls me backward.

I look around expecting to find Louis but get the shock of my life when I find myself staring into the cold blue eyes of Aleksandr, Lev’s brother.

Before I can think of pulling away, Lev rushes through the door and drops at my mother’s side. At first, I think some force of magic must’ve brought him here, or maybe I conjured him in my mind. But I know it’s real when he starts checking Mama’s vitals.

“What happened?” he demands, glancing at me.

“She left her medication,” I rasp, panting. “She’s not breathing. And she has no pulse.”

On hearing that, he tears his gaze away from me and starts performing the CPR compressions and resuscitation on Mama.

As I watch him, everything slows down, narrowing to this moment.

Nothing else matters but right now. These precious seconds.

I don’t care that we’ve been found. I don’t care about the disaster this plan became.

All I want is my mother back.

I want her to be okay, to breathe again, to be alive.

I watch my husband trying to save my mother, and I pray with everything inside me that she could just breathe.

But as the minutes tick by, my hopes go with them.

Lev doesn’t stop trying. He keeps going.

I break down, crying harder, and I call for her, reaching out to her.

“Mama, please, breathe!” I scream at the top of my lungs.

Nothing.

But a moment later, the miracle I prayed for happens. And Mama’s chest starts moving. She’s breathing. She’s breathing again.

Lev stops the compressions, and we all watch her eyes flutter open and close again.

“We need to get her to the nearest hospital,” Lev commands, scooping her up.

He lifts her and heads out of the cabin, running into Louis with the medical kit.

He and Roberta move out of the way.

Aleksandr releases me, and I feel like I might fall over.