The echoes of Roxy's raw, agonizing scream had barely faded into the sterile air before the heart monitor completely flatlined into a continuous, high-pitched wail.
The relentless, shrill siren was the absolute worst sound the six men had ever heard in their long, blood-soaked lives. It was the mechanical screech of a terrestrial body actively tearing itself apart.
Roxy was thrashing against the white hospital sheets, her breathing reduced to rapid, shallow gasps. Her brilliant green eyes were completely wild with a suffocating, maternal panic, searching the faces of her Kings for a lifeline they simply could not provide. Her physically ravaged body, starved and electrocuted in Elias's basement, could not sustain the catastrophic surge of adrenaline running through her veins.
"Roxy!" Ren shouted, his voice cracking with pure terror as he lunged forward, trying to gently pin her trembling shoulders to the mattress so she wouldn't rip the IV from her hand.
