“Fuck that,” I say, flicking the butt of my cigarette, watching the ember fall on the road. “We are carrying on as if nothing happened.”
“Someone has just tried to kill you.” Roman says it like I haven’t been part of the party for the last God knows how many hours. What time is it anyway?
I pull out my phone and frown at the destroyed screen. The thing completely dead.
“It’s your uncle.” Roman holds up his phone.
“He’s probably disappointed to hear I’m still alive.”
“Really? Your uncle?”
I shake my head. “No, family is everything to him. Levi though.” I shrug.Would Levi have the balls to do it?
Roman assesses me. “Uber’s two minutes out. You go back to my place.” He passes me the keys and I take them, putting them in my pocket. “Go rest, you look like shit.”
“And what are you going to do?”
“As I’m told, like the good boy scout I am. I’ll see what I can find out.”
“Don’t scare her,” I say as a Toyota fucking Prius pulls up. Damn. I miss the Mercedes.
“Because you haven’t done that already, have you?” I flip him the bird.
“Next time you say let’s go for a drink, remind me to say no.”
“Come on, brother, your life would be so boring without me.”
He looks at me, frowning, and I laugh in the face of the near miss.
It will take more than a fucking car accident to put us in the ground.
4
Layla
I can’t stop shaking.As soon as they leave, I run to the front door and lock it, before sitting my tired arse on one of the cold uncomfortable reception seats and take some grounding breaths.
It’s been a long time since I’ve had to give medical attention to that level, and even though I was terrified, I’m proud of how quickly all my training had come back, even with a gun in my face. Even with all those other messy emotions threatening to overwhelm me. I’m relieved to see the back of them, but regret pulses through me.
I had been so desperate to be a doctor. Iamso desperate to be a doctor.
As the adrenaline subsides, the realisation sinks in that I’ve just put myself on the radar of some very dangerous people.
Luca Knight.
Whoever he is, he’s not someone to mess with. That much is clear.
I run my shaking hands over my face and let the emotion loose, tears streaming down my cheeks.
A heartbeat was all it took for my parents to die. A heartbeat tonight was all it took for the car to explode. A heartbeat to have a gun shoved in my face.
Roman told me that there would be no hospitals. He told me I had to help. I was suggesting the doctor’s surgery as soon as the cold metal of the gun hit my forehead.
Roman dutifully watched, a gun on his lap, as I had slowly pulled each tiny bit of metal out of his friend’s stomach. He watched me assess his abdomen and chest for any potential signs of further damage, not once did he leave our side.
He said nothing, ignored every question I asked him.
Like an obedient dog. A really tall and menacing one, with piercing hazel eyes that were constantly alert.