Page 147 of Knights Game

Speculating.

She’s nervous. I know that.

I just can’t handle it.

I can’t handle voicing the what ifs, because voicing them puts it out to the universe, and well let’s not tempt fate with voicing some of the dark thoughts that have crossed both our minds.

I toss and turn, back and forth, I plump the pillow, I flop down.

Nothing I do will allow me to sleep tonight. Not until he comes back.

“Layla!” I bolt upright in the dark room, letting my heart rate slow. I must have fallen asleep. By some miracle.

“Layla, we need you! Fuck, Layla!”

I jump out of bed, throwing one of Luca’s shirts over my head and crossing the thick carpet to the door.

“Hold on, Layla’s coming. Stay with me.”

Levi?

I haul my arse into the bright light of the hallway, walk down the stairs. And I freeze.

Levi is holding up Luca, Roman attempting to stem the flow of blood from a wound on his side.

“Layla,” Luca says weakly, and I run to him. He’s lost a lot of blood.

“What the hell happened?” I demand, lifting Luca’s hand which is holding onto his stomach.

“Help him, Layla, please you have to help him,” Roman says, his eyes wide.

“He knew,” Levi says. “He knew about everything.”

“Get him to the dining room table,” I say quickly. I turn on my heel and run back to the bedroom, grabbing the medical bag of leftovers from the warehouse. I’m so grateful it’s here, even though I know it won’t be enough. I don’t need to inspect the wound to know he needs a hospital. And he needs it now.

I take a deep breath and run back to the dining room where Levi and Roman have placed him on the table and moved the chairs out of the way.

Our makeshift emergency room.

“I need to know what happened,” I say to Roman, who is covered in blood, presumably Luca’s. Levi’s face is bruised and cut. “Levi! I can’t help him unless you tell me.”

“Fuck.” He runs his hand down his face and sits in a chair.

“Don’t sit, get me the scissors out the bag.”

I open the top of Luca’s shirt, putting my stethoscope on his chest, which is rising and falling rapidly.

“He’s going into shock. Apart from his side, is he injured anywhere else?” I snatch the scissors out of Levi’s hand andcut through the blood-soaked shirt. “Oh-Oh Oh No.” It’s a stab wound and with each beat of his heart more blood pulses out. “He needs a hospital.” My voice quavers. “I don’t-I don’t have the equipment.”

“It’s a stab wound, Layla. I can’t walk him into a hospital without exposing us,” Levi snaps. “Just write a list of what you need, and you’ll get it.”

Roman says. “You’ve got this.”

I’ve got this? I so donothave this.

I grab some gauze from my bag and place it on the stab wound pressing hard. “Luca, can you hear me?”

He groans but his eyes are shut.

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