Page 123 of A Smile Full of Lies
That was enough to gut me. And then I remembered the part that made my blood run cold.
Knox. Jesus. I had to call him.
He was already overprotective on agoodday. After what had happened back in college — after what he did to that frat boy who roofied her — I couldn’t even imagine what he’d do now.
Especially if he thought he was too late.
I pulled out my phone with a grimace, opened my contacts, and found his name. He wasn’t going to take this well.
He’d always told me:If something happens to her, I want to know first.
And this? This was something.
I hit call.
Two rings. Then his voice, low and clipped:
“Detective Allen?”
“Knox.” My throat felt tight. “You need to come to the hospital.”
“Why? What the fuck happened?”
“It’s Ros,” I said. “She’s alive. She’s strong. But she’s been stabbed.”
The beat of silence that stretched over the line made me want to scream.
“How bad?”
I swallowed.
“Bad enough she needed a paramedic ride. I’m with her now. They’re doing everything they can.”
A sound escaped him — something low and raw, like he was trying not to break something.
“Get her stable,” he said, his voice flat. Controlled.Deadly.
Then the line clicked dead. I exhaled and looked down at Ros.
“Jesus, sweetheart,” I whispered. “You’ve got that man strung tighter than a tripwire.”
And tonight, I had a feeling something was going to snap.
The ambulance stopped, and then activity exploded around me.
The hospital doors swung open as the gurney burst through, EMTs barking vitals and trauma codes in clipped, urgent voices.
“Twenty-five-year-old female, slash wound to the lower abdomen, stab wound to the chest, suspected internal bleeding — BP’s tanking.”
I jogged alongside the stretcher, keeping one eye on Ros and the other on the entrance. The ER was bathed in that sterile, humming white light that never felt warm, no matter how bright it was. A nurse in scrubs met us with a crash cart. A trauma doctor flanked him, gloves already on.
“OR is prepped,” the doctor snapped. “Move her now.”
I slowed just long enough to watch them wheel Ros away down the corridor, her blood still wet on her skin, her eyes barely open.
Then I turned and saw him. Knox.
He moved through the automatic doors like a storm, all hard shoulders and dangerous silence, his eyes already scanning the room with barely leashed violence simmering just beneath the surface.
