50. Chapter 50
50
Layla
I feel sick as I lie in the queen bed, Luca’s side cold and empty.
They left two hours ago.
Katy and I are alone with a handful of his men, the penthouse protected. She’s in the spare room, I sent her away thirty minutes ago when her constant questioning got too much.
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 and cut 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 do not have 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.
When I did a placement in Accident I’ve only ever read about these procedures.
Time passes at a creeping pace as I slowly stitch muscle tissue layer by painstaking layer. Levi remains quiet, watching me work, or checking his cousin’s pulse and saying the results out loud.
A little after two in the morning Fletcher arrives with supplies in a huge green paramedic bag and drops it onto one of the chairs haphazardly pushed to the side. He pushes Levi out the way and pulls out his own stethoscope and checks Luca’s vitals.
“He’s going to need a transfusion,” I say, watching as he unpacks items, neatly laying them within my reach. He starts to set up a cannula in the back of Luca’s hand.
“His breathing is rapid, blood pressure high.” Fletcher’s eyes meet mine. A look of concern passing between us.
“Once we get some fluids and blood in him, he should stabilise.” I’m not sure who I’m trying to reassure.
“Have you stopped the bleeding?”
“Yes. I’m just closing now. Levi is O neg so regardless of Luca’s he can donate.”
“Perfect,” Fletcher replies, and one thing’s for sure, he knows what he’s doing, he obviously has some sort of basic medical experience.
“Why is that perfect?” Levi asks from the chair he is now slouched in looking truly exhausted.
“O negative can be given to anyone, it’s the universal blood type.”
“He’s looking pale himself though. He can’t give much.”
“Just take what you need and get on with it,” he snaps, rolling up his sleeve.
“I got it,” Fletcher says. “Here,” he passes me a field kit so I can finish setting up the IV. The blood will move from Levi into a bag then into Luca.
“Did you get the antibiotics and fluid?”
“Yeah.”
I tie off the last stitch and inject the area with a numbing agent. This would have been useful an hour ago, but thankfully the wound is clean with no internal damage. I wipe it once more to ensure it’s clean and then cover it with gauze, rubbing the tape over his taught stomach muscles making sure it’s well secured.
His skin is cold and clammy.
“How are you doing over there?” I ask Levi.
But it’s Fletcher who answers. “I’ll take one pint. If Luca needs more, I’ll go to the hospital.”
“And what, steal some blood?” The bag is resting on the floor, gravity assisting with the process.
“Something like that.” He shrugs, heading out of the dining room.
Katy appears in the doorway. “What the hell is going on?”
Katy stares for a moment longer then disappears.
“Where’s Roman?” Fletcher asks.
“He said he needed to go.”
“He’s probably gone to get word to the others. They’ve been one step ahead of us this whole time.”
“How?” I ask.
“Isn’t it obvious,” Levi says, looking up and meeting my eyes. “We have a mole.”
The only person I would suspect as a mole would be Levi himself. But seeing him here, now, there’s no way.
“Fletcher, you’re going to need to get blood.” I say, seeing how pale Levi is.
“I’ll be back as soon as possible. Rest peacefully, brother,” Fletcher says to Luca, his palm resting on his chest. “Call me if anything changes or if you need any more supplies.”
“I will.” I nod and squeeze some of the blood that’s pooled in the bag into Luca’s IV.
“Is he okay?” Katy asks.
“I think so.” I nod. “We need to get more blood into him, but he should be okay.”
“Take mine.” She holds out her arm.
“Blood Type?”
“Erm, I’m not sure.
“No good then, I can’t take it unless you know.”
“Sorry.” She walks to the table. “Thank God you were here.” She squeezes my hand. “What happened?”
“It’s all gone to shit, obviously,” Levi answers. “Rome had eyes on John but had given instructions only to shoot in the worst-case scenario. Someone was in the hallway and stabbed Luca as soon as we came out of the office.”
I pull one of the dining chairs closer, sitting down. I lay my forehead against the table, the wood cool against my hot skin.
“Henry looped the cameras before we went in, that’s the only reason we got him out. The only reason any of us got out. I need to go; Rome will be back soon or Asher. One of the two.”
“Where are you going?”
“To Duchess. They will retaliate and do it swiftly; I need to make sure the girls are safe.”
I walk around and pull the needle out of his hand.
“Keep hydrated, and no running around gallivanting.”
“I won’t.”
“I mean it, Levi, you’re in shock too, even if your external masculinity won’t allow you to acknowledge it.”
He smirks, and I give him a dismissive look. “If anything changes with him…”
“I’ll call you.”
“The men are outside, you’re perfectly safe.”
I nod, even though I feel anything but.
Thirty minutes creep by.
Thirty minutes of constantly watching the rise and fall of Luca’s chest and checking his vitals. He’s stable. But unconscious.
Katy brings me a mug of tea, and I take it gratefully.
“Do you need anything?” she asks, yawning.
“No, I’m good,” I reply quietly. “Go get some rest, I think the others will be back soon, and then we’ll move him.”
She nods. “I’ll go make a nest in the living room. I would try and talk you into joining me, but I guess that would be stupid of me.”
I smile and blow the tea. I’m where I’m meant to be.
“Call if you need anything, I’ll only be dozing.”
“Has anyone ever told you that you sleep like the dead.”
“I think the penthouse has good padding. You’re amazing by the way. They’re lucky to have you, he’s lucky to have you.”
I smile tiredly and look over to Luca, resting a hand on his forehead, running my fingers through his soft, dishevelled hair.
“I’m lucky to have him too. I’ll be fine, go and get some sleep.”
Katy says goodnight and disappears into the living room. I stare at the clock, 3:30 a.m., then out the window. London is quiet, the lights glimmer. The river shimmering peacefully.
“You’ve given me two heart attacks tonight,” I whisper to Luca. His face peaceful now.
“I thought I’d lost you, and I felt like I’d lost a part of myself. I’m scared, Luca. Terrified that whatever comes next may mean that one of us doesn’t make it. I don’t think I can live without you in my life. The light needs the darkness, I need you.”
I lean forward and place a kiss on his lips and wipe at the tear that falls down my cheek and look down. Seeing his wallet, I pull it out to place it on the table. Seeing receipts peek out the top, one catches my attention. It’s from a local garden centre.
“It was you,” I say in a broken whisper. “You bought the bird feeder.”
The date on the receipt is from after we had just met, when he had been watching me. He’d seen my granddad, and the tree. My heart swells with love for this man. This complex, cunning, dangerous man.
I’m not entirely sure when I fell in love with him, or what that truly says about me and the state of my mind. I’m in love with someone who dominates me, and controls me, but makes me feel safe, makes me laugh. That looks after my loved ones, he’s my person, and when I’m with him, I feel like for the first time since my parents died that I belong.
I meant it when I said I’m where I’m supposed to be.
Because it’s right here, next to the darkness.