Page 117 of Thick as Thieves
Evie
Vincenzo's London.
My phone startsto ring and I see it is Jonno calling. I laugh as I answer. He’s only just left us at Vinny’s to rush off to an emergency. “What?” I ask, and wait.
“You need to come to the hospital.”
My mind is in total panic. Marshall.
“Has something happened to Marshall again?” I shout at Jonno.
“It’s not Marshall, it’s Xander. Get here, Kitten.”
“Where?”
“I’ll send you the hospital details. Get here quick, Kitten,” he repeats. “And put Tommy on.”
I hand over the phone on autopilot. Picking up my belongings in double quick time, I move towards the doors, shaking my head as panic clouds my mind. What has happened? Not Xander, not now.
“Tommy?” I ask, stress making my voice shrill.
“I’ve got the address, Kiddo, we need to go.” He pushes me from behind, signalling to Vinny we’re leaving.
We jump into the car and set off at pace for the hospital. “Do you know what it was?” I ask Tommy.
“Not absolutely. He was stabbed.”
I turn to look at him, shocked. “Really?”
He nods, his face grim. “They’ll tell you what happened when we get there, but he took badly in the ambulance and they rushed him into surgery.”
Tears sting my eyes. He can’t be taken yet, he has a baby on the way.
“He went for dinner, to Marcus’s mothers. What the hell happened?”
He doesn’t answer, he doesn’t know.
“I’ll drop you at the doors, Mick will meet you. I’ll park, and come find you.” He’s all business, and this is one of those times I thank god for having extra people around whose job it is to sort your problems out. My brain is not functioning.
I’m rubbing my stomach, sending prayers into the ether for him to be fine, when we pull up. I spot Mick rushing over, and as he ushers me in, I notice there’s a bit of a crowd moving towards the doors. “Quick, the press are here. We need to get you in.”
He pushes me forwards at a rate of knots. We fly past the reception and up to the tenth floor. Walking down a corridor that starts to look a bit more like a hotel than a hospital, my mind starts to spiral as we enter a waiting room and I spot Kell and Tarron.
I go to Tarron first—he looks on the verge of collapse—and give him a hug. He holds me tight. “Thank god you came. He’ll get better, I’m sure.”
I then move to Kellen, and for the first time ever, he looks unsure what to do. I open my arms to him and he steps immediately into me, holding me so hard I can hardly breathe.
“Thank god, thank god you’re here. We can’t lose him, Kitten. I can’t?—”
He’s repeating it over and over again. I push him back and brush his hair out of his face. This beautiful face, that looks like the world is about to end in his eyes.
I shake my head at him. “We won't lose him, Kell. He belongs to us. And I certainly haven’t told him he can leave just yet. I may have told him to get lost at times, but leave us? No.” I smile into his eyes, mustering up as much confidence as I can.
His face is pale and he hangs his head on my shoulder. “I miss you, Kitten. He misses you. We want to come home.” His voice cracks with emotion.
“You are home. I sorted things out with Xan yesterday. And there’s something else I need to tell you.”
The door pushes open and Jonno comes in and straight to me. “You okay?” he asks, looking into my face. And then he places his splayed palm on my stomach.
