‘She told me she’d make contact when he was back in the UK. She promised she’d keep you safe.’
‘I am safe.’
‘Not before you were bloody well beaten to a pulp. That is not my idea of keeping you safe.’
‘She had her reasons.’
‘She’s a goddamn psychopath.’
‘Sam, you don’t mean that, you –’
‘She watched it,’ Sam suddenly roared, a flash of colour staining his cheekbones. ‘She watched him hit you, kick you. She –’
‘Hey, hey, hey,’ Katie chanted, reaching up to link her hands behind Sam’s neck and pulling his face even closer to hers. ‘Shh. It’s over. I’m fine. Let it go.’ Sam searched her face for a moment before dropping his forehead to hers. His eyes closed and he took a deep breath as the tension melted out of his body.
‘Um … Sam,’ Katie called softly. ‘Where are the others?’
Sarah, Rob, Russell, Frankie, Tom, Lou and Dylan had all been there earlier, their pale faces and worried expressions forcing Katie to put up a brave front, to smile and even attempt to laugh, which Sam considered bloody stupid when she had goddamn broken ribs. He’d noticed her glancing at Sarah with open concern as the blonde waddled around the small cubicle, fussing Katie and looking totally wrung out. The shock of what happened with Finlay and Benji, and then finding out Katie had been hurt, had taken its toll. Eventually Sam had had enough.
‘I told them all to bugger off whilst you were in CT,’ he explained, straightening up slowly and running his hands through his hair. Katie frowned up at him.
‘I … I don’t understand.’
No, of course she didn’t. Sam didn’t even understand what he was doing himself, and he was the one who’d had a thirty-minute blazing row with an aggressive pregnant harpy and an equally aggressive (albeit in the campest way possible) gay man. They had let him know in no uncertain terms how badly he’d hurt Katie over the last few weeks. Yes, they were grateful for him saving her today, although the fact that she’d not come away unscathed was certainly a sticking point; but it was made clear to him that he was not good for Katie; that he should stay away.
He knew they were right. He knew he should leave, but he just … couldn’t. And anyway there was no way Katie was going to be forcing any more smiles to makeother peoplefeel better today. At least with him the smiles were few and far between after how he’d treated her.
Quite how he’d managed to get rid of her friends he still wasn’t sure. He was actually considering physically ejecting them from the A&E until Rob stepped in, bravely risking life and limb as he told his wife to: ‘Stop it, Sarah. Leave them be.’
Sam had thought Sarah was going to punch him in the face, but after a brief stare-down she simply sighed, rubbed her back, which must have been beginning to ache, and then waddled over to Sam.
‘Don’t fuck up again,’ she told him, poking him hard enough in the chest to almost make him wince. Rob gave Sam a chin-lift before ushering everyone, even a red-faced Russell who was asking why they were listening to ‘these testosterone-addled freaks’, out of the room. He saw Rob rub Sarah’s lower spine on their way through the door, and a strange surge of emotion went through him. Jealousy, maybe, mixed with a hint of pain.
‘Okay then,’ Lizzie’s bright voice broke into Sam’s thoughts and he tore his gaze away from Katie’s to look at the small, slightly dumpy but still attractive woman in front of him, her dark hair shorn in a pixie cut and a stud in her nose. ‘CT is clear. I’ve got your pain meds here so you’re ready to go.’
‘Shouldn’t she stay the night?’ Sam asked, towering over Lizzie, who appeared totally unintimidated.
‘As long as she follows the head-injury advice and has someone to stay with her who can check on her every hour, there’s no problem.’
Sam crossed his arms over his chest and glared at Lizzie. ‘She was knocked out. She could … she could bleed into her brain. Anything could happen and you want her to just waltz out of here? Are you nuts? I want to speak to your boss.’
‘Listen, big guy, I’m the most senior registrar on the floor tonight so if you’ve got a problem with –’
‘It’s fine,’ Katie cut in, and Sam turned to see that her mortified face was suffused with colour. ‘I’ve got plenty of people who could stay with me. I’m happy to go.’ Sam scowled at Katie and then Lizzie, before snatching the head-injury advice sheet out of Lizzie’s hand.
Chapter 29
Why are you still here?
By the time Katie had been installed on her sofa at home, a cup of herbal tea in her hands (Sam had vetoed caffeine – he didn’t think she should be drinking any ‘mind-altering substances’), she was beginning to develop a healthy hatred for that bloody advice sheet.
‘How’s your headache now?’ he asked, and Katie rolled her eyes.
‘I took paracetamol two minutes ago, Sam – it’s not like taking a shot of heroin, it does take a while to kick in.’
Sam ignored her, sat down next to her on the sofa and, to her confusion, he started peering into one of her ears, then trying to turn her head to do the same on the other side. She pulled back from his grip. ‘What are you doing now?’
‘Just checking for bleeding from your ears,’ he explained, his attention back on the damn sheet. Katie made a grab for it, but he was too quick for her.
