“What the fuck would I want to go to church for?”
Liam shrugged. “They do soup and sandwiches at lunchtime if you take a voucher from the Red Cross. I can call them if you want. Get you a meal and a bed for the night?”
“I don’t need a bed. I’m looking for someone.”
From behind Liam, Sammy tugged on his arm. “Liam, he said he was looking for you.”
“What?” Liam glanced over his shoulder.
Sammy shook her head, clearly as bewildered as he was. “He burst in here ten minutes ago, shouting your name. He said something happened to Zac.”
Liam’s heart stilled, like it had more than a year ago for Cory. He turned back to the man, Sammy and the store instantly forgotten. “Who the hell are you?”
“I’m Jamie—Zac’s best friend.”
The name meant nothing to Liam, but the fact that Jamie had come to the shop to seek him out filled him with dread. “Tell me what’s happened. Now.”
“He got hurt,” Jamie said. “Hurt bad. You need to come with me and take care of him.”
Liam took a step forward, already halfway to wherever Zac was. “Where is he? At the flat?”
Jamie shook his head. “He’s at the hospital in King’s Lynn. They won’t let me see him.”
“Why not?”
“Would you?”
Good point. Liam grabbed Jamie’s arm and propelled him to the door. “Let’s go. You can tell me what happened on the way.”
He dragged Jamie out of the shop, ignoring Sammy’s alarmed stare. Jamie came willingly enough. They were halfway to the van before he began to squirm. “You don’t have to yank me. I’m coming with you.”
Liam didn’t loosen his hold. “Start talking and I’ll stop yanking. What the hell’s going on?”
“He got stabbed.”
“What?” Liam came to an abrupt standstill. “How the fuck did that happen? Did you do it?”
“No!” But the guilt colouring Jamie’s eyes was unmistakable.
Liam tightened his grip on Jamie’s arm, fury sweeping through him. “Tell me who did.”
“I will, I promise, but we need to hurry. They said they might transfer him and they won’t tell me where.”
The thought of reaching the hospital to find Zac gone got Liam moving again. He dragged Jamie to the van and threw him into the passenger seat. “Don’t fucking breathe unless I say so. If I find out this was you, I’ll kill you. Do you understand?”
Jamie said nothing, shrinking down in his seat as Liam rounded the front of the van and climbed into the driver’s seat, gunning the engine hard enough for Hettie to whine in protest, but he didn’t have time to placate her. The hospital in King’s Lynn was forty miles away and as far as Liam was concerned, it might as well have been a hundred.
He peeled out of the car park and joined the road that would take them to King’s Lynn. With a sharp eye on the speed dial, he turned briefly to Jamie. “Talk.”
Jamie shifted in his seat, bringing his knees to his chest. “It was my fault, but I didn’t do it—I didn’t stab him. You have to believe me.”
“How bad is it?”
“Bad. The ambulance guys said it was his artery.”
“Which one?”
“His arm.”
