“Be careful!” I yell at him.
“I need to find the wound,” he says, not in the least bit concerned about me shouting at him.
Ellie winces and I stroke her hair, squeezing her hand. A tear squeezes from one eye and runs down her perfectly made up cheek.
“Ellie, you can’t let this asshole beat you,” I tell her. “Fuck him for thinking he can take you down. You’re not going to let him do this. You fight. Okay, you fight, don’t stop fighting, promise me.”
“You think… I’m going to… let that loser…” she closes her eyes.
“Ellie,” I turn and touch her face as the man cuts her dress. There is blood everywhere. It takes great effort not to show the horror on my face.
“Paramedics are here.”
“Walker,” I look up at him, my nose and eyes are burning as I fight tears.
“She’s gonna be fine,” he assures me, then turns to clear the way for the paramedics.
They take over and ask me to move.
A roar from behind me makes me jump and I turn to see Beast storming across the room. Walker jumps in the way to hold him back so the medics can get Ellie on the stretcher and get her out to the ambulance.
“Let them do their job.”
“Get the fuck off me!”
“Beast, fucking calm down.”
“Who the fuck did this?” he screams.
That’s when I remember the card in my hand. I walk over and grab Walker’s arm. He moves back as if he is about to tell whoever it is to fuck off but he frowns when he sees me. Beast’s eyes are wild, I can finally see what Callum means when he says he lives up to his name when he has to.
“Beast.”
He turns to me and looks down at my clothes, his eyes full of horror. I’m covered in Ellie’s blood so I get why but I don’t have time to worry about it.
“No offence Charley but you need to get out of the way.”
“I saw him.”
He pauses and looks at me again. Walker explains that it was me who raised the alarm and that I’d interacted with the guy. Beast shoves Walker off and steps right up close to me. If I didn’t know him, or if Ihadn’t seen him with Ellie, I’d be terrified of the way he is looking at me.
“What did he say to you?”
Looking around, I see everyone is watching, all of them looking shocked, scared or angry.
“Clear them out,” Beast says to Walker, then holds out his hand to me. He starts walking to the exit, following after the medics who are rushing out to the waiting ambulance. “What did he say?”
“He didn’t say anything, but I saw him… stab her. I tried to stop him but he ran.”
He winces when I saystabbut he doesn’t lose the intensity in his eyes. We walk out into the dark night, punctuated by the red and blue flashes of the ambulance.
“He gave her this,” I hold out the card. Beast takes it and turns it over. It’s hard to read the writing, so he pockets it and goes to walk away but I grab his arm. “She told me something.”
“What?” he takes my arm, squeezing tighter than he needs to but I don’t try to pull free.
“She said there was a storm, or it had to do with the storm.”
His face changes immediately, his whole body goes tense. I have no idea what is going on but whatever the message Ellie was trying to give him, has made his whole body lock up and his eyes go cold. He turns to the ambulance and looks torn. Before they can close the doors, he pulls me over to them.
