“Fred get the car now.” He snapped as Freddie sprinted off in full Olympic mode to get a car to take Luca to safety.
“He needs a hospital.” I stroked his hair as he lay lifeless on the grass.
“No hospitals. We don’t do hospitals.” Marco responded without a second thought.
“You might not do hospitals but I do, and I’m taking him to a hospital now.”
“No Chloe, Luca always says no hospitals. It’s not up for discussion.”
I grit my teeth in anger.
“I don’t take orders from you Marco. If I say drive to the hospital you’ll fucking drive to the mother fucking hospital.”
I spat out with as much venom as I could, which wasn’t hard considering how I felt right now.
A black Range Rover pulled up next to us and Freddie jumped out leaving the engine running.
“Let’s get him in the back and get out of here. The rest of them can clean up the mess.”
Freddie and Marco started to lift Luca and walk him to the car.
“She wants to take him to the hospital.” Marco said with a knowing look to Freddie.
“No hospitals Chloe. It’s Luca’s main rule.” He looked me right in the eye. “Even I’m going to go against you on this one Chloe. He wouldn’t want it. He always makes it very clear that we deal with our own, no hospitals, no authorities sticking their noses in our business. Everything stays in-house.”
I shook my head and stopped myself from screaming and pulling my hair out in exasperation at their stupidity.
“And if he dies?”
“He won’t die.” Freddie said with such certainty I felt like slapping him.
“Anyway you’re almost a doctor Chloe, can’t you take care of him?”
“I’m a student with basic knowledge and experience Fred, I’m no emergency room doctor. Anyway I don’t have the resources even if I could do the job.”
“Don’t under estimate yourself, just tell us exactly what you need.” Marco stated, “We’ll get it in for you, whatever it is we can get it.”
I was still in a state of shock as I watched them settle Luca onto the back seat. I climbed in next to him and lifted his head to rest on my lap.
Marco and Freddie got into the front and we started racing across the grass towards to driveway out of hell.
“You’re seriously not gonna take him to hospital? No matter what I say?”
“No, sorry.”
I closed my eyes and started doing a mental list of all the things I could possibly need to help bring Luca round.
“Fine. Then I’ll look after him myself. I’ll need drips, antibiotics, pain relief and not the weak shit either, bandages…” I rubbed my hand over my forehead as I thought about all the possibilities. “I’ll make a list for you. When can you get this stuff to me?”
“An hour, maybe two tops.” Marco replied leaning forward to open the glove compartment and then passing a pad of paper and a pen to me.
I made a list of the things I thought I might need and passed it back to him.
“We’ll drop you both off at home then I’ll head straight out to get this for you Chloe.” Marco twisted round in his seat to look at me. “If you need any help we have a few doctors on the pay roll that can come and take a look at him.”
“Okay. Thanks. I’ll let you know if I need their help.” I mumbled and bent down to kiss Luca on the forehead as I carried on stroking his hair. I could feel the warm flow of his breathing which calmed me. Even though he wasn’t out of the woods yet as far as his health was concerned, I already felt at peace just to have him near me,
and I vowed never to be apart from him ever again.