Page 33 of Knox

His legs buckled.

He grabbed the table. Torres grabbed his other arm.

“You okay there, pal?”

Oh. Now he felt like an idiot. He shook Torres off. “Long night.”

The intern had come around the table and now pressed him back onto the gurney. Grabbed the blood pressure cuff. “Let’s just take a look.”

“We’ll be in touch if we have any more questions,” Torres said and turned to go.

“Wait—you really think that’s the guy?” Knox said as the intern strapped his arm.

Torres stopped at the curtain, looked at Knox. “That would sure be easy, wouldn’t it?” He left as the intern finished taking his pressure.

“It’s a little low, Mr. Marshall. I’m going to ask you to stick around. Would hate to have you pass out and wreck all my stitches.” She smiled, winked.

Hello…flirting. At least, if he were reading her right.

Maybe he wasn’t quite as old as Kelsey made him out to be.

But now he was back to worrying about Kelsey, and he pulled out his phone. Voice-texted Tate. “Where are you?”

“I’m going to get you some orange juice,” Garcia said. She patted his leg and left him alone in the bay.

The text came back.On my way.

Knox hoped that meant with Kelsey. Maybe she was actually here, and he should just get up and—

Yeah. Enough sitting around like some pansy. He sat up, and his head didn’t swim. Stood.

See, he was just fine.

He cast back the curtain.

Nearly smacked full into Tate.

“Whoa—!” Tate said. “Hey there.” Tate grabbed him by the shoulders. “Bro. What’s going on?” He pushed Knox back into the room.

Knox noticed his brother had donned a new shirt, something a couple sizes too small. Of course. “Did you find Kelsey?”

“Absolutely,” Tate said. He guided him to the gurney. “Take a load off.”

Knox brushed Tate’s hand away. “I’m fine.”

“Yeah you are. You look like you’ve been trampled by a bull. How much blood did you lose?”

“Not that much. I’m fine. Let’s get out of here—I want to see Kelsey.” Knox made to push past Tate, but his brother stiff-armed him.

“Rein it in, Knox. Just…”

And then Tate looked away.

Oh, he could read his brother like he could the sky. “What?”

He made a face as he glanced back to Knox. “She doesn’t want to see you.”

Knox tried to process that information. “No. What?Why?”