The youth beckoned her with one hand, the other reaching behind his back. When it reappeared he was holding an ugly-looking knife. Sam put the laptop on the floor and started to back away. ‘Take it.’
‘Come here!’
He was getting angry now. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go.
‘Pick it up. Bring it here. And what’s that you’ve got around your neck?’
Sam’s hand instinctively moved to the gold locket hanging inside her blouse, below the neckline. The laptop was backed up, insured, and if you tried to get in without a password, the hard drive would be wiped. The locket was irreplaceable.
‘Nothing. It’s nothing.’
‘Give it to me!’ the youth shouted at her, clearly unaware of Euan’s presence in the house. She heard two running steps behind her, and she threw herself against the wall in terror. Then, with a flood of relief, she realised it was Euan.
‘Knife... He’s got a knife...’ She screamed the words, but she was too late. Euan had charged the lad, and the two of them clashed for a moment, then the youth was running.
‘That’s all of them.’ He turned, grinning. ‘I checked out front and there were three motorcycles.’
‘Euan...’
‘It’s okay, Sam, they’ve gone.’
‘Euan!’ This time he followed her gaze, down to the rip in his shirt and the blood pluming across it.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
‘OH.’ FOR A moment he stared at her, and then he cursed softly and suddenly fell to his knees.
‘Okay. You’re going to be okay.’ He was grasping at his shirt, trying to pull it away from the wound on his side, and she batted his hands away, ripping the side of his shirt to see. ‘Stay still. Just sit down and let me look.’
‘I don’t think it’s hit anything vital.’
‘How do you know that?’ Suddenly Sam felt very alone. The only person here who knew anything about medicine was Euan, and he was the one who’d just been stabbed.
‘It’s not bleeding enough for it to have hit a major artery. My kidney’s lower down and my liver’s further round.’
‘Okay.’ Sam looked at the gash on his side. It seemed to be wide rather than deep, and, despite Euan’s assertion that it wasn’t bleeding very much, there seemed to be an awful lot of blood. ‘Lungs?’
He took a deep laboured breath, wincing with pain. The shock of the blow must be wearing off and he was clearly feeling it now. ‘No, I don’t think it’s punctured a lung.’
‘Good. That’s good.’ Sam wondered whether it was even slightly reliable to allow a patient to diagnose himself, but it was all she had at the moment. ‘Right, we’ll stop the bleeding and call an ambulance.’
‘There’s a hospital with an A and E department ten minutes down the road. It’ll be quicker if we drive.’
‘Okay. Hang on for a moment while I get your medical bag from the car.’ She slid two fingers into the pocket of his jeans and hooked out his car keys. ‘Just stay with me, Euan.’
He forced a grin. ‘I generally keep that one for when someone’s in immediate danger. If you don’t want to unnerve me, just say you’ll be back soon.’
‘Right. I’ll be back soon.’
Sam ran to the car, dragging the heavy medical bag out. When she returned, she found Euan trying to get to his feet.
‘Sit down!’ She skidded to a halt next to him. ‘You’re a bloody terrible patient, Euan.’
‘And you can nurse me any time you like...’
‘Shut up.’ She rummaged in the bag and pulled out a thick wad of gauze. ‘This?’
‘That’ll do. Put a pair of gloves on first, and then apply the gauze. Press as hard as you can.’