Page 39 of Protective Love

"Wait, Leo's helping Dom?" I ask, shock lacing my tone.

"Yeah, he's been acting as Dom's second in command for a couple of weeks now, not that he's very happy about it. It was Jericho's suggestion," she tells me, smiling as she grabs a hold of my hand. "This is why I'm telling you to take your time and just focus on recovering. Once you're released from the hospital, you can still come stay with me and Kaleb, and you can focus on your physiotherapy. Wait until you're all healed up and get the all clear from a doctor before you even think about anything else other than yourself."

My mouth goes dry and a dull ache starts up in my chest when I realise what she's saying.

I'm not needed any more.

I won't need to be her bodyguard because Alessandro is gone and she now has Kaleb to protect her.

I'm not needed as Dom's second in command either because Leo has filled that role for me.

An immense sadness washes over me when I realise that my whole life is going to be completely different now, and I have no idea what I'm meant to do, or who I'm meant to be without filling the roles I was prepared for my whole life.

"I'm getting kind of tired, do you, uh—do you mind coming back later or something?"

Sophia must notice the shift in my mood because her face drops and she stares at me with concern before nodding her head.

"Sure," she mumbles, standing from the chair and leaning over to place a kiss on my cheek. "I'll come visit tomorrow, possibly with Mum and Dad as I know they want to come see you."

"Okay."

"I'll sneak you in some food as well," she adds, probably trying to help lift my mood, but when that doesn't work, she sighs in defeat and leaves the room.

Chapter Twenty

Rory

"You're honestly a life saver. Thank you for helping me with these!" Lola says as I hand over the paperwork that we've been going through together while on our lunch break. "I'm sorry for taking over your time, and I promise, tomorrow, I'll treat you to a cheeky Subway for lunch to make up for it."

"It's fine," I reassure her, walking alongside her towards the staff room. "That's more entertaining than my past couple of hours have been."

"Well, maybe you should go back into his room and see if he's mood has changed yet? Maybe he wants some company?"

I shrug, standing by my locker as I wait for her to put all of her personal things away inside of hers.

"I think I'd rather go and sit with Mr Krill again. Maybe I'll take my Kindle with me this time so that I can read some more of the book I started earlier."

Lola laughs, walking over to the mirror and retying her hair.

"I thought reading was a thing between you and Mr King. I'm pretty sure he'd be mighty jealous if he found out you were reading your fucked up little books with another comatose man."

The door to the staff room swings open, interrupting our conversation, and when we see Markus walk through the door, silence descends through the room.

Lola clears her throat and slips past our boss, excusing herself from the room.

When he closes the door behind him, I realise that he's here to talk to me, and my stomach plummets to the floor as my heart leaps into my throat.

"There's no need to look so alarmed," he says, chuckling as he steps over to one of the benches that runs along the length if the wall opposite me. "I was just looking for you so that we could talk about Mr King because I've just been to examine him and talk to him."

"Oh, okay," I say, breathing a sigh of relief.

"He's making amazing progress, and he's fully able to sit up by himself without causing any further injury. He can easily support himself and I'd like for you to work with him on that, possibly try to encourage him to focus on trying to progress with the lower half of his body."

"Yeah, I can do that."

"Brilliant," he says, smacking his hands against his thighs as he stands from the bench with a smile on his face. "I'll leave you to get back to work then."

I watch him walk out of the room and my shoulders drop once the door closes behind him and I'm back to being alone.