Page 174 of Knox

But Leo ignores him, thrashing his arm across the floor, his fingers clawing desperately at the carpet. He tries to speak, but he coughs again, and again.

“Leo, don’t move. I’ll find Cillian,” I promise him, but he doesn’t stop moving his arm.

Only this time he manages to slap the back of my leg, then points at something near the nightstand.

I follow where he’s pointing, drop down, and see Cillian’s phone.

I take it and show it to Leo. “This?”

Leo nods, but his eyes roll back, and his arm falls as he loses consciousness.

I am about to lose my shit when Tae runs into the suite with his medical kit in hand.

He drops next to Leo and immediately cuts his clothes with a pair of trauma shears, exposing the entire injury.

Tae then pours Betadine over his hands and Leo’s stomach, placing sterile drapes around the wound edge to maintain as clean a field as possible.

Once he is done, he opens a sealed sterile case and takes out a scalpel.

Holy fuck… he’s going to perform surgery.

As Tae and Leif work on Leo, and Björn guards our door, I stand up and unlock Cillian’s phone.

The screen lights up, displaying one of the pictures Alexios had pulled up earlier.

This one is of Aurelio naked in bed, fucking another man.

What the…

Why was this so important?

Why did Leo want it?

I zoom in on the second man’s face.

Why does he look familiar?

“Björn,” I call, sprinting toward the Viking. “Why does this man look familiar?”

Björn glances down at the screen, his brow furrowed. “I don’t know… but he does look familiar.”

“Show me the picture,” says Tae while placing a clamp on the bleeding point.

“You’re in surgery, Tae,” I refuse.

“I can multitask. Just show me the damn photo while Leif works with the gauze pads.”

“Fine.” I step over, lean down, and place the phone in front of him.

Tae studies it for less than three seconds. “That’s Julian. Cillian’s friend,” he says, already turning back to his work.

“No way!” Björn snatches the phone, staring at the picture in disbelief. “He looks completely different here. His cheeks were fuller, lips thinner, and he had a wider nose… Now his nose looks more like—”

“—Like Cillian’s,” I finish.

Everything new about him looks just like Cillian’s.

“Didn’t he say he had a deviated septum fixed?” Björn asks, frowning.