Free A Part of Me by Anouska Knight Page A

Billy cast his eyes over his friend’s lower body.
    ‘It’s not looking good, mate,’ the shaggy spectator offered solemnly. ‘Bill, see how bad it is,’ he instructed.
    Rohan put his other hand over his face too. He was coping remarkably well, considering. His pain threshold was incredible. I tried to second guess what the symptoms of shock were. ‘This has happened before,’ the shaggy one said calmly, casually nibbling on a stick of liquorice he’d produced from somewhere. I was processing that last statement when Rohan groaned again, clasping at the back of his knee while Billy began to cradle the twisted foot. ‘On three?’ Billy asked.
    Still hidden beneath his arms, Rohan nodded.
    I scrambled to my feet. ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa! On three,
what
? What are you going to do?’
    ‘Just do it, Billy!’ the shaggy guy said. ‘He’s ready, aren’t you, Ro?’
    Rohan Bywater nodded again.
    Billy took a deep breath. ‘One …’
    ‘Wait a minute!’ I squeaked. ‘What the hell are you doing? He needs an ambulance!’
    ‘Two …
    I looked at Hannah for help of some kind but she was already shielding her eyes. She’d even shuffled back a few paces from the chaos unfurling in front of us.
    ‘Three!’ I snapped my head round as Billy sickeningly yanked hard on Rohan’s contorted leg. I watched, dumbstruck, as he pulled Rohan’s leg completely free of the trousers.
    My stomach went into a death-roll. Rohan fell silent. Everything fell silent but the pulsing in my ears. So this was what shock felt like.
    ‘Good news, brother,’ Billy said cheerily, examining the contents of his hands. ‘You haven’t trashed it. But I keep telling you to watch the drops, man. It’s gonna hurt if you hyperextend.’
    Billy was examining a metal prosthesis in his arms. At one end of it, Rohan’s black trainer remained neatly tied to its foot, the laces in a perfect bow. I eyed the scene. Rohan Bywater lay back, casually propped on his elbows. He was smiling at me.
    ‘You’ve … your leg,’ I managed. Hannah remained soundless.
    ‘Surprise.’ Rohan smiled.
    His left trouser leg lay flat from the knee down. One of the others began to laugh. It was Billy, Bywater’s bestsupporting actor. The shaggy one with his mass of hair and Cat Stevens tee carried on chomping at his liquorice stick, Max – all blond and boyish – shook his head, allowing himself a smile. They were all waiting for my response.
    I looked down at Bywater and couldn’t help myself. ‘You jerk.’
    Behind me, Hannah gasped. I turned and stormed across the grass to where I’d discarded my satchel, somewhere near her feet. ‘Come on, Hannah,’ I snapped, stalking back towards the bank, trying to outpace the flutter of laughter breaking out behind us. Hannah caught up, laughing nervously beside me.
    Bywater’s voice followed us over the meadow. ‘Oh, come on, don’t be mad. I was only pulling your leg!’
    ‘Ignore him,’ I instructed. We were nearly at the brow of the ridge.
    ‘At least I didn’t play dead!’ Bywater added. ‘You might have given me the kiss of life!’
    He’d be dead a long time before then. I did not need this right now. I did not need joker clients adding to an already tense work situation.
Who even does that? What kind of sicko thinks that’s funny?
    ‘I take it this means we won’t be giving him a fee proposal?’ Hannah enquired timidly, trying to keep pace with me. The colour had returned to her face. There was a very good chance that mine was somewhere past mid-pink too.
    ‘Oh, he’ll be getting one, Hannah.’ I was power-walking again. ‘First rule of business: if you’re client’s an asshole and you don’t want to work with them,’ I said breathily, navigating the soft earth in office shoes, ‘you price them out of the game.’

CHAPTER 7
    T UCKED AWAY IN the dining room, I didn’t hear the front door click to. It wasn’t until Mum had put her things down in the kitchen and given James’s flowers