Chapter 1108 Life or Death (III)

• When Keith Branwell was rushed into Nova Hospital, he was drenched in blood—his own and that of the guys from Regal Peaks. He scared the doctors and nurses stiff; for a second they thought some street gang war had spilled into the ER.
• Originally, Donnie Burns sent those men over just to sniff around. They’d heard only Keith was at Kiki’s place, so the plan was to use numbers to intimidate him. Worst case, throw a few punches—nothing too serious. They assumed Keith wouldn’t be that brainless, that he knew better—no matter how pricey the goods were, your life was worth more, right? But Donnie and his hirelings never imagined Keith would actually risk his neck. He clung to those goods like a bulldog, dead set on not letting them haul anything away. Things escalated fast. And the result? Keith, all by himself, held off every last one of them until Baldie and the cops showed up. By then, Keith could barely stand. The moment he heard the sirens, he went rigid and collapsed, unable to get up again.
• Keith was badly hurt—severe concussion, a fractured calf, three broken ribs, one of which pierced a lung. If help had come any later, even if he didn’t bleed out, he would’ve ended up with a hemopneumothorax, wheezing for the rest of his life. He flat-out survived on luck. If Baldie and the police had arrived a few minutes later, Keith wouldn’t have rolled into the ER—he’d have been wheeled into the morgue.