She clasped it in both hands. “Oh my god. He WORE THIS?”
I grinned. “And wanted you to have it.” I leaned over and kissed her on the forehead. “I love you, Lil. I’ll see you in a few hours.”
* * *
I walkedover to my bike and took a look at the helicopters looking for El Diablo. He was either going to get caught, shot, or go so deeply underground that he wouldn’t be a threat to us for a long time. Kidnapping two teenage girls with the intent to sex traffic them was a pretty major crime, and when one of them was the white daughter of a high-profile surgeon…he wasn’t going to get away with it, even if he did get caught.
I turned my attention to Paige. Where could she be? I figured my best bet was to go to the last place I saw her and try and figure out what happened from there.
It only took a few minutes to get to the Bun Boy Motel. The Audi was still there. The curtain and broken glass were still by the tree. I could see a broken out window on the second floor.
Since I saw Chanclas with El Diablo and the girls said that “the fat one” was told he could “have” Paige, it made sense that it was him who took her.
He probably only had his bike, so he wouldn’t go far with a kidnap victim in the open like that. My best guess was that they were pretty close by.
I went around the other side of the motel to see if maybe they were in a room. But the bike was gone and I didn’t hear or see anything. He wouldn’t be so stupid as to keep her here, would he?
Maybe it would be a good idea to head over to the restaurant and see who was still there.
* * *
Two minutes later,I was there. The only ones who were still around were Hawk, Swole, Chalupa, and Scorpion.
“Did you find them? Did you get there in time?” Scorpion practically ran up to me as soon as I turned my bike off.
“I did. They were just about to be loaded onto the plane, but I got there in time.”
“I wondered when I saw all the copters,” Hawk said.
“Were they okay? Where they…hurt?” Swole asked.
“They seemed okay, but they’re on the way to the hospital in Barstow to be checked out.”
“Where’s Diablo?” asked Chalupa.
“That’s what the copters are doing. He ran off into the desert.”
“He’s toast,” said Swole.
I then turned to Hawk and asked, “Where’s Padre?”
“Trainer took him home. He kinda snapped back into reality after a bit.”
Memory issues were so weird, and I imagined we were just seeing the beginning of it with him.
“What about Paige?” Swole asked. “Did she go to the hospital too?”
“No. She’s still missing. I think Chanclas has her.”
“That fat bastard?” Hawk said. “He’s more dangerous than he looks. We need to find her ASAP.”
“Yeah.”
“Is it okay if I go to the hospital to see Lily? I need to make sure she’s okay,” Scorpion asked.
“I’ll take you,” said Swole. “I’ll make sure that Paige isn’t already at the hospital.”
“Good thinking,” I said.
