They’d not had time to clean him up because there was still blood in his hair, down the side of his neck. He had taken a serious beating and there was no disguising that, just like the doctor said.
The doctor explained he had several broken ribs, a broken pelvis and arm and they were concerned about his back too. His spleen ruptured, and they had conducted an arterial embolization to stop the internal bleeding, monitoring him for infection which they would treat immediately if it occurred. The kid was fucked up, but he was alive.
And he was safe from the Kingsmen now. That was all I cared about.
I thanked the doctor, and we left the room. She turned to watch us, but we didn’t give her time to stop us. I got the impression she intended to shout us back about speaking to the police, but suspected she could sense something about us and decided she’d leave it alone. We headed out of the hospital.
“He’s fucked up, but he’s alive,” I remarked. “We need people down here to keep an eye on him, but he’s in the clear as far as the Kingsmen are concerned. We should get his actual family here to make sure he’s moved back to North Carolina as soon as he’s able.”
“Felix and Raptor are a few miles out of town. I’ll get them to come sit on him,” War said, taking out his phone. “We’ll stay till they get here, then head back. I’ll let Wave know he’s okay.”
I didn’t answer. I just turned to Ballistic, who was standing by the truck looking back towards the hospital. “What do you think happened?” I asked him.
“We need the police report, but that won’t be ready yet. We could stay and scope the place out after the cops leave, see if they’re around, pick them up,” he murmured. Even though we were outside, it was ingrained in us to keep business away from anyone overhearing.
Neither of us wanted to hang around here. There were more important things to discuss back home. Ballistic and War needed to take part in the vote on whether we attack the Kingsmen, as part of the council. He turned to look at me, waiting for me to decide.
“No point wasting more of our time. We can get the others to watch him till he’s shipped back home, but we need to go back. King needs us to strategize.”
Ballistic agreed, and we got into the truck, and we waited until Raptor and Felix’s truck pulled up. War got back out and gave them the information they needed on Declan, then we hit the road. I wanted to ask how the conversation had gone with Waverley, but I was hesitant.
I didn’t want to discuss my relationship with her in front of Ballistic and after our spat at the rest stop, War had been pretty closed off towards me anyway. So I held my tongue and just watched through my window.
As we were nearing home, War’s phone rang again.
“Yeah?... What?” he shouted. Both Ballistic and I glanced at each other before he looked back at the road, and I turned to see the panic on War’s face. “Is he okay?” He put his other hand to his head and pulled at this hair. “Fuck!” he roared, and I was stunned to see a tear run down his face, which had gone ashen. I reached back and grabbed the phone from him when it fell from his hand.
“It’s Hustle. What the fuck just happened?”
“Oh God,” it was Rosa. “You need to get back here.”
“We’re on our way. We won’t be long. What the fuck is going on, Rosa?” I turned back to see War holding his head in both hands. He started screaming at Ballistic to hurry the fuck up. Ballistic put his foot down, and the truck lurched as he sped up. “Rosa?”
“Waverley’s gone.”
“What? Gone where? What do you mean?” I swear my heart stopped beating. She couldn’t be gone. She was safe inside the house on the compound with dozens of people around her. This was bullshit. She couldn’t be gone.
“I came back to the house and found Connor… Hudson. It’s terrible.” Rosa let out a sob that had my chest squeezing tight. I turned to look at War. His eyes were on me, and I could see the devastation in them. I didn’t know what Rosa had told him, but from the way she was crying now and War’s reaction, it was something I didn’t want to hear. “She’s not here, just Connor,” her voice cracked.
“She has to be on the compound,” I half yelled. I had to grip the side of the door as Ballistic took a corner without slowing.
“We searched everywhere. Then Kansas checked all the cameras. There was only one vehicle that left after you and the others, and we could see on the camera there were only two people inside.”
“Who?”
“Lily and Omen.”
“They were in the house with her and Connor?” I guessed.
“Yes. I left them to go over to sort some mess out at the bar. Lily called to say they needed me, then her and Omen went back to the house. By the time I got back…” she trailed off.
“Thanks Rosa, go be with the others, okay? We’ll be there soon.”
Ballistic looked at me, sensing that his wife was not coping. He looked as if he wanted to snatch the phone, but he focused back on the road and getting us home as quickly as possible. I hung up and called Dirt, looking back at War. His face was hard now, but he was still watching me.
Dirt answered, and I asked what the hell was going on.
“It looks like Lily and Omen took her in the trunk. No one thought to stop and check. They said they were going home. But we’ve been round there, and the house is empty.”
