Had she been keeping them while I’d been bearing my soul?
I didn’t want to believe so. I wanted to keep believing that we told each othereverything,but with each day that passed, I became less sure.
Inhaling the lingering remnants of her perfume one last time, I left the apartment in a hurry. For now, I’d lost my tail at the hospital, and if I wanted to keep it that way, I had to make sure I never came back where he could find me.
Destiny’s place it was.
HUNTER
Another two weeks…
Iwas nothing but ash before Coby found me. In trouble with the law again, I was forced into counseling for the profound grief over the loss of my mother. My public defense attorney had cleverly attributed it to my bad behavior in order to keep me from doing hard time after I was caught burning down my father’s house with him inside of it.
Unfortunately for the world, my sperm donor survived.
Coby’s relentless optimism had pushed back the hopeless obscurity, laying siege to my mind until there was only her. I’d become so dependent on her light that I could barely last a few hours without seeing or hearing from her before I began to slip back into darkness.
She had been the only person I could count on in a long time and the one time she’d needed me…
My chest cracked when a sob was trapped inside.
I’d failed her.
I wouldn’t fail her now.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, was the reason I was standing alone in the middle of the street with a rocket launcher hoisted on my shoulder. Was it slightly over the top? Maybe. But for Coby, I would travel to the depths of hell to get her back.
“Okay,” Destiny spoke into my ear. She was safely hidden on top of one of the buildings with the handgun I taught her how to shoot, just in case. I’d taught Coby, too, but she was determinednot to ever use one. “According to the security feed, he’s in the second vehicle. A direct hit will almost definitely kill him, so unless you want to never find Coby…”
“Got it.”
In addition to offering me temporary shelter from theFola’s reach, Destiny was the one who located one of their weapon caches, and with her help, I was able to escape with enough hardware to make sure Ocean got the message of just how serious I am.
I knew he could see, but I would give almost anything to know if he was scared yet.
Smiling a little at the thought of him pissing his pants, I pressed the trigger and fired the rocket.
The lead vehicle exploded, but the blast’s force launched the second vehicle into the air, flipping it and landing it on its roof.
I only had time to toss the rocket launcher away and grab a couple of smoke grenades before the doors of the trailing SUVs flew open. Snatching the rings free of the canisters, I ran forward and tossed them on the ground toward the SUVS. While they rolled to a stop, I quickly removed the automatic rifle from my shoulder. Heavy smoke started filling the street as I ducked behind one of the parked cars.
“Where did she go?” one of the goons asked.
“I can’t see shit!”
“Someone check on the boss.”
“You’ve got two heading toward Kilpatrick,” Destiny whispered in my ear. “Ten o’clock. Good luck.”
Breathing heavily, I closed my eyes and said a prayer before shooting to my feet, aiming in the direction Destiny indicated, and unleashing on the men. With their backs turned to me, they stood no chance as my bullets dropped them like flies.
“Oh shit!”
“There she go! There she go!”
Ducking just in time to avoid their bullets, I belly crawled to another car and returned fire.
“Fuck! There!”
