Page 90 of Battle Scars

He stops at a light. “No, you’re not.”

And then he moves lightning quick and hits me in the side of the head with something heavy. I think I see a gun, but I don’t know. Pain blossoms out from my temple, and it’s lights out.

Everything goes black.

THIRTY-THREE

SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW

Gabe

Ipull out my room key and open the door.

Eli steps out from the sitting room. “She’s not here,” he says.

The hair on the back of my neck stands on end.

“What do you mean she’s not here?”

“Well, after you fucking broke her, destroyed her, that jackass showed up and offered to take her for fucking ice cream,” he says. “I tried to get her to let me take her instead, but she said a life of what he was willing to give her was safer than loving you.”

“What jackass?” I ask, but I already know.

“Randolph,” he bites out, and fuck me, the answers slam into me like a brick wall. We’ve been looking in the wrong direction. It’s him.

“Call her,” I order. “Now. Get Adrienne on the phone and tell her to get somewhere safe.”

“What?” he asks.

“It’s Randolph,” I tell him. “That’s our guy.”

“I didn’t…” he stammers. “I didn’t know.”

“I didn’t either until right now. He was always around when an incident occurred. No one else was there every time,” I explain. “Just call her.”

I pull my own phone from my pocket and dial Manny. “Where are you?” I ask when he answers.

“A block away from the hotel.”

“Which way are you coming from?” I ask, and when he replies, I tell him that I’ll meet him downstairs.

“Boss, she’s not answering,” Eli says. He looks stricken, but I can’t babysit him now. I have to get my girl back.

“We’ve got to go,” I tell him. “Manny is five minutes out.”

“Okay,” he says.

“We’re going to get her back.”

“I just… I didn’t know.”

“I know,” I tell him. “Now let it go.”

“Okay.”

I’m sure it doesn’t help that his mom was murdered by a psychopath who was stalking his aunt. Life sure seems full of sick fucks, and Eli has seen more than his fair share of them.

We find Manny and jump into his SUV. I try to track Adrienne’s phone through the app while Eli keeps trying to call her.