- THREE -
After hitting the cold, concrete floor of the grimy warehouse, all I could remember were flashes of moments that happened afterward.
Mateo dragging me out to his car.
A bumpy drive that lasted an ungodly amount of time.
Pain. So much pain.
Stopping to re-wrap my shoulder.
Crossing the border without looking suspicious.
Hospitals.
Mateo trying to explain why I had a stab wound to the doctors.
My eyes were groggy and my head felt fuzzy. I tried to put all of the pieces together and remember how I got here, even if I didn’t know where here was exactly. The warm sun filtered in through the sheer curtains in what looked like a hotel room and I guessed it was late morning, but hell if I knew. I pushed to sit up and pain shot from my right shoulder blade up into my neck, radiating down through my toes.
“Agggh!”
Beads of sweat broke out across my forehead, and the intensity of the pain caused me to suck air in and out raggedly. I pushed up with my left hand so I could throw my legs over the side of the bed. I had to get up before my bladder screamed any louder. My right arm was in a sling that I didn’t remember putting on. The bedroom door swung open and Mateo walked in carrying a tray.
“Good morning, sunshine. They gave your ass so many drugs, I was wondering if they’d gone ahead and finished you off themselves,” he said with a little bit too much pep in his voice.
“I need more,” I rasped out. My throat felt like it had been rubbed raw with sandpaper. “F*ck... my throat.” I tried to swallow, but it felt as if I had swallowed a handful of gravel.
“Dude, I’ll bet it hurts. You were snoring so damn loud, it sounded like there was a chainsaw in the next room.” He placed a tray of water, orange juice, and fruit in front of me. “You can have more meds after you call Charlie. He’s been blowing up your phone.”
I finally shoved off the bed and stumbled toward the bathroom. My feet caught on the bottom of my pants, and I looked down to see pajamas I know I didn’t own.
“Did you dress me, Teo?”
“I don’t wanna talk about it,” he grumbled out. I laughed through my aching throat and closed the bathroom door behind me.
When I flipped the light on, I was startled to see my ghostly reflection in the mirror. Besides the pajama pants, I didn’t have anything else on except the sling on my right arm. My skin was flushed and pale. I had bruises on my inner arm where I assumed an IV must have been inserted. I leaned over the edge of the counter to get a closer glance at the gauze taped around my shoulder.
The second I leaned forward, the memories of the previous night hit me like a bat to the face. Getting only one hit in the fight against Barrera. Chasing Flores down. Being blindsided with a knife to the back. Police arresting Flores right after he told me...
She was dead.
The weight of his words sliced through me sharper than a thousand knives to the back. My knees buckled and I hit the tile floor with a loud thud. I slid my legs out in front of me and let my head hang forward. I didn’t care about my screaming shoulder or the fact that I still hadn’t pissed in God-knows-how-long. Those were nothing compared to this black, soul-crushing pain. I was too late… too f*cking late.
How long had I been chasing a ghost? Days? Weeks? Years? All this time I thought I would just know if she were gone, as if a piece of my soul went with her. But I’d felt nothing at all. Instead, I had to hear my worst fear from the repulsive mouth of Flores himself.
The door slammed open and a wide-eyed Mateo searched the large bathroom for me. His eyes finally fell toward me on the floor, and I saw the discomfort and pain in his eyes. I tried to straighten up and realized my face was wet. Tears. With the back of my hand, I quickly wiped them all away. I pulled my knees up and wrapped my left arm around them.
“I’m good,” I quietly breathed out.
“Call Charlie.” He held out my blinking phone. I took it from his hands and lay it on the ground next to me. It was f*cking humiliating to have one of the best boxers I’ve ever known look down at me on the floor with pity in his eyes. I couldn’t hold eye contact with him for too long. “I’m sorry, man. I wish there was more I could have done. I should’ve tried to dig deeper into him,” he whispered.
“Don’t,” I said into my knees. “Don’t put any blame on yourself, Teo. I’ll never be able to repay you for all your help.”
He nodded his head, and I was thankful we weren’t going to sit and discuss that right now. “Seriously though, if he calls my phone one more time, all of the phones are going out the f*cking window.”
“How long was I out?” I asked before he turned to leave.
“It’s only been a few hours since we got back from the hospital. Doc said the blade didn’t hit anything crucial, but you need to check back with him in a few days. You’ll also need to rehab that shoulder.”
“Well, that won’t work. I’m getting out of here.”
“Yeah, I told him that you would. Take the meds. Get it checked.” With that, he turned on his heel and headed back out to the living area.
~~~~~~~
I quickly learned how annoying it was to have to hold my arm against my chest. While taking a shower, I had to bend like a contortionist to avoid the water hitting my bandage. It was worth it though to get all that grime off of me from last night. My shoulder was beyond jacked, but I knew that if I took any more pain meds, I risked being laid out on my ass for another day. I would just have to wait until I got back home.
Where the hell was home, anyway? New York wasn’t home anymore. California was never home. Texas was full of my friends and their happy little families, but I didn’t know how long I would be able to stick around with this new, empty hole inside of me that made me want to push everyone away. I’d become good at that.
Mateo finished shoving my belongings into my bag for me while I finally scrolled through my phone. I had missed calls from just about everyone in my contact list. There were also numerous texts from Audrey. Even my mom had called, which was weird. I hadn’t kept in close contact with my parents over the past few years because it had just become too painful. As much as I knew she wanted to, my poor mom tried to not call me unless she had something important to discuss.
I typed out a quick message to Jace, letting him pass the word on to Audrey that I was heading back. Within a few minutes, I had a reply.
Jace: We’ll leave the lights on for you.
Me: I’m staying at a hotel. My place is almost done anyway.
Jace: Did it go that bad?
Me: I should be at work on Monday. Plenty of time before Nolan’s arrival.
It was shitty of me to leave him hanging like that, especially after everything he’s done for me. But there was no way in hell I was talking about this until I was ready, and I damn sure wasn’t going to discuss it over a text message. At any rate, I would have plenty of questions to answer when I walked into work, what with the sling and stab wound and all.
Mateo pulled the zipper closed on my bag and patted it, indicating it was packed and ready. I didn’t have a flight scheduled home yet. I figured I’d buy one when I arrived at the airport, and if I had to sit around and wait—well, who the f*ck cared anyway. Mateo gestured that he was taking the bag down and I nodded in understanding.
The shrill ring of my phone broke up the quiet of the room and I looked down to see Charlie’s name pop up on the bright screen. I might as well get this over with. Plus, he had helped me the most out of anyone, going above and beyond the call of duty.
Charlie and I had been partners when I used to be a cop in New York. We saw each other more than we saw our own families. I would have taken a bullet for him and he would have done the same for me. He kept his ear to the ground for me and always let me know if he got a lead on Flores, even though it wasn’t his case. All while I quit the force, moved down to San Diego, and tried to find him myself.
“Yeah,” I mumbled into the phone.
“Shit, Lane,” Charlie’s gruff voice whispered into the line. “I thought you were f*cking dead.”
“I thought I was too.”
“What the hell happened? Scratch that, you can tell me in a bit—”
I interrupted his speech and said, “I need you to get Flores extradited to the US. He needs to burn. He’ll just pay his way out down there.”
“You know I don’t have any power to do something like that—”
“Talk to Chief,” I interrupted again.
“I tried, man. But seriously, enough with Flores...” he whispered again.
“ENOUGH WITH HIM?” I boomed into the phone “He f*cking killed her, Char. He killed her and he had the goddamn balls to laugh in my face about it. If you guys can’t do anything, I’ll go down and end him myself.”
“Chill out for one damn second, you’ve got bigger fish to fry!” he whisper-shouted into the phone.
“Why the hell are you whispering to me?” I hollered back.
“I have her, Lane. I’ve been trying to get a hold of you to tell you. I have her.”
He may as well have been speaking a different language. I had to replay the words in my head ten times before I could wrap my mind around what he could possibly be saying.
“You...”
“Have her,” he repeated quietly.
I could hear Flores’ words in my brain. Check the bottom of the Sea of Cortez. All of a sudden, I was picturing boats and underwater search diving teams. But there was no way they could have found a body that fast. It had only been a few hours since he told me she was there. I couldn’t figure out what Charlie was saying, and all I could feel right then were the damn tears dripping down my face again.
“Lane? Are you still there?” He must have heard me sniff past the overwhelming grief lodged in my throat because he hurriedly said, “I have Kate… alive.”
My heart froze in my chest for so long, I began to wonder if I would even continue breathing. “Wha- how? I mean… is that possible?!” I exclaimed.
“She’s sitting right next to me. Yeah, it’s f*cking possible, man. We finally did it!”
“Dude, just stop cussing.” I inhaled deeply and plopped down on the bed, dropping my head in my hands. Forgetting that one of my arms was in a sling, I let out a string of profanities when I moved it the wrong way. The irony that I had just told Charlie to knock off the sailor mouth was not lost on me. My body shot back up and I began pacing in my hotel room.
“How is it possible? Are you sure? Did you check her—”
“Her wrist?” he interrupted the onslaught of questions I was firing his way. “Tiny heart birth mark on the inside of her left wrist. It’s there, man. I know that missing persons report backward and forward. It’s Kate.”
All the air I had unintentionally been holding in flew out of my chest and my head became light. I quickly looked around for a place to sit, but I couldn’t make it so I slid down the side of the wall until my ass hit the ground.
“She’s so beautiful. Dude, you’ll be blown away. She still has the most stunning blonde hair, except it’s long now. Almost to the middle of her back.”
“Should I... I don’t know... should I say something to her?” My mind was jumping up and down in excitement, pumping its fists in pure joy, but my body was clearly still in shock.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, you just need to meet us in New York. Besides, she’s sleeping right now. She hasn’t heard anything I’m saying to you.”
“Where the hell are you guys?”
“On a plane back to New York. I picked her up five hours ago in San Diego,” he stated.
“San Diego?! I’m in f*cking San Diego. You mean she was only a few miles away from me?” My heart plummeted at the thought. Was it possible she was always that close to me while I was living in San Diego?
“Before you start thinking what I know your thinking, she didn’t live there. She was south of the border like we thought. Look... it’s a long story. Get your ass to New York. I’m buying you the next available ticket right now. We’ll talk once you get there.”
“Wait, how are you talking to me on a plane?” I questioned.
“Dude, get with the times. The sky is not the limit anymore.”
I quietly chuckled but sobered when I thought about Kate sitting right next to him on the other end of this line. Kate. My beautiful Kate. I wanted to keep Charlie on the phone just so I could maintain the only connection I’ve had with her in years. I was so damn afraid to lose that feeling.
“How does she look?” I whispered.
“Good, man. Really good.”
“If she wants anything before I arrive, get it for her. Anything at all. I don’t care if it’s a f*cking chocolate bar dipped in gold, you get it for her.”
“I think I’ve got it covered, Lane,” he chuckled.
My sigh of relief was enough of a response for him and he sounded off quickly. I placed the phone in my lap, staring at the tiny little device that managed to turn my world right-side up once again.
~~~~~~~
Me: Change of plans. I won’t be in on Monday
Jace: Dude, call Audrey. I can’t continue to keep this from her
Me: It’s all over, I’ll be telling her everything soon enough
Jace: What do you mean it’s all over?
Me: On my way to NY to pick up my girl
Jace: Are you serious? HELL YEAH!!!!