Page 8 of Broken
CHAPTER 3
Katrina turned towardsthe door as Justin let himself in with the key that she’d given to him. “That was quick,” she said through her still-falling tears.
“Hey...” He was in front of her now, pulling her into a warm embrace, allowing her tears to fall instead of telling her she didn’t need to cry. Only just under 9 months younger than her, Justin was her confidante in all things regarding her life.
And he’d been close with Lorenzo as well.
“What... what is all of this?” Justin asked as he moved back and ran his fingers through his short sun-lightened hair, such a contrast to Katrina’s which was dark and long. Their eyes were similar, shaped the same, although Justin’s were a light blue and Katrina’s were gray. “Trina?”
“Sorry, just... mind. Elsewhere.”
“What are you doing with Lorenzo’s wallet? Is that blood? Shit, Trina, is he dead?”
Katrina shook her head as she brushed away tears. “He was in an accident. He’s at Montgomery General, critical condition.”
“But how...” Justin looked at the clothing, the notebook, the wallet.
“He named me as his emergency contact somehow.” Katrina shrugged as she willed unsuccessfully for her tears to stop. “He had my phone number and they called me.”
“Does anyone else know?”
Katrina shook her head. “I wasn’t able to get ahold of Emily. I’m sorry I didn’t call you sooner. I figured you’d be busy with work.”
“Yeah, my shift just ended. Judith knows I’m here.”
“I still can’t forgive you for marrying her,” Katrina joked, and Justin grinned.
“Hey, you said I couldn’t date anyone on the cheerleading squad. You said nothing about the drill team.”
“At least it wasn’t Emily.”
“It would never have been Emily.” Justin shuddered and Katrina nudged him. “I’m being nice,” he cut off her admonishment. “But there has to be someone in this mess for you to call, someone in his life now.”
Katrina hated the constriction in her heart at that thought, of someone else being with Lorenzo.
Someone else making love to him.
She didn’t have that right, though. There was Timothy.
And there was the fact that Lorenzo had left her.
“Trina, did you see this?” Justin pulled a business card from Lorenzo’s wallet and flipped it over several times. “The print is kinda small, but...”
“Cade’s,” she read from the front of the card.
“Cade’s what, though?” Justin asked as he squinted at the numbers below while he put them into his phone.
“Justin, what are you doing?”
“Seeing if there’s someone else who needs to know what happened. He obviously has a life. I mean, look at the notebook. Something tells me... ah, hi,” he said to whomever had answered the phone. Katrina leaned forward, hanging on Justin’s every word. “I’m looking for the manager. Nope, not a complaint, just very... yes. I mean no, I’m not looking to speak to Lorenzo Cade. Did he leave someone in charge? Okay, well when he gets a chance, please have him call Justin Carter.” Katrina’s eyes were locked with Justin’s as he gave his number, thanked the person on the other line, and hung up.
“No luck.”
“Well, I know it’s a bar.”
Katrina almost smiled.