Page 4 of Chaos & Carnage
“I hope that means you’ve finally wised up.” I side-eye Cain before flicking my gaze back out the window, scanning the streets for any sign of Red. “‘Cause you were being a fucking asshole, and that role is already taken, by me, so you need to get your shit together.”
“My shit is together,” I snap.
Cain scoffs. “Not from where I’m sitting.” He sighs, and I catch him glancing my way before returning his focus to the road. “Look, I know you had a thing for Evie back in the day, and if life had gone differently, then who knows. But it didn’t.Thisis how our lives worked out. We’re not the people we would have otherwise been and I dunno about you, but Red fits perfectly with who I amnow. She slots seamlessly into this life, intoourlife. Don’t throw it all away because of what once was or otherwise could have been.”
Huffing out a breath, I turn to face him. “I know that now. I just…” I sigh, wiping a hand down my face. “Finding Evie alive. Fuck, man, I never expected that. It threw me. I didn’t know what the fuck to think. I felt like I owed it to Evie to still have those feelings, and I felt guilty for not feeling that way about her anymore.”
“I get it, man. Trust me, I get it. I feel that same guilt and worry that she thinks we just moved on with our lives and forgot about her, though you and I both know that’s not true. She’s been the driving force behind everything we’ve done—the good and the bad. Evie won’t blame you for falling in love with someone else. You were both just kids. Who even knows if it would have worked out or if you’d have felt the same way as you got older. As long as Evie knows she still has you in her life, that’s all that’s going to matter to her right now.”
“And what about Red?”
Cain flashes me a grin. “A few apologetic orgasms and she’ll forget all about it.” I scoff, shaking my head. Somehow I doubt it will be that easy. “Nah, in all seriousness, Red understands, or at least, she was trying to. That’s why she gave you your space to figure shit out.”
Once again, I return my attention out the window. “We just have to find her. As long as she’s alive and with us, I will do whatever I have to to prove she’s the one.”
***
“Woah, hold up!” Both Cain and I lean forward in our seats as Cain slows down, the headlights picking up bits of plastic littering the road. “Fuck, is that…”
Slamming on the brakes, Cain abandons the car in the middle of the road as we both throw open our doors. The light from the car’s headlights and the overhanging streetlamp paint a grotesque picture as Cain and I turn in circles, taking in the surrounding wreckage. Most significantly, the remains of a black bike, with most of the plastic exterior missing and the metal frame scraped and scored from where it slid along the road.
The most notable thing missing is its rider. “Sawyer?!” I call out, my eyes darting around the street, trying to pinpoint her in the dark spots between streetlamps. Digging my phone out of my pocket, I turn on the flashlight and hold it up high in front of me as I search out the areas the streetlights don’t cover. Cain does the same, and the two of us spread out to look down alleys and duck into doorways, looking for any sign of her.
“Over here!” Cain calls out, just as I’m beginning to give up hope. I can see fuck all with this flashlight, and in the dark, it’s next to impossible to discern if there’s blood or anything that would give me a clue whether Red is alive and unharmed.
Hurrying over to the alley he’s in, we both stand and gape down at the dead man at our feet. His eyes stare unseeingly up at us while his blood crusts on his skin and coagulates in the pool surrounding him.
“An Antonelli,” I note, taking in his out-of-place suit. Cain grunts his agreement while I shine the flashlight further down the alley, simultaneously hoping and dreading spotting Red within its circumference of light.
Before Cain and I can do a more thorough search, my phone rings in my hand. “What?” I snap, bringing it to my ear.
“Any sign of her?” Enzo’s growl is laced with frustration.
“We’ve found her bike.”
“And you didn’t think to fucking call us?!”
“I was just about to,” I snap, lying through my teeth. The last fucking thing on my mind was those two.
“Where?”
I hesitate for a second before begrudgingly relaying the street name.
“Is she there?”
“Doesn’t appear to be. We found one of your men, though.”
“Send me a picture.”
He hangs up before I can tell him I’m not his fucking lackey. Cursing him out under my breath, I stomp over to the dead guy and snap a photo,for Red.Not because that asshole told me to. I’m purely doing this to help Red.
Sending it to the group chat, I join Cain in our search of the alley. Now that we’ve narrowed it down to this area, we do a much more thorough inspection. There’s so much blood around the body that it’s impossible to discern what’s his and what isn’t, but as we move further away, a trail becomes apparent, and like bloodhounds, we follow. With every step, I picture what Red must have gone through. Images of her being thrown from her bike and accosted by that piece of Antonelli scum assault my mind. Yet, he’s dead, and she’s not here, so she must have escaped. Even battered and probably injured, she still got the upper hand on him, and pride swells within me. She’s so fucking strong. She always says it’s thanks to Luc. That he’s the one who made her strong, but it’s all her. Her inner strength, her resilience. Her ability to face impossible odds and not crumble beneath them.
Cain slides his gun out of the back of his jeans as we approach a steel door, and I follow suit. We both share a look when we spot a semi-bloody handprint wrapped around the frame, and hopeful anxiousness churns in my gut, wanting to find Red on the other side of this door, yet concerned about the state we might find her in. The dead scumbag behind me is her handiwork, but what did that kill cost her? She would already have been worse for wear—if not seriously hurt—after being thrown from her bike to only then having to fight off that shitstain. At the very least, it would have drained whatever energy she had remaining.
Reaching out, Cain wedges his fingers into the small gap and steps to the side. On my signal, he yanks open the door, and I storm in, arms locked in front of me with my finger on the trigger.
“Clear.”