But I can’t worry about that right now. It looks like they’re heading onto the highway, and I don’t know what the fuck they’re going to do to him. They could have already done something. That’s enough to make me fucking crazy.
Luke’s probably still busy with Ace, so I head toward the Shadowridge locker room. There are kissing sounds. I clear my throat.
“Oh, um, Tate. Sorry,” Luke says.
McKinnon holds up his hand, his swollen, bruised face, smiling. “We got engaged, Coach. Now you and me are totally going to be family for real.”
“How will I contain my excitement?” I deadpan. “Luke, Ryan’s missing. I need your car.”
Luke shows his teeth. “Yes, please find Ryan for me. I need to speak with him.”
“Speak with him” is code forpunch his face in. “No. If I don’t get to touch McKinnon, you don’t get to touch my husband.”
“Hey, I’m right here,” McKinnon complains.
“It’s kind of time sensitive,” I stress, ignoring McKinnon’s bitching.
“Yeah, sure,” he says, reaching into his jeans pocket.
“Luke says I’m fine, and that I totally don’t have a concussion,” McKinnon says.
“I didnotsay that.” Luke was a paramedic for several years. He pats his jeans pockets, coming up with nothing. He checks the pockets of the black and white, silver-lined Scorpions jacket Ace is wearing. Drowning in, actually. Gotta be the jacket I gave my brother. “Shit, I think they fell out when I was catapulting over the seats to get to Ace.”
“Aw, that’s sweet,” McKinnon says.
It’s annoying and inconvenient for me. My teeth grind.
“Shae or East probably picked them up for me,” Luke says. He was sitting with Ace’s dad and his dad’s boyfriend. “They’re probably waiting up front for us.”
Ace moves to jump off the padded training table. Luke puts out a hand to stop him.
“No, you stay here. I’ll bring a wheelchair back with me to wheel you out, because you might have a concussion.”
“Luke,” Ace complains. “Even if I did have a concussion, which I don’t, I wouldn’t need a wheelchair. Totally overboard.”
“Stay, McKinnon,” he says.
Ace huffs. But when Luke leaves, I’m alone with him. I check my phone again, watching the red dot, ready to break something, irritation rising. Someone’s making off with Ryan,myhusband, and I’m stranded here with McKinnon. How did this happen?
“You okay, Coach? You look, uh, rabid.”
“No, I’m not okay,” I snap. I glare at my phone, unable to stop watching the dot continue down the highway. Where are they going? Who has him? It’s got to be fucking Henry and Clarence. They’re dead. I fantasize about how I’ll torture them before I kill them to pass the time.
A hand reaches for my phone, and I tear it away with a growl.
“Whoa, Coach. You were gonna break that. But I’d like to keep my hand, so you’re on your own next time,” he mutters. “Wow, you’re really worried. Is he in trouble?”
McKinnon’s brows squeeze together as if doing the math in his head. Yeah, I’m not being cool about this, and I’m giving myself away, but I don’t even give a fuck right now. I need a car, and I need to get to Ryan.
What’s taking Luke so long?
Ignoring McKinnon, I try to decide if texting Ethan or Jane is a good idea. I may have to kill someone or a few someones. It’s not wise to have evidence on my phone. I might have to do this alone. Without Pearl, too. She may never forgive me. She’s grown very attached to Ryan.
“Luke said something to me the other night. I didn’t think much of it, but now?—”
“Are you still talking, McKinnon?”
“Yes, asshole, I am.” He winces when I glare murder at him, but he doesn’t back down. “Luke’s been saying he thinks he doesn’t know you—really know you. I thought maybe you two had a fight or something, and he was speaking philosophically, but maybe he meant it literally.”
