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I didn’t give a shit. “The bastard took Harlow!” That’s when I saw the spots by the front door. Cole, noticing my look, went over to check them out.
He crouched and ran his finger through one. “Fuck.” His mouth tightened, and I knew in my gut what it was.
“Blood?” Savage asked.
Cole nodded.
“Will... I...live?” Klutz’s barely audible tone drew my gaze back to him. His eyes were open and glazed with pain.
I took a deep breath. “Not gonna lie to you, Brother. Depends on if you have any internal damage and how bad it is. You have a lot of vital organs in the belly.”
Klutz took in the information quietly and nodded with a sigh of acceptance.
“The fact you’re awake and talking is a good sign.” I had to give him something to cling to. “You’re strong, Brother. You have to fight this, yeah?”
He acknowledged with another, weaker nod.
“Was Bronx alone?”
Klutz shook his head to Cole’s inquiry. “No. There was...a...woman with...him.”
A woman? Savage, Cole, and I exchanged looks, but had nothing to say. Did Bronx have an old lady? If he did, she would be as sick as he was. I thought about Harlow—sweet, beautiful Harlow, in the clutches of a monster like Bronx, and what he could be doing to her even as we lost time waiting for an ambulance. There was nothing I could do for Klutz. I heard the ambulance coming and got to my feet and then turned and stomped toward the door.
“Where the fuck you going?”
The grit in Cole’s voice didn’t so much as cause me to hesitate. “To look for my woman.”
“We go together,” Cole demanded in a firm, no-nonsense tone.
The ambulance would be there any minute, and I needed distance. “Fine. I’ll wait outside.”
I pushed through the screen door and walked to my bike. My gaze landed on the old couple across the street again. They were taking a break, sitting in lawn chairs and sipping drinks. It wouldn’t hurt to ask them if they’d seen anything. I was halfway across the street when the ambulance rounded the corner and pulled into the driveway. Two paramedics exited the vehicle and rushed to the front door.
“Oh, dear! What’s going on over there?” the woman asked.
I gauged her to be around seventy-five. She looked flushed from working out in the heat, but at least she was wearing a large-brimmed straw hat.
“Is Vera alright?” the man sitting next to her asked.
I wanted to grin at the straw hat he had on but held myself in check. They were both wearing wife beaters and shorts, support hose, and sneakers. I gauged the man to be around eighty.
I assumed that the woman was asking after the old lady who Cole had found in the back. “Sorry to say, no she isn’t. Neither is my brother.”
“The young man on the bike?” the woman asked.
I nodded. “You folks wouldn’t have any idea what happened over there, would you?”
The uneasy looks they exchanged were cautious and led me to believe that they knew something but were afraid to say anything. I knew that I had to set their minds at ease.
“There was a woman—”
“Oh, yes. We saw them. One looked sick, she arrived early. The other, poor dear, had blood—”
My heart dropped.
“Edna—” the man cautioned.
He clearly didn’t want her to finish.
