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“I don’t remember much, Cade; that’s the truth. It was a shitshow of punches in their back seat. And then something stung my arm like a hornet, but I kept fighting. I clocked TJ’s jaw real good, and then my world spun into black.”
“So you don’t remember anything?” They drugged him. I try not to ask like a detective, but it’s obvious, and their M.O. “It’s okay if you don’t.”
“I remember waking up some and being dragged. I could hear the ocean. I felt sand under my feet. I kept coming in and out and…”
His teeth grab his bottom lip in a hard bite.
I don’t press. I don’t say anything.
“I remember TJ and the smell of cigarettes.” His voice strains. “I remember Gentry smelling like fucking Abercrombie. And some other guy. The driver, I guess. He was wearing your necklace by then and punching my face and ears. I tried to rip it off his neck, but I couldn’t move.”
I give him the time he needs, my molars crunching, not to let my reaction steal this from him.
This is his story, not just mine.
He anchors to my eyes before he reveals.
“Cade, all I remember next is pain and then your dad. He had a fucking gun on them. He told them they’d better run like hell before he killed them, and I worried he’d do it for me, so I groaned something like ‘help.’”
That sounds like my dad. He didn’t kill them.
But I will.
“Those assholes ran, and your dad took care of me. He didn’t even ask. He knew why I was there with them and not you.”
“I was looking for you too. Dad told me to hide at the park, but I didn’t. I came out onto the beach, calling for you. It was so dark, and I couldn’t see anything. I just felt sick because I had to find you.”
“I heard you. That’s when your dad called out for you.”
“But when I found y’all, Dad told me to leave. Like he didn’t want me to see you.”
“You should’ve seen the look on your face when you did. I could barely see through my swollen eyes, but that… I’ll never forget.”
Redix’s beautiful face; they beat it black and blue. Red drips fell from his ear, streaking his hair. His shirt was gone. His jeans were barely on and drenched in blood. It was soaking him everywhere.
“I’m sorry. I fainted.” I remember up to that point. “You were covered in blood, and I couldn’t take seeing you like that.”
“Your dad took care of us until your mom showed up.”
“My Mama? I don’t remember that.”
“She said you were in shock and took you home while your dad took me to his boat.”
That night, hours of it are lost to me. I just remember waking up the next morning to the hell of knowing something horrible had happened.
“Why did he take you to his boat? Why not the hospital?”
“I wouldn’t let him. While he patched me up, I begged him to let it go. That it would only make it worse for you.”
“We could’ve thrown them in jail for what they did.”
“TJ would’ve gone, but not Gentry, not with his family’s power, and that’s why I worried. I didn’t know who the other guy was and what if he’d come after you too.”
Questions swirl in my brain. Like I should start an investigation, but I won’t. Not with the trembling in Redix’s hand I’m holding.
Tonight, this isn’t about my revenge.
This is about his peace.
