“I have a headache, but it’s not terrible. My arm is throbbing like crazy, though.”
After he asked a few more questions and checked my pupils with a small flashlight, he turned his attention to my arm. I took off my jacket, and he carefully peeled off the blood-spotted bandages before gently cleaning the wounds—entry and exit, it turned out—with some type of antibiotic solution.
While he was doing that, I said softly, “This was my fault.”
He looked up at me and asked, “What do you mean?”
His eyes were eerily similar to Adriano’s. I broke his gaze and told him, “This morning, I got scared and left before Reno woke up. I was going to take the bus back to San Francisco, but I just couldn’t do it. No matter how terrified I am of getting hurt if this doesn’t work out, I care about him way too much to run away.
“I ended up going to the bar to talk to him, and to apologize for leaving the way I did. I’d only been there a minute when Greco’s men showed up. Now that I think about it, maybe I even led them there. Maybe they spotted the convertible and followed me to the bar.”
Romy shook his head. “You don’t know that.”
A tear tumbled down my cheek as I said, “No, but I know I was distracting him. Reno was facing away from the window when those men arrived and started shooting. If I hadn’t been drawing his attention, maybe he could have gotten away—”
“Or maybe he would have tried shooting back, and maybe they would have killed him. He probably had a gun with him. He started carrying one when this mess with Greco started. It’s possible you actually saved his life.”
“That’s a lot of conjecture, but thanks for trying to make me feel better.”
As he wrapped my arm with a fresh bandage, he said, “Don’t beat yourself up, Jack. Feeling guilty isn’t going to help my brother.”
“I mean, sure, if you want to be logical about it.”
He grinned and started to repack his medical kit. “I did the best I could with your arm, but it’s going to start bleeding again if you don’t stay still. Also, they gave you a shot of antibiotics at the hospital, but you need to promise me you’ll go see a doctor in the next day or two so you can get a prescription.”
“I’d promise, but I don’t want to lie to you.” He sighed at that, and I asked, “What else did they do to me at the hospital?”
“They did a scan and determined you had a mild concussion. They also gave you fluids, painkillers, and a unit of blood intravenously. You actually might have passed out from blood loss, not your head injury.”
“The second time, you mean. I passed out from hitting my head before those men took Reno. Then I passed out again after I called you.”
Romy’s brow creased with concern. “Once we find my brother, you should go back to the hospital. Seriously.”
“Eh, I’ll be fine.”
He sighed and muttered, “You remind me so much of Reno right now.” Then he added, “Stop grinning. I didn’t mean it as a compliment.”
“Well, I’m taking it as one.”
He got up and told me, “I’m going to bring you some toast. Even if you’re nauseous, you should be able to manage that.”
“Thank you, Romy. For all of this.” He gave me a little smile before heading to the kitchen.
I found myself alone for the first time since the hospital, and I put my jacket back on and wrapped my arms around myself. Reno had been in Greco’s clutches for about eight hours by this point, and that terrified me. Sooner or later, his time was going to run out, and even though a lot of people were out there looking for him, I was sitting here doing nothing. I hated feeling so helpless.
A few moments later, Josh and Darwin rushed into the room with Romy on their heels. “We need to go meet my dad,” Josh whispered, “but we’re under strict orders to sneak away without Nana. They might have a lead on where your boyfriend is, and she’d definitely try to go in guns blazing.”
I quickly stuck my feet into my Crocs, and Romy grabbed his medical kit before we all slipped out the front door. As Darwin locked up behind us, he whispered, “I feel bad about ditching Nana.”
“Me too, but you know she doesn’t do stealth,” Josh said. “Just the opposite. If we needed a huge parade and a fireworks display, she’d be the first person we called. But we’ll make it up to her once we rescue her new grandson.”
While the rest of us climbed into one of the rented SUVs, Josh took what looked like a mini helicopter with four rotors out of the trunk. Once he was situated in the back seat with it, Darwin pulled out of the driveway, and Romy turned around in the passenger seat and asked, “Why do you have a quadcopter?”
“I’m studying filmmaking, and I usually use it for aerial shots,” Josh explained, as he inspected the machine. “But the reason I brought it to Vegas is because I thought it might come in handy, in case we needed to do a bit of search and rescue. It looks like I was right, too. My dad and uncle got a tip that Greco leases a place out in the desert, so this could be a good way of getting close enough to check it out.”
I asked, “Was it one of the addresses from Adriano’s journal?”
“No, but the journal led them to an underground gambling parlor, which is where they found an informant,” Josh said. “Apparently this guy was on Greco’s payroll for a while, but he got sick of working for a douchebag and quit. Once Uncle Dante plied him with cash, he gave up the address of an isolated desert compound.”