“Oh yeah. I do.” I patted his shoulder. “And no, Drey, I’m not giving you my Man Card.”
“Don’t worry. It’s safe and sound with you, man.”
Maybe Drey was finally getting it. Finding the perfect woman you want to spend the rest of your life with doesn’t mean giving up your Man Card, it actually makes it even stronger. The romance, doing dumb stuff for love, sacrificing things for your woman…none of that makes a man weak. It makes him stronger.
“She’s lucky, too.” He glanced around, then waved to Sam for another drink. “You’re a good guy, man.”
“Don’t go all hug-happy on me.”
He coughed, then let out a loud laugh. “Don’t worry. So not going there. Bill might, though. He’s touchy feely like that.”
He smacked the back of Drey’s head. Those two cracked me up.
“No, it’s true, man. You’re the shit. You’re real and that’s cool,” Drey said.
For a guy who joked about everything and was rarely serious, I felt the sincerity in his words. Bill stared at him as well but had a slight grin on his face.
My phone vibrated in my front pocket, and I dug it out while flicking Drey’s shoulder. “Thanks, man. There’s a Lina out there for you.”
“Hey, before you go running out,” Bill said as he led me a couple of steps away from Drey. “I was working on the Cooler paperwork, and something came up on your social security number. I must have misread the number or something. Can you—”
Another text vibrated, and I glanced down.
911 Happy Man
“Shit,” I yelled as I turned and ran toward the front door.
My blood went to an instant rage and stormed through my head as my heart exploded within my chest.
“Hunter. What’s up?” Drey chased after me, and I heard Bill’s lumbering footsteps close behind as well. “Hold up, man.”
I pushed through the crowd zeroing on the door, needing to get there faster. To get home. To get to Lina.Shit.
Finally to the door, I tore through it and bolted to my SUV as I tapped Siri to life, and ordered, “Call Marshal.”
“Hunt!” Drey yelled. “What’s up?”
“Stay here, man. I gotta go.” I waved him off without looking.
“Hunter. Kid, what’s—”
I hopped into my car and squealed out of the lot just as Marshal picked up the call. “He’s here.”
“What the hell, Marshal? Where? Is Mom—”
“Where are you? I’m coming to your place with a team of guns.”
Like that’d matter. They’d failed when they’d tried to get him last time. There was no stopping this asshole.
“Shit!” I hammered the steering wheel as I swerved around the corner, narrowly missing a parked car. “Where. Is. He?”
“Popped up about six miles south of town four minutes before I texted you. Heading north.”
“How’d you find him?”
“Asshole looked right at some cameras at a gas station. Lookedrightat them, Hunter.”
“Mother fu—” I needed to calm the hell down or I wasn’t going to be any good to anyone. “Where?”