N9ne: The Tale of Kevin Clearwater (King, #9)(73)

No, death doesn’t matter, because all that matters is the answer to the one question I’m repeating over and over and over again in my head.

Why?

Of all the people in the world…why her?

Why Yuli?





Chapter Twenty-Six





NINE





I get a text from Pike that Lenny is back at the RV. I speed back, ready to explain myself, but when I get there, all I find is Pike, crumbled up on the porch, bleeding from his gut.

“Pike, fuck!” I run to him and lift him into a sitting position. He groans. “Lenny, she’s in trouble. You’ve got to find her.”

“Who has her? Where did they go?”

“A girl. Hot, but mean as fuck, man. It’s…” his words fade as his eyes close and his head slumps to the side.

“Fuck!”

I check his pulse while I pull out my phone, and thank god he still has one. I call Preppy who picks up on the first ring. “Clearwater Morgue. You grill ‘em. We chill ‘em.”

“Brother. Pike’s down. Took a bullet to the gut. I need medical at my RV. Lenny’s gone, too, but I don’t know where.”

Pike groans and his eyes open. “I heard her say something about Fall. Like it’s going to be Fall again?” His face is growing paler and paler. “I mean it’s a good season if you live up north, but we live in Florida, ain’t got no kind of Fall here.” And just like that he’s out again.

Preppy chimes in on my phone. “I’ve got a team of Lawless nurses heading your way. The MC is less than a quarter mile away and they were already there doing a check up on the BBB’s. They’ll be there in a few seconds.”

A few seconds is right. A van pulls up, the tires spinning in the dirt. Three women in scrubs run out and head straight for Pike.

“Take care of him,” I order. “Please.”

“Hey pretty ladies, what up?” Pike says, perking up yet again, drunk on blood loss. They check his vitals and start moving him onto a gurney. “None of you are mean, right? ‘Cause I just ran into a really mean pretty lady, and look what she did to me. She staind-ed my shirt.”

“They’re here now,” I tell Preppy, heading for my truck.

“Any clue where Lenny could be?” he asks.

“No clue, Pike said something about Fall, but he’s out of his mind.” I start the engine and pause.

Fall.

It’s going to be Fall again.

Falling again.

“Scratch that, brother. I know exactly where she is.”

“You wanna share that info or you want me to guess where I’m meeting you?” Preppy says. I hear his car door slam and his engine start up.

I bang my fist on my steering wheel as the world around me slows to a stop.

“The top of the fucking causeway.”



* * *



Lenny

When I come to and open my eyes, I’m at a place I never expected to be again.

The top of the causeway, on the very same ledge I fell from years ago.

How the hell did I get here?

My brain is trying to come up with the answers, but it isn’t functioning properly. I decide to reboot and try again, but from the safety of the other side. I grab onto the wires and pull myself up to stand so I can climb back over the railing. I freeze when I hear the unmistakable sound of a gun cocking.

“There’s only one way you’re getting off this bridge, and it isn’t this one,” an evil version of a familiar voice says.

My memory comes back to me. The tote bag. The plane tickets. I slowly look up to face my best friend.

Yuli.

It starts to rain. Water drips into my eyes, mixing with the dried blood, and I’m practically blinded, but I can’t wipe it away, or I’ll lose my grip on the wires, which are becoming more slippery by the second.

“I thought you were in Africa,” I finally manage to say. Still holding onto the wires as carefully as I can, I slowly turn to face the woman I thought was my best friend.

Yuli is standing in the rain, wearing a black hoodie and matching pants, but it isn’t her clothes that I find the most surprising. It’s the gun in her hand aimed at my head.

She scoffs. “I was never leaving for Africa. I was leaving with Jared and our money.”

The admission of her betrayal slices so deep within me that I can feel every stab of the knife she’s shoving into my fucking heart. “So then, why come back? You and Jared get bored of each other already and decide to torture me instead?” Playing it off like I don’t know that Jared’s dead.

“You can cut the crap, Lenny. Jared is dead, so don’t play dumb and innocent with me!” she spits. Her right eyebrow ticks with rage. She smiles wickedly, and my stomach lurches.

I think I’m about to be sick.

“Why do you think I took you to that party?” she asks, like the answer is obvious when none of this makes any sense at all. “Because part of the money we stole came from the MC and from your buddy Nine and his crew. When Jared never showed at the plane, I knew he was dead. He wouldn’t just abandon me like he did you. I knew Nine would be at that party and that he’d been looking for you. Don’t you see, Len? I wasn’t trying to show you a good time on my last night, I was delivering you to him on a silver fucking platter!”