***
Ninety minutes later, I was down to my last fingernail when the two men came back to the house after a quick trip to the Black Jack tables.
“You were right,” he said. “Old Black Jack was pretty happy to hear that Shovel was back in town. Apparently, not only does Shovel owe Black Jack money, but he’d also gotten kind of handsy with Black Jack’s wife years ago. He wants Shovel to know that he hasn’t forgotten.”
Ouch.
That sucked for Shovel.
But if it got me Silas, I didn’t care who it hurt in the process.
“And? Where’s Silas?” I asked worriedly.
Sebastian shook his head. “It’s gonna take some time, Sawyer.”
I wanted to yell, ‘Silas doesn’t have time!’ but I just barely managed to hold it in.
I knew they were both aware, just as much as I was, that he didn’t have a lot of time. Especially since he’d most likely had a motorcycle wreck before he fell into the hands of that man.
And I just knew it was Shovel that had him.
There was no other explanation for it.
I closed my eyes and thought about where Shovel might have taken them.
I came up with what I thought was a brilliant idea, but Sam shot it down almost immediately.
“What about the old clubhouse y’all used to have. Where’s that? Shovel hasn’t been out of prison very long, so I bet he hasn’t had the time to replenish his money supply. So where would he go that wouldn’t cost a lot of money?” I asked.
“This is the old clubhouse,” Sebastian explained. “And the only place that has low income housing is by the interstate. But that was the first place we went when we started looking.”
“Shit,” I exhaled. “That sucks.”
Both men nodded, and it was then that I realized that we were the only ones in the room. Several of the guys had stayed with me while Sam and Sebastian went to the casino. Now they were gone.
“Where’d everyone else go?” I asked.
The men didn’t bother to look up.
“They’re out looking. But you’ve been coming up with some really good ideas, so we’ve been staying here to help you jog your memory in that hopes that you’ll remember something that might help,” Sam said.
I nodded in understanding.
“Alright then, tell me what it is that you need me to do that’ll get y’all out there looking for him. I’ll stay wherever you want me to stay,” I told them.
Both men looked at each other, but it was Sam who spoke.
“You know, we’re not really used to dealing with understanding and compliant women. But what we really need for you to do is stay at the clubhouse until further notice,” Sam explained.
I nodded, immediately getting up to head into the bedroom where I quickly packed a bag. I was back in the living room within five minutes.
“Ready when you are,” I said.
They both acted so similarly and so much like their father that it hit me how close they could be, but yet weren’t.
Did they even know how much Silas loved them?
I decided to ask them during the silence that continued in the truck.
“Do y’all know how much your dad loves you both?” I asked hesitantly.
A van passed us going at least ten miles an hour over the speed limit, and I watched it while I waited for the two men in front of me to respond.
My question was met with silence.
Neither man said a word.
“He talks about you all so much. He’s so happy that y’all are happy. Goes on and on about your kids, and how y’all include him in your lives when he doesn’t deserve it. Loves your wives. Loves the fact that y’all are better fathers than he was. He’s so proud he could burst. He has photos of y’all in his offices. Did y’all know that?” I asked in a trembling voice.
I don’t know why I was telling them all of this, but I was scared, really scared.
And I wanted them to realize what they could be missing if he wasn’t found alive and safe.
I knew Sebastian better than Sam, but neither one of them had a really ‘close’ relationship with Silas, and I that just made me really sad. They had no idea what they were missing out on.
I loved my father dearly, and I knew, if put into the position that Silas’ had been in, he’d have done the same damn thing in a heartbeat.
Sam’s phone rang, and he looked down as he pulled it out of his pocket just as we pulled onto the road that led to the clubhouse.
Had he not looked up just when he did, he never would’ve seen the body being thrown out of the back doors of a panel van. The same van that’d nearly cut us off earlier in the trip in its haste to get past us.
But he did.
And thanks to his quick reflexes, he was able to stop just in time to prevent his truck from running over the body that’d been thrown out of the back of the van directly in front of the clubhouse.
My eyes closed as my breath started to saw in and out of my chest.
And when I would’ve tried to get out, I was told to stay put by Sam as they both got out to look at the man that’d been thrown.
And I knew by the look on their faces, the devastation that completely took them over, that it was Silas.
Broken, bruised, and bloody.
I closed my eyes as fresh tears, not the first of today, started to pour down my cheeks.
They were gone so long that I couldn’t take it anymore, and quickly opened the back door and circled it around to the front where both men were leaning over an unconscious Silas.
“Is he alive?” I whispered.
Sebastian looked up. “Yeah.”
He didn’t say more, but he didn’t have to.
I knew it was bad.
Really bad.
I could tell that just by looking at him.
He didn’t have a spot on his body that wasn’t covered in blood or dirt.
His shirt was torn, nearly disintegrated in places.
His boots were missing.
His face so battered and bruised that he was unrecognizable.
His salt and pepper hair stained red from the copious amount of blood.
And he wouldn’t open his eyes.
My phone was in my hand, and I had 911 on the line before I even realized I’d done it.
I handed the phone over to Sebastian when they asked to speak with someone who knew where they were exactly, and finally dropped down to my knees beside the love of my life.
“Silas,” I whispered.
He didn’t move. Didn’t react.
I placed my hands on the side of his cheek, feeling the sticky wetness beneath my fingers, but not reacting like I normally would.
Instead, I leaned over him and prayed.
Prayed that he’d be okay.
And knew instinctively that it would be a long road to recovery ahead of him.
Because when he woke up, he’d be sore as fuck, and hell bent on vengeance.
And it’d be really, really hard to keep him there knowing that there were people out there trying to kill him.
“Y’all know you’re going to have to take care of this, right? Because if you don’t, he’s going to kill whomever it was, whether he’s up to it or not, and probably get himself killed in the process,” I whispered to the two of them.
Sam’s smile was a little bit unnerving as he said, “Oh, we’ll take care of it. Don’t you worry your pretty little head about that, Sawyer.”