Tucker:

Blurry.

Everything around me looks fuzzy, blurry, and strange. My throat feels dry and my body feels stiff, but I can’t move, even though I’m trying my hardest.

The last thing I remember is coming out of the basement with my hands in the air. I needed to make sure Mitch was ok. That old guy didn’t deserve to get caught in this mess. Moments later, I was laying on the ground grabbing my leg, my hands all red and sticky, pain searing through my body. I was wheeled out on a stretcher, but there were bodies strewn all over the garage floor, a sea of red pooling on the concrete. Faces that were so familiar to me, people that I once called my family.

“Someone call Molly,” was all I could muster up before they fitted my face with an oxygen mask.

“You’re going to be ok, Jesse,” the paramedics assured me, and I drifted off into the deepest sleep I’ve ever known.

Now I’m half awake in this hospital bed. Alone, uncomfortable. Each individual thought I’m trying to conjure up feels like pulling out my teeth one by one.

Everything before my car accident is back in place in my mind. My name, my occupation, my social security number. My business in North Carolina. Max, my partner and best friend. My mom and dad who live just down the road from my property who walk to my house every day for breakfast. My Lamborghini. My helicopter. The shooting range in my backyard. My blueprints.

And then there’s after the accident. The Vagrants. The cave. The mountains. And the only person that matters to me, the only thing that will ever mean anything to my past, my present, and my future. The only request I have is finding her and getting her back, no matter what it takes.

“Hey, bud,” Max says from the doorway of my hospital room. “I’m coming in.”

Seeing him makes me smile.

“You do know who I am, right?” he asks me. “I heard you’ve spent the last few months in blackout town.”

“I’d never forget that ugly face,” I say to him. “And yeah, sorry about that.”

“Honestly, I’m sorry,” he assures me. “I’m a shitty friend. I figured you were exactly where you wanted to be. I didn’t even start looking for you until I saw Molly’s article. Trying to convince your parents you were on vacation was a pain in the ass, though. You owe them a serious apology.”

“Are they coming?” I ask him. I miss my dad and mom. I’m sure they’d probably shoot me themselves if they had the chance.

“They’re flying in tomorrow morning.”

“Can you help me find Molly?” I ask him. “I need to talk to her.”

“I already found her. Don’t worry. I sent some guys over to her place to scare her a little bit. She won’t be writing articles about you anymore.”

I have to look over at the monitor to make sure I’m not flatlining. I know exactly what kind of guys he’s talking about, and if they went anywhere near Molly as soon as I get this cast off my leg, I’m going to kick his ass three ways from Sunday.

“You gotta be kidding me,” I say.

“I am. But you earned that. I’m gonna mess with that head of yours so bad for the rest of your life, Jesse, you’re not going to know if you have amnesia or not. You truly are an asshole.”

“So where is she?” I know I earned whatever punishment I have in store for me from him, and I’ll do whatever I have to in order to make it up to him.

“You have to answer some questions for me first.”

“Sure.”

“Do I really make your life so bad that living in a cave is better than being around me? I know I push you, I know I push us and our business, but is it really that terrible? And once you started coming around and getting your memory back, why didn’t you at least call me, man?”

“Max, it had nothing to do with you. You know I love you like a brother. You know I’m eternally grateful for all the opportunities you’ve given me over the years. I just needed some time away to remember who I am. By the time things started coming back to me, I was in too deep. I was being selfish for the sake of keeping Molly and making it work with her. I didn’t want our lives to have to change. Look how great that turned out,” I grimace, feeling like even talking is a little too much exertion for me right now, but I need to get this off of my chest. “I pushed her right out the door by trying to hide her from this life.”

“She didn’t write that article, by the way. She wrote AN article, but it was just about how such a great person could go missing without being searched for. Her parents showed it to me.”

“You met her parents?”

“He did,” she says, peeking around the doorframe. As soon as she sees me, she bursts into tears. I’ve never seen her cry like this before. It makes me feel terrible. I would do anything in the world to make sure I never have to see this again.

“I’m sorry,” I say, unsure of how to make this better. “Molly, I’m so sorry.”

“Why are you apologizing?” she asks me, still standing in the doorway, scared to move.

“Why are you crying?”

“I did this to you,” she stutters. “I made you run away. Now you’re in the hospital.”

“Come here,” I say, patting the spot next to the bed. If I could get up and run to her and scoop her up in my arms, I would. Hell, I want nothing more than to throw her over my shoulder and carry her out of this place, take her home with me. My real home. For good.

The smell of her perfume, the way she walks through the room like she’s a timid little feather floating on air, all of her mannerisms that I’ve missed so much, they make me feel lighter, better, calmer. Like a gunshot wound to the leg is really nothing for me to worry about.

She sits on the bed next to me and stares into my eyes, like she’s meeting a stranger for the first time. I guess she is. I guess I’m not the man that she met, lived with. Not the man who proposed to her like an asshole to try and make her stay with me.

“Will you please stop crying, Molly,” Max says. “You’re going to make me cry, too.”

“Get the hell out of here,” I say teasingly. “This has nothing to do with you.”

“This has everything to do with me,” he says. “If you’re going to settle down and start a life with this woman, then I’m going to probably have to find my own place to live. I don’t want to wake up every morning to the constant reminder that I’m just an aging bachelor with a billion dollar company, a yacht, a safe full of fine art, and a staff of people who literally do everything for me but wipe my ass.”

“Max.” I roll my eyes at him.

“You’re right. I do love my life. But I’ll get out of your hair. You think there’s a decent hotel within a fifty-mile radius of this place? Better yet, a good strip club? I could go for some mountain strange.”

“I’ll see you in the morning?” I ask him.

“Maybe. Maybe I’ll go off and hide in the woods for a few months myself. I’m taking my platinum card, though. I don’t eat bugs or dig holes to shit in. Bye, Molly.”