Page 10 of Wrecked

“Look, you’ve chased away the last three boyfriends I’ve had. I’m sick of it.”

“Mom, they weren’t any good.” Exasperated, Rebel’s hands waved about.

She took a deep breath and released it. “You know I didn’t want to tell you this but…I’m not your mother.”

The silence that swept through the room pounded against his ears like a void.

That was what emptiness felt like, he was sure of it.

“You’re lying.”

“No, I’m not.” She lifted her chin, gripping the broom tightly. “I found you behind Ted’s Liquor store off Stevenson Street and brought you home.”

The room billowed and the air wobbled around him as if he had suddenly been placed inside a giant bubble. A thick layer that would pop and leave him lifeless.

“So, get the fuck out of here,” Hank said from where he stood next to his mother.

No, scratch that. She wasn’t his mother.

He lifted his knife but something hard grabbed him from behind.

Fuck!

He had placed his back to the door.

Some assassin he had turned out to be.

With a scream full of rage, Rebel fought the hold. The sounds emerging from his throat filled the kitchen.

Crow tightened his grip on Rebel, keeping the slender man from escaping, but it was a struggle.

Only his military training gave him the upper hand over Rebel’s desperation. Applying pressure to a critical point, Rebel slumped into his arms.

Slinging the man over one shoulder, he stared at the woman Rebel had thought was his mother.

The lying bitch.

“Don’t ever attempt to contact him,” Crow snarled.

“Don’t worry,” she snapped waspishly with a sneer, squinting at him, trying to see who he was, but he knew her vision was very limited.

Crow aimed a cutting glance at the man. After one second, the guy lifted his hands and spoke hurriedly.

“I saw nothing.”

“Keep it that way. You don’t want me to come back here,” he said with menace.

The man visibly swallowed and the woman took an involuntary step backward, bumping into the counter.

Crow strode out the door without a backward glance.

The motherfuckers weren’t worth his time.

He only hoped that Rebel would also come to see it that way.

Somehow, Crow doubted it.

Entering the crummy hotel just off one of the main boulevards in Northridge, Crow dumped Rebel on one of the two queen beds.

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