Page 53 of Three for a Girl

A handsome one with a scar on his cheek, and a droopy eyelid, but the response was a blunt no.

Chad dug into his wallet, gave the man every note he had before driving on, out of the city.

Chad had no destination in mind. He drove, searching through his mind for a clue of where Romeo would go.

He didn’t have any family, or friends, not that he’d told Chad about.

Chad didn’t even know where Romeo grew up, or where he used to work years ago.

He growled, throttling the wheel. The houses got fewer and fewer, until they stopped. Field after field stretched before him, and he sighed, thinking about turning back to the house.

Romeo might have come back.

The fence beside him stretched as far as he could see surrounding one of the fields. The grass beyond it was long, like a meadow, but why would a meadow be surrounded by a ten-foot fence topped with lassos of barbed wire.

In front of the fence was a dried-out ditch, but the brambles and nettles looked far more menacing than a trickle of water. Beyond the fence, and the meadow, in the far distance, a rectangular shaped building sat half hidden in row after row of trees.

He blinked, not sure whether it was real.

Chad stared at the building, wondering whether Romeo would’ve ventured that far, caged himself inside the fences to control his monstrous side.

Movement caught his eye in the field, the grass jerked, Chad craned his neck, waiting for whatever was hiding to reveal itself. He drifted, crossing the center line, squinting at the grass, desperate to see. He spotted two triangular shaped ears, and a white tip of a tale as the creature disappeared into thicker grass.

A fox.

He looked up, and his breath caught in his throat at the car heading towards him. The horn blared, Chad reared to the left, gritting his teeth.

The wheels shrieked on the road, the piercing sound was matched by the other car as it turned to avoid a head on collision with Chad.

Chad jolted in his seat when his car hit a clump of dirt, then another. Not hard enough to set off the airbags, but enough that his teeth clicked together and his head whiplashed forward.

The car came to a stop, he cursed, gripping the back of his neck before checking his mirror for the other car.

The car with red warning lights on, sticking out of the ditch.

“Shit.” Chad said, flinging his door open.

He steadied himself against the door, careful not to trip on the growing crop, then rushed across the road.

“Please be okay, please be okay.”

He rounded the trunk, and froze at the man climbing out.

Shades covered his eyes, and he clutched the back of his neck. He didn’t face Chad, but the four feet high nettles all around him.

“I’m sorry.” Chad blurted. “I’m so sorry.”

The man pushed his shades into his hair, and his blue eyes snapped up to meet Chad’s.

They widened slightly, before Chad was offered a hand to take. Mutual recognition swept over them both, and left them gaping.

“I’m sorry—I wasn’t concentrating, I’m such an idiot.”

He gripped onto Carter’s hand and pulled him from the driver seat.

“Are—are you all right?” Chad said, flicking his gaze up and down the doctor. “Should I call someone?”

“Like a doctor?”

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