Page 109 of Grumpy Sunshine

CHEVY

“You’re going to have to repeat that.”

Apollo did, this time a little less detailed, and then stared at me.

“They put a hit out on Aella, and every other person in that room’s significant other, because we killed his kid?”I asked, repeating myself for the third time.

Apollo was probably frustrated with me.

“Yes,” he answered.“I’ve been scouring the dark web for the last half hour, and at least two people picked up the contract before I was able to have it removed.”

Nausea churned in my gut as I stared blankly at the tabletop in front of me.

When Apollo had called me to get over to his place as soon as possible, I’d been thinking that there was something going on concerning himself.

I hadn’t expected this.

“I gotta go,” I said as I stood.

My phone rang just as I stood.

Silver.

Again with the nausea.

“Hello?”I answered hesitantly.

There was sniffling and then a distraught voice croaked, “Hey, um, Chevy.This is Silver.You need to get to the hospital.”

Thousands of possibilities raced through my brain, and every single one of them was horrible.

My stomach sank.“What happened?”

There was a long pause and then Silver said, “Someone shot Aella.”

The ride to the hospital was fast because Imadeit fast.

I’d passed quite a few law enforcement officers on my ride, but none of them were able to keep up with me, even though every single one of them tried to and failed.

I also didn’t feel bad about running that old lady off the road because she was going so goddamn slow.

By the time I got to the hospital, I was so fucking scared that I was trembling.

I got to the cubicle in the emergency room that was housing Aella in five minutes, and I knew it was Aella’s room because there was a crowd around the cubicle of all the people she knew in the hospital.

On hesitant, but still rushing feet, I made my way into the space that housed my girl and stopped dead the moment I saw her.

There were so many possibilities that could’ve run through my mind when it came to Aella being shot, but her being shot in the face wasn’t one of them.

Doctors—Val and Felix, the best of the best—were working on her.She had a breathing tube down her throat, and she was lying flat on the gurney as they worked tirelessly to get her stable.

“What happened?”I croaked.

It was Dru of all people that answered.

She caught my hand and pulled me farther out of the way of the chaos surrounding Aella.

“Silver’s in the waiting room.She was really freaking out, so we sent her there with the night charge nurse,” Dru explained.“Let’s go find her.”

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