Page 50 of Scar

“You too! Let me know what’s going on as soon as you can.”

Tally promised and hung up before Simone began to question her more. Folding up her cane but keeping hold of it in her hand, Tally sprinted down the sidewalk towards her burning restaurant. Despair tried to drag her down, to slow her steps, but Tally pushed forward.

She didn’t know specifically where her mystery man was and hoped he was okay.

The heat of the inferno was intense. The closer she got to her restaurant, the more inaccurate her echolocation was. From the roar of the fire and the shouting of the firemen, plus the police sirens and spectators, Tally truly felt blind for the first time in a long time. She was forced to stop running and unfold her walking cane.

Where was her mystery man? It sucked that she didn’t have a way to contact him.

She knew she was about two blocks from her restaurant. Not having much choice, she found the nearest wall and put her back to it. Pulling out her phone, she instructed the device to call Tom.

He picked up almost immediately. “Tally, where are you?”

“About two blocks from my restaurant. I can’t get any closer, there’s too much going on.” She had a feeling she was shouting, but it was hard to tell with the vortex of noises all around her.

“I’m almost there. Maybe ten minutes. Stay where you are so I can find you.”

Tally’s chin trembled. Shehatedwhen she had to rely on someone else, but she didn’t have a choice. It wasn’t like in the movies where the blind person would unknowingly walkintothe fire, but she had no hope of finding a police- or fireman to help her in this chaos. “I’ll stay,” she promised Tom. “If my guess is correct, I’m outside the pet shop down the street from my place.”

“I’ll be there as quick as I can.” She heard something in his voice that told her he was wishing she’d just stayed put outside her apartment. But how could she? She needed todo something.

Feeling antsy, Tally said in a trembling voice, “I need to call my dad.”

“Stay where you are,” Tom instructed. “Make sure he knows I’m on my way.”

Tally hung up. She was trying and failing to hold back her tears. The dial tone rang once before she heard her dad’s voice on the other line. “Daddy?”

* * *

Tally was goneby the time Scar made it back to her apartment with the little boy. Once he laid him down on her awful-colored couch, Scar checked the boy for injuries. He woke up briefly before passing out again. He’d have a good bruise on his cheek, but there was no blood. Scar placed one of Tally’s pillows under his head and then tucked the blanket around him.

He poured a cup of water from the filtered pitcher in her fridge and placed some crackers and cheese on a plate. Scar felt bad about leaving the boy alone, but he needed to get going. Gordon Tremont would likely be in one of two places at this time of night. If he wasn’t at the first, which was closer, it would take time for Scar to get to his penthouse downtown.

Once outside, he turned his head towards the glow of the fire. Instinct told him to hunt down the man who’d destroyed her business, the thing shelovedmost…so then why did he feel a pull to go to her? To…comforther? To be withher?

Scar shook it off. His place was not at her side. It never would be. He’d forgotten that these past two weeks, gotten distracted. And look what happened? He hadn’t seen this coming. If he’d paid more attention to what was going on around Tally instead of being captivated by Tally herself, he might have been able to prevent her restaurant from being burned to the ground.

He needed to make this right. Then he needed to get out of Atlanta and away from the distraction that was Tally Meacham.

* * *

Gordon Tremont owneda number of warehouses in the city. They were all under shell corporations, but that pyramid all led back to one man.

Scar had been doing a lot of digging into Tremont’s various pies. He was not as good or as fast as Keys, but he had connected Tremont to several specific locations throughout the city. What he didn’t understand is why those locations. They seemed random to him, but they had to be strategic to a man like Tremont. He wouldn’t spend millions on real estate that was useless to him.

Scar wished he was as proficient as Keys in solving the puzzle. He was better at the…bloodieraspects of an investigation. He didn’t have the patience to unravel such mysteries.

As he neared Tremont’s warehouse office, where he did hisrealbusiness, Scar had to wonderwhyTally was so different. Yes, she was intriguing and he admired her, but was that enough to have stayed his hand? He was only supposed to be in Atlanta for a few days. Take pictures, send them to Alpha. In, out.

He rolled his left shoulder, feeling a light twinge of pain. He’d been working on building up his strength again, but his shoulder was still weak. Fucking doctors. Scar had been so distracted by Tally that he hadn’t even stepped away from her long enough to get an MRI done of his shoulder and learn the true extent of the damage.

He was better than he’d been a month ago, but he still did not have full function back.

Despite the late hour, there was a lot of commotion on the warehouse property. Scar slipped into the gated area, avoiding the security guards and cameras. He made his way past all the trucks that were being loaded and the men shouting at each other to “hurry up”.

Scar saw crates of what looked to be electronics. Since Tremont did not own any electronic stores, Scar doubted very much that those electronics were legit, but that wasn’t his mission. He needed to find Tremont and then get back to Tally.

Guilt squeezed his chest uncomfortably. He’d left Tally alone to deal with the fallout of her restaurant being on fire. Scar had to close his eyes and mentallypushthat thought aside. It was not his place to help her with such things. He could never stand beside her and be the person she leaned on in a crisis.

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