Page 38 of Rival Hero

“Any idea what she’s wearing?”

“I don’t know. I was at work.”

Fuck. I should know what she’s wearing. I should see her every morningandevery night. She shouldn’t be living alone with only my quick drop-ins and Gloria’s visits.

Guilt constricts my chest, making it hard to get a deep enough inhale.

“Her neighbor checks in on her a few times each day. But she’s not answering her phone right now either.”

I answer a few more questions while speeding through town. The dispatcher hangs up after getting all the information I can provide and assures me that the officers are looking for her and will call me if they find her. She said I should call 911 again if the situation escalates.

Escalates?

Like if she…

No. That’s not going to happen. She’ll be fine. I’ll find her, or the police will. She’ll be safe. She has to be. My mother is the kindest person I know, and nothing bad is going to happen to her.

It can’t.

From here on out, I’ll stop procrastinating and make sure she’s safe. I can’t keep pretending this isn’t happening.

Seven minutes later, I pull into a CVS Pharmacy parking lot on two wheels. My stomach flip-flops at the sight of the flashing lights of a patrol car and an ambulance.

Anambulance.

The pulse in my neck thrums wildly, and my throat feels tight. Without bothering to find a parking space, I pull up on the curb, throw it in park, jump out, and sprint toward the scene.

Then I see her.

Pressing my palm to my chest, I release a strangled breath.

My mother’s sitting on the back bumper of the ambulance with a paramedic beside her. She’s not even on the stretcher.Thank Frank.

My phone rings upon my approach, but I disregard it. It’s probably Boss checking on me.

Work doesn’t matter.

Her eyes flicker with immediate recognition when she sees me.Oh good.

The nauseating fear that soon she won’t recognize me bunches in my gut. But for now, she knows who I am.

“Ma, are you okay?”

She opens her arms for me, a beaming smile spread across her face and brows furrowed in confusion.

Wrapping her in an embrace slowly soothes my racing pulse. Thankfully, she’s unharmed.

She’s fine.

This time.

“Calvin, what are you doing here, my love? Why aren’t you in uniform? Why didn’t you tell me you were on leave? This is such a lovely surprise.”

Her words confirm what I already knew to be true. Reality isn’t in her grasp now.

If her disheveled appearance didn’t clue me in to her mental state, the fact that she thinks I’m still in the Army would be a big red flag flapping in the breeze.

Aside from the fact that her clothes don’t match and her hair isn’t combed, she looks fine. Physically.

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