Page 49 of Two Chances

Probably high out of his fucking mind.

“Thanks,” Alex muttered when I climbed into the car and yanked on my seatbelt.

“Who did this to you?”I asked, my tone firm.

“Dunno.”

“Why’d they do it?”I shut off my lights and pulled away from the curb.

He didn’t answer.

“Alex!”

“Huh?”His head thumped against the passenger window, another groan leaking from his bloody mouth.

“What the fuck were you doing in this part of Lynn anyway?And where’s your car?”I tacked on, suddenly realizing I hadn’t seen it nearby where he’d been lying.

Alex tried to lift his head to look around, clearly dazed.“I…I dunno?”

“You don’t know what you’re doing in Lynn or where your car is?”I asked for clarity.

“Met…client,” he muttered, his eyes closing once more.

Sure he did.

“And your car?”

He didn’t answer.

“Alex!”

“Huh?’

“Where’s your goddamned car?”

“Dunno.”

Fucking hell.

Growling through my nose, I kept my lips in a thin line and my other questions to myself.It wasn’t like he was going to be truthful anyway.My best friend, myex-lover, was higher than a goddamned kite.No doubt, he’d been looking for more pills.A fix to ease the itching inside him.

I’d seen him desperate before and wouldn’t have been surprised to hear he’d traded his BMW for a few thousand dollars’ worth of opioids.

It was late enough that Alex’s boys would be in bed, so I reluctantly decided to take him home.Through clenched teeth, I told Siri to text Teresa then gave her the simple facts.Her husband was high.Beaten to a bloody pulp.We would be there soon.

“Do you have any drugs on you?”I asked Alex after sending the message.

He didn’t answer.

“You fucked up, Alex,” I stated, my grip on the steering wheel when all I wanted to do was slap him across his bruised and bleeding face.“If you don’t knock this shit off—get your head out of your ass—you’re going to lose your family.Teresa and the boys.You hear me?”

He didn’t reply or make any indication my words registered in his head.

Fucking asshole was ruining his life and didn’t even care.

Goddamned drugs.

Teresa met us at the front door five minutes later, robe wrapped tight around her slender form, hair atop her head in a messy bun.Wetness coated her eyes, but she didn’t speak as I fireman-carried her fuck-up of a husband into the house and up the stairs to their bedroom.

---