Chapter 83

“I got him, Eli,” Danny said earnestly, no trace of the usual joviality. “‘E ain’t fuckin’ off and leavin’ me. Ain’t allowed. I got ‘im, yeah?”

Eli’s chest unlocked, and he squeezed Danny’s wrist hard in his bloodied palm.

“Text me the minute you know anything,” Eli said, and pushed Danny in the direction of the ambulance. “Don’t let him go fucking anywhere!”

Danny saluted—and then he was swinging up into the back of the ambulance, the rear door was slamming shut, and—

And Rob was gone. 25

It was nearly forty minutes before Eli got to the hospital.

They’d had to call another ambulance. Eli was shaking too much to drive, and Jenny—of course, because the universe was fucking like that, wasn’t it—had gone into labour. Her waters had broken in the car, and it took a policeman and another paramedic to get her out of it and into an ambulance.

“You best go with her, son, you might need a look-over yourself,” one of the cops said kindly.