The petal heart was still there.
Except that picture of them at The Rooster, she left everything that was them.
Everything.
He turned his head away.
Then he sucked in breath through his nose and walked into the kitchen to blend a shake.
* * * * *
Five days later…
His cell ringing woke him up.
He rolled, tagged it off the nightstand, looked at the display and it said, “Unknown caller”.
Considering his business and the ball Julius got rolling, it could be anyone.
His eyes slid to his alarm clock.
Anyone, even at one thirty in the f**king morning.
He sat up, flipped his phone open, put it to his ear and growled, “What?”
“She’s with Shift right now,” he heard a woman say and he knew that woman.
It was Bessie.
But he couldn’t think of Bessie because he’d stopped breathing.
Bessie kept talking.
“Motherfucker finds out shit, found out she was home, was all over her. And now, way she is, no job, no money, no schoolin’, no fight left in her, no nothin’, that ass**le is gonna be all over her. But you knew that, didn’t you? You just didn’t f**kin’ care.”
She didn’t wait for him to respond. She got finished saying what she had to say and gave him dead air.
But Walker was still fighting for breath.
When he got enough in, he shifted to sitting on the side of the bed and stared at his display in the dark as his thumb moved over the keypad, finding Lexie’s number.
He hit go and put it to his ear.
Two rings then, “We’re sorry. This number is no longer in service…”
“Fuck!” Walker snarled as he shot out of bed.
He flipped the phone closed then back open as he turned on the light and then prowled to the closet. He found the number he needed and put the phone to his ear as he turned on the closet light and headed to his bag.
Three rings then Tate saying, “Ty, this better be good.”
“I need you to fire up your computer right now. I need addresses for Ella Rodriguez, Bessie Rodriguez and Duane Martinez.”
Silence then, “What?”
He tagged his bag and started back to the bedroom. “Bess called. Shift’s got Lexie.”
“Shift?”