With every second that passed, I felt this tightening in my chest. Not because I loved her or because I even wanted to sleep with her again. But because I was failing, and I didn’t fail at anything.
I kicked in the next door, only to find yet another empty warehouse. “Seriously, what the fuck is the point of warehouses if they’re all empty!” I shouted into the empty space.
“Dude, you need to calm down,” Sinner said.
“Calm down?” I laughed, holding my arms out wide. “We’re in the land of empty warehouses. In what world does that even make sense? How does someone make money when they store nothing? Hey! Here’s a building that holds nothing!”
“He’s losing it,” Derek muttered.
“Nope, he lost it long ago,” Sinner sighed. “The only thing we can do is hold on for the ride.”
“Except there is no ride,” I laughed. “This is it. We’re on the never-ending rollercoaster of nothing! We won’t ever findanything, and we can’t fix anything because there’s nothing to fix because there’s nothing around!”
“Should we shoot him?” Derek asked.
“What good would that do? Then we’d just have him yelling while in pain.”
I rushed forward, grabbing the gun in Sinner’s hand, though he wouldn’t let go. Pointing it at my head, I taunted him. “Go ahead, shoot me. Maybe it’ll clear out all the shit in my head!”
“He’s lost it,” Sinner nodded.
“No, what I’ve done is had a moment of clarity. Because ever since I woke up, I’ve had this raging headache that won’t go away. I can’t think straight. I can’t get a handle on anything. And all I really want is some fucking sleep, but I can’t get that because I lost Parker’s sister. And if he finds out that I lost his sister, I’ll sleep for a really long time, but I’ll never wake up!” I laughed. “Because I’ll be dead!”
“Yeah, we caught on to that,” Derek murmured.
“So, either way I’m screwed.”
“You’re not screwed. Maybe delusional, but not screwed,” Sinner said calmly. “Though I would recommend getting at least a week’s sleep before you talk to Parker again. You’re fucking losing it, man.”
“Oh shit,” Derek sighed. “This is because of the L word.”
“This is not the L word,” I argued. “Trust me, we’re nowhere near the L word.”
“Yeah, I think you are. You don’t talk like this unless the big L is staring you in the mirror.”
“No,” I hissed. “It has nothing to do with this. I don’t even believe in it!”
“Well, if it’s not the L word?—”
“It’s not!” I snapped, turning for the exit.
“Where are you going?” Sinner called.
“To check the other warehouses! We still have three more to go through.”
I stomped across the gravel to the next warehouse, not being nearly careful enough for the kind of operation we needed to be performing, but I couldn’t help myself. I was a wreck.
And right now, I was putting my team and the women in danger with my actions.
But, as it turns out, I didn’t need to worry about a damn thing. The door to the next warehouse flung open and the ladies strode out in a plume of smoke.
I rushed forward with Storm, grabbing Carmen by the arms and shaking her just to be sure she was real.
“Are you okay?”
“Of course I’m okay,” she said, staring at me strangely.
“But—you were taken!”