The men lifted me into the back seat of what seemed to be a pickup truck as I slipped in and out of consciousness. I tried to stay awake, stay alert, but it was futile. After driving for what felt like a lifetime, we pulled down a long graveldriveway.
As soon as they got me inside and onto the couch, I passed out. The pain was excruciating, the blood loss made me weak, and my head was in a damn fog from getting boot stomped over andover.
* * *
“You’re awake.”A kind smile met me as I tried to sit up a little. My eyes were still swollen to the point that I could barely make out her features other than her long hair and wide grin. “Buck! Trent’s waking up!” the woman’s voice calledout.
“Do I know you?” My voice was raspy from my vocal cords beingbeaten.
She pressed a cool towel to my forehead. “Tre, it’s me, Ava. You served in Iraq with my brother,Kane.”
My mind was a fog. I could barely grasp the memories, just little flickers and flashes. “Buckley?” The name fell off my tongue but feltforeign.
Excitement laced her words. “Yes! That’s right, Kane Buckley. You used to always call himBuck.”
Buck and Ava…it was clicking, the gears slowly turning. Ava was a nurse. Buck was a former jarhead, just like me, and we served together for two tours. He kept his shit together; I fell off thewagon.
Right then, I realized my entire body was shaking. My bones felt like they were on fire. My skin crawled. My head waspounding.
“What happened to you, brother?” Buck’s voice came from behindme.
I shook my head. “I don’t know. Last thing I remember is walking down thestreet.”
Ava forcefully pushed my shoulder down when I tried to sit up to look at her brother. “I don’t know if you have any broken bones yet, Trent. I don’t want you to hurt yourselfmore.”
“What did you take?” Kane’s question wasstern.
Racking my brain, I couldn’t remember for the life of me. Heroin? It felt like I was coming down from heroin, but fuck if I knew for sure. All I knew was that I was going to need another fix fucking soon or I was going to be tweaking out like a madman.
“I can’t remember,” I reluctantlyadmitted.
“Here.” Ava put two familiar-looking pills in my hand followed by three fingers of whiskey in a papercup.
I raised an eyebrow at her before taking the small round blue pills in my hand. I rolled them around until the stamp on the back was visible. I recognized the numbers: 54 199. Thirty milligrams of Roxicodone—yep, that’d do the fucking trick like a charm. I didn’t want to take them, but I knew I needed to. I threw the pills to the back of my throat and chuggedaway.
“You really should be at the hospital. You’re going to need x-rays,” she said, more to her brother than tome.
“No docs, dude, please.” My aching pleas sounded sochildish.
Two men I didn’t know came through the side door of Kane’s house. They were both wearing cuts matching the one on Buck’s back. It had been a little over a year since we both got out of the Marines, and even longer than that since we had seen each other. A lot can change in ayear.
The taller one of the two pointed over to me. “How’s hedoing?”
Buck grabbed beers out of the fridge while answering. “He’s pretty banged up, but he’ll live. Thanks for helping me get him overhere.”
The older of the men sat down in front of me, looking closely at my eyes. “Think you have a concussion,son.”
Ava nodded in agreement. “We’ll keep him up for a while and make sure he doesn’t die onus.”
“Trent, this is Rave and Abel. They’re the president and vice president of my club’s charter in North Carolina. They’re going to take you back withthem.”
“What? Why?” My eyes flew open. Who did Buck think he was making decisions like that forme?
“Because you need to dry the fuck out and you’re not going to be able to do it in Killeen. Trust me, brother, this is for the best. Once you’re good to travel, you’re headingeast.”
* * *
Sittingin church the next day, around the table without Abel sitting at the head was all too surreal. In his place sat Ryder, his son-in-law.