“I told you, I’m sure he is in his early thirties.”
“Okay,” he said. “And once again, you’re certain that you don’t have a picture of him?”
“I can describe him though.”
“Does he have any social media accounts that we can employ? Residential address, job or occupation?”
I stared blankly at the officer who was now looking at me as if I was some kind of time waster or I was well out of my mind. “Forget it,” I said. “Just forget.”
“Don’t worry, he’ll turn up when he’s good and ready,” he said mockingly.
The moment I got out of the station, my mission fruitless, and my person labeled mentally unstable, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and drafted a furious text over to Bone.
What the hell is your fucking name?
You’re fucking missing and there’s no way for me to even fucking find you!!!!!!!
I sent the text and hurried back to work in the diner. Somehow, I managed to put Bone into a box in my head and close the lid. I didn’t allow myself to think of him at all.
Three hours later, I walked into the kitchen to see Gloria staring down at my phone as she sloppily munched on a burrito. I had left it on the counter to quickly use the restroom. I was prepared to give her a mouthful when she turned, her face full of teasing fun, and asked me the words that made me stop in my tracks.
“Who is Gage Miller?”
I felt as if the breath had been knocked out of me. I hurried over to pick up the phone and unlock it to see the text from the number that had been ingrained into my head over the last several days. The message simply read:
My name is Gage Miller.
Della Ray
-when I need you-
I held onto my chest, as the relief poured in. The tension had been like an elephant on my chest. Brutal. Tears rushed to my eyes as I looked around with the desperate need to be out of here. “He’s back,” I muttered, my voice shaking. “He’s fucking back.”
“Are you okay?” Gloria asked.
It was only then I realized that I was the object of intense attention of all the staff. “I’m fine,” I replied, and hurried out of the kitchen. The crawl towards 5pm was the longest most excruciating wait of my life. The moment it struck, I was out of the door and on my way to Gage Miller.
When I arrived at his door however, a small scream escaped my lips. The door had been kicked open in a fury, its frame destroyed and the lock dangling in the air. My eyes widened in alarm as I crept into the apartment. It was eerily quiet. There was no one in the living area, so I ran to his bedroom … and found him.
On the floor, just a few inches away from the bed. It looked as though the bed had been his goal, but he had been unable to make it. With my heart in my throat, I instantly hurried over to him. When his full state came into view, I had to cover my mouth with horror.
He was covered in blood, but that wasn’t what was most horrifying. It was the fact that parts of it had blackened with age, which insinuated that he had been in this state for quite a while. The sides of his head and countless parts of his body were caked with dried blood. His left eye was swollen shut with a terrible bruise surrounding it, and on the other side of his face was a deep gash across his cheek that had turned the skin in several nasty shades. The side of his lip was busted open and from his nose ran a fresh trickle of blood.
I had never seen a man or anyone in this condition and I shouldn’t know what to do, but instinct took over and drove me to action. I wasn’t even sure he was alive so when I grabbed to his arm and he winced with pain, I sighed with relief. “Bone,” I called out. “I mean, Gage.”
He muttered something unintelligible.
“We need to get you to a hospital.”
He was too heavy to move even an inch, so I rose to my feet and reached into the purse slung across my shoulders for my cell phone. I was so intent on what I was doing I almost jumped out of my skin when his rough hand closed around my ankle. He mumbled something, but it was too low to make out so I quickly lowered myself to the ground and placed my ear close to his lips.
“Don’t,” he whispered.
“Why the hell not?” I cried. “If you remain in this state any longer you’re going to die!” I couldn’t even imagine how a man could still be alive in the state he was in. I started to rise to continue with my plan stubbornly but he pulled strongly on my limb and even in his injured state, it was strong enough to send me tumbling down to the floor.