BAE BOY

2-25

I rushed toward Rick going, "What the fuck?!"

They'd rushed Rashad to the same hospital Kendall was in, but to Emergency, 'way over in a different building from where she was. I found Rick in the big waiting room, just coming out of one of those booths where they talk to you about insurance and whatnot. He was handling all that for Rashad, of course.

He had blood and upholstery bits still all over his shirt. Blood smears on his face, too. And he looked more pissed than scared. Which was going to be bad news for somebody. You really don't want to piss Rick off.

"We got fuckin' ambushed," he said, heading for a water fountain where he put some water on his hand and wiped at his face. I found a napkin from Kendall's room in my pocket and finished the job for him, since he was only smearing it around with his fingers.

"It's lucky I sorta bent down after I got in the goddamned car," he said. "I dropped my phone, you know? It sort of flipped out of my hand and I ducked down to get it and BLAM! There's blood and shit flyin' all over the place. I think whoever it was sort of aimed at me first but when I moved, he over corrected or something."

"Jesus Christ! Why would--"

"Gotta be that fuckin' cop! Son of a bitch..."

"You think it's Friendly?"

"Of course! He warned me--you, too."

"Would he bite the hand, though? He needs you."

"Right now, he might do anything. He's a fuckin' lunatic."

My cell buzzed, so I checked to see if it was Kendall going crazy waiting to hear about Rick. But it was Aisha, sending us a text that said, "Look here," with a link to a local TV station's site.

It was a clip of some reporter, standing in front of a different club, one of the oldest topless bars in town. And he was saying:

"A second well-coordinated wave of violence and vandalism has Tucson business owners on edge today. Several local adult entertainment clubs were riddled with bullets, and five popular local bars and concert venues were vandalized with graffiti and smeared with excrement.

The Redeemers, a radical white nationalist group, has claimed responsibility for the citywide rampage. Their leader, born Eugene Simpson, called only "Justice" by group members, is a former Viet Nam veteran who joined an Alt-Right Christian brotherhood during a prison stay. A former Redeemer had this to say about the group's leader..."

And then this white skater kid sorta like me comes on, and goes, "Most guys in those kinda groups, they don't believe in any religion, you know? But that one's all about the Bible. Prophecy. He believes he was called by Jesus Christ has to lead his people back to their rightful place as the superior race."

And when the reporter said, "His people?"

The kid goes, "White people. He goes out there lookin' for, like, real Aryan looking white kids--runaways and stuff. Lately, he's been talkin' up this Joe Childers dude, the one running for governor or something. He tells 'em guys like that are bein' used by God to get the message out."

I went, "Ho-ly shit! I know that guy!"

"That kid?" Rick asked.

"No, that Nam vet guy. He's the one--"