Page 35 of Locke 2

That was usually how it went.

So, who was this do-gooder?

Locke would find out everything about him soon.

But first he needed to know this boy disappeared.

A man in a green trench coat took him.

He catalogued his next movements. He’d need to find the mother. That was the first goal, which might prove to be tricky. Either she would be easy to find, or she’d be using cash, leaving no trace behind. Regardless, he’d find her, but it might take days, and if this boy was truly gone, truly hidden in a hole, his days were numbered.

But could he really be in a hole visited by a demon hiding in a town as righteous as Georgewel?

A man in a green trench coat took him.

A flicker of trepidation raced through him. He remembered the little boy in him, staring up at the door of the hole as it opened. His terrified eyes connected to that man in the green trench coat. The man that smiled coldly down at him.

“How old could he have been?” he whispered to himself. “Thirties? Forties?”

Logic told him this could not be the man Kali was talking about. That man was old now, maybe even dead. He gripped the steering wheel tightly.Please, don’t be fucking dead.

He pulled over into the parking lot of a deserted grocery store. He removed the list from his breast pocket and unfolded it slowly. It’d been folded and unfolded so many times, it was going to fall apart any one of these days.

Trenchcoat Man

Thornby

Pearson

Man in the red shirt

He stared at the line until it didn’t make sense to him.

He should forget about this other boy. Chances were he was taken by his drunk mom to some other town. He could lie to Kali and tell her that was the case. That would speed this whole process along, and then he could have her—finally have her.

Even though she didn’t want him at all.

What a miserable realisation that was. His fingers shook. There was a lot of pain in that. She would have continued to live her life. She didn’t want him. He didn’t blame her. Still. She didn’t want him, and it still hurt even as he understood why she didn’t and shouldn’t.

He thought he might have her, but she didn’t want him. He didn’t have anyone.

No one wanted him.

Charlotte wasn’t his to need anymore.

Conor was rebuilding himself.

Dominic was scarred and altered.

Jem…

Locke tapped the steering wheel and cleared his throat, trying to banish the strange knot sitting there.

Jem.

He gritted his teeth, shaking his head to shake away the thoughts but…Jem was like him. Jem had no one. No one wanted Jem.

The broken truly were forgotten.

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