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ever again, since we were permanently attached. For a while, I believed her. That is until we got to the car.
    But as quickly as that memory fades, the pain rips into me again. My body jerks off the bed and I crash against the headboard, feeling pain sear my arm. I’m momentarily grateful for it, but it doesn’t last nearly long enough. The pain in my head overrides it and it’s all I can feel again.
    The door opens and closes and men are talking, but I can’t hear what they’re saying through my agony. I’m caught in the vise of it and I can’t concentrate. Maybe they’re discussing what to do with me. Maybe they’ll kill me. I wish they’d be quick about it.
    Then I hear, “Fuck. Colt, we have to do something here. She’s in so much pain, she tried to shoot herself.”
    “ Let me see what I can do, Drex.”
    “Well , make it fast. You have the names of her medications. Have one of the guys slip into her place and get them.”
    “Drex, you know …”
    “Goddammit, then I’ll do it. I’ll take responsibility. Have you gotten that rusty?”
    Their words don’t make sense to me other than one of them wants to help me. That’s more than anyone’s done in a while. Well, that’s not really fair. People have tried to help. My case just seems resistant to treatment, they say.
    “Get one of your men in here on watch. I need to pull up the data on her apartment.”
    And then it’s quiet for a bit. The jackhammer pounds away, the axe man still splitting my skull. I lie still on the bed, my hand gripping my head, my heart praying for relief.

 
     
     
    N ever in my life have I seen someone suffer like that from a headache. Torture, yes. But not a damn headache. What the hell happened to her? After I make a thorough check of her apartment complex using Colt’s computer, I figure out the best way in and out. Since I have her keys, getting in won’t be a problem. My worry is that the place is being watched, and I don’t want to alert them to my presence.
    “I need a long-haired blond wig. A hat and some sunglasses. Get me some ratty jeans and some boots with three-inch lifts in them. And I want a tattoo on my arm of a scorpion.”
    Colt shakes his head. “Anything else?”
    “Yeah, fake teeth. Big ones that are brownish-yellow. Something someone would remember if asked. Oh, and a bushy mustache.”
    “You got it. Give me thirty.”
    I didn’t think any of it would be a problem , other than the teeth. But they use the new dental impressions now and can make them in no time at all. And I won’t need the kind I can eat with, only the kind for show.
    A bout a half hour later, the guys return with the disguise. It takes the tattoo dude about ten minutes too long to get the scorpion on my arm, but when he does, it’s big, red, and perfect. Anyone would remember it if they saw it.
    “How long will this stay on?”
    “You can wash it off when you get back.”
    When I’m decked out, I check myself in the mirror. I swear if my mother saw me, she wouldn’t recognize me.
    “ See you in an hour. If you don’t hear from me in two, send in the posse.”
    “Wolfe, be careful.”
    “Always am, Colt.”
     
     
    I drive around her building a few times before I park. Sure enough, her place is being watched. One car with two men inside. As I make a phone call, I video and photograph the car so the guys back at the hotel can see them. I get in and out without a problem. Apparently my getup works because no one stops me, but when I’m driving back to the hotel, I pick up a tail. It’s a different car than the one at the apartment. They must’ve had her place bugged.
    I call Colt. “Hey, I’m being tailed.”
    “No surprise there. What do you want?”
    “A freight train. Can you get me one?”
    Colt laughs. “Doubtful. I can detain them for a bit, though.”
    “Better than a freight train. Why didn’t I think of that?”
    “Um, because I’m so fucking creative.”
    “Oh, right, smart-ass. Where do you want