Breathe (43 page)

“Faye and me’ll be there in twenty,” Chace told him immediately.

“Right,” Deck replied.

“Do me another favor. Call the Station. Get someone up to that shed. Follow that blood trail. I wanna know where he was comin’ from, he got caught in that trap. I want them to follow his footprints in the show. We haven’t had snow since last week. They’ll show where he went and where he came from. Leads to anything of interest, they don’t approach. They tell me. Once I get Faye in my truck, I’ll call myself to confirm your communication. But I want them on the move now.”

“Right,” Deck repeated.

Chace started moving back to the dining room while he muttered, “Thanks, Deck.”

“No thanks, brother. Shoulda gone back to the homeless guy days ago.”

Chace stopped in the kitchen and said firmly, “You didn’t. But you found him. Now, he’s getting help.”

Deck was silent a moment then, “Yeah.”

“See you in twenty,” Chace stated.

“Later, brother,” Deck murmured.

“Later,” Chace replied then disconnected.

He sucked in breath.

Then he moved to the wide opening that led to the dining room and all eyes came to him.

He only had eyes for Faye.

“Faye, baby, I need to talk to you a second,” he called gently.

She only had eyes for him too and hers were wide and scared.

He watched her face pale and her lips form the silent word, “Malachi.”

But it was Silas who spoke out loud.

“Everything okay, son?”

Chace tore his gaze from Faye and looked to her father.

“No.”

At his word, Faye shoved back her chair and rushed around the table.

When she got close, he caught her hand and moved with her to the family room. He heard murmurings from the other room but he was focused.

When they stopped in the family room, Silas, Boyd and Sondra were with them.

He ignored that and moved into Faye. Lifting a hand to slide the hair off her shoulder, he then curled it around her neck and dipped his face close.

“Deck found Malachi. He’s been injured. It’s not good. They’re takin’ him to County now so we need to go, baby.”

“I’ll get our coats,” she replied immediately, broke from him and ran to the stairs.

“I’ll come with,” Silas announced.

Chace looked to the man. “It’s not –”

“I’ll come with,” Silas reiterated, holding Chace’s eyes a second then he turned to his wife.

Before he could speak, she gave him what he, their daughters and their grandson needed.

“Jarot will get his cake then I’ll be there,” she whispered.

Silas nodded then followed his daughter.

“You need anything, man?” Boyd asked and Chace shook his head.

“We’ll call, we do,” he muttered.

Boyd nodded.

Liza showed at the opening to the room. “Is everything okay?”

Boyd moved to her, murmuring, “Later, babe, let’s get back to our boys.”

Chace watched Liza look searchingly at her husband but she made not a peep as she followed him out of the family room through the kitchen toward the dining room. Boyd slid his arm around his wife’s shoulders, Liza reciprocating with one around his waist.

Sondra moved to Chace, lifted a hand, curled it around his bicep and squeezed while peering into his eyes, her ear dipped to her shoulder, her eyes warm and worried.

Faye ran into the room both carrying his coat and yanking her hair out of the collar of hers.

She came to a rocking halt, offered his coat to him and whispered, “Let’s go, honey.”

He nodded, took his coat, turned to Sondra and said quietly, “Dinner was great, sorry to cut it short.”

She gave his bicep another squeeze before she let him go and whispered, “Drive safe. Call us if there’s news. I’ll see you in a while.”

He nodded again, shrugged on his coat while Faye gave her mother a hug. Then he took her hand, guided her to the stairs and held her hand tight when it seemed she was trying to fight against sprinting to the car.

They got in, got on the road and Silas’s Wrangler headlights were in his rearview mirror when he took her hand, linked their fingers and pressed them to his thigh.

“It’ll be okay,” he whispered.

“Okay, Chace.”

“He’ll be all right.”

“Okay, honey.”

His fingers gave hers a squeeze.

Hers squeezed back.

Then he let her go and reached for his phone.

After he called the Station and confirmed his orders, Chace broke the speed limit on the way to the hospital.

Chapter Thirteen

Sweet

“Sweet.”

Deck spoke so quietly, Chace could barely hear him over the crunching snow.

Chace didn’t process the word because his mind was consumed.

It was consumed with the fact that they’d been walking through the dark wood at the bottom of the eastern hills that flanked town and they’d been doing it for ten minutes. The last five, they’d steadily been moving uphill.

Since leaving Sioux Street, the eastern most street that edged the town, they’d had nothing but trees, rock, snow and bitter cold.

It wasn’t fun for him, a fit man in his thirties. The idea of Malachi making this trek to get what he might need from town filled him with unrest. Or more than he already had. He knew the kid was hiding but finding his spot in the middle of nowhere filled with snow, cold and wild animals, some of which were dangerous, took it to a different level.

Chace’s mind was also consumed with what he left at the hospital.

When Chace, Faye and Silas arrived, they were working on Malachi with urgency and they weren’t allowed to see him.

He flashed his badge and asked for reports when they had them and this got them a visit from an ER nurse five minutes later. She’d made the visit to garner information about Malachi, such as possible allergies to medicines and why he was in the state he was. Unfortunately, they couldn’t tell her jack about medicines but at least they were able to fill in some of the blanks about the state he was in.

Before she left, she’d explained they were concerned about malnutrition, dehydration and infection, not in that order. They’d lucked out and found a vein and were pumping him with fluids and antibiotics, warming him up and cleaning his wounds to assess the extent of damage.

By the time Chace left with Deck to meet the officers at the shed, have a look at it and its surroundings himself, Sondra had arrived and a doctor had come to make his report.

Malachi’s humerus was broken. It had already begun to knit so they’d had to put him under, rebreak it and set it. They’d also lucked out that Deck’s unpracticed eye saw nothing but mess. Malachi had apparently cleaned his wounds as best he could with what they were guessing from what they could smell on his sweater, the shampoo Faye had given him. He also had antibiotic ointment on the worst of them, Faye’s Neosporin. It was good he’d cleaned his wounds and used the ointment but treatment had been delayed, infection was still a concern so they were pushing strong IV antibiotics.

He was in the critical care unit because they still had some concerns that infection had set in and they reported they had minor worries that he might lose his fucking leg
and
his fucking hands.

The hospital had a policy that only family members could attend patients in critical care and therefore, at first, they were denied a visit. Chace explained the circumstances including the fact that it was jacked, but Faye was the closest thing the kid had to family and the only person who they knew who had spoken directly to him in weeks. The doctor relented instantly knowing, even if nurture came from someone he hardly knew, nurture was nurture.

Chace and Faye were let in to see him and at first sight of his small body with tubes stuck in him, his hands wrapped, his face bruised and still swollen, his arm in a sling, the covers taller around his dressed leg, Chace thought Faye would fall apart. Many people would, men or women. Fuck, Chace had to suck in breath to hold it together.

But she didn’t. She moved directly to him, ran her fingers lightly through his hair and bent right to his ear.

“It’s Faye. Chace and I are here, Malachi. We’re here. We found you. You’re safe now,” she whispered. “You’re safe, honey. You just need to get better. We’re here and you’re safe.”

Chace found a chair and moved it to the bed before he put his hand to the small of her back. She was still bent over Malachi running her fingers through his hair but when she felt his touch, her neck twisted and she caught his eyes.

“Sit, baby,” he whispered.

She nodded and sat then pulled the chair closer, stretched out an arm and wrapped her fingers around his bicep.

Chace gave her a moment then slid the hair off her shoulder and bent close.

“Gonna see to business.”

Her head twisted so she could catch his eyes again and she immediately nodded without uttering a question.

But she whispered, “Come back.”

“I will,” he promised. “I’ll send your Mom in.”

She nodded again and turned back to Malachi. “Chace has to go, Malachi. But he’s coming back,” she whispered.

“Give me some room, darlin’,” Chace muttered, Faye’s head jerked to look at him then she moved back in her chair and Chace moved in, leaning over Malachi.

He curled his fingers around his bony shoulder and bent close to his ear. “Stay strong, buddy. You’re good. You got folks lookin’ out for you now.”

He gave him a gentle squeeze, pulled back and looked to Faye to see now, she had wet in her eyes.

He wanted to comfort her but he sensed if he did, the hold she had would unravel.

So he moved in to kiss her nose, pulled back half an inch, locked eyes with her and whispered, “Be back soon.”

“Okay, Chace.”

He shifted away, cupped her jaw in his hand, slid the pad of his thumb over her bubblegum lips then he let her go and walked away.

He gave a brief report to Deck, Silas and Sondra, sent Sondra in and told Silas what he and Deck would be doing. They exchanged phone numbers. Then Chace followed Deck to Sioux Street and into the wood.

Long moments after Deck muttered the first word either of them spoke during their trek, Chace asked, “What?”

“Your woman,” Deck answered. “Sweet.”

He was not in the mood to be given shit about Faye.

“Deck –” he started in a warning tone.

“No shit, Chace. Not what I meant. She’s sweet. Pretty. Great hair. Great ass. Great fuckin’ boots. This shit fuckin’ sucks, that kid, the state of him, what you’re gonna see when you get to that shed, brother, nothin’ good about it. So bad, it’s beyond bad straight to disturbing. So now, you think of what you left back at that hospital. Because, seriously, man, when we get up there, you’re gonna need good thoughts the like of your girl.”

Chace was already preparing himself for what he’d see.

Now he knew it was worse.

Fuck.

Deck wasn’t done.

“Lined up two hundred women, told me to choose the one for you, I’d choose the one back there. Settin’ myself up for what I’m gonna see again, gonna hold onto the knowledge that a year ago, my boy had one serious, fuckin’ bitch sleepin’ in his bed and he was sleepin’ in his guest room. Now, when he’s done with this shit, tonight, tomorrow, until he does the smart thing and makes it legal and then until he dies, he’s got that sweet in his bed. Don’t flip out, I know it’s new between you two. I also know you are no dumb fuck. You got that kinda sweet, you’re gonna make it legal. Since I don’t have sweet to go home to, I’ll hang onto the fact that my brother, who’s always deserved it, finally does.”

Deck and Chace had shared vows of brotherly love over Deck’s Dad’s stolen beer they consumed in Deck’s basement when they were freshmen in high school the first time they got drunk off their asses.

Since then, through a lot of good times and bad, that love grew.

These kinds of words from Deck were rare but they were as real as the feeling behind them. Deck detested Misty, fucking hated Chace’s father and not just recently and he knew the whole story. So they were also not surprising.

They also gave fair warning of what he was going to see.

They walked in silence for a few more minutes before men’s voices could be heard and the beams of high powered flashlights like the ones Deck and Chace were using to light the way could be seen.

“Keaton and Decker,” Chace called to inform them of who was approaching.

They got a “Yo,” and a “Hey,” back from two of the four uniforms on duty, Dave and Terry. Both were new recruits. Dave, a three-year veteran who moved to Carnal from Idaho to be closer to his nearly new wife’s family in Gnaw Bone seeing as she was pregnant and had three sisters and thus they had four built-in babysitters, including her Mom. And Terry, a fresh recruit out of the Academy, hailing from Fort Collins.