Damon (20 page)

“As much as I hate to say it, I hope he finds her first
. I
f she finds him with her son, she won’t be rational. I know I wouldn’t
. I
’d tear into the bastard and get myself killed f
or either one of my children.”

Dane rubbed her belly; the baby kicked her back
. S
he knew that what Cait said was true
. A
nthony would hurt Charlie, but not enough to kill her
. E
ven though her child was still inside of her, she knew she wouldn’t be rational either.

Cait stood and helped Dane up as she spoke
. “
Come on
. L
et’s go rally the troops and find our new sister
. H
eaven help her when Damon gets her back
. I
love him to death, but damn, he loves Charlie.”

~~~

Charlie knew she was being followed
. W
hoever it was wasn’t being very quiet, nor were they particularly fast
. S
he tucked herself into a pocket of a doorway and waited for him or her
. S
he had nearly fallen asleep when she heard someone walking close by
. S
he was nearly on top of the person when she realized it was Connor.

“Damn it, Connor!
You scared me to death
. W
hat are you doing out here?
You’ll get your butt back to that house and stay there until Damon comes for you
. I
should whip you for this
. D
o you have any idea what could have happened
to you out at night all alone?
Whose coat is thi
s? Jamie’s? You took Jamie’s coat too?
Oh Connor, what am I going to do with you?”

“You’re out here
. I
don’t think you’re very smart right now either
. D
o yo
u even have a gun or anything?
How you gonna kill Mr. O if you don’t have nothing to do it with?
Huh?
And I’m not going back
. Y
ou were always te
lling me that we were a team.
Well, you can’t be a team all by yourself
. I
’m going with you or I’ll keep running away until…until Damon puts me in prison
. H
A!”

Charlie doubted that Damon would put him in prison, but she knew what Connor was trying to say
. H
e would keep running away until he got himself killed or he found her
. C
harlie gathered him into her arms and held him
. S
he wasn’t sure what she would do with him, but was very glad he was with her.

“All right, but we stay together
. N
o running off and finding lovely doctors and his family to keep us patched up
. I
mean it, Connor
. Y
ou stay with me.”

“I’ll stay with you, Momma, but I’m not going to promise that I won’t go find somebody to patch you up if you’re hurt
. I
’m gonna take care of you no matter what.”

Charlie couldn’t fault him for that
. S
o she hugged him again and then reached out for his hand
. S
he didn’t know how she was going to hide from Anthony, and now with Connor, it would twice as hard
. S
he knew that she would die for him; she just hoped that he wouldn’t have to die for her
. T
he thought of losing Connor was too much
. T
hey made their way to the bus station
. G
etting out of town had to be their first priority, but right now, all they had between them was just over a hundred dollars.

“Connor,
where did you get that money?
I hope you didn’t take more from Anthony just in case we might need it
. I
t’s bad enough that we took what we did
. I
hate that we stole his money.”

“No
. I
wouldn’t take nothing from him
. I
got it for working for my uncles…I mean the Grants
. M
r. Devin paid me for helping his wife bring in the groceries, and the others did too
. I
saved it for my…I just saved it.”

Charlie felt bad for Connor
. S
he knew he had been saving the money to fix up the bedroom Damon had given him
. S
he wanted to sit down and cry for all that he had lost
. S
he also wondered if he wo
uld ever forgive her for this.

“I’m sorry, Connor
. I
’ve been such a lousy mother to you lately
. I
wanted you to have so much more than me
. I
wanted you to…I will make this up to you
. I
swear I will
. I
just don’t know…I didn’t want to go live with him
. I
wanted us to be our own family, you and I
. W
hy did he do this to us?”

Connor hugged her to him
. H
e was such a great kid
. S
he honestly didn’t know what she’d do without him
. M
oving into the
well-lit
bus station, she went up to the counter and wiped at her tears
. W
ouldn’t do either of them any good if she cried for a month, she thought
. R
ight now she had to figure out how far they could go on what little they had on them.

“Okay, kiddo
. I
t seems we have more choices than I thought we would
. W
e can go to Cincinnati or we can go to Cleveland
. I
don’t know much about either place other than one is the capitol of this state and the other used to be
. W
hat do you think, shall we flip a coin for it?”

That’s how they ended up in Ohio in the first place
. T
hey’d flipped a coin to see if they went to California o
r they went to Washington DC.
She was glad now that they hadn’t gone to either
. S
he would never have met Damon and his family if they had
. A
nd as much as it hurt to admit it, she knew s
he’d never love anyone again.
She was glad that she had been able to see what true love was like before she died.

“Let’s go to Cincinnati
. I
think we could run to Kentucky if we need to
. W
e got nowhere to go up there in Cleveland but Canada and we don’t have a passportal.”

“Passport
. B
ut you’re right
. O
kay, Cincinnati it is
. T
he next bus leaves in two hours
. W
ith the tickets, we’ll have about ten bucks left
. W
ould you like to eat no
w or later when we get there?”

They decided to eat later
. I
t was going to take them six hours to get to their destination and neither of them was looking forward to the long ride
. T
hey could have gotten on a quicker bus, but that was more expensive.

~CHAPTER
16
~

They were all at Jamie’s house an hour later except for Dane and Cait, and Damon was on his way
. D
ane and Cait showed up about an hour after Damon had finished up the autopsy, and he was headed toward them when Jamie called him again.

“My gun is missing, as well as my cell phone
. I
don’t know which one of them took my coat, but my gun and phone were in the pocket
. C
hrist, I’m so sorry, Damon.”

Damon pulled over to the side of the road and tried to wrap his mind around the fact that Jamie had left a gun out where it could be taken
. D
amon wanted to scream at his brother, but knew that it wouldn’t do him a bit of good
. D
amon just laid his head on the steering wheel and tried to think.

“Was it loaded?
I’m assuming that it was
. J
amie, do you have any idea what could happen if…I’m sorry, this isn’t your fault
. I
just hope to Christ that Charlie got it and not Connor
. H
ave
you heard from either of them?
Maybe called them?”

“Yeah, I’ve been trying for the past ten minutes, since I figured out the phone was missing
. I
t goes straight to voicemail
. I
don’t know whether or not I turned it off when I got here or if the battery is dead
. A
nd thanks, but it is my fault
. I
never thought…that’s no excuse, but I never thought about Connor getting it
. I
guess I’ll have to be better at this with a kid coming along
. D
amon, I’m so sorry
. Y
ou have no idea how bad I feel.”

“Call Cait. See if they can put a trace on the phone even if it’s off
. I
’m on my way to your house right now
. W
e have to find them, Jamie
. T
hey’re everything to me.”

“I know
. I
’m so sorry
. I
’ll call Cait now and see what she can do
. I
f nothing else, we can keep trying to call them and see if they’ll get us.”

Damon hung up and sat in his car for long moments
. W
hen he felt as if he couldn’t breathe, he got out of his car and walked around the pull off
. H
e tried to think what she would do. 

First of all, she hopefully had Connor with her
. H
e would have followed her out of the house
. F
or some reason, Damon knew that Connor had Jamie’s coat
. C
onnor probably got downstairs and rather than run back upstairs to get his, he took Jamie’s so that he could follow her sooner.

Money
. H
e knew that Connor had some, probably about twenty bucks
. W
hen they had first come to him, Charlie had about ninety dollars on her
. H
e wasn’t sure if she had any more, but even if she did, it wouldn’t be much
. W
here would they go with
only about a hundred dollars?
The first place that came to mind was the bus station
. C
harlie knew that way and riding the bus would be cheap
. H
e got back into his car to go there when his phone rang again
. C
ait.

“I just talked to Jamie
. I
have a car going to the bus station now
. I
’m not sure if she’s had time to get there or not, but someone will be there when she does
. I
’m going to wring Jamie’s neck about the gun
. O
f all the stupid things to do…he needs to put in a gun safe
. I
’ll make sure he does it as soon as we get them back, Damon
. W
e will too.”

“I was just heading to the bus station now
. I
don’t know how far they can go
. I
don’t think they have that much money
. W
hat did you get
from the crime scene and Dane?
Was she able to confirm that this guy Ormond did it?”

“Yes
. H
e did it
. I
’d rather you didn’t go to the station just yet
. I
don’t want to spook her and I’m afraid if she se
es you then she’ll run again.
Not to get away from you but to save you
. S
he may have been right when she thought he’d hurt us to get to her and Connor
. D
ane says that he’s been at this for a very long time
. I
have more information that I’d rather give you in person
. H
e’s insane, and Dane seems to think he’ll kill both of them if he finds them
. I
have a call to his boss in Nevada
. I
asked him about any missing young women recently and he seemed to think that was funny
. W
hen I explained that I had a dead body out here with is boy’s signature all over it and that it would look bad on his department if it got out they were uncooperative in a murder investigation, he decided to help me out
. H
e’s going to Ormond’s house now to check it out
. W
e’ll fi
nd them, Damon.”