Breathe

Chapter Eighteen My Sister

Chace blinked away sleep, feeling Faye cuddled close to him, smelling her hair, her lingering perfume and seeing the late April sun streaming into her apartment.

His first response was to curl her, already close, closer.

His first thought was that weekend they were going to the mall so they could buy sheets like hers for his bed.

He liked her apartment, he liked the look of it, its vibe, its proximity to La-La Land and work, both his and hers, but he was done with it. Done with two places, two closets, two fridges to fill and morning conversations about which of their two beds they’d end the day in.

She could bring her look and vibe to his place.

He’d decided she was moving in.

This would likely be frowned upon by her mother and father and thus make Faye hesitate.

So he reckoned he best put his ring on her finger.

They hadn’t been together very long so she could have a long engagement just as long as she spent that engagement with his diamond on her finger and her heart-shaped ass in his bed.

Thoughts of her ass sent his hand down to it.

She’d altogether stopped pulling her panties on before going to sleep. She slept in her nighties, something he liked. They were sexy. They felt good. They looked great. But he loved it that she’d shunned the panties.

Which meant, in bed, he always had an all access pass.

He smoothed his palm over her ass as his other arm tightened around her waist, pulling her even closer. She stirred, tilting her head slightly back, her eyes fluttering, taking their time opening before he had her crystal.

“Hi,” she whispered and his hard cock twitched.

“Mornin’, baby,” he whispered back.

His eyes moved over her face.

He liked her hair like that. It did what she always did, the thick, long bang highlighted her eyes, the layers down the sides did the same to the line of her neck. It was subtle but effective. It made her look more mature but still her age. It was stylish and it was unconsciously sexy.

She snuggled even closer, he ran his hand back over her ass, her hips pressed into his and she tipped her head back further, her eyelids going half-mast.

It was an invitation he took, bending his neck to give her a soft, short, deep kiss.

When he broke it, he murmured against her lips, “You wanna sleep in and I’ll run? Or you wanna make love? Or do you wanna fuck?”

That got him a languid blink before she tipped her chin, moved in and he felt her lips against his throat.

It took her a while to pull it together and he was beyond fucking thrilled when she whispered a word she rarely used but one that never failed to affect him when her soft, quiet, musical voice wrapped around it.

“Fuck.”

Oh yeah.

His fingers dug into her ass, his arm around her waist slid up, his hand diving into her hair. He fisted it, gently pulled her head back and bent his to take her mouth.

This kiss was not soft or short. But it was deep.

Then Chace rolled into her.

Then he set about fucking her.

Chace moved with his empty plate to the sink where Faye was, making a mental note that he didn’t have to buy a new robe. He’d dumped his old one and now at his place she grabbed one of his shirts or tees and since he had the same in her closet and drawers, she’d taken to doing that at her place too.

Which was what she was wearing now, one of his clean shirts, sleeves rolled up, hair wet from their shower, standing at the sink doing breakfast dishes.

He set his plate beside the sink, moved into her back and swept her hair aside so it was mostly hanging over one shoulder, just a sweet layering around her neck.

He dropped his lips there as he slid a hand along her belly

He kissed her lightly then moved his lips to her ear. “Nervous about tonight?”

The Town Council meeting to discuss the future of the library was that night. So far, she hadn’t displayed much reaction to all that was happening. That didn’t mean he didn’t read her concern but she wasn’t letting on she was panicked or freaked.

Then again, they had thousands of signatures on petitions, Cesar had hundreds of phone calls and even people from Chantelle and Gnaw Bone were getting into the action seeing as if Carnal’s library fell, they’d lose that resource too. This included Nina Maxwell sticking her nose into things and Nina didn’t do things by half measures. This was why they had thousands of signatures on petitions. Nina had them circulating around the entire county.

Hands in the soapy water, Faye turned her head, Chace lifted his and she gave him her eyes.

“Not really,” she said quietly. “Maybe I should be but I’m more worried about the fact that Malachi still hasn’t spoken.”

Reflexively, his hand pressed into her stomach.

He was worried about that too. As was everyone including Malachi’s psychologist.

This didn’t only say worse things about what went down with the kid, it also tied their hands with finding who abused him. They had nothing. Zero. Unless they could get it out of him, that was going nowhere.

But recently, it was more.

He’d seemed to be settling. Silas and Sondra were making efforts at socializing him so he went with them to town for dinner, they took him to the library to see Faye, took him grocery shopping. He didn’t seem comfortable with this. He was watchful, wary, but he did it and, like everything else, seemed to be settling into that too.

Except for not speaking and having unusual reactions to everyday things like the television, phones and radios, he was a normal kid. He liked video games. He liked books. He’d gotten used to TV, phones and radios. He paid attention to those around him, laughed, smiled and often bent his head and scribbled on his notebook to share a quip, what he was thinking, feeling or wanted. Which meant they’d learned the kid had a cute sense of humor, he liked Modern Family and he had a massive sweet tooth.

But what he shared was never deep. It was never personal. He was amongst them and a part of them but he held himself detached. Although he had definitely formed a bond with Silas and Sondra, the only people he didn’t seem detached from were Chace and Faye. It took a while for Chace to get in but when he got in, he was in. The kid didn’t latch himself to either of them but his eyes followed them around a room if they moved, he paid more attention to them when they were speaking and if they left a room, he eventually followed in order to stay close. It wasn’t like he crawled into their laps but if they were with him, he was never far.

But even though they had that connection, he didn’t share with Faye or Chace either.

And in the last week, he seemed the same yet still more distant.

Something was on his mind and even though they all, in their individual ways, tried to find out what it was, he wasn’t sharing.

It was Wednesday, a week and a half after Faye and Chace went to Aspen. Over a month since they found Malachi.

It was time to push.

Chace moved from Faye’s back, grabbed a dish towel, a clean plate in the drainer and started wiping. “I’ll call Karena at CPS and his psychologist. Have a chat with them. See if they agree it’s time to step this shit up.”

Her head twisted to him and her hands arrested in cleaning his plate. “I don’t want him alarmed, Chace.”

“You think I’d do that in a million years, baby?” he asked gently.

He watched her draw in breath before she shook her head.

“No, I wouldn’t,” Chace confirmed. “Never. But he’s gotta get better. He’s gotta start school next year. He’s gotta make friends and the only way he can really feel safe is if we can catch who fucked him up and deal with them so he knows they’ll never hurt him again.”

She sighed, nodded and went back to her plate.

Seconds later, she whispered to the plate, “I’ll kill them.”

“What?” Chace asked.

She rinsed it, put it in the drainer and went after the cutlery at the bottom of the sink.

“You find them, you keep them away from me. I won’t be responsible for what I do if I get near them,” she threatened in her soft, sweet voice which made Chace smile but he didn’t let his amusement become audible. This was because he thought she was cute but she was also being very serious.

When he could keep the humor out of his tone, he promised her, “They’ll be sorted, Faye.”

“I hope so,” she muttered, wiping down the cutlery.

“They’ll be sorted.”

She nodded to the sink, rinsed the cutlery and put it in the drainer. Then she moved to the stove to get the skillet and it occurred to Chace she felt this depth of emotion for a kid she didn’t help create, she didn’t carry in her womb, she didn’t bring into the world.

Which meant when they eventually got down to making a family, she’d give this and likely more to their brood.

Something she had, always.

Something he never did.

Something he’d always wanted.

Something their kids would take for granted.

He’d fucked up, not sharing his secrets, not trusting in the strength she’d displayed since he met her, transferring on her in her shyness his mother’s frailty. It might have been an understandable fuck up but it was a fuck up.

But they had it out, she helped him let it go and then she let it go. The next day it was Chace and Faye, no rehashing it, no searching comments, no penetrating looks. She was over it, she’d helped him over it, she was moving on and she took him with her. Except for the fact that they both understood the depth of their feelings for each other, their commitment to their relationship and that bringing them indelibly closer, drama over, onward.

That was going to be his life. Faye at his side. Faye at his back. Dramas, fights, they’d happen, they’d end and they’d move on. And his kids would have that too, all of it, her devotion, her strength, her brand of quiet but fierce protection and her ability to sort through the shit, lay it out and move on.

He put the last plate away feeling his lips tipped up as she scoured the skillet and he grabbed the cutlery to dry it as he watched her rinse the skillet, the water running over her hands.

Naked hands.

Yeah, he needed to put a ring on her finger.

Soon.

“I’m uncertain why you have a voice in this meeting, Mrs. Maxwell, you don’t even live in Carnal,” Mary Eglund asked, snippy and impatient.

It was eight seventeen in the evening and Chace was sitting in the Town Hall next to Faye and trying with decreasing success not to laugh his ass off.

This was because it was no longer a mystery and also not a surprise that it was Mary Eglund, known as a Jesus Freak and not the handing out daisies and pamphlets kind, was behind the attempted library closure. This was also because, after a few opening comments by Cesar followed by a few inflammatory remarks from Mary, the floor was opened up.

Krystal Briggs got there first and tore the Council a new one, swiftly and succinctly and managed to do it without any cursing.

On her heels stepped up Nina Maxwell whose wrong side Chace decided never to get on because she might be passionate but she was also eloquent and she had an English accent so all that sass was tied up in some serious class.

She was also very pretty and when Chace could stop watching her, he watched Max watching his wife. Most of the time, Max was grinning. Some of it, he was shaking his head but doing it grinning. Some of it, he was trying to control the active toddler he had at his knee at the same time holding a sleeping baby cradled in his arm. All of it denoting he was pussy-whipped in that good way like Tate, Ty and now, Chace.

Cesar, Chace noted right off the bat, was playing this smart. He had no intention of shutting down the library. Mary had minimal support from the other Council members, none of whom had said that first word. He was keeping his mouth shut, letting Mary have her meeting at the same time letting her dig her own grave.

Mary was digging it but Nina had handed her the shovel.

“You sit on the City Council,” Nina retorted. “Therefore I can only assume, as part of your duties, that you are aware of the funding sources of local amenities including the fact that taxpayer dollars from the entire county go to Carnal in order to keep the library doors open. Therefore, the citizens in Gnaw Bone, Chantelle and every town in this county have a right to be heard at this meeting.”

“This is true,” Mary shot back. “But the bulk of the funding comes from Carnal.”

“I’d hardly describe the funding provided by Carnal as ‘bulk’ in any sense of the word considering your library is drastically under-resourced, needs new computers, is unable to keep on top of periodicals, purchasing books at the time of their release and their DVD collection is woefully dated,” Nina returned. “If public records and my calculations are correct, the Town of Carnal will have a surplus in their budget this year so as I see it, they shouldn’t be closing down a resource but funneling more funds into the resources they already have.”

“Jeez, she must have taken notes during our conversation,” Faye muttered from beside him and Chace pressed his lips together, using his arm already around her to pull her closer.

“Not to mention,” Nina went on, “We’re extremely fortunate to have a librarian managing our facility who has a Master’s in Library Science. She’s worked there seven years. The Library Board has given her nothing but glowing appraisals and she gets paid on the lower spectrum of the salary range for someone who works five hours a week less than she does.”

“As if she works those hours,” Mary spat and, at this surprising insinuation, both Faye and Chace straightened in their seats. “I’ve been paying attention and, recently, she’s taken an exorbitant amount of time off.”

“Holy frak,” Faye muttered.

“I’ve read her job description,” Nina retorted. “With her tenure, she’s earned three week’s vacation, four personal days and five sick days a year. With your estimation of ‘exorbitant’, are you alleging she’s taken advantage beyond this allotment?”

“I would allege she’s taking advantage of her city-funded position most assuredly considering she’s carrying on a blatant affair with a recently widowed man!” Mary fired back and Faye shot straight at his side as a growl escaped Chace’s throat that he couldn’t but also didn’t try to contain.

“Now see here!” They heard Silas shout and both of them turned to see him standing up from his bench on the opposite side of the room, his face red as a beet, his arms straight down at his sides in fists.

“Mary, I’ll ask, with respect, that you keep your remarks directed to library business,” Cesar cut in before Silas could lose it, speaking into his microphone, his face red as well and he was visibly furious.

“It is library business considering this town through this Council is providing the Library Board with funding to pay the salary of a fallen woman,” Mary returned heatedly.

“Oh my God,” Faye whispered as Chace’s own hands balled into fists.

“Ms. Goodknight’s personal life is not up for public debate,” Cesar shot back even more heatedly. “And, Mary, I’m warning you, one more comment, I’ll close this meeting and re-adjourn later. But that later will be after the members of the Council meet to discuss your behavior here, likely censure you and, personally, if you say one more word, you have my promise that I’ll take steps to have you removed.”

“I think the words she’s already said are enough for the Council to consider taking steps toward her removal,” Nina put in, standing at the microphone up front and her words were heated too.

“Try it,” Mary invited. “I think you’ll be surprised at how much support I have. I’m not the only one who believes Faye Goodknight’s recent behavior is well below reproach.”

“That wouldn’t be me!” Bubba Briggs boomed from the back.

“Or me!” Jim-Billy shouted from the front.

“Me either, you stupid cow,” Stoney, the owner of one of the local bike shops, added loudly.

“Nor me!” Holly shouted.

Lauren shot up from her seat between Tate and his son Jonas and yelled, “You should be ashamed of yourself talking about our sweet Faye like that in front of everybody!”

Faye and Chace’s heads jerked to behind them where Dominic, the owner of the local hair salon, was shouting, “Immediate impeachment!”

Their heads jerked back to the front to see Shambles standing two benches in front of them, yelling, “Dudette, know this, I have the right to refuse service and I never thought I’d do that to anyone in my life. But starting now, you can get your cappuccinos and chunky peanut butter cookies somewhere else! Talking about Crimson Stargazer like that when she’s finally found a hot guy boyfriend is just… plain… wrong but it’s also serious mean.”

“Great,” Faye mumbled.

“I hardly think a hippie endorsement is doing your librarian any favors,” Mary said to Shambles, her lip curled. “You’d do better to sit down, Mr. Shambala.” When she said his name, she said it like it tasted foul.

At that, Chace knew something snapped in Faye and he knew this because she shot to her feet.

“Ms. Eglund,” she called and Chace braced as Mary Eglund turned her venomous eyes to his woman.

At the same time, so did everyone else.

When Faye got her attention, she spoke.

“You are entitled to your opinions about my personal life. You are also entitled to share them. You are further entitled to share them publicly. You doing it, how you do it and what you say actually says more about you than me. As does your snide tone directed at Shambles. But on the matter at hand, threats of the library’s closure started before my relationship with Detective Keaton began and those threats occurred because of your concern about the content of some of the books in our catalogue. On that subject, I’ll say that I have always accumulated a catalogue the Library Board approved as fit for this county. The books you site as those that are inappropriate for our library and thus give cause for its closure are some of our most popular books for adults and children. I find it heartbreaking that these books that open up worlds of reading to children and young adults are not only questioned, but are being threatened with removal. That you would use your personal agenda to eliminate something so valuable, so vital to a community as a library is beyond words. I’ve read to countless children in that library. Those with very little can come to that library and find something that costs nothing to entertain them in lives that are often lonely. The library serves as a gathering place for friends who share the love of books. It further serves as a resource for those who escape the pressure of everyday life, doing it by losing themselves in the written word. It serves as an avenue of gathering knowledge for those who could be planning a trip to Utah or researching their heritage, learning about the history of this country or how to make soap. Those walls and shelves contain works of art created by words and depicted in pictures. There are volunteers who are retired or stay at home Moms who serve their community proudly and do it in that library. My mother took me to that library. Her mother took her to that same library. And I hope to God by the end of this night, I will have a future where I will take my children to that library. I will abide by the wishes of this community. What I won’t do is sit silent while you turn your nose up at a kind man like Shambles and cast aspersions on the relationship I have with a good man who I happen to love. If you close the library, that would be a tragedy. If you close it simply because you feel you have the right to tell others what they can read and see or because I fell in love with a kind, decent man and did it in a way in which you, personally, do not approve, that would also be a tragedy. But it would be a reprehensible one.”

With that, Faye sat down.

And when Faye sat down, everyone shot out of their seats and cheered.

He heard Silas roar, “That’s my girl,” as Faye ducked her chin into her neck, Chace wrapped his arm around her and, smiling broadly, moved his lips to her ear.

“Well said, baby,” he whispered.

“I just told most of the town I was in love with you,” she whispered back.

“Are you?”

Her eyes peeked at him from beneath her bangs. “Yeah.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

“Mrs. Maxwell, you can sit down,” Cesar’s voice could be heard over the hollering and applause. Chace and Faye looked up but he noticed Faye had more than a little pink in her cheeks when she did. “If we can have order, I’ll invite anyone who is not in opposition of the library being closed to take the microphone,” Cesar finished.

Everyone settled. Nina moved back toward Max who was sitting with their two kids in the front bench. She gently pulled the baby from him and settled in her seat and also in the crook of Max’s arm. No one moved to the microphone and Chace’s eyes went to Mary to see hers narrowed on someone in the congregation and she was jerking her head to the microphone.

Chace looked through the crowd but the room was so packed, standing room only, he couldn’t see who she was motioning to.

“No one?” Cesar called into his microphone.

When no one moved or even raised their hand, Jim-Billy shouted out, “Vote it, Moreno.”

Cesar looked to his left then right then at Mary. “You’ve had your meeting, Mary, the Council will now vote. All in favor of Carnal Library’s closure, say aye.”

Mary’s hand shot up and she shouted, “Aye!”

None of the other council members moved. Mary glared at the one at her side then she glared at the one at the opposite end.

They avoided her gaze and kept their mouths shut.

Likely, they’d murmured remarks of alliance just to shut her up. Or maybe they didn’t expect the force of the opposition. Whatever reason, she expected their votes to swing her way and they were not.

“Nays?” Cesar asked and the other three council members cried, “Nay!”

“Right the ef on!” Bubba shouted from the back.

Cesar brought down his gavel then announced, “The Carnal Library will not close.”

Another cheer roared through the crowd.

“Comments and feedback about the catalogue held at the library should not be directed to the Town Council but to the Library Board, which, thank God, I’m not a member of,” Cesar finished over the noise. “Thank you for your attendance this evening. Enjoy the rest of it.”

He barely got out the last word when Chace heard Silas shout, “Faye, sweetheart, you got Malachi?”

Chace felt his neck begin to prickle as Faye looked around and called back, “No, Dad. Thought he was with you.”

“That was awesome!” Lexie showed at the end of their bench, dragging Ty with her and Chace distractedly noticed that only Lexie Walker could be heavily pregnant and still wear a stylish, skintight dress, high-heeled boots and look stunningly beautiful.

“It was,” Faye replied but she sounded distracted too.

“Serious as fuck, Nina’s the shit,” Ty muttered. “Bitch never backs down from a fight.”

“Don’t let Nina hear you calling her a bitch,” Lexie advised.

“No fuckin’ way,” Ty replied, grinning down at his wife. “She’s got verbal claws so sharp, she’d shred me.”

“Uh… have you two seen Malachi?” Faye asked them, she and Chace were both standing, looking around. Faye was craning her neck and speaking. “He came in with Mom and Dad. Blond boy? You know, the one Mom and Dad are looking after.”

“Saw him,” Lexie answered. “Don’t see him now. And by the way, he’s super cute.”

“Yo Keaton!” He heard his name called and turned to see Wings, one of the local bikers, fighting the crowds leaving or standing around and talking to get to Chace.

“Excuse me,” Chace muttered, grabbing Faye’s hand and moving her out into the aisle when Ty and Lexie moved out of the way. The second they were there, Wings made it to him.

“Little kid slipped this to me and took off,” he said to Chace and that prickle on his neck started biting. “Thought I’d wait until the end, you know, what with this bein’ a big deal for Faye and all.”

Chace took the note that had his name printed on the outside in Malachi’s writing and opened it, Faye crowding him close and he could feel her tension.

It said in Malachi’s handwriting,

She’s here. It’s safe to do it now.

I’ll be at the shed.

Silas and Sondra pushed through, Silas announcing, “Our lil’ bugger took off. Can’t find him anywhere. I’ll go to the restroom –”

“Note, Silas,” Chace stated tersely, lifting up the note, Silas took it but Chace was looking around. He found Deck at the back, chatting up a blonde and he whistled. The second the sound pierced the air, Deck’s neck twisted and Chace got his eyes. Chace jerked up his chin. Deck did too, coming his way.

“What? I don’t get it. What’s safe?” Silas asked, heavy concern threading his tone.

“Everything all right?” Ty asked.

“Who is she?” Faye whispered and her tone, a tone he understood because he felt its cold crawling through his system, made Chace look down at her.

Before he could speak, he heard Deck say, “Yo. What?”

Chace looked at Deck and told him, “Something’s going down with Malachi. At the shed.”

“I’m on it,” Deck stated immediately, turning to move the other way.

“I’m going too,” Faye put in. Chace looked down at her and opened his mouth but she got there before him, squaring her shoulders. He knew by that and the worried look in her eye, he was fucked. “I’m going too,” she repeated firmly.

“All right, baby,” he muttered.

“Mary Eglund is a serious pain in the ass,” Krys announced, making it to their huddle, Bubba following in her wake and Chace saw Tate, Lauren and Jonas also hitting their group.

“Something’s going down with the kid,” Ty told Tate.

“What kid?” Max asked from behind them, Nina, he and their kids had moved up the center aisle and were down the bench from them.

“We need to go, Chace,” Faye whispered, grabbing his hand and holding it tight. “We need to go, go, go.”

She was losing it.

“You need help?” Tate asked.

“Yes,” Chace answered, turning, positioning and taking Faye with him so they were facing all of them. “Malachi’s his name. Silas, pass the note around,” he ordered and continued when Silas did as he asked. “Faye and I are heading to Sioux Street, eastern dead end where it meets up with Cherokee. Deck’ll be there. We need men in that wood to fan out and look for him.”

“What’s this shed?” Max asked, looking up from the note Tate walked down to him.

“Ramshackle, ‘bout a twelve minute walk, if you do it sedate, going direct east with a hint north,” Chace answered.

“He wants you at the shed, why do you need men in those woods?” Ty asked.

“Because, there’s someone in those woods who could hurt him. They have before, they’ll do it again. He thinks it’s safe. I wanna make sure it is,” Chace responded, feeling Faye get more and more tense at his side.

“I’ll call Deke,” Tate muttered, turning toward Lauren.

“I’ll call Wood,” Ty stated, looking down at Lexie.

“I’ll call it into CPD,” Max said, pulling his phone out.

“I’m with you,” Silas declared then looked down at Sondra, yanking his keys out of his pocket. “You go home.”

“Silas,” she whispered.

“Go home, honey. Stay close to the phone,” Silas replied.

“I want to look too,” she told him.

“And he needs someone at home if he has to make his way there,” Silas returned gently.

She nodded.

“Baby, you go with Sondra,” Bubba said quietly to Krys and Krystal, her eyes on Sondra, nodded as well.

“Chace,” Faye’s voice was trembling and her hand in his tightened so tight, it drew pain, “we have to go.”

Chace nodded down into her pale face, he looked to Silas and he ordered, “Let’s go.”

And with a glance through their friends, they left.

“What you got?” Chace said into his phone as he moved through the slush, mud and over the wet rock of the thawing wood, hearing Faye moving five feet behind him at his right flank, Deck moving through the wet brush ten feet in front of him slightly to his left.

“At the shed, no Malachi,” Silas answered in his ear.

“Sit on it, Silas,” Chace ordered.

“Been sittin’ on it forty-five minutes, Chace,” Silas retorted.

“Sit on it longer,” Chace returned.

“Rather be lookin’,” Silas fired back.

“He approaches that shed, he’ll need someone there he can trust,” Chace informed him.

“That could be Faye,” Silas shot back.

“Who’re we talkin’ about?” Chace asked shortly.

He got silence for moment then, “Damn it.”

Silas knew Faye would no sooner sit at a shed and not be looking for Malachi then Chace would. Or, apparently, Silas wanted to do.

“Got you wrapped around her finger,” Silas muttered in his ear cantankerously.

“You want that another way?” Chace asked, tiring of the conversation.

“Take your point.” Silas kept muttering.

“Are we done?” Chace asked.

“Find him, son,” Silas whispered then disconnected.

Chace shoved the phone in his back pocket and kept moving through the wood along the sheer cliff face. He saw Deck’s light cutting the night in front of him as well as Faye’s behind him. They walked in silence, following Deck’s lead. In the last weeks, Deck had been out there at least a dozen times, combing the area north to south, climbing the rock face, following wildlife trails that led nowhere, finding nothing but getting the lay of the land. They’d been at it nearly an hour and were well north of town, beyond the town limits, moving slowly upwards. If they walked another half hour and shifted west, they’d be on Tate Jackson’s front deck.

They hadn’t even picked up tracks.

“We’re getting far away, Chace,” Faye called, her voice tight.

Fear and concern.

“Keep lookin’, honey,” Chace replied.

“It’s getting late,” she told him.

“Keep lookin’.”

“And cold.”

He heard a sharp whistle and stopped dead, aiming his light toward Deck.

Deck was aiming his light to his fingers, two of which were moving in a motion of walking then he swung his light to the forest floor.

He’d found tracks.

Faye rushed up to his side.

“Quiet, Faye, as quiet as you can be. Follow, stay behind me. Let’s go,” Chace ordered, Faye nodded then he moved swiftly and as silently as he could to Deck.

When they reached him, Deck continued to move through the forest.

Chace and Faye followed and Chace saw the tracks. At hearing Faye’s quick intake of breath, he knew she saw them too.

Five minutes passed into ten and then Deck stopped abruptly, lifting up a hand.

Chace and Faye stopped behind him. Chace moved carefully to his side where he halted, using an arm to sweep Faye behind him and putting his hand to his gun at his belt.

There was movement.

“Lights,” Chace murmured and turned his flashlight off, Deck’s followed half a second later then Faye’s went out.

They listened to the sounds of approach and Chace trained his eyes through the dark at where it was coming from. From the noises, he couldn’t get a sense of what they were dealing with, child, adult or both. They didn’t talk, didn’t make anything but the noise of footfalls in the snow, mud and the brushing of branches.

Then they came clear. Chace knew Faye saw them the minute he did for she sucked in another audible breath.

Through the dark, Malachi in his new jeans and a sweater and he was holding the hand of a little girl, maybe five, six, in a thin, pale-colored nightgown, Malachi’s coat hanging on her, barefoot, hair a scraggly mess coming out from under Malachi’s hat, face dirty, thin as a fucking rail.

The children didn’t notice them until they were four feet away. When they did, they rocked to a halt, their heads tipped back sharply and the girl whimpered in alarm, ducking behind Malachi.

Chace braced to run after them if they took off but they didn’t.

Shocking the shit out of Chace, his eyes locked to him, Malachi shuffled forward two feet and stopped.

Then his face cracked in a huge smile and he whispered in a scratchy voice, “Finally got her. Rebecca. My sister.”

His sister. His fucking sister.

Chace was right. There was a sibling. All he’d done was for her.

Faye leaned heavily into the side of his back and whispered, “My sister.”

Then he felt her body buck and he knew she was fighting tears.

Chace had to hope she could hold it together as he leaned back a bit to give her the cue, she took her weight from him and he crouched low.

“Rebecca’s got no shoes on, Malachi. It’s cold, snowy and muddy. Can I carry her home?” he asked.

Malachi looked at Chace then twisted his neck to look at his sister then he looked back at Chace and nodded.

Chace carefully lifted one hand toward Rebecca, she cowered back behind Malachi and whimpered.

Malachi’s scratchy voice came back. “It’s okay, Becky.”

“Doan wanna,” she murmured.

More of Malachi’s rough, quiet whisper. “He got me a sleeping bag.”

“Doan wanna.”

“He’s nice.”

“Doan wanna!”

“Becky, honey, look at me.”

This came from Faye who had moved and was now crouching beside Chace.

She spoke again when Becky peered fearfully from around Malachi.

“I’m Faye. This is Chace,” she motioned to him then she tipped her head up to Deck so both kids tilted their heads way back to look at Deck. “That gentle giant is Jacob Decker. It’s cold, sweetheart, and you need some food in your belly.” At the mention of food, Becky’s eyes shot back to Faye and, at what this said, Chace’s gut twisted. “You can walk with us, of course, but we’d get you warmed up and food in you a lot faster if you let Chace carry you.”

There was nothing then, softly, “Gentle giant?”

“Yeah, he’s big but he’s sweet,” Faye told her.

“What’s he?” Becky asked, pressing into Malachi but jerking her chin to Chace.

“He’s a white knight on a fiery steed except his steed comes in the form of an SUV and it’s not fiery. It’s burgundy.”

Becky kept pressing into her brother then she whispered, “Did he buy Miah a sleeping bag?”

Miah?

Faye wisely didn’t question the name. She just answered, “Yes, honey, he got him a sleeping bag and camp cutlery and candy bars and energy drinks and lots of stuff. That’s what white knights do. They save damsels in distress but they also look after kids who don’t have it very good.”

Becky’s eyes moved over Chace in the moonlight.

Then slowly she shifted out from behind Malachi, took two steps toward him and lifted her hand his way. Moving carefully, Chace reached out toward her.

Her little, pale fingers curled around his.

He cautiously moved forward and slowly swung her up in his arms.

Then he whispered, “Let’s get them home,” and moved swiftly through the wood.

“Take my hand, sweetheart,” he heard from behind him and he knew Faye was looking after Malachi but Chace didn’t miss a step.

But when her little, trembling body caught his attention, he stopped, put her down gently, shrugged off his jacket, wrapped it low around her in an effort to cover her legs and feet and lifted her back up.

While he was doing that, he heard Deck ask Malachi, “Piggyback?” which meant if Deck carried Malachi, they could keep up.

The scratchy voice came back, a hint of excitement in it, “Yeah.”

Chace forged through the forest hearing them coming after him.

After five minutes he heard Deck’s, “Gentle giant?”

Then he heard Faye’s, “Shut up.”

He did not smile. The girl in his arms was freezing, dirty, underfed and her brother just saved her from some unknown “she” who was at the town meeting.

Five minutes later he heard Deck’s, “White knight on a fiery steed?”

Then he heard Faye’s, “Deck, shut… up.”

Then he heard Malachi’s laugh.

Only then did he smile.

But it was not a big one.

Chace forced himself to drive slower than the speed limit on his way to the hospital. He did this to give himself time to control his fury.

He’d just left the Station. They were processing Enid Eglund for homicide and kidnapping while her sister Mary blustered to the Cap in the reception area.

As she did, Tate, Ty, Deke, Bubba, Wood, Max and Deck as well as half the Carnal police officers looked on with varying expressions of disgust. Chace was angry, having difficulty controlling it but still he knew those men were there and not home with their women because they were worried they’d have to help him keep a hold on his shit.

He finally left when Ty broke into Mary’s harangue, clearly a woman with a little power who thought she had a lot more and it was backed by God, and he did it with, “Bitch, give it up. Your whackjob of a sister isn’t gonna fry even though she should, but she is gonna pay. You talkin’ yourself sick and borin’ everyone to death is not gonna stop it.”

Mary glared at him, visibly fighting the urge to lash out but wisely not doing it considering it would have no effect, not to mention the fact that Ty was a six foot seven powerhouse and there were very few who had the courage to give him lip and fewer still were women. Lexie was one of the only ones he knew who did it and did it with regularity. That and the way she looked, Chace reckoned, were the reasons she warmed his bed with his baby inside her.

At this point, however, Chace decided he was done and mumbled to Frank that he was out of there.

Then he got the fuck out of there.

After getting the kids out of the wood, they’d taken Rebecca to the hospital first. While they checked on her, with Deck and Silas close (Faye was in with Becky), he’d spoken to Malachi, or, as they’d learned, Jeremiah and got the story as Jeremiah told it haltingly in his scratchy voice.

Jeremiah and his sister had been kept by a woman called Enid in her basement. They rarely saw the light of day and only when she forced them to do chores in her garden. They had little to eat. They were lectured often and for long-ass periods of time about God, the Bible and how they were both heathens for reasons Chace didn’t get because Jeremiah was too young to understand and explain. Nevertheless, whatever they were was clearly jacked. And whatever they were, she told the children, they needed to be punished for it.

But Jeremiah had been cast out some months ago after Enid had, for some reason, declared him even more unholy than he already was and therefore unfit to be around his sister.

He was cast out but he went back in order to try and free his sister. Upon his returns, he was caught, beaten, sometimes bound and then beaten and cast out again.

He kept going back.

For his sister.

The last time, the worst time, when he was determined to get her because he knew Chace and Faye would take care of her as well as him, she’d broken his arm and on his return to the shed, he’d been caught in the trap.

When he saw Enid at the town meeting, Enid being, Chace reckoned, the person Mary thought would back her play about the library, he’d seen this as his opportunity to get his sister free and he took it.

Incidental information he gave them was that he had not had his reactions to TV, radio and phones because he’d never seen them before but because Enid regularly lectured about the fact that they were the work of the devil. Enid informed the children, repeatedly, they were used to spread gossip and preach sin, she did not allow them access to any of them and she warned the children they’d land in hell if they ever utilized them.

He’d also shared that Enid had told them, again repeatedly, that grown men held evil. They were wicked, existed only to corrupt women and children to their wicked ways and should always be avoided. This was why he, at first, feared and shrunk away from men.

Further, he told them that Enid referred to him as Malachi and refused to address him by his given name, Jeremiah. Jeremiah didn’t understand the reasons for this thus couldn’t share them. Why he gave them Enid’s name for him, rather than his real name, he didn’t explain and considering the difficult information he was sharing, Chace didn’t press.

However, Becky’s name actually was Rebecca but Enid would not allow him to call her by her nickname and he only did so when they were alone. Becky was too young to understand the name change and never called him anything but his nickname, “Miah” for which she got in trouble but, from what Chace could tell from his faltering explanation, Jeremiah paid the price.

Last, he’d shared that he was not nine years old, but eleven. His growth had likely been stunted by malnutrition or perhaps both children came from small parents. Regardless, he didn’t do this to put them off the track. The way he haltingly explained made it seem he did this in order to hide his embarrassment at his lack of schooling which he expected they’d figure out, which they did but they had no idea, considering his real age, how bad it was.

In other words, the bitch wasn’t a whackjob. She was a seriously, fucked up whackjob.

They didn’t press him for more. He was worried about his sister and what he’d given them was already enough for him to relive for the time being.

Chace called in what he knew and it didn’t take long for them to trace “Enid” to Enid Eglund who lived in that area, about a five minute drive from Tate Jackson’s house.

By the time units got to her house, she’d discovered Becky gone, panicked, read her time was up and she’d taken off. They put a BOLO out on her and one of Mick Shaughnessy’s boys in Gnaw Bone nabbed her and brought her back to Carnal.

Becky was found to be malnourished to the point that her small stature meant Chace had underestimated her age. She wasn’t five or six but eight years old. Her feet were scraped but other than that she was fine. Regardless, they admitted her for observation and a psych evaluation the next day.

Leaving Faye with her father and mother at the hospital, Chace went to the Station and watched in an observation room full of men as Frank interrogated Enid Eglund. It took some time but things she said meant officers left the room to hit computers.

It all came together. Then, when confronted with it, Enid let it all hang out.

Enid Eglund had gone to Wyoming three years ago to attend a revival. Being seriously fucked in the head, she saw a young woman with two young children and no man. Clearly something about this made a woman living on the verge of snapping, snap. She made assumptions, followed the woman home, murdered her in her sleep, kidnapped her two children, brought them back to Carnal and kept them in captivity.

She was a recluse, came to town to grocery shop and go to Church, lived in the home she’d inherited from her parents and made meager money doing phone sales at home. No one really knew her but her sister and, from Mary Eglund’s rant, even that spinster didn’t know her reclusive spinster sister very well for she had no idea for three years Enid was concealing two children. Nor did she know, or admit to herself, the extent of her sister’s insanity.

Enid was also convinced she was doing God’s work, committing multiple felonies not only by the laws of the State of Colorado but against the Word of God, in order to save the children from a fallen woman and punishing them for their mother’s perceived sins.

The murder and double kidnapping in Wyoming, obviously, had not been solved. It wasn’t fresh but cases like that never went cold if there was someone left who loved the ones who were missing and missing persons, unless found, were not deleted from the databases. Therefore, how the interns hadn’t turned the children up in their searches, Chace didn’t know but come the next day, he would find out.

But upon calling the authorities in Wyoming, they found that Jeremiah and Rebecca’s mother was not an unwed mother full of sin, as Enid assumed, but a widow whose husband died in a car crash two months before she was killed by Enid Eglund. She and her husband were survived by parents who were still hoping their grandchildren were alive.

They would soon get really fucking great news.

Now, as Chace turned into the hospital parking lot, he had to give really bad news. All that went down with Jeremiah and the fact that, shortly, Jeremiah and his sister would be taken from them and returned to their grandparents.

He pulled in a deep breath as he parked and threw his door open.

Faye had told him that the hospital staff had agreed to them, and Jeremiah, sticking close to Becky. So Faye and her Mom and Dad were still there.

He moved through the hospital to the room number she’d given him but stopped one foot in the door.

Silas was asleep in a chair. Sondra was reading in another. Becky was asleep looking tiny in that huge hospital bed and there was a cot opened next to it in which Faye was curled and asleep, cuddling Jeremiah close to her front.

Chace stood frozen, staring at his woman with her boy so his body gave a slight jerk when Sondra’s hand fell light on his arm.

He turned his head to her.

“Outside,” she whispered, he nodded and moved back through the door which she carefully shut behind her.

She tipped her head back to catch his eyes.

“How bad is it?” she asked quietly.

“Brace,” he whispered gently and she closed her eyes.

When she opened them, he told her. He kept going even as the tears formed and her lips trembled and he did because he knew she could hack it. She’d made Faye, she wouldn’t break.

He was right. She didn’t.

When he was done, she simply said softly, “Grandparents.”

“They’ll process her, call the local authorities in Wyoming and those boys up there will either head out with the news tonight or they’ll wait until first thing in the morning. It’s been years, Enid Eglund is a sick woman whose story is rambling and hard to follow, so likely they’ll do DNA to make certain Jeremiah and Rebecca are who they think they are and tests will take a coupla days to run. That said, we got photos and, it’s been years, they’re older but there’s no denying those kids are theirs. My guess, any grandparents whose kids are dead and grandkids were missin’ for years, they’ll be down here soon.”

She nodded. She was a grandparent. She knew. But there was sadness in her eyes not only for what Jeremiah and Becky had endured, what they’d lost but that she was losing her boy.

“My play?” Chace asked and she focused on him again.

“Don’t take her away from them,” she answered, knowing exactly his question.

It was Chace’s turn to nod.

She turned to the room and Chace followed her.

Then, even though there was barely enough room, he took his jacket off, tossed it at the end of the cot then entered it carefully, fitting himself to Faye’s back and wrapping his arm around her and Jeremiah.

She stirred, her neck twisting, her sleepy eyes coming to him.

“Sleep, baby,” he whispered.

“But –”

“Sleep.”

She looked at his face, her eyes roaming it. Then she nodded and settled back in.

It was uncomfortable as all fuck, he was on the very edge but he settled in too.

He sensed Faye slide back into sleep and knew he probably wouldn’t join her.

He felt eyes on him and his went to Sondra.

When his eyes caught hers, she whispered one word across the room, it spoke volumes and settled warm deep in his soul.

“Perfect.”

Chace understood her and the enormity of her meaning.

But he didn’t reply.

He dipped his chin to her, settled back in, closed his eyes, held his girl and her boy close and, moments later, found sleep.