Breathless

by HELEN HARDT

  “Talon wants to know when we’re meeting with Colin,” I said to Jade.

  “Good question. When are we?”

  “I don’t know yet.” I texted Talon back as much. “I guess I’ll call him now.”

  “Hey, Marj,” Colin said into my ear.

  “Hey. Jade has decided she’ll talk to you.”

  “Oh? She got the Neanderthal to agree?”

  “This conversation is going to be over really quickly if you’re determined to dis my brother.”

  “Right. I get it. Sorry.” Though he didn’t sound sorry at all. “When?”

  “Whenever. But I’ll be coming with her.”

  “That wasn’t part of the deal.”

  “There is no deal, Colin. And if I don’t come, Talon will. Your choice.”

  He paused a few seconds. Then, “Fine. This afternoon?”

  “It has to be sometime before three o’clock. The boys get home from school around three thirty.”

  “I’m still in Snow Creek. How about two at the smoothie shop?”

  “Hold on.” I turned to Jade, muting the phone. “Are you feeling up to going into town? Two at the smoothie shop?”

  “Yeah. I’m okay today.”

  “Fine,” I said into the phone. “Jade and I will see you then.”

  Jade bit her bottom lip. “I…don’t know how to feel about this.”

  “There’s no right or wrong way to feel.”

  “I mean, he humiliated me so terribly, but now…he’s been through so much more than anyone should ever have to go through. Makes what he did to me seem like a minor pebble in my shoe, you know?”

  “Yeah, I get it. But just because he’s been through hell doesn’t negate what he did to you. Remember that.”

  She nodded. “I know.”

  “You feel like doing something?” I said. “If you’re up for it, we could go into town early. See if Candy has any openings for manis and pedis or something?”

  “You know?” Jade stood. “I’ve showered and gotten dressed. Why waste it? Let’s go.”

  Jade and I had just sunk our feet into the warm aromatic water at the nail salon when both of our phones buzzed simultaneously with a text.

  Jade gasped. “It’s the school. Something’s wrong with Dale.”

  I read the same text. “Talon probably got it too.” I pulled my feet out of the water. “Sorry. We have to go. It’s a good thing we’re here in town.”

  Jade frantically called the school while I dried off and put my shoes back on. Ten-year-old Dale hardly spoke unless spoken to. If the school was calling, this was important.

  “They took him over to Dr. Robbin’s office,” Jade said after ending her call. “They couldn’t tell me much else.”

  Luckily, the doctor’s office was only two blocks from the nail salon. The glories of a small town. Rather than get into the car, we walked—very quickly.

  “He’s in the back,” the receptionist said as soon as we walked in.

  Jade and I hurried back into the exam room, where Dr. Robbin Shaefer was examining Dale.

  “Baby!” Jade said. “Are you okay?”

  “He was hyperventilating,” Dr. Robbin said. “I got him calmed down, but he nearly passed out at school.”

  Dale said nothing.

  Dr. Robbin had been a classmate of Joe’s. I’d known her my whole life. She’d taken her dad’s place as our doctor when he retired.

  “Dale,” Dr. Robbin said, “the only way to deal with what’s bothering you is to tell us about it.”

  Silence.

  Jade took his hand. “Please, honey. We’re here to help you. Auntie Marj and I are here, and the doctor is here.”

  He shook his head.

  “Please, sweetie,” I said. “We want to help you.”

  “I saw a man,” he whispered meekly.

  “Where?” Jade asked.

  “While I was at recess on the playground.”

  “Was it someone you recognized?”

  He nodded.

  “Who was it?”

  Silence.

  I swallowed. This couldn’t lead to anything good. The Feds had shut down the trafficking ring, but had they caught everyone involved? According to Ted Morse, they were still investigating.

  Could someone from Dale’s past be here in Snow Creek?

  Why? Coming here made no sense. Why go somewhere someone might recognize you?

  “I won’t let him,” Dale said.

  “Won’t let him what?” Jade asked.

  “Hurt Donny. I won’t let him hurt my brother.”

  My heart ached, and Jade’s eyes glistened. We’d known for a while that Dale had taken the brunt of the abuse to spare his younger brother. They’d even made a suicide pact with each other, one Donny had nearly brought to fruition.

  “Dale, the bad men have been caught,” Jade said. “Is it possible you imagined it? Maybe saw someone else who looked like someone you remember?”

  He shook his head.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Jade…” I began.

  She nodded. “I’m sorry, honey. I just want to protect you. I don’t want you to be scared. Daddy and I will never let anyone harm you. I promise.”

  It was a hefty promise to make but one she and Talon would keep no matter the cost.

  “Has anyone called the police?” I asked.

  Robbin shrugged. “I don’t know. The school didn’t say.”

  “I’ll take care of it.”

  “Marj,” Jade said, “he may not be ready to talk to the police.”

  “You’ve got to try, Dale,” I said. “If you think this man might want to hurt you or your brother, the police need to know.” I quickly made the call. “They’re sending someone over here.”

  Dale’s skin had gone white.

  “You have to try to talk to the police, honey.” Jade held his hand.

  The boy nodded.

  I checked my watch. We had an hour before our meeting with Colin. Plenty of time for Dale to talk to the police. But then what? Would he go back to school? If he couldn’t, Jade and I would need to stay with him.

  No matter. Dale was the priority. Colin would have to wait.

  Chapter Thirty–Six

  Bryce

  Because one of them, Bryce, is you.

  I remained calm, at least on the outside. Inside, my guts were churning like cream into butter. No way would I let this moron know that.

  I was innocent. Completely innocent.

  “Really? And who is the other?”

  Ted’s face stayed noncommittal. “Jonah Steel.”

  Joe. My best friend, Joe. Joe, who this idiot had already tried to frame and blackmail for what my father had done to Colin.

  My guts continued their tumbling as anger took hold. I was determined to keep my cool. I had no reason to believe anything this asshole said.

  “Why would they be investigating the two of us? We’re innocent.”

  “I believe you are,” Ted said.

  “There’s no belief required. It’s a damned fact.” Keep cool, Bryce. Keep fucking cool.

  Joe was about to become a father. Did he know anything about this? The Steels had connections almost everywhere. If Joe was any kind of target of a federal investigation, surely he’d be aware.

  “I’m just trying to give you a heads-up,” Ted said.

  “And I suppose you’d like to be compensated for this information?”

  He scoffed and looked to the left. “If I wanted compensation, I’d have gone straight to Steel myself.”

  Right. Straight to Joe, who he’d already tried to blackmail. I wasn’t buying it. But I wasn’t quite ready to let Ted know that yet.

  “Good call,” I said. “Because you know I have nothing.”

  “Not true. You have a house.”

  “A house no one will buy because of my father’s exploits.”

  “Maybe so.” He sipped his coffee. “I’m here solely as a Good Samaritan, to let you know.”

&
nbsp; “And how do you know all this?”

  “Easy. The Feds talked to me. To me and my son. They asked a lot of questions about the two of you.”

  I am not responsible for the sins of my father.

  My mantra.

  As much as I’d had to convince myself it was true, now Ted Morse was telling me it wasn’t. Why else would anyone ask about Joe and me?

  “A Good Samaritan?” I said.

  “Yes.”

  You’re bluffing.

  But I didn’t say the words aloud.

  “They’ve spoken to Colin as well, you say?” I asked.

  He nodded.

  The server arrived with my coffee. I let it sit undisturbed. If I tried to put anything in my mouth, I might puke. Keeping this normal tone when I was raging inside was taking its toll.

  “What kinds of questions did they ask the two of you?”

  “I’m not at liberty to say. I’m taking a chance just telling you this much.”

  “I see.” Though I didn’t see at all.

  “You don’t believe me.” A statement.

  This time I took a sip of my coffee—a small sip—and let it trickle down my throat. All for show. “Why should I?”

  “What ulterior motive would I have?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe you’ve got some”—air quotes—“friend in the FBI, someone who could bury this investigation. For a price.”

  “If I wanted money, I’d have gone straight to Steel. Wait. I already said that.”

  “Then what the hell do you want, Morse? Because the way I see it, the Feds can turn over every rock in my life, and they’ll never find any evidence that either Joe or I are connected to the trafficking ring. Not one tiny shred.”

  “I mean no disrespect,” Ted said, “but you’re being naïve, Bryce. Incredibly naïve.”

  My knuckles whitened around the handle of my coffee cup. Maintaining a level head was becoming increasingly more difficult.

  “And you’re being incredibly transparent.”

  “How is that?” he asked. “Aren’t you aware of Jonah Steel’s history?”

  “I’m very aware of Jonah Steel’s history. He’s been my best friend nearly my entire life.”

  “Then you know he paid off prison guards to beat Larry Wade?”

  I swallowed, keeping my expression noncommittal. I did not know that. But I knew Joe, and he had a hot temper. Larry Wade was his half uncle and one of the men who’d tortured and raped Joe’s brother. Could I see him ordering a beating?

  Yeah, I could.

  “Ah. So you didn’t know.”

  “Joe wouldn’t do that.” The lie tasted good. Actually good. I’d defend Joe with my life.

  “I assure you he did. See? Something you didn’t know about your best friend of all these years.”

  “You think prison guards are paragons of virtue? If Wade got beaten in prison, he probably had it coming, and even if he didn’t, a couple black eyes are nothing compared to what he inflicted on innocent children over the years. Joe didn’t order anything, but even if he did, Wade got what he deserved. You know what those men were capable of as well as I do.”

  That last part was a cheap shot. Ted’s son had been brutalized at the hands of my father. I never forgot that. But right now, he was trying to implicate Joe and me, so I’d defend us both.

  “Jonah Steel is a loose cannon,” Morse said nonchalantly. “You’re his best friend and the son of Tom Simpson. Why wouldn’t they be investigating you?”

  “Well, for one, because we’re innocent.”

  “Are you? What happened during those camping trips your father took you and Joe on, Bryce?”

  The camping trips? The ones Joe and I looked forward to more than anything? We foraged, fished, hunted. Only the three of us ever. No one else would know anything about—

  Oh, God.

  I’d nearly forgotten.

  Just once, we hadn’t been alone.

  Just once.

  I stood and threw a couple bucks on the table to cover my coffee. “This meeting is over.”

  I walked out the door quickly, and when I was out of eyeshot of the café, I called Joe and left a voicemail.

  “We need to talk. Now.”

  Chapter Thirty–Seven

  Marjorie

  Jeans, a gray hoodie, and a black beanie.

  That was all Dale could tell the officer about the man who had spooked him. The officer wanted to speak to some of the other children who’d been on the playground at the time, but the school principal forbade it without getting their parents’ permission first.

  Who could blame the principal? No more information to be had, though. Dale didn’t want to go back to school, so I texted Colin and canceled our meeting. Jade and I picked up Donny early and headed back to the ranch.

  Dale was quiet the rest of the afternoon, though that in itself wasn’t unusual. Jade and I both made sure he knew that he could talk to either of us or to Talon when he felt ready. In the meantime, he retreated to his bedroom.

  Donny played outside with the dogs.

  Jade’s nausea had returned, so I made her a cup of peppermint tea and brought it down to the family room, where she sat in one of the recliners.

  “Thanks,” she murmured, taking the mug of hot liquid.

  “You okay?” I sat down on the couch next to her chair.

  She took a sip. “Not even slightly. I tried to put on a strong face for Dale, but I’m completely petrified. What if he truly saw a face he recognized?”

  “In Snow Creek?”

  “Tom Simpson lived in Snow Creek for decades, and so did Larry Wade. That’s two of them. It would make sense that they had others here.”

  “Or it would make sense that they didn’t. Snow Creek was their other life.”

  “I need to get back to work,” she said. “My leave of absence ends now.”

  “Jade…”

  “I’m the city attorney, for God’s sake. This town needs me, especially now.”

  “Your sons need you,” I said. “Especially now. You hired the acting city attorney yourself. You know she’s qualified.”

  “Yeah, but she’s not personally involved here.”

  “All the better,” I said. “You know that. As an attorney, you shouldn’t be personally involved.”

  “Larry ended that the day he gave me Talon’s case to work on.”

  “Larry was unethical. Hardly the standard you want to live up to.”

  “True.” She sighed and took another sip. “I feel like I should be doing something, especially if Dale is right and there is another psycho on the loose.”

  “You’re still technically the city attorney, just on leave. You still have access to all the files, right?”

  “Technically, yes, but I can’t access the server from here.” She shook her head. “That was my idea. After finding out Wendy and the others had hacked into so many files, I had the city install a superpowered security system. What was I thinking?”

  “You were thinking you were doing your job, and you were. You can always go into the office to do research. Especially now that you’re feeling better.”

  “Yeah, but I don’t want to step on Mary’s toes.”

  “You’re Mary’s boss. How would you be stepping on her toes?”

  “I don’t know.” She exhaled. “All I know is that I feel utterly useless at the moment.”

  “Useless?” Talon entered the family room. “Blue eyes, stop talking like that. Is Dale okay? I got here as soon as I could.”

  “He’s in his room,” Jade said. “He was spooked something awful. I’m scared, Talon.”

  “I won’t let anything happen to any of you,” he said. “Count on that.”

  She smiled. “I know. Still…”

  Still… I agreed. I wouldn’t go soft for Jade’s sake, but I was pretty spooked myself.

  Talon kissed Jade’s lips. “Count on that,” he said again. “I’ll go talk to Dale.” He left.

  “Your brother i
s strong,” Jade said, “but he’s not invincible.”

  “You think he doesn’t know that? He was tortured and abused. If anyone knows he isn’t invincible, it’s Talon.”

  “He was a child then. He went off to war and tried to get himself killed, but he came back.”

  “Doesn’t make him invincible.”

  “I know that. I’m saying he thinks he is.” She took another sip and then set the mug down on an end table. “He’ll do anything to protect me and those boys, and if anything happened to him…”

  “Nothing will happen to him.” I tried to make my voice sound calm and reassuring.

  But I wasn’t convinced.

  “He’s in there talking to his son,” Jade said, “and I’ll bet you anything when he comes out, he’ll be going on a full-force manhunt to track that hoodie guy down. You watch.”

  I didn’t have the heart to try to disagree.

  Jade was right. Talon would get Joe and Ryan, and the three of them would sniff this guy out or die trying.

  The latter was what concerned Jade and me.

  I swallowed my fear. “Well, if the guy is someone from Dale’s past, he should be found. We don’t want him hurting anyone else.”

  “Of course we don’t. I just thought…”

  She didn’t have to complete her sentence. I understood. She’d just thought what we all thought. The FBI had raided the compound, the bad guys were dead, and this nightmare was finally over.

  And now we had to face the fact that perhaps it wasn’t.

  Donny came in, and I made him a quick snack. Talon was still speaking to Dale in the bedroom. He’d been gone a half hour when he finally emerged. He ruffled Donny’s hair and smiled, and when the little boy retreated back outside, he turned serious.

  “I need to talk to Joe and Ryan.”

  Jade and I exchanged a worried glance.

  Again. It was all starting again.

  Chapter Thirty–Eight

  Bryce

  I sat in Joe’s office—not his home office but the office in the ranch business building. That had been my choice. I wanted privacy. Not that Melanie wouldn’t give us our privacy, but I didn’t want the chance of anyone walking in. I’d even managed to convince Joe to let his assistant and secretary leave early.