Kaleidoscope

by Ashley, Kristen

  “Where are they movin’ her?” Deck asked, the kid looked at him and shrugged.

  “I dunno. I got outta there.”

  Deck looked at McFarland. “Where would he take her?”

  “How would I know?” McFarland asked.

  Deck moved and McFarland was on his back on the floor with Deck’s knee in his chest and his hand fisted in his collar.

  “Where would he fuckin’ take her?” Deck snarled.

  “I don’t—” McFarland began.

  “It’s fuckin’ Emme. He’s pissed at you and he’s got fuckin’ Emme,” Deck clipped.

  “Oh fuck,” McFarland breathed as it belatedly dawned on him, the fucking moron.

  Deck took his knee out of McFarland’s chest, lifted McFarland a foot up then slammed him back into the floor.

  “Talk!” he ordered.

  “Probably… we’ve got… well, this place. Off the access road a mile up Navajo in Carnal, into the hills, goin’ toward the hiking trails.”

  Deck knew it so he wasted no time straightening, yanking McFarland up with him and pushing him off.

  “You,” Deck pointed at McFarland. “Call Shaughnessy, report this, all of this shit, fuckin’ everything. You,” Deck pointed at Wade then at the couch. “Sit your ass down.”

  “Shaughnessy!” Wade squealed. “Like, the cop?”

  “Man, I cannot call Shaughnessy,” McFarland said at the same time.

  Deck pulled his gun out of the holster at his hip and both McFarland and Wade’s eyes both went to the gun and grew huge.

  He pointed it at McFarland. “You, Shaughnessy.” He pointed it to Wade. “Ass. On. Couch.”

  McFarland fished his phone out of his pocket.

  Wade ran to the couch and planted his ass on it.

  Deck breathed deep as his blood ran so fucking hot, it was a wonder he didn’t burn inside out.

  Prosky had Emme.

  Just turn the dial.

  Prosky had his girl.

  You’re everything to me.

  Emme had been taken.

  I can’t go through it again, Jacob.

  Deck heard McFarland’s voice saying, “Yes, this is Dane McFarland. I need to speak with Captain Shaughnessy.”

  Deck holstered his gun then pointed his finger between the two of them. “You leave, he leaves before the cops get here, neither of you leave the hospital without a limp and you’ll also be leavin’ behind your balls ’cause I’m gonna cut them off and shove them down your throat. You get me?”

  McFarland, phone to his ear, instantly nodded.

  Wade swallowed and asked, “Seriously?”

  “Confirm you get me!” Deck thundered.

  “Yeah, yeah… totally,” the kid said, lifting his hands into a don’t-shoot position and shrinking into the couch.

  Deck wasted not another second. He turned on his boot and left.

  Sprinting down the stairs to the parking lot, his phone to his ear, Chace answered, “I don’t clean up messes. Please God, tell me you do—”

  Deck cut him off tersely, “Jon Prosky has Emme.”

  You’re everything to me.

  Fuck!

  “Where are you?” Chace asked with urgency.

  “In my truck,” Deck answered, angling in. “McFarland’s turning over. He’s in his condo with a high school kid named Wade. They’ll be here when the cops get here. Now where are you?”

  Just as he suspected, there was no hesitation before Chace replied.

  “Wherever you need me to be.”

  * * *

  Emme

  An hour later…

  I was staring at the payroll reports when it hit me.

  I needed a burrito. Badly.

  I heard boots quickly coming up the wooden stairs outside my office as I reached for my cell.

  Whoever it was could wait for the two minutes I needed to call Jacob and tell him Rosalinda’s was up after we picked out our Rottie. The puppy could stay in Persephone while we got takeout.

  My thumb was hovering over Jacob’s name on my screen when my door smashed open.

  My head flew to it and I saw Jacob standing there wearing an expression I’d seen before on two faces I loved.

  My heart stopped beating.

  At the look on his face, it took effort but I pushed out of my chair, opening my mouth to speak, but I got nothing out.

  This was because Jacob rushed me. I got myself together to take a step back but it wasn’t fast enough. Jacob was on me and I was crushed in his arms so tight I couldn’t breathe.

  I’d felt that before too.

  “What’s happening?” I wheezed.

  Jacob heard my wheeze, pulled back but clamped a hand on either side of my head, bending deep so his face was in mine, his eyes scanning my features.

  That look in his eyes. That look I knew.

  I swallowed.

  “What’s happening?” I whispered.

  “You been here all day, baby?” he whispered back, his voice gruff with emotion.

  “Yeah, except I went to lunch at the café with Zara like I told you I was gonna do,” I answered.

  His eyes closed slowly.

  Then one of his hands slid to the back of my head and he yanked my face into his chest. He held me there as his other hand went to his back pocket and he pulled out his phone.

  “Jacob, is everything okay?” I asked, my voice trembling.

  “Yeah, baby, it’s okay.” Jacob’s voice was still gruff. “It’s all good.” Then he wasn’t talking to me when he said, “Chace. Not Emme. She’s at her office. Don’t know who he’s got but it’s not Emme.”

  I felt my body go solid.

  What was he talking about?

  Jacob kept talking.

  “Yeah, I probably should have given her a call,” Jacob said, his voice weird. This weirdness being that it seemed he was admitting to doing something stupid, something he never did, so the tone was unpracticed and didn’t sound right in his voice. “Gotta go, man. Emme heard that. Gotta explain then I’ll be back on the hunt.”

  The hunt?

  “Right. Later,” Jacob finished.

  I planted my hands in his chest and pulled away as he shoved the phone back in his pocket.

  I looked up at him. “Please tell me what’s happening.”

  Both his hands settled on my neck and he bent again so our faces were close.

  “For some reason, the ringleader of McFarland’s crew came back to town and lost his shit. Seein’ as McFarland’s hung up on you, when I got word that he took a woman, I made assumptions and thought it was you.” His fingers squeezed my neck. “It wasn’t you, baby, so I gotta get out there and help them find out who it is.”

  I nodded, not knowing how to feel about the dire news of yet another woman being kidnapped in the county. I just knew the phantom of fear that he still held in his eyes I didn’t like all that much.

  “I’m fine,” I whispered the obvious in an effort to get that look out of his eyes. “Go find whatever girl he’s got.”

  He nodded but didn’t move.

  “Don’t leave here until I come get you,” he ordered.

  It was then I nodded. Someone was out there kidnapping people. I was totally down with that.

  “Okay, honey,” I also agreed verbally.

  “It gets later, you keep a man here with you until I can get to you or I’ll call Max or Ty to come get you.”

  “Okay.”

  He held my eyes.

  “I’m fine,” I repeated softly.

  “Scared as fuckin’ shit they had you,” he replied.

  This man was such a good man.

  And he was my man.

  On this thought, I gave him a reassuring smile and pressed my hands into his chest for good measure.

  “They didn’t.”

  His eyes continued to hold mine.

  Then he asked, “You okay with this shit?”

  Weirdly, I was. Then again, obviously, I wasn’t.

  “I’m
safe. I have you,” I explained the former. “But I’d really like it if you went out and helped them find whoever the bad man has.”

  Again, he held my eyes.

  Then he nodded, pulled me in, kissed my forehead, pushed me back, gave me a small grin and strode to the door.

  After he opened it, he stopped and turned back.

  “Last hour proved what I told you today was true,” he stated.

  “What?” I asked.

  “You’re everything to me, Emme.”

  As tears hit the backs of my eyes, I swallowed as I saw in his eyes that phantom was gone but the words he just spoke were true.

  Unable to say more, I said, “Right back at you, honey. Now, please go save the day.”

  He jerked up his chin then said, “Love you.”

  I smiled at him. “Love you too.”

  I caught Jacob’s return smile before the door closed behind him and I heard quick footfalls on the wooden stairs.

  I pulled in a breath and scanned my emotions, searching for fear or the urge to retreat.

  All I found was hope that Jacob and the men out looking for her found the girl who was missing so she would no longer be missing and therefore feeling the things I knew she was feeling.

  And also that he did it in time for us to get our puppy and pick up burritos.

  Epilogue

  Doing It for Free

  Seven and a half hours later…

  “Babe, seriously,” Jacob said, and I looked at him.

  “She’s just a puppy,” I told him something he knew.

  “Yeah, but she’s just a Rottweiler puppy,” he returned. “You don’t let puppies chew your fingers. Rotties, you don’t give any indication at any time it’s okay to sink their teeth in flesh.”

  He had a point.

  I extracted my fingers from Josephine’s jaws and gave her head a rub.

  She looked at me, went for the fingers I’d pulled away, gave up quickly, bounced up Jacob’s chest and attacked his jaw.

  It was after puppy adoption, burrito pickup and consumption, and a weird day that started great, went wonky and ended fabulously.

  We were lying on the couch in Jacob’s great room. Jacob was on his back, me tucked to his side, Buford on the floor by the couch, our new rambunctious puppy frolicking on Jacob’s massive chest.

  Once his jaw was attacked, Jacob moved. Josephine and I were forced to move with him, Josephine mostly because he picked her up and put her on the floor.

  Undeterred, she attacked Buford’s floppy ear.

  Buford turned beleaguered eyes to Jacob, eyes that turned beleaguered about a nanosecond after Josephine was introduced and had stayed that way.

  I fought back a grin.

  Jacob gently pushed Josephine off his hound. Demonstrating she might have puppy ADHD, she instantly lost interest in Buford and attacked the rug.

  I started giggling.

  Jacob lay back on a sigh and curled me into him.

  “So, okay,” I began, and Jacob stopped watching our new puppy growling and attempting to find purchase with her teeth on the edge of his rug and looked at me. “Sock it to me,” I invited.

  Needless to say, since we got a puppy and I got my burritos, the girl had been saved and the bad guys were behind bars. But I had yet to get the full story.

  “Fuckin’ nuts, but now knowin’ the whole story, it isn’t that interesting,” Jacob told me.

  “For mysterious crimefighters, maybe not,” I replied, “For average citizens like me, I’m thinking it’ll be all kinds of interesting.”

  Jacob grinned, curled me closer, pulling me partially over his chest and his hand dipped under my sweater to make lazy circles on my skin.

  That felt really nice.

  He started talking. “Jon Prosky’s Mom has chronic progressive MS.”

  I stopped thinking how nice his fingers felt at my back and whispered, “Oh my God, that sucks.”

  “Yeah,” he agreed. “Sucks more, she doesn’t have any insurance or a husband. When she started gettin’ bad, he couldn’t deal. He took off a couple of years ago. What she did have was a son who loved her way too fuckin’ much.”

  “Uh-oh,” I mumbled, guessing what would come next.

  “Yeah,” Jacob again agreed. “He loved her, a lot of people loved her, but only he got desperate. But then, with the dad gone and no siblings, he was up. He’s also, if you can believe this shit, a seemingly nice guy who did desperate shit that was also illegal shit and convinced himself along the way it was for a cause that was just. Made matters worse he convinced a pack of high school kids the same thing.”

  I knew something about nice people being moved by extreme circumstances to do extreme things but I wisely kept my mouth shut on that score and asked, “How did he do that?”

  Jacob rolled to his side, wrapped his other arm around me and tangled his legs with mine.

  That felt nice too.

  “Bills started piling up,” he explained. “Avenues for payin’ them started dryin’ up, and Prosky knew two things. One, he needed money. And two, he needed to be free to take care of his mom as things progressed.”

  I nodded when he paused and he continued.

  “So he needed to recruit a crew to do the dirty work. He did that and took pains to be certain he was not connected with any of them. Finding the drug dealer wasn’t hard. Convincing him to commit felonious acts was even less hard, seein’ as the guy would get his cut.”

  “How did high school kids get involved?” I asked.

  “The brainstorm came when he found out the dealer was dating a teacher,” Jacob answered. “Prosky, being nice and having a mission, unfortunately also has natural charisma, and there’s no denyin’ he loves his mom. He conceived this plan, the drug dealer, his girlfriend, a teacher, her brother, another teacher and their brother, McFarland were recruited on greed alone. The kids were recruited to keep all their hands clean. He convinced the kids they were doing something worthwhile, saving a life. The teachers pinpointed the kids to approach and made preliminary connections. The dealer was the trainer, since he’d had some B&E’s in his past, and enforcer in case they got out of hand or balked. McFarland was the good guy to the dealer’s bad guy, keeping the kids from freaking. He also did most of the fencing. Prosky was the spiritual leader, keeping them on target.”

  “So did the kid who committed suicide think the dealer was going to hurt him?” I asked, and Jacob shook his head.

  “No clue. He didn’t leave a note. But his buds were all brought in when McFarland and Wade started spilling and they talked. They said it was more likely he was devastated that he might have disappointed Prosky and his mom. Part of the recruitment process was to meet her, see what that disease was doing to her, how money could help and he thought he fucked it all up. Kids that age get overemotional about a lot of shit. Prosky manipulated that, got them all worked up, feelin’ they were doin’ good deeds and screwin’ that pooch would fuck with their head. It fucked with that kid’s head. Then again, for any of these kids to be willin’ to do his shit, they were all borderline anyway, something the teachers knew. They went over the edge just committing robberies. It wouldn’t take more to tip shit further.”

  That made sense. It was whacked, sad sense but it was sense.

  But one thing didn’t make sense.

  “What was with the girl today?” I queried.

  “The girl was McFarland’s brother’s girlfriend. The deal was no one outside the team knew shit about anything. After he got arrested, so he wouldn’t lose her, this guy talked to his woman to explain their mission, giving her the line they were doing bad things for good reasons. She didn’t give a shit about some woman she didn’t know in Denver who unfortunately has MS. She gave a shit that her man was going to spend the next at least two years honing his skills to become an ex-con, one who couldn’t get out and get a job that had shit to do with his degree. She was making rumblings of talking to the cops about a deal so her man’s sentence would be reduced
, or even, since according to her his hands weren’t that dirty, get immunity and not do time at all.”

  I didn’t like the idea of a bad teacher getting off that lightly, but I could understand her concerns.

  Jacob kept talking.

  “Prosky didn’t give a shit about all of them going down. They got arrested, he hauled his ass to Denver, didn’t look back and was already setting up another crew. What he couldn’t have was him going down. There would be no one not only to pay for his mother’s care but also no one to care for her as that disease took its course.”

  “So he took this woman to scare her? Shut her up?” I asked, and Jacob nodded.

  “Desperate act. Then again, it all was, the disease wasn’t going to quit, which means the acts would get more desperate so he was going to screw up eventually.”

  “How did he use the money to pay for stuff and not have it traced back to the robberies?” I went on.

  “Like I said, he’s likable. His mother, though, is beloved. Apparently an amazing woman, lots of friends. As the disease progressed, they did what they could but only so much folks can do. They had fundraising events and people ran races for her, shit like that. But her care ate all that up, and kept going. People have their own lives and they can give selflessly but they can’t do it for eternity. So, given the opportunity to do more without it coming from their pockets or sweat, they did it. It didn’t take much for Prosky to talk them into saying they gave a gift for her care, and as it was cash, it couldn’t be traced. That said, when DPD officers went out to have chats after we got Prosky this afternoon, several of them ’fessed up. But they did it expressing concern for Prosky and his mom.”

  All this was sad, lives destroyed, a young man was dead and a woman would now face a bitter battle with a disease with no one at her side.

  Part of me got why Prosky did what he did. That didn’t mean I condoned it. Too much was lost, even if what he was trying to gain was honorable.

  The rest of me just hoped myself or no one I knew faced the same kind of tragedy.

  Jacob’s words took me out of my thoughts.

  “You okay with all this, honey?”

  I focused on him as my body melted into his.