Diamond Lake Series: Complete Series (Bks 1-7) Boxset

by T. K. Chapin

  "Why, hello there," she said gently with a smile in her tone.

  Bringing my lips close to her, I let them touch her cheek and then I released her.

  "What was that?" she questioned as we walked into the kitchen.

  "My fleshly desire—my apologies." Walking over to the counter, I leaned over the cornbread and inhaled the smell that reminded me of the cold winter nights up at the old Chattaroy farm house that belonged to a friend's grandparents. Warm chili and freshly baked cornbread were on the menu more often than not when I visited.

  "Back away, back away," Esther said, shooing me from the cornbread. "Chili's about done. Want to get the kids down here?"

  Smiling, I nodded. "Yeah." Leaving the kitchen, I headed to the base of the stairwell and hollered up to call the kids down for dinner. When they came hurrying down the stairs, my eyes welled with tears as I thought of Peter. He would have loved to have been here with me. Though it was difficult, I wasn’t going to let my faith in God falter and let the moment slip away into tears. Enjoying the small things in life was important.

  At the dinner table, we all held hands and I led Esther and the children in prayer.

  “Father, God, we come to You tonight to not only bless this food, but our time together.” My thoughts drifted to Peter and my words cracked as an uncontrolled tear escaped from one of my eyes. “Please protect Peter. Keep Your all-powerful hand over him wherever he is. We pray these things in Your Heavenly name, Jesus. Amen.”

  That evening, back at that same house on Hayden Lane, a man answered. He was tall, with a well-defined, clean-shaven jawline. A pair of jeans and a sports jacket gave the impression to me that I might have reached the wrong house.

  "Is Jessica Larson here?" I asked, confused as the man appeared decent.

  The man tilted his head and squinted as he looked me over. A moment passed and he stepped out of the way, opening the door fully as he smiled. "Come on in. She's here. We just finished our traditional Wednesday dinner."

  Cautiously entering the house, I walked into the large foyer with vaulted ceilings, and the man offered to take my coat. My eyes fell upon a purple vase on a small table that sat snugly against the foyer's wall. Beside it sat the baseball cap I had given Peter. My heart raced.

  After he hung up my coat, he said, "Come on. I'll take you to her." The man led me down a long hall that angled left and then right. Turning a third corner, I could see through a doorway leading into a large living space. There she was, and so was Peter. They were sitting on the floor playing a board game. The man pointed to the room and said, "I'll leave you to them."

  I entered the room and Jess's eyes lifted to meet mine. "Brody," she said, her words filled with worry. "What are you doing here?" Her eyes leaped over to the doorway.

  "I've come to get Peter."

  Shaking her head, she rose to her feet and hurried over to me. "You can't do that." Her eyes shifted behind me and then back to me. "You have to leave. He won't want you here."

  "Who?" I asked.

  Peter was now standing. He said with a sad tone, "Anthony."

  The man who had led me to them re-entered the room. "Thank you for the introduction, Peter." Anthony's eyes shifted from the boy over to me and he brought his hands together in front of him as he smiled. "I've heard oh, so much about you, Chief."

  "I've heard about you too."

  He smirked and let out a dry laugh. "Good. What brings you to my home, Mr. Jenkins?"

  "Jessica took Peter from school without my permission."

  He shrugged. "She has custody, yes?"

  "Yeah, but—"

  He raised a hand. "But, but, but. He's safe, as you can see with your own eyes. So now you can leave."

  "I—"

  Anthony's other hand came out from behind his back, and suddenly, I was staring down two barrels of death. He clicked the gun. "You're upsetting me, Chief. I don't like to be upset."

  "No!" Peter shouted, hurrying across the carpet toward Anthony.

  He swung the gun away from my face and pointed it at Peter. I took a quick step toward him, but he threw a fast elbow into my face, sending me crashing to the ground. My face throbbed as he took Peter by the hair and threw him onto the floor. Jessica screamed and leaped over to Anthony, swatting his arm and causing the gun to fire, sending a bullet into the carpet. Blood dripped from my nose and my vision blurred. My eyes watered as I tried to push myself up off the carpet and get to Peter. Cascading waves of pain shot through my face as I tried to get onto my feet. Suddenly, something blunt crashed against the back of my head, sending me toppling over. Blackness engulfed my vision.

  Chapter 14

  BEEP . . . BEEP . . . BEEP. The sound of a machine was first to alert my senses as my eyelids blinked opened. A dry cough escaped my lips as I tried to make sense of my surroundings as I lay flat. Florescent lights beamed with unholy brightness, forcing my eyes to stay at a blurry squint. Able to open them moments later, I lifted my head with the remaining energy in me and glanced around the room. Seeing a hospital curtain, a TV on low volume and an empty chair beside my bed, I let my head fall back to the pillow. I was in a hospital.

  No Jessica, no Peter.

  After another few minutes, I worked up the strength to speak. "Hello?" I called out. My head fell on its side, spotting the nurse call button. I pressed it and let myself relax. A woman came in a moment later, startled to see me awake. "You're up?" Hurrying, she swung the curtain open and came up to my side. She checked the monitor beside my bed and picked up the phone, calling back to the nurse station to inform the head nurse. She hung up the phone and then cupped my face. Right at that moment, when her hand pressed against my cheek, it was then that I could feel the facial hair. It was long, scraggly, and unkempt.

  I attempted to form words once again but couldn't.

  She brushed my hair back with her fingers and shook her head. "Just rest, Mr. Jenkins."

  My eyes grew heavy and I faded quickly.

  Awaking again, some hours later, I awoke to Esther’s smile in front of me. Tears glistened as they ran down her cheeks. "What a perfect way to wake up," I said in a faint, cold voice that barely made it from my lips.

  "Oh, Brody . . ." Her eyes watered, her smile falling to a grimace. When she bit her trembling lip, worry gripped at my heart. She was keeping something from me, and I could feel it.

  "What happened?" I pleaded, voice still weak. "Where is Peter?" I tried to move my right arm, but pain shot up through my shoulder.

  "I don't know if you're up for it right now." Her eyes stole a glance over her shoulder toward the doorway and then came back to me. "You should rest—"

  I tried to sit up, but failed. Managing to get my left hand over to her arm, I realized my right arm was hanging in a cast that looped around my shoulder. Faintly, I asked, "Where is Peter?"

  "Jess is dead."

  Releasing from her arm, my eyes welled with tears. Reality cascaded into my existence, slicing slits of pain through my heart. Wiping my face with a hand, I felt the unkempt facial hair again that only added to my concern. "And Peter?" I asked, my eyes fixated on hers.

  Esther’s eyes watered and I expected the worst. "Remember our talk about bad things happening?"

  Pulling my bottom lip in, I closed my eyes and let my teeth sink into the flesh. "No."

  "Brody . . . he's in a boys’ home right now."

  My eyebrows furrowed. "That's a good thing. Why'd you do that to me?"

  Her lips trembled, and she came close, latching a caring grip to my arm. "Since the fire, he's been mute, unable to speak."

  Thinking of his little voice unable to let out a laugh, thinking about him losing his mother and now being in a place where he didn't know anybody, my heart skipped a beat, broken. "What fire? What happened?"

  The doctor came into the room with a light knock at the door. He was a balding man, but bits of gray hair still hung on above the ears on both sides. His smile was soft. "Hello there, Brody. I'm glad to see you're awake."<
br />
  "I am. What happened, Doc?"

  "You suffered a blow to the back of the head and a lot of internal bleeding in your brain. You're lucky to be alive. The police found your body in the fire, but the lucky part was that the floor above you had collapsed and enclosed you and Peter beneath a couch. The boy suffered minor burns along with you, but unfortunately, Mrs. Larson didn't make it."

  A cold, unsettling chill filled my body right then. "How long was I out?"

  "About two months."

  "Two months?" It was unreal to me. I couldn't process the fact, and all I could think about was getting to Peter. "Can you please get my boy and bring him to me?" I sat up and reached for my IV.

  "Whoa." The doctor quickly made his way to me and touched my hand. "You need to rest, and we have a lot of tests to run now that you're awake."

  The doctor's eyes that once held softness now carried a serious tone to them. Releasing my IV, I relaxed back into a prone position. All I could think about was getting to Peter, holding him, and making sure he was safe. After the doctor left the room following a few checks of the machines hooked up to me, Esther pulled a seat up from beside the bed. She leaned up to the bed, folding her hands together as her eyes stayed on mine.

  "I've been checking in on Peter for you weekly. He's anxious to get back to your house. To get 'home', as he put it into the form of a picture of you and him in your house. I already called this morning and spoke to Child Protective Services to update them on your condition. They're willing to work with you quickly."

  Though I was bedridden in a hospital, had lost two months’ time, and my college sweetheart was dead, joy was still in my heart. The joy of the Lord. I broke into a smile and tilted my head as I framed her cheek in my hand. "Thank you, Esther. Thank you for everything."

  "You're welcome. By the way, I have been going to church and reading my Bible daily." She laughed. "I even read some Scripture out loud to you one day and you moved your finger a little. I thought you were waking up and I was totally freaking out!" Leaning more onto the bed, she grabbed my hand and gave me a little squeeze. "Thank you for being truthful with me back at your house that night." She looked down and shook her head, then returned her eyes to me. "You risked upsetting me to tell me the truth, Brody. You cared enough about me to be honest. I need that in my life."

  All I did was smile.

  The corner of her lips curled into a smile. "After I left that night, I got down on my knees and recommitted my life to Christ. It changed me forever."

  "I'm glad." Being on the topic of salvation reminded me of Jess, reminded me of the fact that she was an atheist. My face twisted and I shifted my gaze to the ceiling as I felt tears welling in my eyes.

  "What's wrong?" Esther asked, obviously noticing.

  Laying my head on the side of the pillow, I looked deeply into her eyes. "Jess. She wasn't saved."

  Esther’s hands came up, meeting on the bridge of her nose as she began to weep, but it was odd—she was smiling.

  "What?" I asked, almost offended.

  "Peter." Sniffing, she wiped her eyes and stood up. Walking over to the corner of my hospital room, she grabbed a drawing. She came back over to me, and I sat up in the bed and took the picture into my hands.

  The picture was a drawing of a man in a robe taking a woman by the hand. Above her head was a speech bubble that said, Yes. My eyes welled with tears as I looked up at Esther. I asked, "She was saved?"

  She was frowning, but it was one of those happy frowns and she was nodding. "I talked to Peter through writing notes back and forth when I visited him at the boy's home. She was saved, Brody. He told her about Jesus."

  Relief washed over me. "He witnessed to her."

  "He did." Esther smiled and tilted her head.

  My heart radiated a warmth as I thought of my son sharing Jesus with his mom. Jessica wasn't the perfect mother, person, or girlfriend, but that didn't mean I thought she deserved hell. She was in Heaven now, having left this world behind for the next.

  **

  Around six o'clock, dinner arrived in my room. I sat up in my bed, attempting to force down a bowl of want-to-be chicken noodle soup. Esther had gone home hours ago to tend to her children. A knock came on the door frame to my hospital room. Looking up, I saw it was Forbes.

  I broke into a grin as I spotted a plastic sack from Dixie's Diner dangling from his hand. He matched my smile and continued into the room. "Thought you might want some real food."

  Opening the plastic container, I was thrilled when my eyes fell on a Philly cheese steak sandwich and fries, still hot. He patted me on the shoulder. "Happy to see you alive, man. The Mayor and everybody around town was praying for you to come out of this. Looks like God answered, huh?" Taking a seat in the chair beside my bed, he continued to stare at me, shaking his head in disbelief.

  A piece of steak fell from my lips and I covered my mouth.

  He let out a sigh of relief and crossed a leg over the other. "I'm just blown away, Brody. Nobody, I mean nobody, thought you were going to make it."

  I nodded. "That's what Charlie said when he stopped by earlier." Setting my sandwich down, I glanced over at the doorway. "I wish it would have been me who died in the fire." Shaking my head, I said, "Not Jess. A boy needs his mom."

  "Don't say that. God had it this way for a reason. And a boy needs a dad too."

  Shrugging, I continued. "That's true. Hey, that reminds me. What happened to Anthony? Esther didn't know when I asked."

  "He got picked up on his way to Canada about three weeks ago. He's going away for a long time."

  "You should have seen that guy's house. It was giant. I'm talking mansion-size, Forbes."

  He nodded. "I saw it burning on the news. He tried to fake his own death.” His words stopped short.

  "What?"

  "That's where they found her remains. In the house." Shaking his head, Forbes adjusted in his seat. "Disturbing."

  "I heard. I'm glad Peter is all right, though. He's gotta be hating life in that boys’ home. Sounds more like a prison than a place for kids in need. No visitors after six in the evening? C'mon."

  "We need places like that though," Henry said. "Structure and order is so, so important. If parents would stop being selfish and realize their lives do revolve around their children instead of themselves, kids wouldn't end up like that."

  Nodding, I thought about the world and the state of affairs as a whole. "Closest to hell we'll ever be. Right?"

  Forbes nodded. "Right about that.” He raised an eyebrow. “You didn’t hear about the kids and the bell.”

  Shaking my head, I raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

  “Jeremy was charged, and the other kids plea bargained for community service. He’s in jail for a couple of months and then probation afterward.”

  “Did they figure out why he did it?”

  He nodded. “He planned on melting the gold down and selling it so he could make a grip of cash and help pay for his new hummer.”

  “What a brat.”

  “Right.” Forbes laughed, shaking his head. “Some kids, man.”

  “What of the bell?”

  “Back where it belongs in town. The mayor installed a security camera on a few buildings nearby to keep an eye on it and put up a warning sign.”

  “Nice.”

  “Yeah. When you getting out of here?"

  "Couple of days. I'll be in this sling for another week though. Guess I broke it and never had a chance to do physical therapy while I was in the coma." My eyes drifted to the sling holding my arm. "I got lucky, man."

  "You're blessed," Forbes said with a smile and shake of his finger. "Blessed."

  Chapter 15

  OUT OF THE HOSPITAL AND back at my house for two days now, I found getting ready for the day more difficult than ever before. The shower about killed me—literally. I fell and smacked my head against the wall and then was barely able to get up. Having only one arm doesn't seem like a big deal until you only have one to work w
ith. Today is the day Esther and I will go pick up Peter from the boy's home in Southeast Spokane. Her mother agreed to watch her two little kids, and she agreed to pick me up at ten—in thirty minutes.

  Wiping the steam away from the mirror, I saw my reflection with all the facial hair intact. I looked like I belonged up in the mountains with an axe and a pair of overalls. Grabbing the trimmers, I flipped the switch to On and prayed for the best. Having to trim a full-size beard left-handed was more than bothersome to me. Starting in, I veered off my chin when I heard the doorbell ring. Peering at the time on my watch on the bathroom counter, I saw it was still twenty-five minutes before Esther was due to come over. Setting the trimmers down, I went to go answer.

  Opening the door, Esther looked me up and down and smiled. "Don't get any ideas."

  She laughed and then paused, seeing the little patch I had trimmed off. "Are you trying to shave?"

  "Well, trim and then shave, yes."

  She stepped in and touched my chest. "Let me help you."

  I sat in a chair in the middle of my kitchen, and Esther took the trimmers and began to trim my face. The process was calm and peaceful, and the slight vibration of the trimmers was almost entrancing. Toward the end, she had to come around to the front to make sure she got every spot. As she came closer to me, I could smell that intoxicating smell she carried everywhere she went. Pulling her down, I brought her in close and we shared our first real kiss. She dropped the trimmers and framed my face between her palms. The kiss ended and she pulled back saying, "I've been looking forward to that."

  "Me too," I said, smiling.

  Esther finished trimming my face and then proceeded to shave it with the straight-edge razor. It had turned out that her mother used to own a styling salon, and on more occasions than a person would think, men requested not only haircuts, but trims and shaves.