the darkness. It was long past bedtime. The poor guy was probably wondering what was going on. Had Dad brought him in?
When Logan came barreling out of the dark, I fell to my knees and opened my arms. Lachlan moved behind me, one hand touching my shoulder, his nerves radiating through to me.
“Hey, boy,” I said between sloppy kisses. “I’m sorry I forgot about you. Have you seen Percy? You know Percy, right?”
Logan tilted his head to the side, ear cocked, listening.
“Where is he? Where’s Percy? Can you find him?”
Logan crouched, his ass in the air, and he barked.
“Does he know what you’re saying?” Lachlan asked, his fingers tightening in my shirt.
“No idea. I’ve never had him search for things before. He’s not trained that way, but he’s smart.”
“Can’t hurt to try. Do you have something of Percy’s that might smell like him?”
“Maybe.” I jumped to my feet and flew toward the house. “Be right back.”
It wasn’t until I returned with an old ratty baseball cap belonging to the kid that I realized I’d left poor Lachlan alone with Logan. The dog had him backed against the fence. Lachlan was scaling it in an attempt to flee.
“Logan. C’mere.”
Logan abandoned Lachlan and bolted over. I held out Percy’s hat, letting him sniff it. “Smell that. Good boy. We need to find Percy. Where’s Percy?”
Logan barked than took the hat in his teeth and proceeded to play tug-a-war.
“No! Find Percy. It’s not playtime. Smell it. Where is he? Find him.”
Logan bounded away, ran in a few circles, then returned to Lachlan for another sniff.
“No. Go away.” Lachlan balanced at the top of the wooden fence, frantically looking from Logan to me.
“Logan, here. This isn’t working. He doesn’t have a clue what I’m sayin’. Shit!” I whipped the hat into the dark and growled as I spun in a circle with nowhere to expel energy. I didn’t know what to do.
Logan took off after the hat, and when it was safe, Lachlan climbed down from the fence and approached, one eye warily following after the big guy. “What do you want to do?”
“I don’t know.”
“Do you want to go to the police station and wait for the RCMP unit to arrive?”
I scrubbed my face and scanned the night again. If I left, would Percy show up looking for me?
“Maybe we should check the road again.”
“If that’s what you want.”
I didn’t know what I wanted. All I knew was my heart was cracked in two, and I felt like it may never be whole again.
Chapter Fifteen
Lachlan
Easton was coming apart at the seams. We had such a tentative truce between us, I feared I wasn’t the right person to support him. God, this man had broken through every wall I’d erected, and he’d done it in a matter of two days. I didn’t know who I was when I was around him.
It was like I was a different person, living in some kind of dream or alternate universe where the rush and pressure of my life didn’t exist—where I wanted more than I’d ever wanted from a guy in the past. And there was this blooming swell of emotion in my chest I couldn’t ignore.
Even now, in the midst of a crisis, it pulsed and burned right at the center of my core. It expanded and grew stronger the more undone Easton became, until I wanted nothing more than to take away all his pain. He hurt, and it echoed in my body as well.
Was this empathy? How ridiculous that it was quite possibly the first time in my life I’d felt such a thing for another person.
This kid meant everything to him. I got the feeling even Easton had no clue how powerfully he felt about Percy until now.
We’d paced the long stretch of highway between the farm and Jasper all night. Easton called the boy’s name until he was hoarse and emotions cracked his voice.
When the police chief called to say the RCMP’s Missing Persons Unit had arrived at shortly after four in the morning, Easton fell to his knees in the middle of the road and cried.
I stood beside him, unsure what to do as he tried to talk to the chief on the phone. I wasn’t cut out for shit like this, but I was drawn to help.
His words blubbered and ran together worse than usual. I kneeled in front of him and removed his phone from his hand. Easton buried his face in my chest and sobbed.