She gave his bicep another squeeze before she let him go and whispered, “Drive safe. Call us if there’s news. I’ll see you in a while.”
He nodded again, shrugged on his coat while Faye gave her mother a hug. Then he took her hand, guided her to the stairs and held her hand tight when it seemed she was trying to fight against sprinting to the car.
They got in, got on the road and Silas’s Wrangler headlights were in his rearview mirror when he took her hand, linked their fingers and pressed them to his thigh.
“It’ll be okay,” he whispered.
“Okay, Chace.”
“He’ll be all right.”
“Okay, honey.”
His fingers gave hers a squeeze.
Hers squeezed back.
Then he let her go and reached for his phone.
After he called the Station and confirmed his orders, Chace broke the speed limit on the way to the hospital.
Chapter Thirteen
Sweet
“Sweet.”
Deck spoke so quietly, Chace could barely hear him over the crunching snow.
Chace didn’t process the word because his mind was consumed.
It was consumed with the fact that they’d been walking through the dark wood at the bottom of the eastern hills that flanked town and they’d been doing it for ten minutes. The last five, they’d steadily been moving uphill.
Since leaving Sioux Street, the eastern most street that edged the town, they’d had nothing but trees, rock, snow and bitter cold.
It wasn’t fun for him, a fit man in his thirties. The idea of Malachi making this trek to get what he might need from town filled him with unrest. Or more than he already had. He knew the kid was hiding but finding his spot in the middle of nowhere filled with snow, cold and wild animals, some of which were dangerous, took it to a different level.
Chace’s mind was also consumed with what he left at the hospital.
When Chace, Faye and Silas arrived, they were working on Malachi with urgency and they weren’t allowed to see him.
He flashed his badge and asked for reports when they had them and this got them a visit from an ER nurse five minutes later. She’d made the visit to garner information about Malachi, such as possible allergies to medicines and why he was in the state he was. Unfortunately, they couldn’t tell her jack about medicines but at least they were able to fill in some of the blanks about the state he was in.
Before she left, she’d explained they were concerned about malnutrition, dehydration and infection, not in that order. They’d lucked out and found a vein and were pumping him with fluids and antibiotics, warming him up and cleaning his wounds to assess the extent of damage.
By the time Chace left with Deck to meet the officers at the shed, have a look at it and its surroundings himself, Sondra had arrived and a doctor had come to make his report.
Malachi’s humerus was broken. It had already begun to knit so they’d had to put him under, rebreak it and set it. They’d also lucked out that Deck’s unpracticed eye saw nothing but mess. Malachi had apparently cleaned his wounds as best he could with what they were guessing from what they could smell on his sweater, the shampoo Faye had given him. He also had antibiotic ointment on the worst of them, Faye’s Neosporin. It was good he’d cleaned his wounds and used the ointment but treatment had been delayed, infection was still a concern so they were pushing strong IV antibiotics.
He was in the critical care unit because they still had some concerns that infection had set in and they reported they had minor worries that he might lose his f**king leg and his f**king hands.
The hospital had a policy that only family members could attend patients in critical care and therefore, at first, they were denied a visit. Chace explained the circumstances including the fact that it was jacked, but Faye was the closest thing the kid had to family and the only person who they knew who had spoken directly to him in weeks. The doctor relented instantly knowing, even if nurture came from someone he hardly knew, nurture was nurture.
Chace and Faye were let in to see him and at first sight of his small body with tubes stuck in him, his hands wrapped, his face bruised and still swollen, his arm in a sling, the covers taller around his dressed leg, Chace thought Faye would fall apart. Many people would, men or women. Fuck, Chace had to suck in breath to hold it together.
But she didn’t. She moved directly to him, ran her fingers lightly through his hair and bent right to his ear.
“It’s Faye. Chace and I are here, Malachi. We’re here. We found you. You’re safe now,” she whispered. “You’re safe, honey. You just need to get better. We’re here and you’re safe.”