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Chapter Two

I gripped my steering wheel so tightly my fingers ached. My teeth ground together as I followed Maddie’s Jeep out of Jasper Creek, first on the highway, then through the back roads of Gatlinburg. She was driving too damn fast. Way too fast for these winding roads. I kept expecting her to lose control, for her tires to slide out on the gravel shoulders. That pissed me off even more.

What in the ever-loving hell had she been thinking, racing through town like that?

When she stopped in front of a house, I pulled up behind her, slammed my truck into park, and climbed out.

The house was just what I expected for this part of town. A shithole. Busted siding, sheets over the windows for drapes, dirt for a lawn, and two wooden steps missing from the front porch.

Maddie slammed out of her Jeep and stood in front of the house with her hands on her hips.

Silent.

Waiting.

She focused her entire attention on the house in front of her. How she’d missed my arrival was a mystery.

“Ms. Avery!”

We both turned our heads to look at the woman in the yard next door. She was holding a rifle. She was wearing a blue-and-gold Buccaneers jersey over pink-and-purple stretch pants. If I looked too long, I was afraid I might get dizzy. She started running toward us.

“Mrs. Owens, stay there,” Maddie called out. She jogged over to the woman’s yard with me following her. When I got close, I could hear Maddie talking.

“What’s happened since you called me?” she asked.

“I heard Colleen scream again, but not like she’d been hit, more like she was pissed. Then I heard something shatter. Glass, I mean. Ya know?” She squinted through her thick glasses at Maddie to see if she was tracking, then looked at me. “Who’s he?”

Maddie whirled around.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Maddie demanded.

“We’re on a date, don’t you remember?”

“Beau, get the hell out of here. This is a volatile situation. I’ve got a six-year-old boy I’m worried about. I don’t need you here fucking things up.”

“How would he fuck things up?” Mrs. Owens asked as she eyed me up and down and smiled. “Looks to me like he might could do some good.”

“Mrs. Owens, when was the last time you saw Eli?”

“Is Eli the kid in trouble?” I asked.

“Cute little kid,” Mrs. Owens answered. “Kind of spindly. Might scared, but who could blame him with that bastard Bruce living there.”

“Why haven’t you called the cops?” I asked.

“Did. They left,” she answered.

“What?”

“They followed procedure,” Maddie sighed. “If Colleen, that’s the mother, said there wasn’t any problem, and they couldn’t find any reason to enter, there was nothing they could do.”

“But what about the boy?” I asked.

“I don’t know.” Maddie sounded defeated. She turned to look at the older woman, who was holding her rifle like she was ready to go to battle. “Mrs. Owens, when was the last time you saw Eli?”

“Not since yesterday. He was playing with that red fire engine truck of his. He runs it around the front yard. I ain’t seen him since.”

Maddie turned to me. “I gave that to him. It’s still lying in the front of the house.”

Of course she’d given it to him.

We both turned to look at the house in question.

“What are you going to do?” Mrs. Owens asked Maddie.

“I’m going to go check on Eli.”

I nodded. “I’ll go with you.”

“No, you’re not.”

“Maddie—”

“I mean it, Beau.” Her voice was steel. “I know what I’m doing. This is my job, and it’s not the first time I’ve been in these kinds of situations.”

“Situations where some abusive asshole might have a gun for all you know, and might blow your brains out? Those kinds of situations?” I was beyond pissed.

“There has been a time or two when I haven’t known what I’ve been walking into, but I didn’t have the probable cause for law enforcement. So, yes, I’ve gone in to check in on a child. That’s my job, Beau. My job is to ensure the welfare of children who can’t take care of themselves. I have the training to do this. I have met with Colleen and Bruce a few times. It’s my job to make sure that Eli is okay.”

“And I’ll go with you.” I kept my voice as reasonable as possible.

“Having you with me will just escalate things. It will ensure things turn into a shitshow.”

She took a step toward the house. I touched her wrist and she turned around. “Eli Jackson’s six years old. He’s the smallest boy in his class, Beau.”

Fuck . Suddenly, I could picture the kid.

I nodded. “You call out my name, and I’ll break the door down to get to you. You got it?”

Her expression softened for half a second before she pulled free. “I’ll be fine.”

This wasn’t the girl I’d left behind.

Nope.

This woman scared the hell out of me.

* * *

I watched as Maddie stepped over the broken step and knocked on the front door. I was vibrating with frustration that I couldn’t be beside her. This whole situation sucked. But I needed to just think of her as another Marine.

She knocked on the door and a woman I assumed was Colleen Jackson opened it. I winced when I saw her black eye. She looked both pissed off and scared.

Maddie must have said something, but I couldn’t hear her since she was facing away from me, but I could hear Colleen just fine.

“We don’t need you here. Everything’s fine. Anyways, Eli’s not here. He ran away.”

That set me off. This woman was saying her six-year-old son had run away, and she hadn’t reported it?

I watched as Colleen listened to Maddie reply.

“Kid’s always running off. What the hell am I supposed to do?”

I heard a man’s voice bellow from inside the house and Colleen flinched. Damn, if she had any sense, she’d take this opportunity to get the hell out of there.

“You need to leave,” Colleen whined.

Again, I didn’t hear what Maddie said.

“Now. You need to leave now .” Colleen was clearly agitated.

Another bellow sounded inside the house.

Colleen looked behind her, then looked back at Maddie. I could tell Maddie was saying something by the way Colleen’s eyes were narrowing.

“Fine. Come on in. See for yourself.”

Then, somehow, Maddie was slipping by Colleen, and then the door shut behind her.

My mouth went dry. This was not good, not good at all.

“Are you just going to stand here?” Mrs. Owens looked at me.

“No, ma’am.”

“If you go through the backyard, watch out for the dog. Do you need my rifle?”

Her offer was the first thing in this whole nightmare that made me smile. “I think I’ll be fine without it, but thank you, ma’am.”

“Well, get going.”

She turned around and stalked to her porch, then sat down on her rocking chair, her rifle lying over her lap.

I shook my head and turned back to the Jacksons’ house. The fence to the backyard was busted in one section. It was wide enough for me to squeeze through.

As soon as I saw the backyard, I figured out that they didn’t bother to pay for trash collection. They just threw most of their garbage into it. It was disgusting. The smell was noxious. Buried in the dirt near the back fence was an old tractor tire with a chain attached.

Aw, shit.

A half-starved pitbull was connected to the chain and didn’t even have the strength to lift his or her head. Hell, I couldn’t even tell if the poor thing was a Staffordshire Bull Terrier or an American Staffordshire Terrier, it was so emaciated. What kind of people did this to a dog?

This place just got worse and worse.

I peered through one of the grimy windows. I could see it was a bedroom. The sheet that was supposed to be covering it was only tacked up with one nail, so I had a clear view. It looked like a kid’s room or had been a kid’s room at one time. There was one poster on the wall of a Disney character, and the same character on a dirty blanket, but there weren’t any toys, and the carpet was half pulled up to show the concrete beneath. Hell, there were three spots where it was clear someone had punched holes in the sheetrock.

I went to the next window, and that one had the sheet covering the whole thing, so I couldn’t look in. I listened intently, but I couldn’t hear a sound.

Then I climbed up the five steps that led to the back porch. The screen door and the main door were cracked open. I turned to ice, just like I did on any mission. I put my ear up to it to see what I could hear. Murmurs. Voices too low to make out.

Then I heard a rustling sound. But not from inside. I listened closer and realized it was coming from below.

A raccoon under the porch?

I kept my ears open to what was going on inside, then I heard a whimper from down below.

Eli!

I jumped lightly from the porch, not making a sound, then peered under. I saw the whites of a scared little boy’s eyes.

Another soft whimper.

He was curled up against the back stair, barely visible.

“Eli?” I whispered.

Now that my eyes had adjusted, I could make him out.

Another soft whimper.

I stretched my hand toward him.

This time it wasn’t a whimper, it was a soft keening cry. He was more than scared, he was petrified.

“I’m a friend of Maddie’s. I’ve come to help you.”

He started to cry.

Dammit, I didn’t want to crawl under there and force him out. That would call attention to us, and it would make things worse for the little tyke. “Do you know who Maddie is? Isn’t she your friend?”

He shook his head.

That didn’t make sense. Then it did.

“I’m a friend of Miss Avery’s. She gave you the fire engine. She asked me to come get you.”

That had him lifting his head and looking at me. One dirty hand swiped at his eyes.

“You know Miss Avery, right?”

I got a small nod.

“She wanted me to come and help you. Can you come out?”

He shook his head.

“Why not?”

“Bruce will be mad,” he whispered. “He gets mad a lot.”

Fury raced through my body, but I didn’t let it show. “Bruce won’t know. I’m going to take you to Miss Avery, and everything is going to be all right.”

The boy didn’t move.

“I promise.”

“Cross your heart?” He whispered the question.

“Cross my heart.” My heart ached as I said the words.

The boy moved really slowly. When he came close, even in the dim light of twilight, I could see that his face was bruised, just like his mother’s. His small arms were covered with bruises, where a big hand had squeezed too tight.

Rage roared through me.

I kept my hands out, not trying to help him since I didn’t know where else he might be hurt. He finally crawled into my waiting arms. There was nothing to him but bruises and heartbreak.

“You’re safe now,” I breathed into his damp hair. I scuttled backward, then stood up and started to carry him to the hole in the fence, when a bellow exploded from inside.

“Interfering bitch!”

I spun around, my heart slamming in my chest.

“I’ve got to go,” I said as I laid Eli on the ground, propping him up against the fence, near some trash. I crouched down beside him, gripping Eli’s hand gently. His whole body trembled under my hands. I felt bad, but I had to make this fast. “Stay put. No matter what you hear, don’t move.”

His swollen eyes locked onto mine. Fear and trust seemed to battle inside them. I squeezed his hand once more, then I turned and ran like my life depended on it.

I ran up the porch steps and flung the two doors open. I barreled through the back door and found myself in the middle of the kitchen. I immediately took stock of the scene in front of me.

Maddie was standing at one end of the kitchen, holding a softball bat at the ready. It looked like she was planning to swing to the fences. Colleen was cowering behind her, both arms covering her head.

On the far side of the kitchen was a huge, shirtless man with a belly so large he looked like he was pregnant. He was bald as a cue ball, but for all the missing hair on his head, he made up for it by having a pelt of hair everywhere else on his body. He was holding a cast iron frying pan.

“Come near her again, and I’ll send you to Mars,” Maddie yelled.

The furball crouched down, the pan over his head, and started across toward Maddie. How the hell he hadn’t noticed me, I’ll never know. He raised the pan higher, murder in his eyes. Maddie gripped the bat tighter, jaw clenched, ready to swing.

I stepped forward. He never saw me coming, the flea-brained oaf.

I slammed into him from behind, driving him face-first into the refrigerator with a crunch that rattled the condiments inside. He spun, wild-eyed, but I caught his throat in the crook of my elbow and squeezed until his knees buckled.

When he dropped the pan, I kicked it across the room, then hauled him around and slammed him to the tile floor so hard the cabinets rattled. He tried to lurch up. Big mistake. I punched him in the gut hard and fast, twice, until he wheezed and collapsed like the deflated bag of trash he was. Maddie turned to Colleen and dropped the bat.

“Colleen, are you?—”

I stopped her. “Eli’s outside, and he needs an ambulance.”

Maddie’s eyes went wide before she pushed past me as she sprinted out the door.

I heard the furball cough, and I looked at Colleen.

“You hurt him,” she told me.

“No, I found him underneath the stairs. We’re going to get both of you help.”

She started to crawl across the floor toward the furball. “Are you okay, Bruce?”

“Are you shitting me?” I asked.

“You hurt him!” she shouted at me. “Get out of my house!”

I looked at the woman with the black eye and fingerprint bruises on her arms and wondered what was wrong with the world. “Lady, your kid needs an ambulance.”

She wasn’t looking at me, she had her cheek pressed against that asshole’s face and I couldn’t leave the house fast enough.

Maddie was exactly where I expected, sitting in a pile of trash, holding Eli in her arms. The boy was crying as she rocked him. Before I could get to them, Mrs. Owens stopped me. She had her phone in her hand. “The cops and an ambulance are on their way. You did good, kid,” she smiled at me.

“Do me a favor. Can you call animal control? That poor dog doesn’t look like it’s been watered or fed in a week.”

“I’m on it.” She walked away.

I looked on as Maddie continued to soothe the little boy.

“It’s going to be all right. I promise, honey,” she said to Eli.

The boy kept crying, and Maddie kept on rocking him until he fell asleep against her. When the EMTs arrived, it looked like she was being asked to cut off her arm when they tried to take Eli out of her arms. It was the first time she looked at me with her big brown eyes since we’d left the house.

“Go in the ambulance with him. Give me your keys and I’ll make sure your Jeep gets home.”

She bit her lip. “Are you sure?”

I stepped up to her and cupped her cheek. “Trust me.”

She let out a sigh. “Thank you, Beau. Thank you for all you did tonight.”

I watched her get into the ambulance with Eli, then watched as the ambulance drove away. This was the exact reason I hadn’t contacted her when I first got home. I knew I was going to get in too deep, and here I was, smack dab in the middle of the ocean.