Page 28 of Chasing Shelter (Sparrow Falls #5)

ELLIE

It was as if my whole body was attuned to Trace. I couldn’t help being aware of every move the man made. The second his phone rang. The moment the call turned.

I watched as his shoulders stiffened, the muscles twisting into tense blocks of cement. The way his shields went up as he talked to the person on the other end of the line. And I couldn’t stop myself from following him as he walked down the hallway.

It might make me a creepy stalker, but I had a deep urge to help. To ease whatever ate at him the way he’d soothed me more than once.

“I’ll be there as soon as I can.” Trace faced away from me as he ended the call, but he made no move to turn or leave as he said he would. Instead, he just stood there for a moment, clutching the phone at his side, his breaths coming in ragged inhales and exhales.

I tracked each breath with my gaze, my fingers itching to reach out and grab hold. I wanted to tell him it would be okay, even though I had no idea what was wrong. “Trace?”

Those muscles wound tighter, and he didn’t move right away. I felt him putting up layer after layer of walls between us. Each brick he placed to reinforce the barrier was like a carefully placed blow, but I knew there was nothing I could do to stop it.

Finally, he turned, his expression unreadable. “I need to go into the station.”

My hands fisted, the nails I’d painted lavender the other day pressing into my palms. “What happened?”

“Case,” Trace said flatly.

“What case?” I pressed.

“That’s sheriff’s department business.”

The words were like a slap, but I knew what was beneath them. Over the past few weeks, Trace had given me pieces of himself, tiny slivers I was slowly assembling into an image that revealed more than he might want to show me. But I saw it all the same.

I stared at Trace, not letting my gaze waver for a second. “It’s okay if you need help. It’s okay if you need someone to lean on. It doesn’t make you weak. It makes you human.”

A muscle fluttered wildly in his jaw. “Ellie?—”

“Let me be there for you. Like you’ve been there for me.”

That jaw worked back and forth, but Trace took a single step toward me. It was all I needed. I closed the distance and slid my fingers through his, squeezing tightly, an invitation for him to lay down his burdens.

“Gabriel arrested Jasper. He’s in lockup.”

I sucked in a sharp breath. “For what?”

Trace’s throat worked as he tried to swallow. “Gabriel busted up a party out at The Meadows. Drugs were present. Jasper was in front of a trailer next door, clearly intoxicated.”

“Does that violate his parole?” I asked quietly.

In many ways, that would be a gift. Jasper would have to return to prison, and Trace would be free of him for a few more years at least.

“Gabriel’s checking now. Every parolee’s terms are different. But they’re drug testing him. If he dings positive, he’s definitely going back.”

Was it wrong that I hoped Jasper tested positive for every controlled substance under the sun? Probably. But I didn’t care. I didn’t claim to be a noble person, and I would’ve done just about anything to protect Trace from the world of hurt currently raining down on him.

“Do you want me to go with you?” I asked.

I saw the slightest movement in Trace’s lips as if he were trying to smile. “You secretly a law enforcement agent of some sort?”

I huffed out a breath. “I could be a secret agent. I bet they have cool outfits.”

Trace chuckled, even if the sound was half-hearted. “Hate to break it to you, but most agents I know wear boxy, oversized, and ugly suits.”

“Damn.”

“Still bet you’d make it look good.”

My cheeks heated, but I didn’t take my eyes off Trace. “I could wait in your office or the car, just so you know I’m there.”

He stared at me for a long moment. “Means something. You offering that.”

I’d have waited twenty hours for Trace if it meant letting him know he wasn’t alone.

His gaze flicked down the hall. “Can you stay with Keely? If I’m not back by the time dinner’s over?”

I tried to hold back the jerk my body wanted to make. Because I knew that was a whole new level of trust. “I’ve got her.”

Trace lifted his chin in understanding. Agreement. “Nora has an extra set of keys and a spare booster seat if you need it.”

“We’ll figure it out. Text me if you need anything.”

Trace squeezed my fingers and then released them, already moving. He poked his head into the living room. “Got a callout. Be back if I can. Keels, Ellie’s gonna stay with you if I’m late.”

Keely’s green gaze moved to me instantly. “Bestie time?”

“You know it. We can do face masks,” I told her.

Keely cheered, spinning in a circle of pure glee.

“Good to know I’ll be missed,” Trace muttered, amusement lacing his words.

“Be safe,” I whispered.

“I’ll be fine.” And then he was gone.

I wasn’t so sure about his words. Didn’t quite believe them. Because Jasper was stirring up memories that I wasn’t sure Trace had ever truly dealt with.

When I turned back to the room, it was to find everyone staring at me. I glanced behind me, half-expecting to see a giant green alien or a grizzly, but there was nothing. “What?”

Fallon grinned at me. “Trace doesn’t trust people with Keely easily.”

Shep lifted his beer to me in a salute. “And by not trust easily , she means he runs at least two different background checks, asks for five references, and puts a nanny cam somewhere every time.”

My jaw went a little slack at that. “Seriously?”

“Kye still isn’t allowed to babysit alone,” Fallon said, her delight in the fact clear.

“Hey, Keely loves her uncle Kye. Right, Keels?” Kye defended himself.

Keely plopped down on the couch. “You’re my favoritest! Remember when you let me draw tattoos all over my arms?”

Fallon leaned into Kye, looking up at him, her eyes twinkling. “Hence, why Kye is not allowed to babysit alone.”

“They were washable markers. I don’t know why everyone freaked out so much,” Kye grumbled. “Plus, my Keels has skills. Could be an epic tattoo artist one day.”

Kye would know. His artistry had garnered attention from across the globe, and people came from all over for appointments with him.

Fallon shook her head. “You let her go to sleep with it on. The markers came off on the sheets and seeped into her skin so much Trace couldn’t get it off for a week.”

Kye just shrugged. “So, she was a little baddie for a week, big deal.”

I could only imagine Trace’s reaction to that ordeal.

A phone dinged, and Fallon pulled her cell out of her purse, frowning as she read whatever was on the screen.

Kye read her mood instantly. “What’s wrong?”

Fallon didn’t move her eyes from the screen. “Nothing. Just an update on a case.”

While Fallon wasn’t law enforcement, she often worked alongside them as a social worker with Child Protective Services. I’d come to realize that while Fal was probably the most sensitive of the Colsons, she was also a badass in her own right. And every kid that crossed her path was better for it.

Kye stiffened. “Tell me you’re not going back to The Pines tonight.”

The name caught my attention. “What’s that? The Pines.”

Arden grimaced as she turned to me. “Rougher neighborhood a ways out of town.”

“A lot of drug traffic through there,” Anson added.

Kye’s entire demeanor had changed as he stared at Fallon. His tattooed fingers bleached white as he gripped the bottle in his hand, and a muscle in his jaw pulsed in a staccato beat.

Fallon glanced up at him. “Don’t.”

“It’s not safe,” Kye ground out.

“It’s my job. And I can’t always have a hulking shadow following me around. I know what I’m doing. Trust me,” Fallon begged.

“I’d trust you with my life,” Kye said without hesitation. “It’s everyone else I don’t trust.”

And there it was. The thing I’d sensed in the time I’d known Fallon. She was the only one Kye truly let in.

Something changed in her then. She hooked her pinky through his and squeezed. “I’m not going anywhere tonight. It’s just about some follow-up I need to do tomorrow.”

Kye’s whole form relaxed a fraction. “And you’re taking a deputy?”

Fallon sighed. “Yes, I’ll take a deputy.”

Kye’s pinky tightened around hers and then released, sending some silent message only the two of them understood.

“All right,” Nora said, clapping her hands together. “Enough bickering for one evening. Dinner is ready.”

“It’s called shit-stirring,” Kye said, pushing to his feet.

“Kyler Blackwood, I will still ground you. Don’t think I won’t,” Nora called.

He just laughed and crossed to the table, but I intercepted him before he made it. “Kye?”

“What’s up, buttercup? ”

A soft laugh left my lips. “I was wondering if you could help me with something.”

“You need ink?”

I shook my head. “I have an aversion to needles.”

“You and Fal both.”

“I was wondering if you had time for some self-defense training or mixed martial arts instruction?”

Kye’s expression morphed again, becoming assessing like an animal gauging my weaknesses. Only I knew it wasn’t a lead-up to attack. It was something else entirely. “What are you looking for?”

I swallowed, really thinking about the question. “I want to feel strong.”

I wanted that more than anything. To feel like I could stand up for myself and not just with my words. That I could back it up with my body, too.

“That, we can do. Tomorrow, five o’clock?”

“That easy?” I asked, a little shocked.

One corner of Kye’s mouth pulled up. “Gonna turn you into an ass-kicking machine.”

“Kyler Blackwood,” Nora called. “You’re in time-out.”

“Swear jar, Kye Kye,” Keely yelled.

Kye shook his head. “Always the black sheep.”

Only I knew he was anything but.

Laughter filled the air as Shep told a story about Lolli getting frisked at an airport thanks to her T-shirt that read Go Green , with a pot leaf instead of the recycling symbol.

My phone dinged, and I shifted to pull it out of my skirt pocket. It dinged again before I could even get it out, and then it started ringing.