Chapter 21 Blake
BLAKE
“What does it say to do?”
I snatched the directions from Liam, reading them by flashlight. “Attach part A to part B using tool F.”
I stared at the ground, at all the tools spread out, wondering why it was so hard for the guys to figure this out. Everything was clearly labeled, and the instructions were clear as day.
“This one,” Jeff said, holding it up triumphantly.
“No, that’s E,” Parker snapped. “The bottom of the letter is smudged.
“Oh, well, that’s just great. Smudged letters are very useful.”
What was so hard about putting this together? They were acting like they’d been given an alien diagram.
“Listen, I think if you just made four pairs of the same—”
“Honey, it’s very sweet that you want to help, but how about you go make us some dinner,” Parker smiled sweetly.
Okay, lesson learned. Parker did not want me to do anything that should be his job. “Sure, that sounds like a fantastic idea. And since we have all this food, I’ll just grab some fishing rods and catch something from the river.”
“Sounds good, honey,” he said, already distracted by the tools in front of him.
Rolling my eyes, I headed for the house, ignoring the way it tilted as I stepped inside. Without this thing being leveled out, I was bound to roll out the door eventually.
And to make matters worse, I couldn’t even sit down and have a nice drink while I was waiting on them to figure out how to level the damn house. It was gonna get extremely boring around here at this rate.
Sighing, I sat down on the couch, staring out the window. Nothing was hooked up yet, and getting any kind of Wi-Fi out here was wishful thinking. After a whole two minutes, I decided sitting around wasn’t in the cards for me.
I shoved the door open, walking out as the guys continued to argue about where what piece went. They didn’t hear me as I walked away, and they didn’t notice when no one was there to fill their beer requests.
I walked along the river, enjoying the sounds of the water lapping against the rocks, but that wasn’t the only thing that drew my attention. The sound of glass breaking in the distance immediately had me on alert.
I had nothing to protect myself with, but when a light turned on in the house across the river, I knew I had to help if I could. There was a small footbridge not too far away. Running for it, I heard a small scream just as my feet hit the other side.
Sprinting to the house, I was just rounding the corner when my body slammed into another, taking both of us to the ground. I quickly gained momentum, flinging my body over his and straddling his hips as I yanked his arms up behind his back.
His cries did nothing for me, not until I yanked back his hood and saw the same face I had tossed through a window not that long ago.
“You!”
“Ow! Lady, you’re hurting me!”
“Yeah? You broke into someone’s house!”
“It was supposed to be vacant!”
“That doesn’t make it okay!” I shouted, tugging his arms harder.
A woman rushed out of the house, her gaze frantic as she stared at the boy on the ground.
“Are you alright?”
Frazzled, she didn’t say anything for a moment.
“Ma’am, are you okay?”
“Yes. Yes, I’m fine.”
“Good, I need you to call the police.”
As she ran back inside, the boy struggled underneath me. “Get off me, lady!”
“So you can run away? Not a chance. What the hell did you think you were doing, anyway?”
“I was just crashing there. No one was there!”
“That doesn’t make it okay,” I snarled.
“Hey, I didn’t think anyone was there. It’s been empty for months!”
God, the idiocy of this kid. “You don’t get to squat somewhere just because no one’s home. That’s not the way shit works.”
“Yeah, not much works,” he muttered under his breath.
I was tempted to let him up, so he wasn’t laying on his belly with his hands torqued behind his back, but there was no way I could be sure he wouldn’t run. And running out here in the dark was a dangerous thing.
“What’s your name, kid?”
“Go to hell!”
“Ooh, original. I’m not sure I’ve heard that one before.”
“Fuck off!”
Rolling my eyes, I dug my fingers in deeper around his wrists until I heard the painful gasp that came from his lips. Ripping his sleeves up his arms, I was horrified by what I found. Deep bruises coated his wrists, trailing up his arms. But that wasn’t the worst of it.
The woman flicked on the outside light, and as she did, it illuminated the kid’s features, showing dark rings of bruises around his neck, along with quite a few marks on his face. This kid wasn’t just running away to be a dick. He was being abused.
“Who did this?” I asked, my voice taking on an unnatural tone I hadn’t heard before.
“What the fuck does it matter to you?”
“Nobody walks around with this many bruises on their body. Who the fuck put their hands on you!”
My voice was erratic, bordering on hysterical. I was so caught up in what was going on with this kid that I hadn’t even noticed Parker running over, or his brothers joining him.
“Blake! What’s going on?”
Looking up at my husband, I was lost for words. As a federal agent, I’d seen and done a lot, but that was all to adults. This was a kid. Maybe sixteen years old, still trying to become a decent person.
Yet, someone had laid their hands on him. Had hurt him in some way.
“I—”
Parker grabbed the kid by the jacket, hauling him off the ground. I fell out of the way at the same time, too dazed by what I saw to fight it. But when he held the kid up, his face twisted in a scowl, my instincts kicked in.
“Stop it!” I shouted at Parker, stepping between the two of them. “Just—”
The kid shoved me into Parker and took off running. Parker caught me, his attention focused solely on me, but his brothers were already chasing him down.
“What happened?” Parker asked, brushing the hair from my face. “What did he do? Are you alright? Is the baby alright?”
“I’m fine!” I shouted, shaking off the horror of what I’d seen.
“What did he do?”
“He was breaking into that house. He thought it was empty.”
“Punk,” Parker spat.
Grabbing his arm, I dragged him further away from the house. I needed him to know what I had seen. “Parker, that kid…something’s wrong.”
“No shit. He attacked you.”
“No, that’s not what I mean. He’s covered in bruises. All over his wrists, around his neck, his face…Parker…”
His features went stony at my words, but I could tell it wasn’t enough to stop the anger roaring through him at the thought that the kid could have hurt me.
“Damnit,” he hissed, pulling me against him. “Tell me you’re alright.”
“I’m fine. Trust me, there is nothing wrong with me, but that kid—”
“Let the police handle it,” he argued. He jerked his head toward the road in the distance. Lights were heading toward us fast. “I’ll make sure I talk to Mav tomorrow morning.”
“He can’t go home,” I argued. “Not like that!”
“Blake, this isn’t—”
“Don’t you dare tell me this isn’t my business!”
Cupping my cheeks, he pressed a kiss to my mouth and chuckled. “Baby, that’s not what I was going to say. This isn’t something we can deal with tonight. It’s already late. Mav will take him to the station and hold him until he cools down. When I go into work tomorrow, I’ll have a word with him.”
“You promise?” I asked, not willing to back down on this.
“I swear. And until we know more, don’t say a word. You know how fast gossip travels in this town.”
I knew that. So, no matter how much I wanted to find out more, I couldn’t even ask any questions. That would only lead to the whole town discussing this kid like the latest People Magazine.
“I know.”
“Just let me handle this.”
Sure, I’d just sit on the sidelines and let him take care of everything. I used to have a badge. People listened to me. Now, I was shoved to the side for someone else to handle the situation.
As much as I hated to admit it, being a fed had its perks.
I watched from a distance as Liam and Jeff walked the kid to the police car.
I couldn’t tell for sure if it was Mav or Remi on call tonight, but either way, the kid was placed in the back seat and taken away.
Meanwhile, Parker went back to the house to speak with the woman.
I knew he would want to ask me questions later, but for now, I was heading home.
“Hey!” Jeff shouted, catching up with me. “Are you okay?”
“Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Well…because you’re pregnant, and you did all that running.”
Rolling my eyes, I walked across the bridge. “I’m sorry, are pregnant women not allowed to run?”
“It should definitely be considered by doctors.”
“Well, I don’t plan on changing my entire life just because I’m having a baby.”
He was silent for a moment. “You know, back in the 1500s, they used to put women in dark rooms and restrict their movements.”
I stopped and glared at him. “Is that what you’re suggesting I do? Lock myself away in a tower so I don’t accidentally get hurt?”
His eyes widened in surprise at my hostility. “No, I was just…making conversation.”
“Well, make conversation with someone who actually cares about what they did in the 1500s.”
“Geez, you’re kind of crabby when you don’t get to beat someone up.”
“I’m crabby because it’s taking three grown men to level a house when it would have taken me fifteen minutes.”
“Hey, we just wanted to make sure we had all the pieces right,” he defended himself.
“Yeah,” I snorted. “Good luck with that. You’re missing one major thing, though.”
I walked up the steps to my house and flung the door open.
“Yeah?” he called out. “What’s that?”
“That thing inside your head!”
“Hey, Bea!” I grinned as I walked into the sheriff’s department.
“Hey, Sunshine. I saw those pictures on that website thing. Nice wheels,” she winked.
Yes, I was Ms. Sunshine this morning, but only because I was after information, and since I was now on the outside looking in, I had to work harder for those answers. And Bea was my source.
“Facebook?”