Chapter Two #2
Cassidy had known the woman her entire life, and Ina May had stitched up Travis and her a time or two. The woman smiled, then did a double-take when her attention landed on Kincade.
“Obviously, he needs to be examined, maybe even admitted,” Ina May concluded.
Kincade didn’t argue. But the lines around his mouth were deeper now, the fire in his eyes dulled by pain he was doing a bad job of hiding.
With the nurse leading the way, they moved past the desk and down a narrow hallway with scuffed tile floors and faded blue walls.
Everything smelled tired. Lived-in. Rural hospitals like this one weren’t built for emergencies.
They were built to hold people together until someone better equipped could take over.
When they reached the exam room, Ina May opened the door and motioned for them to go in. “Have a seat. Doctor will be in shortly,” she said. “I’ll grab the intake nurse and let her know you’re here.”
Kincade stopped walking, eyes on the floor for a second before lifting to meet Cassidy’s. “Don’t let them knock me out or ask too many questions,” he insisted. “I need to be back on my feet fast.”
She wanted the same thing, but Cassidy wasn’t sure that was possible. “You’re bleeding from the head and probably concussed,” she reminded him.
“I can be concussed and useful,” he growled. “But I can’t do a damn thing from a hospital bed.”
She stared at him for a long beat, jaw tightening. Then she nodded. “Fine. They patch you up, you stay upright, and you poke those blank memories so we know where to find Travis.”
“Deal,” he muttered.
Maybe it was the exhaustion in his voice, or the raw edge under all that steel, but something inside her softened. Travis was still out there. Maybe hunted. Maybe framed. Maybe worse.
And like it or not, Kincade was her best shot at finding him.
Cassidy’s phone buzzed with an incoming call, and she glanced at the screen “It’s Ruby,” she relayed to him.
Kincade cursed under his breath. “Hell, I should’ve called her.”
“I think your boss would understand the delay if she got a look at you,” Cassidy shot back. “You shouldn’t even be standing.” She answered the call and put it on speaker. “Ruby, I’ve got Kincade.”
Ruby’s voice came through crisp and calm, but with that edge that said she’d been holding her breath for too long. “Is he injured?”
“Some,” Kincade was quick to say.
Cassidy shot him a look, then leaned in toward the phone. “It’s more than some, Ruby. Blunt force trauma to the head. No memory of the past forty-eight hours. He’s lucky to be walking.”
There was a beat of silence on the line, just long enough for Cassidy to picture Ruby standing in Ops headquarters, eyes narrowed, posture rigid.
“What details do you remember, Kincade?” Ruby asked a heartbeat later.
Kincade cleared his throat. Winced again. “I woke up in the middle of the torched safe house by Miller’s Pass. I had no memory of the last two days and no sign of Travis. The place was clean. No gear, no phone, no backup. Just fire debris and nothing else.”
A beat of silence hummed on the line before Ruby replied. “Then the situation’s worse than I thought,” Ruby said, her voice tight. “Either someone left you for dead, or you got incredibly lucky.”
“Not sure which one I’m rooting for,” Kincade muttered. “If it’s door number one, someone left me for dead, then that means I’m a loose end that someone might want tied off.”
“Exactly,” Ruby was quick to say. “I’m sending a CSI team out to the safe house now. If there’s anything to recover—footprints, accelerants, surveillance—we’ll find it. I want to know who hit you, how they pulled it off, and what the hell they were after.”
Cassidy glanced at Kincade, who didn’t say anything, but she could see the storm building behind his eyes. He wanted those answers just as much as she did.
“I’ve got resources digging into the Harlan case,” Ruby continued. “But I’m not leaving you alone, Kincade. I’m sending someone to the hospital. Jericho McKenna.”
Cassidy turned slightly toward the phone. “The one who helped break up that kidnapping ring in Del Rio?”
“That’s him,” Ruby confirmed. “Jericho’s fast, quiet, and he doesn’t miss.”
Kincade leaned forward slightly, wincing as he shifted. “Shouldn’t Jericho be out looking for Travis instead of shadowing me?”
There was a brief pause before Ruby answered. “We’ve already got boots on the ground for Travis. Other operatives are running down leads, monitoring surveillance, and working the digital trail. But you? From the sound of it, you’re not exactly in fighting shape.”
Kincade let out a low breath, not quite a sigh, but close. Cassidy could see the frustration in the tight set of his jaw, the way his hand curled loosely on the edge of the exam table.
“Great,” Kincade grumbled. “I love being babysat.”
“You’re likely concussed,” Ruby snapped. “You don’t even know what day it is. So yes, you’re getting backup. Because whoever set that fire and framed Travis is still one step ahead, and I don’t intend to let them stay that way.”
Kincade didn’t argue this time. He just leaned his head back against the wall, his eyes half-lidded, breathing sharply.
“I’ll let you know when Jericho gets here,” Cassidy told Ruby.
“Good. Keep Kincade upright, Deputy. And keep each other alive.”
The call ended with a soft click, leaving only the buzz of the overhead lights and Kincade’s slow, uneven breath.
Cassidy barely had time to process everything Ruby had said before a nurse came around the corner, clipboard in hand and a wary expression on her face.
Cassidy knew this one as well. Melody Matthews.
“We’ll need to take him back for an exam,” Melody immediately said, eyeing Kincade’s blood-streaked temple. “Concussions can be tricky. The sooner we get a look, the better.”
Kincade started to protest, but Cassidy raised a hand to cut him off. “You’ll live through a ten-minute exam. Sit tight.”
He grumbled something under his breath, but stayed put, leaning heavily against the wall like the last of his adrenaline had finally drained out.
Cassidy turned to speak with the nurse and then her phone buzzed. And she saw the name on the screen. It was her fellow deputy, Wes Morales.
She answered instantly. “Prescott.”
Wes didn’t waste time. “Cassidy, we’ve got a possible sighting. Someone matching Travis’s description was spotted about two miles east of town, near the old quarry. A ranch hand made the call. Every available officer is en route, including county.”
Her heart slammed against her ribs. She had a dozen questions but went with the first two that popped into her head. “Is Travis all right? Was anyone with him?”
“No idea. The report was just that he was on foot, headed toward the creek bed. Command’s calling it a high-risk apprehension.”
Her stomach twisted. “Do not let them engage until I get there. You hear me, Wes?”
He hesitated. “It’s not my call. We’ve already got units rolling. I’ll do what I can.”
“Then do more,” she snapped, and ended the call.
With her pulse spiking, she turned toward Kincade. “There’s been a sighting. Outside town, at the quarry.”
Kincade straightened, the exhaustion gone in an instant. “Travis?”
“That’s what they think. Deputies are already on the move.”
Cassidy didn’t hesitate. “We need to go,” she said to Kincade.
Despite the nurse’s protests, Cassidy and he were already headed for the door. “If they find Travis first, this could end with a body bag,” she muttered.
And she’d be damned if she let that happen to her brother.
───── ? ────