Chapter 23
Twenty-Three
Punch today in the dick.
—Text from Sage to Gentry before shift
Gentry
“What did you just say?” I asked again when Sage still said nothing.
She looked sick.
Her mouth opened and closed as she tried and failed to find the words.
“Sage,” Odin said quietly. “We need more information.”
Sage started to cry, then turned to me. “I swear on my life, Gentry. That’s your son.”
I shook my head as anger started to course through me. “My son’s dead.”
“He’s not,” she replied. “I swear to you.”
Since no words were forthcoming from my own lips, Odin took over. “What makes you think it’s his son?”
I closed my eyes as those words washed over me.
Pain was a constant thing when you’d lost your child.
It stayed there, festering and reopening at any slight memory, for you to always feel.
But this? The words that’d come out of Sage’s mouth? It felt like someone had set that wound on fire.
“He’s the same age. Has the same birthday. Has the same name,” she explained, wringing her hands together. “He looks exactly like Gentry.”
Incredulousness shot through me.
“What does their address say?” I asked. “Let me see the chart.”
“We didn’t get that information.” She slapped herself on the forehead.
“Take the paperwork in there and have her fill it out,” I replied forcefully.
Sage left, heading to the front likely to get the paperwork.
Odin stared at me, then gestured toward the door.
I moved, stopping right outside the half-open door as Sage pushed through it with a clipboard filled with paperwork.
“While you wait, we need to get you to fill out these treatment forms for Dean,” Sage said shakily.
“Oh,” a woman replied. “We’re self-pay.”
Vague recognition sparked in my brain.
An old memory of a voice that I couldn’t quite place.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re self-pay or insurance-pay,” Sage interjected.
“This is right to treat paperwork. Liability-wise, we have to have this information. We also need some information on the child. Full name, date of birth, birth parents. Things of that nature. Medical history on the child. Medical history on both parents.”
“He doesn’t have a dad.”
Now that voice, I’d know fucking anywhere.
Nadine had a nasally voice that sounded like she constantly needed to blow her nose.
Seven years later, and I still knew that voice well.
“Is he deceased?” Sage asked carefully.
“You could say that.” The other slightly familiar voice snorted.
“We just need as much information as we can. As soon as you get that filled out, Dr. Mayer will be right in.”
“Maybe we should leave.”
I stiffened.
Sage blocked the door. “I’m afraid I can’t let you do that, Professor Wood.”
The two women paused. “Who are you?”
Sage crossed her arms over her chest and blocked the door with her body. “I was married to this boy’s father. And let’s just say, we were all under the assumption that he was dead.”
I heard the slight “oh fuck” from Nadine.
And I was finally able to pinpoint the other voice as Nadine’s wife, Brooke, when she said with false bravado, “If you don’t move out of the way right now, I’m going to put a hole the size of my fist through your chest.”
Odin pushed past me before I could react, shoving me to the side and said, “Breakroom.”
My feet were frozen to the floor, but Bernice had me by the arm and she was all but shoving me into the breakroom before I could think to intervene.
My head was messed up.
My son was alive.
I hadn’t seen him, but I trusted Sage.
After hearing Nadine’s voice…
“She disappeared before the trial,” I said to Bernice, talking but not really realizing what I was saying.
“I tried to write her a letter. To stop by even. To apologize. But she was just gone. Nowhere to be found. I thought she’d moved.
Changed her name after everything that’d happened.
She didn’t even show up to the trial to testify or anything despite being subpoenaed.
“I had Apollo look for her after I got out,” I said. “As an afterthought. I just wanted to know that she was okay. But he’d never found her. Granted, I wasn’t pushing him too hard. But he should’ve been able to easily find her.”
Bernice squeezed my hand.
Before I could say anything more, the door to the breakroom opened and Denver pushed through, eyeing me up and down.
Hux was next, his gaze on me and Bernice holding my hand.
Black was last, though out of uniform. “What the hell is going on?”
“You’re not leaving!” Sage ordered loudly. “You’re going to stay right there and explain.”
A kid darted into the breakroom. He froze when he saw all the people in it, but moved until he was behind a coat rack behind the door.
Hiding.
“Dean, come back here right now!” Brooke roared. “Don’t you run away from me again, you little shit!”
I stiffened at the vehemence in Brooke’s words.
The coats that the boy had hidden behind trembled.
Odin’s voice, forceful and strong, said, “That boy is terrified of you. You reached for him and he all but dove away from your raised hand. Would you like to explain?”
My heart seized as an awful suspicion started to take root inside my soul.
“It’s called discipline,” Brooke snorted. “And we brought him here because he was running a fever. The kid probably has no idea what he’s doing.”
“Why did you drive fifty miles away when you’re from Outer Rim?” Sage asked carefully. “From what I understand, there is a doctor’s office there. You could’ve saved yourself a couple of hours’ drive if you’d gone to the one in your town.”
Outer Rim was a town about twenty miles from Bear Pass and Sawtooth as the crow flies, but two hours thanks to the mountains you had to go around and up.
And Sage was right.
There was a doctor’s office there.
Why wouldn’t they have taken Dean there?
Why here?
More suspicion bloomed.
“Why don’t you mind your own goddamn business!” Brooke boomed.
“Brooke,” Nadine cautioned.
Something slammed.
The coat rack trembled harder.
I didn’t listen to anything else that was said after that.
I dropped down to one knee and gently pulled the coats apart, finding myself staring into gray eyes just like my own.
The same freckles were dotted under those eyes, all across cheekbones—high just like mine.
The same black hair. The same nose. The same lips.
The same chin dimple.
I swallowed hard when I got to the boy’s neck, knowing that if this was Dean, he’d have a…
I spotted the birthmark just like my own.
I’d always gotten teased about it as a kid.
It was a small mark on my neck that was right where one would put a hickey.
His was exactly the same as mine.
Oh, fuck.
I was staring into the eyes of my own kid.
A child that I’d thought was dead for seven years.
“Hey, kiddo,” I croaked. “Can you tell me your name?”
His lip trembled, but no words came out.
“You can talk to me,” I promised. “I’m a police officer, see?”
He looked down at the badge that I’d pointed to on my hip, then back up to my face.
“You can tell me anything, and nothing bad will ever happen to you,” I promised again. “What’s your name?”
The quietest “Dean” came from his lips.
“Hi, Dean.” I smiled. “I’m Gentry.”
“Hi,” he whispered.
“We won’t let Brooke get to you,” I promised, seeing the fear in his eyes when I heard the screaming pick up again.
The door quietly shut, and Brooke’s screams became muted.
He looked fearfully at the door, using the coats to continue to mostly shield himself, then he looked back at me before saying, “I don’t want to go home.”
My stomach lurched. “You won’t be going home with them ever again.”
He swallowed hard. “Promise?”
I held up my pinky finger. “I promise.”
Eight hours later, my kitchen was filled with people.
Sage was at my kitchen sink, washing dishes.
Dean was laid out on my couch, his knees pulled up close to his chest, as he slept soundlessly in a protective ball.
I’d watched Sage pull a blanket off of the recliner to cover him with, and I’d wanted to slap myself for not thinking to cover him myself.
“How’s this going to work?” Sage asked what we were all thinking. “How does he get to keep him without getting other law enforcement involved? They’ll take this to court.”
Just as she asked that, Apollo, the man that I owed my new life to, came pushing through the door.
The first thing he said was, “I don’t think they’re going to be taking anything to court.
If they did, they’d be exposing a hell of a lie.
Like you,” Apollo looked at me, “they left and created a new life somewhere else. They falsified Dean’s death with the help of, whom I assume, is the Irish Mob.
My best guess, they were asked to be witnesses of character, then moved out of the state so they couldn’t cause any more problems.”
“Who are you?” Sage stiffened.
“Sage,” I said quietly. “This man is the one that helped us with our new lives. Apollo, Sage. Sage, Apollo.”
Sage narrowed her eyes. “Next time you decide to meddle in someone’s life, it’d be pretty cool if you just shared. I’ll bet it would surprise you, but I would’ve left willingly. You wouldn’t have had to lie to me at all.”
Apollo leveled Sage with a look. “Wasn’t really going to take that chance. Plus, I can do a lot of things, but not take on the Irish Mob on top of everything else on my plate.”
Sage’s shoulders slumped, and she turned to look at me. “The only issue I can see here is that they’re going to go back and ask for help. I fucked up by sharing who I was. Then Dario will come here.”
Pain and anger surged inside my body as I thought “let them.”
But then common sense took root and I realized that I couldn’t think like that anymore. Not only did I have a kid to think about, but I also had a club family to think about.
“I think it’d be easier,” Black added. “If we charged them with the crimes we know they committed. Abuse of a child, of course. Assault on a minor carries twenty to forty years in prison. We just need to prove everything they’ve done.”
“And keep them from talking to the mob while they’re being charged,” I pointed out.
“Whatever we pin on them will have to be fast and quick.” Sage crossed her arms over her chest. “If they go to the men that helped them hide…”
The way that she shivered had me wanting to go to her.
But I didn’t.
Stepping away from Dean felt like I would forget how to breathe if I did.
So I stayed.
Sage hugged herself as she leaned her hips against the counter.
Hux, who was closest to her, threw his arm around her shoulders.
She didn’t lean into him, but she didn’t kick him off, either.
Irrational anger surged through me, and I had to physically stop myself from yelling at Hux for doing what I should be doing.
I looked down at my son again to make sure he was asleep, then walked across the room.
Hux dropped his arm, gave me a knowing grin, and left.
I threw my arm around Sage, and she sighed and leaned into me. “I’m so sorry, Gentry.”
I didn’t say anything.
“I’ve got that handled,” Apollo said. “For now. They’re in jail for the night.
Tomorrow when they’re arraigned, I’ll handle their cell phones.
I’ve already hacked into them and know everything that they’ve said or done since they got the new phones.
I have passwords and shared text messages.
Everything. I just need time to go through them. ”
“And a way to use this information that’ll mean we can use it in court,” Black ordered Apollo.
He saluted him. “I’m staying at my brother-in-law’s place tonight. Romeo, Mable, and I are going to go through everything. See what we can find. I’ll have something to you hopefully by mid-morning.”
“Can I help with that?” Sage asked.
Apollo looked at her. “Sure.”
She pulled away from me, leaving me feeling like an asshole.
“You have to be at work tomorrow,” I pointed out.
“I do, but I won’t be able to sleep anyway.” She looked at me. “Can I borrow your truck?”
“I’ll take you,” Apollo said. “Then drop you off at work in the morning.”
“Okay,” she said. “I’ll go get my things.”
She left out the back door heading to her trailer.
She’d yet to change out of her scrubs from work, and I hated that I hadn’t noticed before now.
I knew that she hated the feeling of dirty scrubs.
“Both women will be out on bail tomorrow,” Black said, confirming what I already knew. “I’ll have to let them know that their son is now a ward of the state until the investigation is finished.” He looked at me. “As of right now, you’re the newest foster care parent of Jesper County.”
I nodded.
“We’re going to try to keep you out of this as much as we can,” he said. “We don’t want you in anything that has to do with them. All you’re going to be doing is giving that kid a place to stay. You’re not on the investigation. You’re not anywhere in anything that has to do with them, got it?”
I nodded.
“What about school?” Sage asked as she came back in the back door with a bag of clothes.
“I already contacted the school district,” Apollo said helpfully. “Shared that he would be moving to Jesper County School District. They sent his transcripts over an hour ago. Forwarded that to your email, Gentry. You can enroll him tomorrow. Or when you think he’s ready.”
I nodded once.
That would be tomorrow’s problem.
Tonight…
“At some point,” Black said carefully. “We’re going to have to talk to Dean. He’s old enough that he can share what’s happened to him.”
That made my gut clench.
“He’s not…”
“He’s the best source of information that we have, and you know it,” Black pointed out.
“I know that he’s your kid. And I know that you want to protect him, especially after no one has his entire life.
But you have to think about putting these women behind bars.
Because if they’re not, they have a right over him. You don’t.”
He didn’t have to say “because you’re supposed to be dead.”
I’d heard it loud and clear.
I had no way to fix this. No way to make it all right.
I could only do what I was doing.
And that didn’t seem good enough.