Something must have been communicated nonverbally because Wood nodded once, turned and kept moving but this time he did it into the trees. Tate came back to Shambles and me.
“Do me a favor, Shambles, I left my cell in my truck. Can you get it for me?” Tate asked.
“Is something –?” Shambles started.
“My cell, Shambles,” Tate said firmly.
Shambles stared at him, swallowed and then turned and rushed through the woods to the cars parked a short distance away.
I looked up at Tate. “What –?”
Tate interrupted me. “See that ground?” He pointed to the floor of the glade and my eyes followed his hand.
“Yes,” I said.
“All those marks,” Tate whispered and I saw a lot of marks in the dirt but Tate didn’t wait for me to say anything. His hand came to wrap around the back of my neck, my gaze went to his face and he finished, “Struggle, Ace.”
I felt tears fill my eyes as I breathed, “Oh God, no.”
“I need you to get him home. Get Jonas. Get Stell. Get Pop. Go out to dinner. Keep Shambles occupied. I’m callin’ the cops. We gotta sweep this whole area.”
I moved closer to him and put my hands on his stomach.
“Do you think –?”
“I don’t ever think. I just go where the trail leads me. But in this case, I’ll hope.”
“Tate, Sunny’s not his style,” I told him.
“Get him home. Keep him occupied.”
“She doesn’t… she’s not like Tonia,” I pressed.
His fingers gave my neck a squeeze. “Baby, I’ve given you a job. It’s an important one. Focus. Yeah?”
I stared into his eyes. Then my head turned and I looked at the glade then passed it to where I could see Wood, no longer close, walking through the trees, eyes to the ground.
I looked back at Tate and whispered, “Okay.”
He reached to his back pocket. “My cell’s not in my truck,” he stated, his arm came around and he showed me his cell. Then he urged, “Go.”
I understood what he was saying and told him so by nodding, he put pressure on my neck, I got up on my toes and his head came down. We touched lips briefly. He let me go and turned instantly toward the wood, flipping his phone open.
I didn’t delay further. I turned and ran through the woods to the cars.
Chapter Twenty-One
Safe
Shambles, Jonas, Stella, Pop and I were sitting in the diner. Everyone had ordered food but no one had eaten much of it. We’d been there ages but the waitress hadn’t cleared our table. Our vibe was not conducive to approach. We were given a wide berth but that didn’t mean employees and customers alike weren’t giving us curious glances.
I was busy trying to take the mental temperature of both Jonas and Shambles, though it wasn’t tough. Shambles was a wreck, jumping visibly at every noise, his eyes flying to the door whenever it was opened. Jonas seemed focused on Shambles and, probably due to his age and what Shambles had seen his mother do to him, he was the only one who could break through. Jonas wasn’t being playful and funny, he was just trying to keep Shambles’s mind occupied by chattering about smoothies, school, his friends, video games and locking onto any conversational gambit that seemed to draw Shambles out, even minutely.
I was sucking back my third refill of diet through a straw in my mammoth, red, hard plastic cup when the door opened, Shambles’s eyes flew to it and his body locked.
I looked over my shoulder to see Tate, Wood and Frank, the uniformed officer who came to tell Tate about Tonia, entering the diner. They stopped just inside the door and, one look at their faces and the fact they didn’t walk to our table, my heart stopped with them.
I heard chair legs scraping the floor and twisted back to see Shambles was up. I rose with him.
“Bub, you stay here,” I heard Pop order gently.
“Goin’ with Shambles,” Jonas muttered.
They were on the move so Pop said no more and I glanced at Pop and Stella then followed them.
Tate turned and opened the door, holding it for all of us to walk through. Shambles moved down the sidewalk several paces, stopped and turned. Jonas stopped close to his side. The rest of us formed a huddle. All eyes were on Tate but Tate was looking at Jonas.
“Bub, think you should –” he started.
“Stayin’ with Shambles,” Jonas cut him off.
Tate’s eyes stayed on his son half a second then they went to Shambles.
“We found her, man,” he said softly. “She’s alive, at the hospital –”
Shambles’s body appeared to melt and I moved quickly to him and slid an arm around his waist.
He gave me his weight and whispered, “Alive.”
“It’s not good, pal,” Wood told him gently. “She’s been attacked.”
I lost his weight as Shambles’s body went rigid against mine.
“Found her in the woods, ‘bout half a mile from the clearing. She’s been out in the elements all night. Stabbed, looks like five times, lost a lot of blood,” Frank added and my eyes shot to Tate.