“I don’t work there anymore, I got fired, remember?” he stalled.
“The owner doesn’t care about that, he still wants his drugs.”
Triton hefted his backpack over his shoulders and grabbed his luggage with his uninjured hand. Woodenly, he walked toward the door.
“I-I-I’ll go back,” Triton stammered. “There’s a bus out in the morning.” He’d go back, but he was calling Maddox the minute he landed back in Texas.
“It’s too fucking late for that,” Auto snarled near his ear. “When we get outside, you and I are going to find a nice, quiet place where I’m going to teach you a lesson.”
No! God no.
The rain slashed at him when he stepped outside. Nobody in their right mind would be out in this storm.
Auto grabbed him by the back of his shirt collar and yanked him along. Triton bit back a scream when his wrist was jarred.
He lost his grip on his luggage and slipped in the wet dirt. He cried out and was pulled up by the collar of his sweatshirt.
“This will do,” Auto snarled and shoved him over a wet metal bench that sat around the corner of the building.
Shoved to his belly on the cold, dirty bench, his cheek smacked the surface. Stunned, his mind grappled with what was happening.
He screamed when his pants were yanked down.
Diesel
The knock on his door sent Molly on a tangent.
“Calm down,” he ordered her gently, and she quieted with a whine. He glanced at the clock. Who the hell would be knocking at eleven-thirty at night? Pulling on a pair of sweats and a t-shirt, he made his way to the front door.
Through the curtain, he saw the outline of a man. The sensor lights had kicked on. He pulled the edge of the curtain aside and saw Deputy Sheriff Memphis Bains of Klamath Falls on his porch.
“Come on in out of the rain,” he said to one of his oldest friends and swung the door wide.
“Evening, Diesel. How’d your appointment go?”
“Evening, Memphis. It went good.” It didn’t even phase him that Memphis knew his business.
It was small town living. Everybody knew everybody and pretty much everybody’s business.
Memphis shut the door and took off his boots on the mud mat near the front door and tucked his rain slicker onto the coat tree.
Diesel led the way into the kitchen and turned on the individual coffee maker. Filling the container at the sink faucet, he popped in a coffee pod.
“What brings you by?” He snapped a mug on the small silver stand and punched the button.
“We had some trouble at the bus station earlier.”
“No kidding?” He leaned a hip against the counter.
“Yeah, surprise to me too. We get maybe three people in and out of there a week, no traffic to speak of ever.”
“What happened?” He handed one cup to Memphis while he started another for himself.
The smell of freshly brewed coffee filled his kitchen, and he pulled creamer from the fridge to pour into the black brew when his own cup was finished.
“A homeless kid was getting beat up. Would have been raped, but Sally saw what was going on and pulled out her shotgun. Ran off the kid’s attacker.”
He turned from stirring creamer into his coffee and smirked at Memphis.
“That sounds like Sally. I wouldn’t want to come up against Sally with her shotgun.”
“Yeah, no, me neither.” Memphis wrapped his hands around the mug as if to ward off the cold and took another sip of coffee. “It’s a mother of a storm out there.”
“It is. You take him to the shelter?”
“No, I had to take him into Fern Community Hospital.”
“That bad, huh?”
“Yeah, that bad.” Memphis took a slow sip of coffee before he spoke again. “Weird thing is, he keeps asking for you.”
“What?” He slowly sat his cup down.
“Yup, Bill called, said his patient keeps asking for a Diesel. You’re the only Diesel we know.”
“Any ID?”
“Sally said he arrived with a rollaway bag and backpack at the bus station, but she can’t find them, and there was no wallet or ID on him. Just a cell phone found tucked in his sock.”
“Get the phone open?”
“No, it’s password protected. Bill can’t get it open to call anyone.”
“And he asked for me by name?”
“Yup. When Bill asked who he could contact, the kid whispered, ‘Diesel.’”
“I suppose I could come down and see if I know him.” Fern Community was a quick ten-minute drive. Who the hell could it be? Diesel grabbed two to-go cups for the coffee.
“I figure with the amount of people you know, it’s possible.”
That was true; he’d practically grown up with the whole Fern community. He handed Memphis one of the coffee cups and headed into the living room to the mud mat by the front door.
“How’s the brace working out?”
Diesel rapped his knuckles against the apparatus and grinned. “I feel like the bionic man.”
Memphis chuffed. “Good deal. Then you have no excuse not to come to poker at the end of the month,” his friend said, just as he had for the past three months.
Truth was, he’d not only missed poker, but he’d missed his friends.
“Yup, I think I’m going to make it.”
“So Ted said.” Memphis grinned.
“Did he tell you I’m gonna make potato salad?”
“Oh my god. If it’s your grandmother’s recipe, you better bring enough. I get first dibs.”
Zipping up the front of his rain coat, Diesel pulled on his boots.
Memphis stomped into his own boots and then pulled the curtain aside. “Raining like all hell out there.”
“Yup, and this isn’t the end of it, there’s another storm front set to move in tomorrow.” He lifted his keys from the hook near the door. “It’s going to be a really wet April.”
“I’ve a feeling if Sally hadn’t interrupted that attacker, I’d be investigating a rape and murder in the morning. Sally said the poor little thing didn’t stand a chance against the size of his attacker. Blond haired, blue eyed, slim build.”
Diesel froze. Every fucking muscle in his body went into a deep freeze. His breath stuttered and he stared at Memphis.
“What?” Memphis frowned.
“It can’t be,” Diesel whispered.
“What can’t be?”
“Let’s go.” A low growl left his throat, and he snatched open the door.
Diesel
There wasn’t another soul in the hospital except the night staff when he entered with the sheriff. The hospital only held seventy beds and was one level.
They rounded the first corner when he heard voices. Turning the second corner into one of the two hallways of the small hospital, he found the nurse, Jessie Jennings, shouting at a big guy in a black sweatshirt hoodie.
“Sir! Sir! You can’t be in here!” JJ yelled, and Diesel quickened his pace.
“Stop right there!” Memphis shouted, running. “Police!”
The man glanced at them, then turned and ran.