“Now, tell me what happened.”
He struggled describing the abuse and glossed over a lot of it, but Diesel stayed quiet and listened.
“And then I jumped on the train and came here.”
“Auto followed you. Sally took a shot over your heads to scare him off,” Diesel told him.
“Yeah, some woman came out of the bus station and shot at Auto and screamed she was calling the cops. That’s all I remember until I woke up in the hospital.”
“Do you remember Auto trying to take you from your hospital bed?”
“Yes.” He heaved suddenly and Diesel was there with the trash can, holding it to his face while he threw up his small meal.
“Shhh, it’s okay. You’re safe. I won’t let anything happen to you.” Diesel took a napkin from the tray and wiped his face.
Just concentrate on Diesel’s deep voice. A sob bubbled up, and Diesel pulled him carefully into his arms and held him. And for the first time in three months, the tension created by living in terror left his body in a rush of air. Lightheaded, the lights grew dim.
The room whirled as he was lifted and carried out of the room.
“Your leg!” He gripped at Diesel’s wide shoulders.
“Hush. You don’t weigh but a minute. Be still or you’ll make me twist my leg.”
Reaching the restroom, Diesel left him to brush his teeth.
He stared at himself in the mirror, at the bruises, the tiredness in his eyes, but also the hope.
It felt so good to not have to lie or pretend any longer. He was still trying to figure out why he did the things he did, but he had a pretty good idea it stemmed from his childhood and the abuse he had suffered at the hands of his parents. How did he stop making bad choices?
He sighed, his mouth feeling fresh, and he tucked the brand new toothbrush in the holder next to Diesel’s brush.
Diesel returned without a word and lifted him again and carried him to the kitchen where he sat him on one of the wooden kitchen chairs.
“I can walk,” he pouted when Diesel seemed bent on carrying him everywhere.
“I’ll be right back. Do not move.” Diesel gave him a stern look.
Triton sat in the chair and waited, not daring to move and really not wanting to anyways. He liked it when Diesel gave him orders—it quieted his mind and let him just obey.
Diesel reentered and started cooking oatmeal. “You lost your dinner, but this should help settle your stomach.” Diesel left the pot simmering and produced a cup of tea from the microwave, which he brought to him.
“It’s decaf. Cream and sugar? Right?”
“Yes,” he whispered. “But I should be helping.”
“Quiet. Right now, you don’t need to do anything but as you’re told.”
He followed the large man with his eyes.
“Drink,” Diesel said.
Triton lifted the cup and took several grateful sips. He loved tea and was surprised Diesel had noticed he drank it.
“Why am I here?” he finally asked after setting the cup down.
“Because I want you here.”
“For how long?” he wanted to ask, but kept quiet.
“I have a relatively quiet week coming up, and we can discuss a few things. I do have a physical therapy appointment in town at the end of the week.”
He froze and lowered his head. Terror returned with its slicing claws and bile watered his mouth.
Diesel was suddenly there, sitting in the chair next to him.
“Breathe. Which is it? The thought of going with me or the thought of being alone?”
“Alone.” He gulped and gasped.
“Don’t worry, you’re going with me.”
His eyes clung to Diesel’s face as the fear lessened. Warmth engulfed his chest, overriding anxiety, and his lips trembled with a smile.
He shouldn’t have brought trouble to this sleepy little town. It would be his fault if anyone was hurt by Auto. He should leave. No! He trembled.
Maybe, just maybe, he could stay for a little while longer.
Diesel
“Hey, Diesel.”
“Hey, Memphis, anything?” He cupped the phone between his shoulder and chin.
“No.”
“He’s got to be hunkered down somewhere.”
“I agree, but every hotel in Fern has been checked.”
“What about the homes where people are gone a few months out of the year? Or the people who live alone?”
“Most of them are back for spring, but I’m having the empty ones checked one by one. I called in a favor from the next county to get more officers over here to check on the people living alone. You know that’s over half of our small town.”
“I know. He could be staying in the woods. There’s enough hunting cabins out there. Hell, it’s warm enough to camp out.”
“I already thought of that and have my deputies canvassing every hunting cabin in a ten-mile radius.”
“Okay, keep me posted.”
“Will do.”
He hung up and called Maddox’s phone. It went straight to voicemail, indicating the man was still out of the country. He hung up without leaving a message.
He sent a text to Colonel Liam Cobalt to find out when Maddox would return. He should have called Maddox the first night he’d brought Triton home, but Maddox was out of the country. It wouldn’t do any good to worry him.
Resting his head on the back of the couch, he stretched out his leg.
Other than the drug dealing, Triton wasn’t very forthcoming about what Clay and his scumbag brother had put him through. Diesel hoped that with enough patience, the boy would begin to talk more. With the amount of injuries and bruises on Triton’s body, he suspected that Clay and Auto had not only physically abused Triton but they’d sexually abused him, and if that were the case? Both of them were breathing borrowed air.
Memphis told him that Sally had interrupted Auto before he could rape Triton, but that didn’t mean they hadn’t done it before.
Adjusting the brace, he snapped it on his knee and rubbed at his thigh muscle. It was holding up better than he’d expected over the past week. Mostly, because he hadn’t gone anywhere but from the kitchen to Triton’s bedroom and back again.
He had a boy in his house again for the first time in a long time. A boy that didn’t belong to him, and one that was too damned young as it was. He was serious when he had told Memphis he didn’t want another boy, especially one that young. Triton is nothing like Shawn. Shawn hadn’t only left him, he’d betrayed him. Diesel had come home on leave to find Shawn fucking his stepsister, Lila. The daughter of the man Diesel’s mother had married. A woman Diesel had considered a sister and a friend.
His phone buzzed with a text from Liam.
Maddox is due back to the States today.
Diesel tucked the phone away, he’d call later.
Maddox deserved to know. What if he comes and takes Triton home? Diesel pulled a hand over his beard. Well, he figured there wasn’t much he could do about that.
The crash brought him right up out of his chair. He almost fell on his face and grimaced at the twinge in his knee, but the pain was nothing compared to his fear.
“Triton?” he called out. Nothing. With a pounding heart, he made his way down the hall. Molly was franticly dancing in the hallway.