Читать книгу A Cry In The Night - Linda Castillo - Страница 8

Kelly Malone knew better than to panic. Even as she felt its razor claws dig into her, she fought its powerful grasp. Panic made smart people do stupid things. Stupid things that ultimately led to mistakes. She couldn’t afford to make a mistake. Not when her child’s life was on the line.

Gripping the steering wheel with white-knuckled hands, she stared through the windshield into the black abyss ahead and pressed the accelerator to the floor.

She’d grown up less than twenty miles from the eastern edge of this beautiful, unforgiving land. White River National Forest had been her home for thirty-one years. Her father had been a smoke jumper; her mother a park ranger. Kelly knew the area like the back of her hand, respected its capricious nature. She knew and loved the people who lived here. Over the years she’d known of a dozen lost children. She’d even helped look for a few of them herself. She knew most of those children were found safe and sound.

None of them had ever been her child.

The thought sent a spike of fear straight through her heart to coil in her gut like a reptile whipping its spindly tail. “He’s going to be all right,” she whispered fiercely. “He’s going to be okay.”

Kelly knew the value of remaining calm and rational—even if the situation had already spiraled out of control. But the side of her that was a mother first scoffed at the idea.

Her child was missing.

It was her fault.

And there was only one man in the world she trusted to find him and bring him back. A man she’d once loved with all her heart. A man she’d hurt terribly. A man whose life she was about to change forever.

A fresh wave of terror slashed her, choking her, bleeding the last vestiges of calm from her veins. Adrenaline sparked like fire and zipped along her nerve endings like a lit fuse. Hysteria beckoned, but she knew once she entered that shadowy place, she’d never climb out.

The headlights sliced through the blackest night she’d ever seen, but Kelly didn’t slow down. Driven by the primal instinct to protect what was precious, she drove like a madwoman through the inky darkness, her single-minded determination slapping down any notion of her own safety. Though the night was mild—even in July, temperatures in the Colorado Rockies could vary wildly—she felt cold, chilled from the inside out, as if her blood had been replaced with ice.

She would never forgive herself if something terrible happened to her little boy.

The wind tore at her car, shoving it from side to side like a child’s toy, but she didn’t slow down. Her tires protested with a squeal as she skidded around a dangerous curve she knew better than to take at such a high rate of speed. To the west, lightning split the sky, shattering it like crystal, illuminating bony trees and rocks the size of dinosaurs.

Kelly withheld a sob at the thought of her child huddled and alone on a night like this. Eddie had never been afraid of the dark, but thunder had always scared him. It tore her up inside knowing he was out there, alone and frightened and cold. The thought reached into her, a fist breaking through her ribs, gripping her heart and squeezing it so brutally she couldn’t breathe.

She nearly missed the narrow lane cut into the forest. Her foot punched down hard on the brake. The car fishtailed, but she cut the steering wheel hard to the right and forced it back under control. Gravel spewed high in the air as she pointed the vehicle toward the cabin and gunned the engine.

She wasn’t even sure if this was the right place. It had been almost five years since she’d been here. She’d heard from the friend of a friend that he’d taken the old cabin and fixed it up. Five years ago, it had been uninhabitable.

The porch light loomed into view like a buoy in a raging sea. The place looked different, but she recognized the old SUV. A sound of relief escaped her, a strange and animal-like sound in the silence of her car. She brought the vehicle to a sliding stop a few yards from the front porch and jammed it into Park. Flinging open the door, she hit the ground running.

Above her the sky exploded, lightning spreading like white capillaries. She smelled rain, but the sky wasn’t relinquishing the water the forest had been crying out for since spring. The wind kicked dust into her eyes as she ran toward the cabin.

Please, God, let him be home.

The frantic thought pounded her brain. She crossed the porch in two strides, then slapped her palms hard against the wooden door. Once. Twice. “Buzz! Help me! Buzz, please!” She barely recognized her own voice.

A light flicked on at the rear of the cabin. Kelly waited eternal seconds, her heart hammering against her ribs so hard she thought it would explode.

An instant later the door swung open.

She saw slate-gray eyes, a wide chest covered with a sprinkling of dark hair and faded jeans that hugged lean hips and muscular thighs. Even lost and drowning in terror, she felt the impact of him, like a punch between the eyes that dazed the unwary.

Kelly wasn’t unwary when it came to Buzz Malone.

She pushed by him. Her entire body vibrated as she walked into the foyer. She felt wild and out of control standing there inside his tidy cabin. She could only wonder how she must look to this man who never lost control.

Taking a calming breath, she spun to face him, sought his gaze. Six feet two inches of male pride and ego and one of the most complex—and difficult—personalities she’d ever encountered stared back at her. His gray eyes held a hint of ice, but his expression was etched with equal parts surprise and concern and that iron restraint that had cost them both so much when they were married.

“I’m in trouble. I…I need your help.” The words tumbled from her brokenly, breathlessly. “Please, you’ve got to help me.”

Brows drawn together as if he’d just been posed an impossible question, Buzz Malone stepped closer, but he didn’t touch her. “You’re bleeding. Are you hurt?”

She’d forgotten about the cut on her temple and shook her head. “I’m fine. There’s a…lost child. Eddie. W-we were at the campground for my family reunion. We were hiking and I fell….”

“Calm down, Kelly. Just tell me what happened.” With the impersonal touch of the cop he’d once been, Buzz took her arm and guided her over to the kitchen table. “Who’s Eddie?”

Kelly melted into a chair. Because her hands were shaking uncontrollably, she put them flat on the table in front of her. “Eddie….” She closed her eyes, uttered a silent, heartfelt prayer. “He’s my son. He’s lost in the woods. The park rangers are looking. They notified a Search and Rescue outfit out of Boulder, but four hours have passed and they haven’t found him. I want you there. I know if anyone can find him, you can.”

If he hadn’t known she had a son, he gave her no indication. “Where is he lost?”

“The eastern trail. When I slipped, I hit my head and must have passed out. I don’t know how long I was out, but when I woke up, he was…gone. I called out to him, covered the area on foot, but….” The horror of that moment rushed over her, shaking her so hard she saw stars. “He’s such a brave little guy, he probably went for help.”

“How long were you out?”

“I don’t know. Maybe ten minutes.”

“Did you look for him right then and there? He couldn’t have gotten far in ten minutes.”

“I searched the entire area, calling his name. I called the ranger station immediately from my cell phone. I stayed near the spot where I fell and looked for about an hour. When the park ranger arrived, I went back to the campground and told my sister and her husband’s family. They started looking, too. I went to the ranger station, and they called in Boulder One Search and Rescue.”

“Boulder One is good.”

“Not as good as you.”

Buzz sighed, understanding. “They’re a relatively new outfit. They don’t have night vision equipment.”

“You do.”

“How old is he?”

Kelly closed her eyes tightly, then met his gaze. “He’s four years old.”

It was the first time she’d ever seen Buzz pale. Not Buzz Malone, the cool-eyed ex-cop who’d seen it all and never showed emotion. This time, however, he paled all the way down to his chiseled mouth. He recoiled, his gaze sharpening on hers. In the depths of his eyes she saw the questions, the hot spark of suspicion, dawning realization.

Kelly wished she hadn’t had to witness it.

Buzz wasn’t an emotional man. That had always driven her crazy back when they were married. The man had distant down to an art form. Cold was his middle name. If Kelly hadn’t known him so well, she wouldn’t have noticed the clenching of those granite jaws. The flash of shock in his steely eyes. But because she knew him, because she’d once loved him, she saw all those things, and the sense of dread that dropped over her was nearly enough to send her to her knees.

“What the holy hell are you telling me?” he snapped.

Kelly’s pulse pounded like a freight train. The roar of blood through her veins mingled with the rumble of thunder outside until she couldn’t hear. It was a struggle to hold his gaze, but she managed, if only by a thread. “He’s your son, Buzz.”

Buzz Malone stared hard at her. “I don’t have a son.”

Kelly stared back at him, a hundred words tumbling through her mind, a thousand emotions ripping through her heart. I’m sorry. I wanted to tell you. I reached for the phone a hundred times. You never wanted either of us.

None of the words were adequate. It was too late. The damage was done, but she knew the hurt wasn’t over.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

Incredulity filled his gaze followed by a flash of pain so clear it hurt her just to look at him.

But Kelly didn’t have time to lament; Buzz Malone didn’t have time to hurt. Not tonight. All that mattered now was getting her son back. They would deal with the fallout after he was found.

It didn’t matter that her ex-husband would never forgive her. That both their lives would be irrevocably changed. That the truth would tear their lives apart one more time. She’d decided in that first hour as she’d searched frantically for her little boy that she was willing to risk everything to find him. That included her own peace of mind and a future she’d been working toward since the breakup.

Vaguely, she heard Buzz curse. The roar in her ears turned into a loud hum. The lights dimmed. Her overloaded brain was simply going to short out. Her heart couldn’t possibly keep up this insane rhythm. She’d never fainted before, but she feared that in a second she was going to collapse in a broken heap and sink to the floor at his feet.

But she didn’t. Instead, she squared her shoulders, met that hard gaze with one of her own and said, “Eddie is your son. I’m sorry you had to find out like this. But I need you to help me find him. Right now.”

Buzz Malone had been struck by lightning once when he was fifteen years old. One minute he’d been standing on a rock ledge looking out over Pike National Forest during a summer storm. The next he’d been lying on the ground disoriented and confused, with second-degree burns on his arms and feet.

The doctors had said it was a miracle he’d lived.

Buzz wondered what the odds were of a man surviving such an ordeal twice in his lifetime, because he felt as if he’d just been struck again.

Her words rang in his ears like a thunderclap. Shocking. Dangerous. Damning. He wanted to deny them, give voice to the outrage boiling inside him. But for the first time ever, the power of speech failed him. He stared at the woman he’d spent three years loving more than life itself, the last few years trying desperately to get out of his system and the world rocked violently beneath his feet.

“What the hell are you talking about?” He asked the question, but Buzz had already done the math. If the child was four years old, there was no doubt of his parentage. Kelly might not have been able to live with Buzz, but she’d always been fiercely loyal. There hadn’t been anyone else. Not for Kelly. Certainly not for Buzz.

She looked down at her hands twisting in her lap, and bit her lower lip, the way she always did when she was upset or in trouble. Buzz figured the conversation they were having qualified for both of those things—and then some.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I just…at the time, I couldn’t,” she said.

“Tell me what?” He knew damn good and well what she was about to say. But his brain refused to believe it. His mouth refused to say the words aloud. He didn’t want to hear it, but he knew more than anyone just how futile wishes could be.

How in the name of God could she have done such a thing?

“I wanted to tell you a thousand times,” she began. “But I didn’t think you’d want to know.”

Slowly, he turned to face her. “You kept my son from me.”

“I never meant to hurt you.”

“Hurt isn’t the right word.”

“Oh, I forgot,” she choked. “Buzz Malone doesn’t hurt like the rest of us mortals—”

“You stole four years of my son’s life from me. I’m too angry with you to hurt.”

“You made it clear, Buzz. You never wanted children. You didn’t want me.”

Uttering a nasty curse, he turned away from her and stared blindly into the kitchen, his heart ricocheting like a bullet in his chest.

“Don’t you dare turn away from me,” she said. “Not now.”

Clenching his jaws against the shock rocking his brain, he turned back to her. “You had no right to lie to me.”

“I didn’t lie.”

“Don’t play semantics. You lied by omission.”

“You made your choice when we were married. I simply made it easy for you to walk away.”

“You’re the one who did the walking.” But he was guilty, too, because he had merely stood there and watched and didn’t do a damn thing to stop her.

Tears shimmered in her eyes when she looked up at him. “I can’t talk about this right now. I can’t, Buzz. Please. I’m begging you. Just…for God’s sake, help me find him.”

The need to know everything—every detail about his son—was an ache in his chest, but he knew she was right. The backcountry at night was no place for a young boy.

“Okay,” he heard himself say. “Jesus. Okay. I’ll find him. Let me make some calls. Give me a minute to get dressed.” A moment to pull himself together.

Buzz knew her revelation was going to change his life, and he knew that ultimately it would hurt him in ways he could only imagine. In ways he’d never, ever wanted.

He felt the shakes descending. Tremors that started in his hands, then spread to his arms, his legs. Simultaneously, he felt the emotions snarling in his gut like a big cat rudely wakened from a deep sleep. Shock. Disbelief. A keen sense of betrayal that cut as jaggedly as any fang. The slow burn of fury spread through him like a flash and for a moment, he grappled for control.

Buzz didn’t have time to feel betrayed. He didn’t have time to acknowledge the fury burgeoning inside him. He didn’t have time to feel anything at all. A hundred questions jammed into his brain, but he shoved them back. He would dig the answers out of Kelly later. Right now, there was a young life at stake. A life he had every intention of saving.

“I want to see him,” he said.

She blinked at him. “What?”

“A picture.” She looked on the verge of shock, but he refused to feel compassion. He refused to feel anything at the moment or risk the emotions threatening to overwhelm him. “Do you have a picture?”

Bending her head, she opened her purse and rummaged frantically inside. An instant later, she produced a three-by-five-inch color photo. “This was taken a couple of months ago.”

Buzz stared at the photo, aware of the low roar of blood coursing through his veins, the hot zing of anger fusing with a throng of pain. He saw a little boy with freckles and dark-brown hair and an impish smile that was crooked and ended with a dimple in his left cheek. He saw innocence and tried not to think of all the terrible things that could happen to a child. In the mountains alone at night or in a world that could be merciless to the innocent.

Moved more than he wanted to be, a hell of a lot more than was wise, he looked away from the photo, then turned away from her so she couldn’t see the emotions he knew were plainly visible on his face. “I’ll want answers later,” he said. “You owe me an explanation.”

“I know I do. Just…after we find him.”

Without looking at her, he snatched up the phone. His fingers trembled as he punched in the numbers to Rocky Mountain Search and Rescue Headquarters.

Senior medic John Maitland picked up on the first ring.

Buzz identified himself, his voice sounding strangely calm. He could hear raucous laughter in the background. The blare of rock and roll. The familiarity of those things gave him a badly needed sense of control, and he held on to it with all his might. “This is a call out. Code Red. I want everyone in house geared up and standing by. I’m on my way. ETA ten minutes.”

“I’ll put out the call to the team.” John hesitated, as if sensing something wasn’t quite right. “What’s going on?”

“A lost boy up at White River. Four years old. I’m going to swing by on my way to the East Ranger Station.”

“White River? I heard the call on the radio. Isn’t that out of our jurisdiction? Boulder One SAR took it—”

“I don’t give a damn about jurisdiction,” Buzz snapped. “We’re on it. Just do it.”

Silence hissed for half a beat. “Yes sir.”

“I want the chopper standing by. A winch team. I want weather reports. Night-vision equipment. Get someone over to the ranger station with a terrain map. I want Jake Madigan and a dozen volunteers on horseback ready for a grid search. I don’t give a damn how many favors you’ve got to call in. Just get me some men. You got that?”

“Loud and clear.”

Buzz slammed down the phone, turned to face Kelly. She stared back, her face ashen. He saw the imprint of her teeth on her lower lip. For the first time he noticed the bruise forming beneath the cut on her temple. The blood had clotted, but the wound still needed to be cleaned and dressed. “You ought to get yourself checked out at the hospital. You could be concussed.”

“No.”

“I can drive you over to Lake County—”

“I’m not going to the hospital. I can’t leave knowing Eddie is out there all by himself. He’s probably scared and hungry and cold…oh, God!”

He stared at her, seeing clearly the terror in her eyes, the torture in her heart. He felt his own version of panic punch him in the chest hard enough to take his breath. “It’s only been four hours. We’ll find him. He’s going to be all right.” He didn’t know that for sure, but he wasn’t going to let his mind go in that direction. He picked up the phone. “I’ll call Chaffee County Sheriff’s Department and have them bring in dogs. You got something with his scent?”

She jerked her head. “The socks he wore yesterday are at the campground.”

“That’ll work.” Buzz made the call to Chaffee County, then dialed the Ranger Station at White River where a search was already under way and told them he would be there within the half hour.

“He’s only a little boy, Buzz. He’s sweet and smart and….” Rising abruptly, she turned away, put her face in her hands. “I can’t stand not knowing where he is. I’ve got to find him. I’ve got to go—”

“I need you to calm down and keep your head, Kel.”

“I’m trying. Dammit. I’m just…scared.”

“I know.”

She looked at him with ravaged eyes. “I’m sorry you had to find out like this, Buzz, but I didn’t know where else to go.” She put a trembling hand over her mouth. “I know we have a lot to work out. But right now I just want him back.”

Buzz barely heard the words over the pounding of his heart. He tried to comprehend everything he’d been told, but the meaning was too huge to absorb, too devastating.

After he finished the call, Buzz looked down at his hand clenching the phone, saw that it was shaking violently. He stared at his ex-wife. She’d always been a strong woman. She knew her mind and never failed to speak it. That was one of the things he’d always loved about her. Tonight, however, she looked as if that spirit had been crushed. Her coffee-brown eyes were wild with terror and ravaged by guilt. If she shook any more violently he figured he was going to have to pick her up off the floor. Because he didn’t want to have to do that, he rose and walked over to her, set his arms on her shoulders. “Sit down before you fall down. I’m going to get dressed. Pack some gear.”

“I don’t want to sit down. I can’t stay. I’m going back to the ranger station—”

“I’m going with you, damn it, and you’re going to wait for me.” He guided her toward the chair. “Sit down.”

“Don’t you have to go to headquarters to put your team out?”

“They’re standing by. You and I will make a stop at RMSAR on the way to the ranger station.” Noticing that her teeth were chattering, he scowled. He could feel tremors coming through her shoulders and into his hands. “Sit and pull yourself together. I’ll be ready to go in five minutes.”

She stared at him as if she was so at odds with the concept of sitting at a time like this that the sheer thought of it rendered her unable to do so.

“We’ll find him,” he promised, pushing her down into the chair.

Her shoulders felt frail beneath his hands. But Buzz knew she was anything but frail. She might weigh a hundred and ten pounds fully clothed and soaking wet, but her personality packed the punch of a linebacker. He’d been knocked senseless a time or two by that personality and had quickly learned size didn’t always matter.

“He hasn’t had dinner,” she said hoarsely.

“He got any supplies?”

“Snacks. Raisins and a peanut butter sandwich in his backpack. A few cookies. A little box of juice.”

“What else?” Plucking a flannel shirt off the back of a chair, Buzz jerked it on then stepped into his hiking boots.

“A flashlight. Bunky Bear, a little stuffed bear.”

“That’s good. Jacket?”

“Yeah, but it’s not waterproof.”

“It’s not going to rain. Another dry front.”

She jumped with a clap of thunder. “He’s afraid of storms.”

Buzz tried to think like the cop he’d once been, like the Search and Rescue professional that he was, but there were too many emotions banging around inside him to manage it. He definitely wasn’t thinking objectively. He couldn’t get a handle on this, could barely form a coherent thought, let alone come up with a plan.

Grabbing his jacket off the arm of the sofa, Buzz turned to get his bag of gear—and nearly ran into Kelly. He hadn’t seen her rise, and the sudden contact stunned him, sent another shock through his system. For an instant she was so close he could smell her. A combination of citrus and the out-of-doors and the mysterious scent of woman. The familiarity of it struck him like a blow. He knew better than to let her affect him. Not at a time like this when she was frightened, when his own world had just been turned upside down, and an innocent young life hung in the balance. But when he took a deep breath, her essence enveloped his brain and brought back memories he had absolutely no desire to think of now.

Steeling himself against the power of those memories, he turned away abruptly and headed for the door. His head was spinning. Not only because of the shock of learning he had a son or that his young son was in danger. But because even after almost five years of being away from his ex-wife, she still wielded the power to make him shake inside and outside and every place in between.