Texas Heroes: Volume 1 (49 page)

You never should have had to leave. Maddie’s made this place feel like it did when Mom was alive, but there’s one thing missing. You.

Mitch bowed his head. Jenny would still be there, making it a happy place, if not for him. He couldn’t go back. It was his fault that everything had gone wrong.

This is your home, Mitch, and you’ve got family waiting. It’s been too long. Besides, I need to show you I can take you now.

Mitch snorted, and a laugh almost broke through.
You and whose army, little brother?
Then he read the last line and sobered again.

I’ve missed you, big brother. Come on back where you belong.

Boone

Mitch’s chest ached with a pain sharper than any he’d felt since the night his mother died.
Home
. Hadn’t he wanted to go there a million times? Hadn’t it been like cutting his heart out to have to leave, knowing he could never return? How many nights had the kid he’d been felt like blowing his brains out or racing off some cliff, just to make the endless emptiness go away, quit eating at his soul?

Damn you, Dad. Why did you die on me? We can’t ever fix it now
.

And damn me, for starting the whole nightmare
.

Too much was kicking up inside him. He didn’t want to leave the one place that was starting to feel like home. He didn’t know how to go back to the home he had lost. And the last thing Mitch wanted to do was to walk back in that store and think about groceries.

Which was why that’s exactly what he’d do.

Shoving the letter in his pocket, Mitch squared his shoulders and headed back inside the store.

Pulling on the homemade travois Cy had fashioned, Mitch pulled the heavy load through the woods, the cabin’s contours visible now. The long drive had done nothing to settle the turmoil inside him.

The last person he wanted to see right now was Perrie. Or Davey. They made him feel too much, and feelings had always been the enemy. Always would be. From the day he’d fought with his father and taken off in a rage, life had pounded that lesson into him again and again.

Don’t feel. Just put one foot in front of the other
. If he hurried, there was a slim chance he could pack up and leave before nightfall. He just had to get through the next couple of hours, and then he could be alone again. Put his careening thoughts in order.

At the cabin steps, he dropped the harness of the travois. Drawing a deep breath, he steeled himself to enter.

The first thing he saw was their suitcases, stacked by the door.

Perrie walked into the room, her hands full of Davey’s toys. When she saw him, she froze.

“What’s this?” he asked.

“We’re leaving.”

If he’d had any lingering notion that last night had meant anything to her, this put paid to it. “Where are you going?”

“It’s not your concern.” But she wouldn’t look at him, her movements jerky, almost feverish as she set the toys on the sofa and began to stuff them into the waiting bags.

“Do you even know where you’re going?”

“It’s not your concern,” she repeated, her voice quavering.

“You don’t, do you?” When she still didn’t answer, the upheaval inside him at last had a target. “What the hell are you doing? What kind of mother are you that you’d just take off with that boy, not knowing where you’re headed?”

She shrank from his words like he’d punched her, but the pressure inside him was too intense, too primed to blow.

Still she didn’t answer.

“What if you get sick again, huh? Do you even have any money to take care of him? And what about that junky damn car you’re driving? What if it breaks down? Are you so desperate to get away from me that you’ll risk your child’s life?”

He stalked across the floor, looming over her. “What are you running from, Perrie?”

Her head jerked up in surprise.

He took a stab in the dark. “It’s Davey’s father, isn’t it?”

All color drained from her face. “You—you don’t—you can’t know that.”

“But it’s true, isn’t it? You’re on the run. Tell me why. Tell me what he’s done to you.”

She shook her head sharply and turned back to her packing. “It’s not your problem.”

“It is when you’re irresponsible enough to endanger that boy. I won’t let you do it.”

“You can’t stop me.”

“I damn well can, and I will if you don’t start thinking of your boy instead of yourself!”

“I am thinking of him!” she shouted. “That’s why I have to go.” She stalked to the door and jerked it open. “Davey! Come on, time to go now.”

Mitch grabbed the door out of her hands, slamming it shut. “You are not taking off like this.”

“I have to.” Her chin tilted stubbornly, her eyes sparking.

“You don’t have to. I’m leaving. Tonight.”

Her eyes widened. “This is your place. You don’t have to go. It’s not right.” She pulled the door open again. “Davey, come in right this minute. I know you’re mad, but answer me right now.”

“Why is he mad?”

She shot him an accusing glare. “Because he doesn’t want to leave you.”

Something fast and fierce warmed Mitch’s heart. He would miss the boy, too, but he would be the one to go, not them. Before he left, though, he would grant himself one last pleasure. He would hold the boy once more, as he could never again hold the boy’s mother.

Perrie reached for her coat, muttering. “That child’s stubborn streak is going to be the death of me, I swear.”

Mitch stopped her with one hand on her arm. “Let me, all right? Maybe he’ll come to me. Let me talk to him a minute.”

Perrie studied him, and within her eyes, he saw the faintest flicker that made him want—

Never mind. Pushing past her, he went outside, calling the boy who had walked into his life and stolen a big piece of an old rusty heart.

Perrie looked around her when he left, trying to see this place as her new home. It was so tempting, and Mitch had hit at her sore point. She
was
afraid of taking off with Davey, afraid that she couldn’t hide him well enough, couldn’t make the life he deserved. But she couldn’t rob Mitch of the only home he had. And she couldn’t forget the threat of Simon. Mitch hadn’t asked for that. But maybe…

The door burst open. “He’s not around here, unless he’s just not answering me. Would he have run off?”

Fear shoved away the first flood of anger. Would he have run away? Was he that upset about leaving?

“I don’t know. He’s never done anything like that before, but he was dead-set on seeing you again. Maybe he’s just hiding.”

“If he wanted to see me, why won’t he answer?”

A big fist squeezed the air from her lungs. “Oh, God. Simon,” she whispered. What if Simon had him?

“What did you say?”

But she barely heard him. Either Simon had found them or Davey was all alone out in the wilderness. All she could think of was the cliff, the bears, all the places around here for him to get hurt—

Mitch grabbed her shoulders and steadied her. “Stop. We’ll find him. I can track anything. The snow is melting, but he’ll still make easy prints.” His voice sounded absolutely certain.

“I’m coming with you.” She pulled away.

He didn’t release her, studying her face. Then he nodded. “All right, but you’ll have to keep up. It’ll be dark soon and the temperatures will drop fast.”

“I’ll keep up.” Thoughts of her child alone, freezing in the darkness, much less all the other things that could—

“Stop letting your imagination run wild. You need to stay alert, and you can’t do that if your emotions are getting the better of you.”

She could see his face forming into its customary mask. Was this how he’d lived his whole life?

Perrie pulled on her outer gear and dumped out a backpack, placing two blankets inside. Mitch turned away and gathered up his own supplies.

“You ready?” His face was grim, set into lines of sheer determination. The sight of it lifted her spirits. If anyone could find her son, it was Mitch.

She wouldn’t let herself think of the alternative.

“Stay behind me, and don’t talk unless it’s urgent.”

Perrie nodded.

“We’ll find him. I promise you that.”

“I believe you,” she said softly.

Mitch’s eyes softened. For a moment, he looked as though he wanted to say something else.

And Perrie wanted to hear it.

Then he shook his head and opened the door. Perrie was right behind him.

Dusk was gathering, and they hadn’t yet found him. The mushy snow had washed away his trail in several places, costing Mitch precious time before he would lose the light. Mitch shut his mind to all the horrors he knew were running through Perrie’s brain. A cold mind was essential. Emotion only obscured thinking.

He stopped, dead-still, then reached down to pick up an object, his heart both sinking and rising fast. He turned and held it out to Perrie.

“Oh, no,” she gasped. “Davey’s bear.” Her gaze shot up to his. “He would never let this go if he—”

Mitch grasped her arm, pulled her into his chest. “Stop thinking the worst, Perrie. It’s a good sign. Explains why his tracks have been circling so oddly the last few yards. He must have dropped it and spent time looking for it. The tracks are fresh.”

“Davey!” she called out, her voice ringing off the mountainside. “Where are you?”

No answer. “Let me,” he said. He called out, too, but only silence met them.

“Oh, Mitch, it’s getting darker by the minute.”

“Which is why we have to keep looking. Come on.”

Blanking his mind to anything but the trail, Mitch studied the rocks, the bushes, and the ground. Finally, one trail branched off from the maze of tracks near the wooden bear. With long strides, Mitch followed it, reaching back for Perrie’s hand to pull her along.

Finally he saw it. And blessed Perrie for buying the boy a bright red coat. But the mound of red wasn’t moving, and Mitch’s heart leapt to his throat.

He wished he could make Perrie stay back until he took a look. If something had happened…

He never wanted her to have to live, night after night, with the sight branded into her brain like the vision he had in his, of his mother, blonde hair running red with blood—

“Stay here,” he ordered.

“What?”

“Let me look first.”

“Wha—oh, God—” She took off running.

Mitch passed her, reaching Davey first and using his body to shield her from the sight.

He could barely feel her hands clawing at his shoulder, too lost in the thumping of his heart, the pounding rush of blood in his veins as he turned Davey over—

Blue eyes opened slowly. And smiled sleepily. “Mitch!”

For the rest of his life, Mitch would take all the bad luck Fate wanted to sling his way, as payment for the joy shooting through his veins now. He pulled Davey up into his arms and brought Perrie around, including her, too. For a moment, the three of them clung, like shipwreck survivors.

The tree before Mitch blurred. He couldn’t find his voice to ask the routine questions.

Perrie pulled away and asked them first. “Are you hurt?” Frantically, she felt over her child’s head, his limbs, his torso.

Davey looked groggy and confused. “I was just asleep. I got so tired and I couldn’t figure out how to get back, so I decided to rest for a minute…” His face fell. “I lost my bear, Mitch,” he whispered. “And Mom says we have to leave and there’s no time for you to make me another one. I’m so sorry—” Tears welled in his eyes, and he threw himself back into Mitch’s arms. “I don’t want to leave you. I thought if I hid in the woods, you’d have time to come back and you could help me convince Mom that we should stay.” He pulled away, his small hands framing Mitch’s face. “I wish you could be my dad, Mitch. I don’t want to go. Tell Mom we can stay—please.”