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As she squeezed past Seth, she eyed the way he was rubbing his jean-clad thigh. “Something the matter with your leg?”
“Pulled a muscle.”
“How?”
“Jumping off a rock.”
“I see.” She drew the words out in a flat Oklahoma drawl as if stuff like this happened every day. “Want me to take a look at it?”
“No need.”
“Suit yourself.” She rolled her eyes at Rainey. “I guess it’s pointless to waste any sympathy on a bull rider who’s pulled every single muscle in his body at one time or the other.”
Dillon sneered at Seth. “So you’re some kind of cowboy?”
“More boy than cow,” Seth deadpanned.
“More boy than—oh, I get it!” Dillon’s laughter was forced, but Seth gave the boy a wry grin.
“I was a bull rider,” he admitted.
“Cool!” For the first time all night Dillon sounded sincere.
“I’ll tell you about it sometime, but right now, Kathy’s ready to fix your hands.”
“You won’t feel a thing,” the paramedic said to Dillon brightly.
“Let’s step outside.” Seth took Rainey’s elbow. When she hesitated, he said, “Kathy will take good care of the boys, won’t you, Kath?”
“You bet.” The paramedic gave Rainey a reassuring smile. Then she lowered herself beside Dillon. “Let’s get you fixed up.” She removed the blood-soaked dressing.
“Ms. Chapman and I will be back in a minute,” Seth said to Dillon and Aaron as he took Rainey’s elbow. “Then we’re going to see if we can take you guys someplace more comfortable for the night.” He looked down at her. “Would you tell Maddy all of that?”
She nodded, but she seemed distracted again, and Seth realized he was holding her arm maybe a little too tightly. He let it go.
When he took Rainey’s hand again as she hopped down off the metal step, she thanked him politely and withdrew hers quickly. Seth slammed the door. So he wasn’t the only one who was attracted. But why did that bother her so much?
He braced a palm high on the back of the ambulance, shielding her from Jake, who was sitting in the cruiser. “Okay. What did Maddy just sign?”
Rainey gave a visible shudder. Her pretty green eyes rose to meet his, and the fear radiating from them unsettled Seth. She swallowed. “Maddy never signs in exact English, but this time he did. It was like he was trying to finish what Dillon said without Dillon catching on.”
“Maddy can read lips?”
“If he wants to, yes.”
“What did he sign?”
Rainey frowned. “He signed that the men were going to kill them after they dug up the bones.”
CHAPTER FOUR
“WHAT ARE THEY TALKING about?” Rainey shuddered again. “Bones?”
“I think that’s what the Slaughters came back to that cave to get.”
“Human bones?” Rainey hugged her arms to her middle.
“Yes. I’ll explain later.” Seth looked down at Rainey Chapman’s trembling shoulders, and wanted nothing so much as to wrap his arms around her again. But Jake was looking on, he was sure. Instead of touching her again he said, “Wait here.”
After checking with Jake and finding that the roadblock had not stopped the Slaughters, Seth knew what he had to do.
He walked back to Rainey, frowning as he considered how to say this without freaking her out.
She stepped toward him. “We are going to have to move the boys,” he said. “Right away.”
“Move them? Where?”
“I don’t know. I was hoping you could help me with that. Someplace safer than that camp.”
“You mean you don’t intend to take them back to the camp?”
“That’s right.”
“Does Lyle know this?”
“Nobody knows it. Not yet. I’ll decide who gets told what.”
“Officer Whitman— Seth—listen. These boys are wards of the state. You can’t take over and—”
“The state didn’t do a very good job of protecting them. I intend to do whatever it takes to keep them from getting hurt.”
Her cheeks turned so red they glowed in the dark, and Seth realized she’d misunderstood and taken his criticism personally. Her eyes narrowed and he recognized all the signs of a woman going on the defensive.
“I did the best job I could. I’d like to see you handle children like these. You’d be tearing your hair out within twenty-four hours. And for your information, even if I agreed with your plan, I can’t just haul these boys around anywhere I choose. I practically have to have a court order to take them shopping for new shoes. Lyle had a fit because Dillon wandered off when we visited the Rune Stones.”
“The Rune Stones. We need to talk about that, too. You say Dillon went into the caves before?”
“I don’t know where he went, actually. And he’ll never tell you. I wouldn’t be surprised if Dillon isn’t making up ninety percent of what he said in there. He’d do anything to keep from getting in more trouble with Lyle. He’s—”
“I know. A pathological liar.” But because of something Seth’s brother had told him before he died, Seth was convinced Dillon McCoy was telling the absolute truth.
“But he’s not making this up.” He hated to frighten her, but it was critical that she understand the danger to the boys, and that time was not on their side. “I doubt you or the camp supervisor can protect these children from the likes of Lonnie and Nelson Slaughter. You need to understand what we are dealing with here. These are dangerous men. I’ve been tracking them for years. They know these woods like the backs of their hands. They operate well outside the law.”
“You’re talking about those crimes you didn’t want to bring up in front of the boys?” Now she looked worried. “What kind of crimes?”
“Murder.”
She gasped. “Murder?”
How could he tell her? How could he make her see? In small doses, that’s how. “I have reason to believe they killed a lawman years ago.”
“They killed a cop?”
“Yes.”
“Then what in God’s name are they doing running around these hills?” Her anger had exploded like a flare, surprising him. But at the same time he noticed that she shivered again, despite the night heat.
“The death was ruled vehicular homicide. But it was no accident. They’ve just been released from prison.”
“Why do you think it was murder?”
“We really don’t have time to go into all that now. The point is, now the boys are witnesses to the fact that the Slaughter brothers were digging for someone’s bones.”
“The cop’s?” Rainey looked confused.
“No. Look, I’m sorry, but we really have to get going.”
“So you believe Dillon’s story?”
Seth frowned. “Why wouldn’t I?”
Rainey gave him an incredulous stare, as if to say the answer was obvious. She peeked over his shoulder at Jake.
“Jake does, too. Look, Dillon didn’t lie about the duct tape. I peeled the stuff off of them myself.”
Rainey clamped a hand over her mouth as if she might throw up right there in the dirt. “This whole mess is my fault,” she said through whitened knuckles.
“Let’s just concentrate on what we have to do now. My job is to catch the Slaughter twins. They’ve probably already destroyed the…whatever evidence the boys saw, but now that they think the boys can testify about their activities, and to the conversation they heard—”
“You mean what Dillon heard. With his history, do you honestly think a jury would believe his testimony? He’s got a poor record. I can imagine a defense attorney effectively discrediting him.”
“Don’t forget that Aaron heard it, too.”
Rainey shook her head. “I’m not sure he’d make a credible witness, either. The doctors tell me it is unlikely Aaron will ever speak again.”
Their eyes connected briefly in the darkness, then hers glanced away. “He saw his stepfather kill his mother.”
Seth’s jaw tightened. Every time he thought he’d seen it all… “How?”
“With a knife.”
“Nevertheless, Lonnie and Nelson don’t know Aaron is the way he is. They won’t let this go. They will be planning a way to silence these children.”
“To silence them? You mean kill them?” He could tell she was struggling to control her fear. He admired that.
“Yes. The boys are in real danger, Rainey.” He took her elbows lightly. “Listen. I’m sending my partner back up to the caves and then I’d like to take the boys into protective custody, but we’ll have to be careful how we do it. I prefer to take you along with them, since you can communicate with Maddy and since Aaron obviously depends on you. We can clear that with the camp supervisor. He’ll keep his mouth shut. He doesn’t want this made public, anyway. Is there someone else we need to contact about your absence? Husband? Boyfriend?”
“No. No one. Well, there is Loretta—my mother— I guess. She’ll worry if she doesn’t hear from me.” Her eyes came up to meet his. “How long will we be gone?”
Mesmerized by those eyes, he shook his head slowly. “I honestly don’t know.” No boyfriend. No husband. How was it that a woman this beautiful was unattached?
“Doesn’t matter.” She looked away. “My job’s my whole life.”
“Okay.” Seth willed himself to focus back on the urgent business. “So all we need is a place to hide. Is there someplace safe where you can take the boys and hold them for a few days? A hospital, a school, a group home—someplace where no one but you and I will know their whereabouts?”
Rainey looked at him as if he had just asked her to sprout wings and fly. “A safe place? No. There is not some handy safe place where I can just disappear with three boys.”
Their gazes locked, and the look in Seth’s steady blue eyes reminded Rainey of the unflinching one her father had always used on her. “I’m taking them into protective custody, and that’s final.”
That’s final? That’s final? Rainey felt her Irish temper simmering up like lava from a volcano. She was the one who was responsible for these children, and no overbearing cop was going to order her around. “Well, I’m responsible for their welfare. And that’s final.”
As quickly as it had hardened, his gaze grew conciliatory. “Look. I don’t like this situation any better than you do. But this is no ordinary set of circumstances.” He wrapped gentle fingers around her upper arm. “Please. You’re going to have to trust me.”
Rainey flicked a glance at Seth Whitman’s hand gripping her flesh, and she swallowed. The night was hot, but his touch felt hotter.
When she tensed, he released her arm.
Something in her had wanted to resist that touch, the way she’d rebelled against her father that last time she’d seen him. Something in her wanted to turn her back on Seth Whitman and say that she didn’t need him or his bossy ways. But something else in her wanted to melt into his arms right then and there and admit that she did need him. And the boys surely did, too. But was this…this abduction the answer? To just spirit the boys away in the middle of the night? There had to be a better way. “Why can’t we go to the authorities with all of this?”
“I’m a cop, Rainey. I am the authorities. And something Dillon said—”
“Oh great. Something Dillon said.”
“Yes. It was significant. You recall he heard them talking about a guy called Howard.”
“Howard? You know who that is?”
His expression became veiled. “Yes. But it’s a very long story. Let’s just say it makes me realize I can’t trust anyone, not now. Right now we need a hiding place.” He steered her back on track. “Tonight. Can you think of any place at all?” he urged her softly.
“No, I can’t. Unless…oh, man.” She considered the idea that had begun to worm its way up a moment ago when she’d started thinking about being banished to Gran’s farm every summer when she was a kid. But then she shook her head. “No. We couldn’t possibly take them up there. They’d go nuts.”
“Where? The sooner we act, the better off the boys will be.”
“This is too crazy!” Rainey raked a hand through her tangled hair. “But what does it matter if I do something crazy now?” she said in a rush, seeming to be arguing more with herself than with Seth. “My job is history. I won’t be able to get any kind of DHS job, not in the entire state, not after this fiasco. No one is going to trust a caseworker that lets her kids wander miles away from camp in the middle of the night, lets them get abducted, no less. I’ll have to start my whole life over in a whole new field, or worse, go back to practicing law.” She released a visible shudder. “And what about the boys?”
“Yes, ma’am. That’s what we have to keep in mind. What about the boys?”
“We can’t just hide with them up there—won’t it mean we’ll be breaking the law?”
“I think I can arrange to make it legal. The local judge is one of my buddies from high school. I can pull some strings, get a piece of paper.”
“You mean make me the boys’ guardian ad litum?”
He quirked an eyebrow at her use of the legal term. “I forgot. You know the law.”
“You can accomplish this tonight?”
“With one phone call.” He was already digging a cell phone out of his pocket. “So, where are we taking them?” He was punching in a number.
