40 Souls to Keep, page 13
Jase waited.
“After that, Miami...once you cross about a hundred miles of Everglades.”
“Nothing else?”
“There are alligators. And the Miccosukee Indian Reservation. I actually think the Miccosukees might be more dangerous than the gators, considering what they charge for gasoline on the res.”
Jase’s whole body relaxed at the return of Lucas’s dry humor. “So where are we going?”
“Not that much farther, actually.” Lucas scooted higher in his seat. Macy slouched in his lap like a rag doll, and Lucas began a gentle rocking motion while he stroked her hair. “I know a place where we can go and hole up for a while. It’s in Lely.”
“What’s that?”
“I guess you could call it the Land of New Money.”
* * *
Lely was a 300-acre parcel of land east of Naples, with more golf courses and condos than you could shake a five-iron at. As planned communities went, Lucas described it as pretentious, and it had suffered just like the rest of the region when the economy took a dive. But being more established than many of the other McMansion developments, it had fared better in the long run.
“Lely is a maze,” Lucas said as he juggled Macy in his arms, swinging her onto his other shoulder without tangling the seat belt. “And to complete the parallel, there are only two roads into the place.”
“Or out,” Jase commented.
“It’s all how you look at it.”
Jase’s hands tightened on the steering wheel. That was true for most things.
“This is it,” Lucas said a few miles later, and Jase swung left into the turning lane. A herd of galloping bronze horses guarded the sweeping entrance of Lely. In the black night, they looked sinister, polished eyes glittering in the Camry’s headlights.
“Once around the park, James,” Lucas quipped as they drove up and over the brick pavers.
The past seven years had taken Jase to all corners of the country, but he’d never seen anything quite like Lely. They passed street after street of palatial homes, most with their own gate system and portico, until Jase couldn’t believe there were that many people still left in the country who could afford such extravagance. “We’re not stopping at one of these places, are we?”
For some reason, Lucas shuddered. “No. Make the next left. There’s a condo back here that I have a key to.” He paused before adding, more quietly, “I took the kids out of it last week and put them in foster care.”
“Were they being abused?”
“After a fashion. Their mom left, and their dad got clinically depressed. He lost his job, started drinking... Also, he stopped feeding his kids.” Lucas looked over, and Jase risked taking his eyes off the dark road to meet his gaze. “A neighbor called us when they came begging for a handout.”
Jase twisted the steering wheel in his hands. “So much suffering,” he said quietly.
“Yeah.” Lucas stroked Macy’s hair. “It’s kind of going around.”
* * *
The condo was a first-floor end unit in a cluster of identical buildings on a tucked-away cul-de-sac. The land behind it was dark and still. “Golf course,” Lucas explained. “You trip over them around here.”
Jase pulled into the driveway of number 9. “So the father’s gone? Why do you have a key?”
“All in good time, Grasshopper.” Lucas dug into his wallet, emerging with a thin card. “State-of-the-art security.”
Jase eyed the keycard with distaste. “It’s a bit too much like living in a hotel, if you ask me.” But then everything in this city seemed one step off. Illusions stacked upon illusions, with the ugly truth underneath. Like the fancy hospital with no patients and the streets of empty houses. The drugs on tourist cruises. He couldn’t shake the feeling it was all about to come tumbling down. Or worse, that it already had, but nobody had realized it yet. “I’ll take a good old-fashioned key any day.”
Lucas turned the card over in his hand. “Yeah. You and me both.”
“So the father isn’t here?”
Lucas opened the car door, and the inside of the vehicle lit up. The yellow light did little to help his sallow complexion. Macy sucked her thumb and stared at something neither of them could see. Jase figured he looked just as drained. They were all near the breaking point.
“Nope,” Lucas said. “Took him to the hospital myself. Claimed he was going to get better for his kids.”
A worthy promise. “Do you think he will?”
Lucas stepped out. “I think he wants to,” he said before closing the door and plunging Jase into darkness. He jogged up the path that cut through the courtyard. A few seconds later, the porch light came on at number 9 and, with a groan, the garage door began to rumble upward. Unable to shake his unease, Jase pulled inside.
Lucas met him in the garage and lifted Macy out of the front seat. “Is that typical of your job, to keep the keys to a house?” Jase asked as they locked the garage behind them and crossed the courtyard.
“No. I’d been planning to report it and turn the card in, but I haven’t had the chance. The guy asked me to keep it and look in on his place once in a while. Which obviously is way outside my job definition. But when he held it out...I couldn’t tell him no.” Lucas’s voice fell. “He said he wanted to make sure everything was still here when he brought his kids home.” Lucas opened the front door and gestured Jase inside. “Help me with the windows.”
There weren’t many to worry about. Two small panes of glass that faced the courtyard, and a large picture window and glass sliders that looked out onto the golf course. Jase pulled the wood plantation shutters closed in the master bedroom while Lucas slid the rolling panels closed in the living room. Only then did they switch on a few lamps.
Jase didn’t know what he’d been expecting, but this cozy, well-maintained living space hadn’t been it. Lucas caught him taking stock. “Depression affects everyone. Even people who look like they have everything.”
Lucas placed Macy in a nest of soft pillows on the sofa and took a seat beside her. After a minute, she curled onto her side and put her thumb back in her mouth. Lucas sat watching her, fingers steepled under his chin, until she closed her eyes. Then he pitched slowly forward, covering his face with his hands.
Concerned, Jase lowered himself onto the marble-top coffee table and set a hand on Lucas’s shoulder.
“This is all so crazy,” Lucas whispered.
The past seven years being what they had, crazy felt like old hat to Jase. He wasn’t into apologies, and he was crappy at offering comfort. The truth was, he was usually too wrapped up in himself and his mission to bother. He saved lives. Wasn’t that enough? Forward to the next person, cross another off the list. Memorizing how many done and how many left, until he saw the figures in his sleep. He wasn’t a therapist. When empathy became an issue, he simply told people to feel better, and they did.
He had no idea how to help Lucas. And he hadn’t wanted anything so much in a very long time. “What can I do?”
“Nothing. Right now.”
Disappointed, but also slightly relieved, Jase nodded and pulled away. “When you’re ready, I have other things I need to tell you.” Lucas had earned the right to hear it all, though it would be no great gift.
A ragged sound escaped Lucas’s lips, then another. He lifted his head, but his eyes were dry, and Jase realized he was laughing.
“Can it wait? I mean, no offense, Jase, but I’m not sure how much more I can take tonight.” Without waiting for Jase’s answer, he pulled at the blanket that was draped over the back of the couch and spread it over Macy, switched off the lamp and slipped away into the kitchen.
Jase followed him. “You should sleep.”
Arms braced on the counter, head down, Lucas nodded, and Jase’s nagging unease solidified into a realization. Lucas had been holding them all together. But now he was coming apart himself.
So why couldn’t Jase manage to give him the reassurance he needed? Had he been so emotionally handicapped by this power of his that he’d forgotten how to comfort someone? Had he ever known? The question of his identity reared its ugly head—the resolution of that mystery so close he could taste it.
Yet he was craving it less than he ever had before.
He took one step, then another, again reaching for Lucas’s shoulder. Offering empty words might work with some people, but with Lucas they’d bounce off and slide away. He was too much of a pragmatist.
With gentle pressure, he turned Lucas into his arms. It was a stiff, reluctant embrace. Worse than if they’d never touched. Jase crowded closer, backing Lucas against the countertop. He didn’t bother trying to speak.
Lucas resisted another several seconds before turning his face against Jase’s cheek. His hands curled into Jase’s T-shirt.
Jase knew this unspoken request. He’d asked it himself more than once over the past seven years. When the need got to be distracting, he’d give in, find someone, the words, “Do you really want this? Do you really want me?” stuck in his throat. He’d never had the courage to say them, because the smiling, empty-eyed answer would make him feel like more of a rapist than he already was.
But if Lucas didn’t want this, he could say no. And if he said yes, in a twisted, turned-around way, it would be like Jase’s first time.
Lucas swept his lips over Jase’s cheek, repeating the wordless question.
“Yeah,” Jase said. “Okay.” He tilted Lucas’s face up, pulling against the small reserve of resistance that remained, and kissed him. It began as a gentle brush of lips, back and forth, and that contact itself set Jase on fire. Needing more, he caught at Lucas’s bottom lip with his teeth, keeping him close.
Lucas shuddered and melted against him.
It was the invitation Jase had been waiting for. He cupped one hand around the back of Lucas’s neck and pressed their mouths together, doing his best to chase the demons away with nothing but pressure and breath.
He ended the kiss with a tentative touch of their tongues. Lucas gasped and arched against him, seeking more. “Not right now,” Jase whispered against his lips before pulling away.
Lucas let him retreat only so far before securing him in a firm embrace that lasted far longer than their furtive kiss. When he began to doze on his feet, Jase roused him with a gentle word and coaxed him to bed.
The condo had two bedrooms, and one of those was even decked out in pink princess wallpaper, but it was on the opposite side of the unit from the master suite. Too far for either of them, even if Lucas wasn’t ready to admit it. He stood over a sleeping Macy, biting his lip, until Jase made the decision for him.
“I realize it’s not ideal, but it’s best to keep everyone together until we’re sure we’re safe.” He bent down and gathered Macy up, jerking his chin at the door leading to the master. “That bed’s big enough for all of us.”
Still, Lucas waffled. “We shouldn’t be sleeping with her. It’s really inappropriate.”
“It’s the best solution right now. Will you be able to sleep knowing she’s by herself in there? Lucas, we’re all exhausted. Nobody’s thinking clearly. Let’s just get some rest.”
He wasn’t lying. Energy reserves depleted, and adrenaline rush petering out, Jase could hardly stay on his feet. “Come on,” he coaxed, starting toward the bedroom. By the time he got to the door, Lucas was behind him, shuffling like a zombie.
Jase agreed, after Lucas insisted, to snuggle Macy between the sheets, while they slept on top. Lucas slipped his and Macy’s shoes off, but left the rest of their clothes on, so Jase did the same, pulling the comforter over them all as he reached to turn off the light. He hesitated at the last second.
“Do you think we should leave it on for Macy?”
Lucas’s gaze drifted to the sleeping child. “We’ll turn it back on if she wakes up scared.”
Fair enough. Jase shut it off. The beams of the rising sun crept through the plantation shutters.
“Another glorious day in Southwest Florida,” Lucas mumbled. Despite everything, Jase fell asleep smiling.
Chapter Eight
Lucas realized the flaw in his plan when he woke up. He crept out of bed, leaving Macy and Jase behind, and went looking for something to drink. The fridge had a stick of butter and a jar of soy sauce. “Whoa, Mother Hubbard, you’re fired,” he said, pushing aside the Kikkoman’s. Nope, nothing hiding behind it. The pantry was in a similar state. He should have known. Hadn’t that been the point of this case? No food. The kids had scavenged everything.
That was going to be a problem.
The clock on the microwave said 1:30, a disorienting time to be waking from a long sleep. The condo—dark, silent and cool—perpetuated the feeling that it was just after midnight, but diffuse sunlight slanted in through the shutters, so Lucas knew it was early afternoon. He went to wake up Jase.
“I’m going out for supplies,” he whispered.
“No.” Jase struggled to a sitting position. “That’s crazy. They’ve got to be looking for you. Let me go.”
It made more sense than Lucas wanted to admit. He frowned. “I should be the one to go.”
“Why?” Jase threw the covers aside, tucking them back around Macy once he was standing. “We’re in this together. They know you, they don’t know me. Plus, if I run into trouble, I’ve got something you don’t.”
“Your sexy voice?” Lucas asked innocently.
Jase stepped into the short corridor between the bedroom and the en suite bathroom. He rustled through the closet. “If you like it so much, why didn’t you say so?”
“I’m saying it now.” Lucas frowned. “What are you doing?”
Jase emerged from the closet with a pair of pants and button-down shirt. “I’m not going anywhere until I shower and change.”
Reminded of his own sorry state, Lucas scratched at his rumpled clothing and made a cursory sniff of his T-shirt. He owned the shower after Jase.
Jase emerged clean and freshly dressed ten minutes later. Easing the bedroom door shut behind him, he snagged Lucas’s elbow, stopping him mid-stride. “You’re pacing. What’s wrong?”
“I’ve got no money on me, and I’m a little nervous about using the ATM.”
Jase shook his head as he buttoned the cuffs on his shirt. “I don’t need any money.”
This strange power to influence was still a sore spot between them. Lucas sensed that Jase resented his ability, but that didn’t stop him from exploiting it. “So you’re just going to take what we need. And that’s okay with you?”
Jase’s fingers twitched, and the button popped loose. “I think you know the answer to that.”
“Then don’t,” Lucas insisted. “I’ll give you my card. Get cash. I’ve got about a hundred in my account.”
Of course, Jase had to get practical. “There might come a time when we really need that money.”
That was all he said. Not “For Christ’s sake, Lucas, pull your head out of your ass.” Which he deserved, in retrospect. The people after them weren’t traveling the moral high road. “Fine,” he snapped, conceding, but not gracefully. “There’s a Kmart next to the Publix. If you think it’s safe, Macy could really use a few things. Clothes, you know.”
“What’s her favorite color?” Jase asked, bending down to tie his shoes.
The question was empathetic and unexpected. “I don’t know,” Lucas admitted.
Straightening, Jase grabbed Martinez’s car keys. “It would help, wouldn’t it? Getting her something she likes? Help her mood, maybe?”
Yes, of course it would. Lucas racked his brain. “She’s wearing a sundress, but pants would be more practical. Something with sparkles, maybe?” It wasn’t much, but it would get Jase started. “The shopping center is about a half a mile away. Go left out of the cul-de-sac, second right, first left, then follow that to the stoplight.”
“No problem,” Jase said.
“No problem now, but what if you don’t remember how to get back? I told you, this place is a maze.”
Jase indulged him with a rare open smile. “I won’t get lost coming back.” He darted a glance at the closed bedroom door. “If I forget your directions, I’ll just follow my nose back to Macy.”
Lucas blinked. Another superpower? “What, you can smell her?”
“No, Lucas. I’m drawn toward her naturally. Until—” Jase shook his head. “We’ll talk about it later, okay?” He brushed his fingers over Lucas’s arm, then disappeared through the front door.
One more thing to talk about. Their agenda was filling up fast. It was going to be one hell of a conversation.
Belatedly, he thought to turn on the TV. If Swift—or anybody—figured out that Martinez’s car was gone, or if she hadn’t gotten Lucas’s out of there fast enough, driving the Camry around town was asking for trouble.
He didn’t find anything horrible on the morning news, though the police station fire headlined. No mention of drugs, or guns, or Macy, and Lucas was willing to take the good with the strange. Surely it would be impossible to cover up a shootout with all those witnesses. And who would want to? It was what wasn’t getting reported that made Lucas nervous. Nothing added up.
Macy was still sleeping when Jase returned forty-five minutes later. “No problems,” he said after the car was safely tucked away in the garage. Lucas helped him carry the groceries into the kitchen. Jase untangled the handles and held up a Kmart bag. “Girl clothes.”
Lucas inspected the booty. “Hey, everything matches. You could have a future in this.”
“In what? Being on the lam?” Jase opened a carton of orange juice and chugged it right out of the container.
