“Of course.” My father stood and folded me into his arms, holding me so tight I could feel his heart beat against my cheek. “And you know I want him back alive just as badly as you do, don’t you, Faythe?”
I nodded, and my face rubbed his shirt, my jaws clenched against the sobs trying to break free.
“If I really thought we were looking for a body, I’d send someone else in your place.”
That time I heard the truth in his voice. My father still believed. At least for the next ten hours, we were on the same page.
After that…all bets were off.
Twenty-Three
On the way to my room, I passed Manx’s open bedroom door, and saw my mother and the doctor hovering over her. Mom held a tube of antibiotic cream, and Dr. Carver held a brown pill bottle. I paused in the doorway and caught a brief glimpse of Manx’s unwrapped hands, and immediately wished I’d kept walking.
The ends of her fingers were an angry, swollen red, still oozing blood, and not yet scabbed over. They looked horribly painful, yet Manx sat still on the bed with her hands in her lap, staring at the far wall as if she felt nothing.
As I watched, Dr. Carver sat next to her, and physically turned her face by her chin, until she faced him, gesturing with the pill bottle as he spoke. “Take these as needed, no more than two at a time, but if you don’t need them, don’t take them, because they’ll make you sleepy and make your thinking fuzzy, both of which will make it nearly impossible for you to take care of Des.”
As would the open wounds on each of her fingers.
But the doctor continued, still directing his instructions to the young tabby, though surely he was counting on my mother to actually remember and apply his directions. “Keep your hands elevated and take naproxen four times a day to minimize swelling. You should Shift as soon as you’re able to support weight on your hands, because that will accelerate healing.” He paused. “Manx, are you listening?”
She made no reply, so finally he turned to my mom. “If you see any sign of infection, start her on these.” The doc twisted to show her another, larger bottle of pills on the nightstand. “Twice a day, with food.”
My mother nodded, then looked past him when she noticed me in the doorway. “Are you leaving?”
“Yeah.” I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned against the doorway. “Jace is coming with us, but we’ll be back on Saturday…” For the funeral. “No matter what we find.” Then, if we hadn’t found Marc, Jace would join the offensive push into his birth Pride’s territory, and I’d return to Mississippi to search for Marc. And I would not stop until he was found, one way or another.
Dr. Carver stood, and looked from me to Manx, then back at me, as if he were trying to make an important decision. “I think Manx is okay here with your mother, and I’m on my way to check on Kaci now. But I’d like to get another look at Jace’s arm after he Shifts, and you’ll need me if you do find Marc alive.” The doctor flinched when he heard his own frank doubt, but I waved off his apology before he could voice it. He had a right to his own opinions, and could hardly be expected to put aside years of medical training to indulge my emotional optimism. “So anyway, if your dad says it’s okay, I’ll go with you.”
Gratitude swept through me, easing the ache in my heart like balm on a bad burn. Marc would have a much better chance of survival once we’d found him, with Dr. Carver there to care for him. “Thank you.” I spun around to head for the office, but my father spoke up softly before I’d gone three steps.
“It’s fine, Faythe. But be careful, all of you.”
“We will, Daddy! Thanks!”
I turned toward my room and the bag I’d already packed, and nearly jumped out of my skin when I found Kaci staring at me from the hallway outside her own door, her tail twitching with displeasure. She watched me silently, accusing me with her eyes of abandoning her again.
I sighed and motioned for her to follow me, but she only shook her head and ducked back into her own room, nosing her door shut. I scowled and started to go after her, but stopped when I recognized the pained grunts and rapid breathing that ushered in a Shift. She was Shifting on her own, and would come talk to me in a few minutes, when she’d regained the ability to complain with an articulation especially well honed in adolescents.In my room, I double-checked my duffel to make sure I wasn’t missing anything, then threw in another pair of jeans and underwear, just in case. Moments later, Kaci shoved open my door, still buttoning her jeans beneath the hem of a tee she’d put on backward. “You’re leaving again!?”
“I have to find Marc, Kaci.” I zipped my bag and settled it over one shoulder. “You don’t want me to leave him out there all alone, do you?”
She shook her head slowly, but her angry expression conceded nothing. “Jace is going with you? What about Ethan? Is everyone leaving me?”
The accusation in her tone broke my heart, but the ignorance in her question seared my soul. No one had told her about Ethan. She needed to know, but I didn’t want to upset her right before I left. And if I didn’t tell her, she’d know soon that I’d lied to her by omission, and she’d never trust me again.
The sigh that slipped from me as I sank onto the bed seemed to empty not just my entire body, but the whole room, leaving nothing for me to breathe. I let my bag slide to the floor and patted a spot on the mattress next to me.
“What’s wrong?” Kaci watched me warily as she sat, and I could almost see the armor go up behind her expression.
How the hell was I supposed to tell her my brother had died defending her?
“Kaci…” I stopped, blinking to deny fresh tears. “Ethan got hurt in the woods this morning. Hurt very badly. My dad and I tried to help him, but there was nothing we could do.” I swallowed thickly, staring into the denial rapidly forming on her face. “He died, Kaci.”
“Ethan…?” She shook her head, curls bouncing around her shoulders, eyes wide and pain filled. “The toms who tried to take me killed him?” I nodded, and her head shook harder. “No. I just saw him. He told Jace to take me back to the house, and he had a really big stick. And he knows how to fight….”
“It’s okay to be upset. It’s even okay to be really, really pissed. We all are. This should never have happened.” My tears blurred my vision, then fell to scald my cheeks. As did hers.
“Why didn’t anyone tell me?”
My arm slid around her back, and I squeezed her tightly. “We didn’t want to upset you.”
“Where is he?”
I blinked at her for a moment, surprised by a question I hadn’t expected. “He’s, um, in the barn.” Where the temperature was low enough to preserve him until Dr. Carver could tend to him with his primary area of expertise. Because Ethan would be given a proper, if private, burial.
Kaci wiped moisture from her face with the tail of her shirt. “Can I see him?”
I shook my head slowly. Ethan’s was not a peaceful death, and she should not have to see it. “Not until the funeral on Saturday. We’ll all get to say goodbye to him then.”
“Except Marc.” She frowned, bothered by the sudden realization. “You have to find him. He should be here to say goodbye to Ethan.”
My chest seemed to constrict around my heart, and dull pain echoed throughout my body. Kaci had only briefly met Marc in Montana, before he was exiled, but she’d been with us long enough to understand the bond between enforcers, especially those who’d served together as long as ours had. They were closer than brothers, and the loss would affect all of us deeply, even the guys who weren’t related to Ethan by blood.
“I will,” I said, able to think of nothing to comfort her better.
“We will,” Jace corrected, and I glanced up to find him watching us from the doorway. “And we should get going. Dan’s waiting in the car.”
“Are you okay?” Kaci asked him, her hazel eyes narrowed in concern, and I was impressed all over again by her perceptive nature and occasional moments of true maturity and empathy. She was quite a kid.
“I will be.” Jace smiled softly at her, and when his gaze flicked to mine, I was staggered by the range of emotions swimming behind his eyes. “We all will be, because we have no other choice. We’ll find Marc, then mourn Ethan and avenge his death.”
Kaci frowned, and fear flitted across her face momentarily. She didn’t want to think about vengeance or violence of any kind, and I couldn’t blame her. But what she didn’t understand was that if we let Malone run all over us this time, he wouldn’t stop, and she was bound to lose as much because of that as any of us. Maybe more.
I stood and retrieved my bag, then wrapped my free arm around the tabby. “I need you to go let the doc give you a once-over. Then you can ask if Manx needs any help with the baby while I see if Mom can come up with anything for you to eat. ‘Kay?”
Though her face didn’t lighten, a spark of interest flashed behind her eyes. Kaci loved Des. He was the first baby she’d ever held, and she treasured rare opportunities to help with him. Now she’d find her services more in demand than ever.
I escorted her to her room, where the doctor waited with two packed bags, while Jace stopped in the kitchen to fill my mother in on what we’d told the tabby. Five minutes later, after another round of goodbye hugs, we were on the road, and after another five-and-a-half-hour drive, I didn’t care if I never saw another highway. We didn’t stop for food at all, and only made one bathroom break, so by the time Jace pulled into Marc’s driveway, I really had to use the restroom, thanks to the three twenty-ounce Cokes I’d had on the drive.