The Coltons: Fisher, Ryder & Quinn: Soldier's Secret Child. Caridad Pineiro
“Let’s go see if Jewel can talk to us,” he said and squeezed her shoulder.
She reached up and placed her hand on his, seeking his solace and he offered it, easing his hand down so that she could grab hold of it.
Together they walked the few steps back to the library, a moderately sized room filled with books, a leather sofa and chairs as well as a small table where the children could read or study with some measure of quiet.
The door was ajar as they approached and Macy could hear the gentle tones of Jewel’s voice as she spoke to Joe.
She knocked on the door, but no one responded. She was about to knock again when Jewel came to the entrance to the library.
“Macy. I’m so glad you’re here.” Her sharp-eyed gaze immediately went to Fisher behind her, down to where their hands were joined and then back up to her face.
“You have news?” Jewel asked.
“Not all that much unfortunately. And you?”
Jewel opened the door wide and held out her arm. “Why don’t you come in. You need to hear what Joe just told me.”
Her stomach did a little flip-flop, sensing the news would not be good. She tightened her hand on Fisher’s.
They entered the room. Joe was seated on the maroon leather coach, but stood as he saw them. He nodded his head in greeting and said, “Mrs. Ward. Mr. Yates.”
As anxious as she was, she couldn’t muster the energy for niceties. “Your aunt tells us that you’ve got something we should hear.”
The boy shifted from foot to foot and stuffed his hands in his pockets. He inhaled deeply and held it before finally speaking. “I saw Sara and T.J. together the afternoon before she disappeared. They were by themselves at the corral and Sara seemed upset.”
“Upset with T.J.?” Fisher asked, but the boy quickly shook his head.
“I don’t think so. It seemed like T.J. was trying to make her feel better. I think he has a crush on her,” Joe said.
Jewel came up to stand by Joe and placed her arm around his shoulders. “Tell them what else you heard.”
Joe fidgeted once again, clearly uneasy about what he would say and possibly, about betraying a friend’s confidence. Macy understood that and so she tried to relieve that concern.
“I know you want to protect your friends, but if it’s something that could get them hurt—”
“T.J. was telling Sara not to worry. That he would take her to a place where no one could find her.”
“Was there someone Sara was afraid of? Someone who had found her here at the Hopechest?” Fisher asked.
“Maybe,” he began and shrugged. “The other night—the night of the accident—another car started following us. Sara got worried and that’s why T.J. was speeding, to get away from that car.”
She recalled T.J.’s explanation that the other car had been challenging them, but this made a great deal more sense. If Sara’s father had sent someone to try and find her, they might have spotted her in the car with the boys and decided to follow them to see where she might be.
“She was with you the night of the accident,” Macy said, wanting to confirm her suspicions.
Joe exchanged a pained look with Jewel and nodded. “She was with us, but after we got into the accident, that car that had weirded us out was driving by. Before T.J. and I realized it, she had slipped out of T.J.’s car and somehow got back to the ranch without us.”
Macy sensed something even more troublesome approached and at the thought of it, her knees began to shake. If Fisher hadn’t already been gently guiding her toward one of the wing chairs, she would have sagged into one ignominiously.
“There’s more, isn’t there?”
Joe dropped his head until the only thing she could see was the tousled mass of his dark brown hair. He mumbled something, almost beneath his breath, but at Jewel’s prodding, finally spoke up.
“I saw Sara getting into T.J.’s car the night before she disappeared. I’d heard some noises out by the one barn and went out to check. There wasn’t anything by the barn, but on the way back, I saw a car in the distance and someone running to it.”
“Are you sure, son? It was nighttime and you were quite a distance away,” Fisher said.
Joe nodded and as he raised his blue-eyed gaze to them, it was filled with guilt. “I’m sorry, but it was T.J. and Sara. I saw their faces when T.J. opened the door and the lights came on.”
She sighed and buried her head in her hands. If what Joe said was true—and she had no reason to doubt him—T.J. was headed for major trouble once the deputy found out. Before he did, she had to get to the bottom of what was really going on with her son.
Rising, she stepped up to Joe and her boss, her hands clasped tightly before her. “I know this is a lot to ask—”
“We’re not supposed to speak to Deputy Rawlings until tomorrow and actually, I was hoping to wait until Jericho came back. He’s due any day now, isn’t he?” Jewel asked, her head cocked in Fisher’s direction.
“Dad says he’ll be back either tomorrow or the next day, although the next is more likely,” Fisher replied. He laid his hand on her shoulder once again and said, “That gives us time to talk to T.J. and find out what’s going on.”
She nodded and embraced Jewel. “Thank you for understanding.”
Jewel hugged her hard and brushed a lock of stray hair away from her face. “Call us as soon as you know anything. In the meantime, I’m going to speak to Clay Colton about those noises again. Find out if he can go out on the range to see if it’s an injured animal.”
“I’ll call as soon as we have something.” Turning, she took hold of Fisher’s hand and they left the ranch house, jumped in the Jeep and raced home.
She knew something was wrong from the moment they pulled up into her driveway. There was something just too…quiet about the house. After she exited the Jeep, she immediately walked to the garage doors, stood on tiptoe and peered in through the glass windows.
T.J.’s GTO was gone.
Running to the front door, she threw it open and shouted his name.
When silence answered, she tore up the stairs, the house’s old bones creaking from the force of her strides.
At T.J.’s door, she stared at his empty unmade bed.
He wasn’t anywhere in the room.
Things had just gone from bad to worse.
He was getting slow in his old age, Fisher thought as he bounded up the stairs, chasing Macy after her mad dash from the garage and into the house.
He nearly barreled her over as she stood silently at T.J.’s door, her shoulders nearly heaving as she apparently struggled for control. He realized why as he stood behind her and peered over her shoulder into the room.
Her son…their son was gone.
Disappointment slammed into him as he thought of how T.J. had broken the rules of his punishment. He couldn’t imagine how Macy felt, but he could see it in the lines of her body.
He stepped close and embraced her from behind, wrapping one arm across her waist while stroking her hair with his hand. “It’ll be okay, Mace. We’ll find him.”
She sucked in a ragged breath while her body vibrated with tension. “Why would he do this? Why couldn’t he talk to me?”
He remembered himself at T.J.’s age, all full of perceived male empowerment, but struggling with the confusing emotions about Macy, his mom and his life in Esperanza. Although he had been close