The Coltons: Fisher, Ryder & Quinn: Soldier's Secret Child. Caridad Pineiro

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СКАЧАТЬ 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 to his father and brother, he hadn’t been able to talk to them about all that he was feeling. He’d been too prideful, too perplexed and most of all, too angry.

      “This isn’t about anything you’ve done wrong, Mace. He’s young and probably unsure of the situation he’s gotten himself into with Sara. Women can do that to a man.”

      Another shuddering breath ripped through her body and transferred her pain to him and because he wanted to ease her anguish, he said, “I promise that this will work out. That we’ll make this okay.”

      A big promise.

      As she turned in his arms and wrapped hers around him, holding on to him as if for dear life, regret slammed into him that the promise he had just made might be one he would break because he didn’t know how to make it okay. Had it been a mission with his men, he’d know the plan and what to do. Even if the plan got all messed up out in the field, he could find a way to make the mission work.

      But this wasn’t a mission and family things…They were far more complicated at times than a military mission and he feared he lacked the skills to be able to keep his promise.

      Awkwardly he patted her on the back, held her as she cried out her frustration. He wasn’t used to dealing with a woman’s tears. Or a son’s disobedience.

      He couldn’t tell her there was no crying in the military. Well, he could but it would be a lie because he had shed more than one tear over his men and their injuries. He also couldn’t punish T.J. with a week in the brig for disobeying his mother.

      In reality, he couldn’t bring the kind of order he had in the Army to this family, but as Macy’s tears finally subsided with a tiny hiccough that wrung his heart, he realized what he could do. He could bring her peace for a moment. Soothe her hurt and maybe make her smile.

      As for T.J.…

      He needed a man’s guidance to get him in line and he would try his best to help T.J. put his life in order. To fulfill his promise to make it okay before duty called for him to return to the Army.

      Bending slightly, he cradled her СКАЧАТЬ