Page 56 of Forsaken

“Eli’s stepfather?” I asked as I searched out my pants on the bathroom floor and began pulling them on.

“No, Caleb.”

I stilled and said, “Did something happen to him in the hospital?”

Jace was quiet a moment before saying, “I got him out of there.”

“What?” I asked as I pulled up my pants and then sat down on the toilet.

“After I checked on him a couple days ago, I couldn’t get past the feeling that something was off. So I went back this morning to see him again. He was more lucid this time around and he begged me to help him. They had him tied down, Mav,” Jace said, the anger clear in his voice. “Ronan says you’re in South Dakota and you’re with his brother.”

“I am.”

“The kid’s pretty messed up. Can you get down here as soon as possible? There’s something you need to see.”

My body tensed up at that, but before I could ask Jace for details, I looked up to see Eli watching me from the doorway. “Where are you?” I asked.

“West Virginia. I’ll text you the information.”

“We’re on our way.”

I hung up the phone and stood up and flipped on the bathroom light.

“What is it?” Eli asked nervously and I couldn’t really blame him since the last time I’d taken a call like this, I’d ripped him to shreds with my cruel words.

“It’s Caleb.”

Eli stiffened even more and asked, “Is he okay?”

“Yeah, he’s with Jace. But Jace needs us to come down there. Can you get dressed and I’ll tell you what Jace told me on the way to the airport?”

Eli nodded and began scooping up our clothes. He handed me pieces of mine as I called the pilot to have the plane readied. I also called Ronan and told him the plan. I suspected he already knew what Jace wanted to show me, but with Eli in the room, I wasn’t prepared to ask him about it. We were on the road within ten minutes and stopped only long enough to grab some food from a 24-hour fast food place. I explained to Eli what little I knew about Jace getting Caleb out of the psychiatric hospital, but he didn’t say much.

The pilot and co-pilot were as professional as ever when we arrived at the airport and while it took a little longer to get through the security process since it was a major airport, we were airborne within a couple of hours of Jace’s call and dawn was just breaking over the horizon when we landed in West Virginia. Ronan had already gotten a car for us so we were on the road within minutes of touching down and I asked Eli to navigate to the motel using the GPS on my phone. I did it more to give him something to do because his anxiety seemed to be increasing the closer we got to our destination.

The place Jace had selected was deep in the Appalachian Mountains and the fact that it was so secluded had me even more worried. I remembered Ronan’s comment about how many of Jack Cortano’s former army buddies had hired themselves out as paid guns. I had my knife on me, but when we arrived at the motel, I grabbed my Glock from my bag and quickly reloaded the gun and stuck it in the waistband of my pants at my back. The motel was quiet and there was only one car parked in the lot. I knew it was Jace’s since it was right in front of the room number he’d texted us, but I still kept my eyes open as we approached it. The door opened even before we reached it and I quickly ushered Eli inside.

“Hey,” Jace said as he reached out to shake my hand. I had worked with Jace quite a bit in the few years he’d been on the team, but like most of the men that found their way to Ronan, I knew little about his background. He was about my height, but with a slightly leaner build and his brown hair, while still on the long side, was nowhere near as long as mine and had considerably more curl to it than mine did, making it almost pretty. But nothing else about Jace was “pretty.” With his ripped body, trimmed beard, dark, penetrating eyes and bronzed skin, he was stunningly gorgeous and I’d often wondered which team he played for early on when we’d first met. I’d eventually gotten the answer to my question, but by that time we’d built a professional relationship that neither of us had been willing to mess with just to slake our physical curiosities.

“Eli, this is Jace Christianson. Jace, this is Eli.”

Jace nodded. I looked around the room, but didn’t see anyone else. But before I could ask, a young man rounded the corner from the bathroom. I knew from my research that Caleb was only seventeen, but he looked younger to me and he’d clearly had it rough because everything about the way he held himself screamed “hands off!” He was a good looking, all-American boy next door type with light blond hair and startlingly blue eyes. He was on the slimmer side, but I suspected he would fill out as he got older.

His eyes stayed on me only for a moment before shifting to Eli, but he didn’t say anything and the young men just stared at each other. It was Jace who broke the tension when he stepped past us and went to Caleb’s side. He murmured something in Caleb’s ear that seemed to relax him and then led him to one of the beds and had him sit down. Eli finally moved and sat down opposite him.

“Are you okay?” Eli asked.

Caleb nodded, but didn’t say anything. He fidgeted nervously and couldn’t seem to stop running his hands over his legs like he was trying to wipe something off of them and onto the gray sweat pants he was wearing.

“What happened?” Eli asked.

The question seemed to drive Caleb’s anxiety higher, but surprisingly, he calmed when Jace sat down next to him and covered one of Caleb’s hands with his own. Even though they’d been together for only 24 hours, they’d clearly formed some kind of bond.

“I don’t know where to start,” Caleb whispered, his voice sounding ragged. His statement was directed at Jace.

“Start wherever you feel comfortable,” Jace murmured.

I went and sat next to Eli, but didn’t reach for his hand even though I was tempted to. I made sure our bodies were touching though.

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