Page 11 of Brick

They ran to Ben’s, and by the time they got there, half the security team had arrived and started a grid search from the house into the woods. Ben stripped and shifted, putting his nose to the ground and snuffling.

Solan came over. “We can start a grid search in this other direction too. You know what’s over there.” He gestured away from the house in the opposite direction of the grid search. Brick frowned. The creek that wove through the territory.

Even though it had been a dry summer so far, the creek was deep in places, with areas of wide, rushing water and slippery banks, and there were rocky outcroppings all over that could be treacherous even to experienced climbers.

Carl said, “I’ll stay with Ben and text if he finds him.”

Brick texted Stewart to see if he located the child on the monitors. There weren’t a lot of security cameras near the homes, so he wasn’t hopeful anything would show up. Most of the security measures were near the perimeter and the alphas’ house.

“Thanks, Uncle Carl, we’ll head this way,” Brick said. He whistled and the remaining team members and recruits joined him and Solan, spreading out to make a long line. “We’re going to follow the creek. Keep your eyes peeled.”

A few pack members shifted to utilize their heightened sense of smell. He and the others walked slowly, calling for Caleb and scanning the ground and trees as they moved away from the house.

Ten minutes later, they were in the thickest part of the woods and walking along the creek. Solan was on the other side with a severe frown on his face.

“How the hell far could a four-year-old walk?”

“If he was chasing something? I don’t know, probably pretty far,” Brick said. “He must have gotten into the water because no one can pick up his scent and we should have if he had remained on the ground.”

He paused as something caught his attention. The sound of rocks falling.

“Did you hear that?” he asked.

“I only hear the water in the creek.”

Brick turned slowly and tilted his head, focusing his hearing. As the sound of rocks sliding against rocks happened again, he suddenly knew exactly where little Caleb was. “The bend of the creek, where we used to hang out when we were kids. The ledge. Remember?”

“Oh shit,” Solan said.

They called for the others to follow as they took off toward the ledge.

When Brick and Solan were young, they would hang out with Adam and a few others in their age group at the creek in the summer, at a place they called “the ledge.” It had a shallow cave where they stashed girly mags and snacks and a ledge that leaned way out over the center of one of the widest points of the creek. They would jump off the ledge into the water, sometimes slipping on the moss or rocks. He hadn’t thought about it in years.

As the ledge came into view, he saw young Caleb standing on the edge of it, crying and pointing. Rocks fell into the water below as he swayed back and forth on his bare feet.

“Caleb!” Brick called up to him. “Hey, kiddo! What’s the matter?”

He approached slowly, not wanting to scare the pup. Solan motioned that he was going to move to the other side of the rock and disappeared with a few team members.

“Bunny,” he said with a sniffle, pointing to the water that rushed by.

“Bunny?” Brick asked.

“It’s his stuffed animal, I think,” Reba, one of the recruits, said. “I’ve seen him in the deli with his parents with it. Maybe it fell in?”

“What if he dropped it in the water back where the creek is near his house and walked all this way?” Mark, a team member, asked. He pointed to the bank of the creek where small footprints led to the ledge. “He walked on the wet bank of the creek, which probably masked his scent.”

“Shit, he could have slipped in at any point,” Brick said. It was a miracle the kid hadn’t fallen in. “We’ll find Bunny,” he called up to him.

Caleb let out a little wail and took a step toward the ledge as Solan appeared on the top.

“Whoa, hold on, kiddo,” Brick said. “Don’t move!”

He was so damn close to the edge. Solan backed up. “It’s okay, little dude, we’ll go find Bunny together.”

Caleb smiled in relief and took a step toward Solan with his hand outstretched, but his bare feet slipped on the loose rocks and he pinwheeled his arms as he tottered backward. The whole world slowed down as Brick shouted for the boy and raced toward him. As Caleb tumbled over the edge, Brick leaped for him, catching his arm and pulling him into his body as he hit the far bank of the creek, half in the water and half in the mud.

He rolled on the bank, protecting Caleb from the impact, and exhaled sharply as he came to a rest on his back with the young boy on his chest.

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