Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6

Z oe, Carlos, and Kyle had a relaxing evening at home. When Carlos had checked in with Jeff, he was holding down the fort and encouraged Carlos to take the next day off too. Other than the couple of weeks he'd been suspended under Sheriff Hannigan's tenure, Carlos couldn't remember the last time he'd taken a day off work. Jeff had pointed this out to him and Carlos appreciated the gesture.

Louisa had even said she was going to have a slumber party with Lila and Cassie. They were pitching a tent in the living room as Cassie wasn't comfortable sleeping outside. Bulldog had offered to come pick up Kyle so he could join in, but Zoe had declined. Despite having slept most of the day, all three of them were still pretty exhausted.

Kyle fell asleep during the cartoon movie that neither Zoe nor Carlos was paying much attention to. Carlos had just picked Kyle up off the couch to take him to bed when there was a knock at the front door.

Frowning, Carlos handed Kyle to Zoe. He had a gun safe close to the door, but nothing on him. Since no one was expected, Carlos cautiously looked out the window frame to see who it was. There'd been a couple of messages during the day of people proclaiming Penny's innocence or saying her actions weren't "that bad" or "harmless". Small towns tended to band together during a crisis and some of the residents of Mount Grove were only siding with Penny because she was one of them while Zoe was not. Each message that Carlos had received, he'd passed on to Jeff to send a deputy over and discuss in person with the townsperson that sort of attitude was not acceptable.

When Carlos saw who was at the door, he unlocked and opened it.

"Sheriff," Owen greeted.

After returning to the club's property earlier, Bulldog had texted Carlos to inform him that Owen and Zitkala had stayed at the clubhouse the night before. Keys was running information on Zitkala, though she'd expressed that she was not going to impose long.

"Owen," came from behind Carlos. He looked over his shoulder to see Zoe standing in the hall with a sleeping Kyle in her arms.

Carlos left the door open and went to relieve her of Kyle's weight. Zoe gave him an appreciated smile before turning her attention to Owen.

"Come in, please."

Owen stepped into the house, closing the door behind him. "How are you, Zoe?"

Zoe shrugged. "Not ready for him to go off to college, but I'll get there. The important thing is he's home and safe." She ran a hand through her dyed brunette hair. "Mostly, I feel like a fool. If I'd calmed myself enough, I would have remembered to use our codeword."

"Conner taught you to use a codeword, didn't he?" Owen asked gently.

She nodded somberly. "He was taught to never come out of a hiding place, no matter who is calling his name or if it sounds like me, unless he hears our word. I can't fault him for listening."

"Hindsight is always twenty-twenty," Owen said. He scratched his chin stubble. "We all jumped to the wrong conclusion. I should have guessed that that was something Conner taught you. After all, it was something he taught me."

Carlos saw Zoe's surprised expression and fought to keep his own shock off his face.

"He did?" she asked.

Owen nodded. "Our dad was a mean sonofabitch. When we knew one of his rants was coming or when he was in a certain mood, we'd use different words to clue the other in without being obvious. We were really young when our parents died, but we kept using them throughout our lives."

"I'm sorry about your parents. He didn't talk about them much."

"Not much to tell," Owen shrugged offhandedly. "Dad beat us for being born and Mom did nothing to stop him. Eventually he killed her when she tried to leave him before killing himself. Conner liked to believe that she planned on taking us with her, but I never did."

Zoe stepped forward and placed a hand on Owen's arm. "I hope you know you're always welcome here. Conner was family to me, that makes you family too."

"I appreciate that, but I'm going to be heading out soon. I still have my own search to conduct. I never meant to make an appearance in Mount Grove, but I needed to check in on you. It was the least I could do for my brother."

Up until then, Carlos had forgotten Owen's statement from the night before that he had been in town searching for someone named Cap.

"I understand." Zoe pulled her phone out of her pocket. "Will you leave me a number? I'd like to check in on you, make sure you're okay."

Owen gave her a look that said he thought her statement unnecessary, but still grabbed for the phone. He typed in something. Then leaned down and placed a kiss on Zoe's cheek. It was quick, but Carlos still felt his hackles rise. He didn't like the idea of any man touching Zoe for any reason.

"You were worth saving, Zoe," Owen told her softly. "I hope you know that Conner never regretted anything."

Zoe wiped her eye with the underside of her right hand. "He was such a good man." She tipped her head, adding, "So are you, Owen."

Owen shook his head. "Not like him. If one of us had to go, it should have been me a long time ago."

"Are you headed back to Montana? If so, please tell Jack I said ‘hello' and ‘thank you'."

"I'll make sure he gets the message," Owen answered evasively. His eyes flicking to Carlos, he asked, "Do you mind if I speak with Carlos alone for a minute?"

Zoe shook her head. She walked back to Carlos, her arms out for Kyle, but Carlos shook his head. "Wait here," he instructed Owen. "I'll be right back."

Zoe followed him to Kyle's bedroom. Carlos placed him down on his new bed. Zoe moved to start undressing her son as Carlos left the room, closing the door behind him.

Owen had stepped into the living room during his absence. He turned at Carlos's entry. "My people picked up Trapper."

"Figure out his connection to Zitkala yet?"

"Other than it's not an open bounty, no. And she's not talking either."

"Bulldog said they offered her a ride, but she insisted on being dropped off at the bus station. With no ID or money, she's not going to get very far."

Rather than discouraged, Owen seemed intrigued by this information. "Bus stations have more to offer a wayward traveler than most people know. You just have to know where to go."

Carlos didn't have to ask if Owen was one of those people who knew where to go. It was obvious by the offered information that he did. "Sorry you didn't find your friend here, but I appreciate your help last night."

"My gung ho approach to life wasted eight hours of valuable time." Owen shook his head in disgust. "I am not a person anyone should be following into battle. It's why I work alone."

Carlos knew how the other man felt. He'd acted very out of character by following Owen. "What about your mountain group? You work with them."

"For support, yes, but not out in the field." Owen shrugged, looking far younger than his twenty-five years. "I gave Zoe my personal number. Very few even have it. If a man named Cap comes through here, I'd appreciate it if you would let me know. It's been very difficult even tracking him this far. Navy SEALs guard their identities very carefully."

That was information Carlos hadn't known before. "There's only two former SEALs that I know of in the club—and the area for that matter."

"He's not around the club that I found," Owen told him.

Carlos shook his head. "One's not going to be around the club right now. He's still in the hospital recovering from brain surgery."

Owen's eyebrows drew down. "Which hospital?"

"Mount Grove Memorial," Carlos told him. "He goes by ‘Jumper' though. I'm not even sure of his legal name, they use it so seldomly. Why do you want to find him?"

Jasmine would be at the hospital with Jumper. With as little as Carlos knew Owen, he felt the man was trustworthy, but that didn't take away the fact that he was also dangerous.

"The man I'm looking for was involved in an explosion nearly a decade ago."

Carlos looked Owen up and down. Despite the man being declared dead, he was in good health and, obviously, alive. Though Carlos did not know why he'd faked his death or if it had been sanctioned by the government, there was no way that Owen could have been personally involved in the incident that had ended Jumper's military career. Owen and Conner would have been teenagers at the time.

He knew very little of what had happened to Jumper to cause his PTSD, beyond that he'd been in an explosion that had killed four out of his five SEAL teammates. Jasmine had confided in Sophia and Carlos that much—with Jumper's blessing—to assure them that she was safe with Jumper. Carlos had known Jumper for over six years, since he'd come to Mount Grove and joined the club. It was well known throughout the entire town that he had severe PTSD and Carlos had even witnessed a few of his flashbacks and episodes over the years. Asking whether Jasmine was safe with him had been a logical question, even if asking it had pissed Jasmine off.

Jumper might be a big, strong ex-Navy SEAL, but he'd found a stern protector in Jazz. Recent events had proved just how well they protected each other.

Owen's description led Carlos to believe Jumper was the man he was looking for, but why would Owen be looking for Jumper and why was he calling him Cap?

"Could be Jumper, but like I said, he's in the hospital recovering from brain surgery."

Owen nodded slowly. "I'll stop by and see if he's who I am looking for."

"Can I ask why you're looking for him? You couldn't have known him while he was in the service."

"You're right, I didn't," Owen said shortly.

The pregnant pause that followed told Carlos that he wasn't going to get more of an answer out of him.

Still, he felt the need to say, "His woman's with him. I appreciate everything you did yesterday and I owe you for helping Zoe escape in the first place, but I will hunt you down and kill you myself if I hear she came to any harm."

Owen held up his hands in the universal gesture of surrender. "I would never harm the innocent."

Carlos studied the man's expression for a moment. "If Jumper's the man you're looking for, does that include him?"

"More than you know."

After seeing Owen out, Carlos texted Bulldog a message that Jumper might be the man Owen had come to Mount Grove looking for. The club wasn't sure how to react to Owen's presence. They were keeping him away from the ol' ladies and club kids, not wanting to upset or confuse any of them. Conner had died saving Harper's life and under Tessa's medical care. Seeing Owen or even knowing he existed might cause them unneeded strife.

Additionally, Owen was still too much of a mystery to them. Why he'd faked his death, where he was living now, why he'd shown his face, what his endgame was… Carlos probably trusted Owen more than the club did because of his connection to Zoe. He felt a sense of debt towards Owen since learning he had been the one to rescue Zoe from the hitmen her in-laws had hired.

Keys might be familiar with Owen's people, the Mountain Mutineers, but the club wasn't—and they didn't trust what they didn't know or understand. Steel wouldn't be a good leader if he trusted so blindly.

Zoe was lying on their bed when he entered. She was curled up on her side in a loose fetal position. She was still wearing her day clothes.

As Carlos closed the door, she raised her head slightly off of the pillow. "I shouldn't be so exhausted. We slept most of the day away and then were resting in bed for the rest of it."

Carlos crawled up onto the mattress, moving over her as she rolled onto her back. He settled himself down over her belly and rested his face between her breasts. Looping his arms under her back, he let out a long, contented sigh.

One of her hands went to his hair and the other started lightly scratching her fingernails up and down his back.

"What did Owen want to talk to you about?" Zoe's voice was low and slightly slurred like she was half asleep.

"Just saying goodbye and wanted to make sure I took care of you." He had no intention of ever telling Zoe about Trapper or that Owen's people now had him.

"Who was the woman with you at the grocery store last night?"

"Her name is Zitkala. Honestly, I don't know much about her and it doesn't sound like she's sticking around for long."

Zoe's fingers trailed lazily through his hair. "Tell me about Penny."

Carlos's sigh was much more exasperated than his last. "I don't have a reason to give you, Zoe. She claims that she was only trying to scare you, that she saw you and took advantage of your distraction. But there's evidence of premeditation. One could argue that she was trying to separate us when she volunteered me to help Mrs. Guthrie out to her car, as well as lying about needing to go back to her apartment…" Carlos shrugged. "She claims if she proved you were a bad mom then I would lose interest in you and you would go home."

"I am home."

Carlos picked his head up, resting his chin on her breastplate. The conviction in her voice brought serenity to his soul. She dipped her chin down to look at him. There was no hesitation, no uncertainty in her gaze.

Carlos raised himself up onto his hands and knees, crawling the rest of the way over her until he hovered above her face. "You are utterly amazing, Zoe. Even after everything you've been through, you still found your way to trusting me. I can't tell you what that means to me. I swear to you, I will do better. We can argue all day long as to who is at fault for Kyle's disappearance, though the fault solely belongs to Penny, but it won't change the fact that I left you. I thought I was doing the right thing. I thought I was going after him. I followed a bad lead and it wasted a lot of time. I hope you know how sorry I am for that. I should have been here for you instead of off chasing imaginary boogeymen."

Zoe lifted a hand to his face. He hadn't shaved that day so he had a bit heavier scruff than his usual five o'clock shadow by this time of night. "And if that bounty hunter had taken him? Carlos, I don't see you leaving me as a failure. I see it as you doing your job . You had reason to believe that the bounty hunter had taken Kyle. We had no reason to believe that Kyle was hiding in the store that entire time and every reason to believe that he'd been taken out of the store. It honestly is a more plausible reason than Penny's random desire to portray me as a bad mom."

Carlos flinched slightly. "She thought I had feelings for her."

"Do you?" Zoe's expression looked more confused than worried, which took away any bite from her question.

He shook his head. "Never had. She literally was just the waitress who served me pizza once or twice a week."

"That's what I thought." Carlos raised an amused eyebrow and Zoe's eyes narrowed at him. "You aren't the type of man to do what you did for me and Kyle while secretly harboring feelings for another woman."

Carlos lowered his face to brush their lips together. "Your faith in me is astounding. I will never understand it. I am in sheer awe of you."

Zoe brought her hand from his cheek up through his hair and then linked her arms around his neck. "I don't fully understand it myself, Carlos. From the moment we met, there was this little voice in the back of my head that told me to trust you. That's only ever happened once before."

"With Conner," he added for her.

She nodded sadly. "Conner became important to me at a very vulnerable time my life. I was beyond alone and frightened. I trusted him completely… but ," she added sternly, seeing the conflict on Carlos's face, "I never loved him. In his last letter to me, he told me he was not in love with me either."

"It's so odd," Carlos confessed. "I barely knew Conner. He was around, prospecting for the club, but I never really paid attention to him." He dipped his head down to rub their noses together. "Yet, I owe him so much. And I'll never be able to repay it."

Zoe stretched up to press her lips against his. "Conner told me once that living my life was repayment enough. That seeing Kyle and me happy and safe was all the thanks he needed."

"Then I will strive to repay him by making you the happiest woman on the planet."

Zoe widened her thighs to make a larger cradle for him between them. "Make love to me, Carlos. Remind me just how safe I am in your arms."

Carlos spent the remainder of the night and into the early hours of the morning doing just that.