Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

Ethan listed to Jen talk. "I got a lead on the tattoo place in Grover, Wyoming," she said.

"You think it's the same studio?"

"The work on your victim's back looks very much like the portfolio that was online."

Ethan hated that she referred to Adam as the victim, knew it was cop talk, but still, Ethan couldn't think of Adam as a victim even though he was.

He was just Adam.

Jen continued. "I have a call out to the locals there, about sending in someone to get information."

"Can you call them direct?"

"I'll do it," she said.

Ethan turned back to look at Adam but was not immediately concerned when Adam wasn't there. "Can you loop me in, send me the intel? If this place knows Adam and can give us a lead on what happened…."

"I hear you. Your leave is nearly up. You coming in?"

"After the weekend. This is some pretty heavy shit here I'm dealing with."

Unspoken was the question about how his absence would go down with the higher-ups. Chief Flynn was supportive, but that didn't mean any of his officers could fuck about on his watch.

"You realize most people have holidays, right? No one would care if you took three weeks."

"I don't need that." I need to get back to finding Justin.

"Okay, I'll pick my battle with that one. Back to our loss-of-memory guy. How is he? Does he recall anything yet?"

"Nothing. Well, apart from some nightmares." The threads of the case twisted and turned in his head. "Did you narrow down anything with the fire angle?"

"Yeah, hang on." Papers rustled, and he could imagine Jen with her ever-present red notebook filled with scribbles that not even he, her partner of five years, could understand.

She came back online. "Couple house fires within a hundred-mile radius, but Jesus, E, Montana is all mountain and trees, not much in the way of population your way, so crime near you is skewed away from murder and onto land disputes."

He knew that. The closest towns and cities were some distance away and he liked it that way. But there was more around here than just arguments over land boundaries; they'd broken a gunrunner hideout two years ago, set right back into the mountains. He'd even been part of that team, although Jen had been out, pregnant with her son.

"Should narrow down your search," he pointed out. "What else do we have?"

"One car accident: one male driver, DOA, one burned car. Dental match has him as Eric Culver out of Seattle. Nothing else on that front."

"And the house fires?"

"Families. No evidence of two teenagers being involved. The only other thing you have is the off-the-books stuff."

"Like?"

Ethan glanced around him. Where did Adam go? Concern prickled at the back of his neck. If Adam hadn't come back, something wasn't right.

"Meth, two labs closed down the week around your disappearance, not local jurisdiction—ATF. One about twenty miles from you, the other maybe a day's drive."

"Send me what you have. Thanks, Jen."

"No worries."

The call ended; he pocketed his cell.

"Adam?" he shouted. When Adam didn't immediately step out from wherever he'd gone, the prickle of worry turned into something more urgent. And when a young girl with long hair sprinted down the hill past the top house, waving her hands and shouting, Ethan knew something was wrong.

He ran up to meet her. "What's wrong?"

"Some guy collapsed up there." She waved her hand toward the tree line behind the ranch.

Adam. Has to be Adam.

"Call 911 and tell Nate to get up there. He's with the horses."

"Or Uncle Jay, he knows medical stuff?—"

"Whatever, whoever."

They split, the girl running into the barns and Ethan running uphill as fast as he could. He'd passed the annual medical with flying colors, but fear was fucking with his breathing and by the time he slid to a stop next to a young guy cradling Adam's head, he couldn't catch his breath.

"What happened? Adam, wake up!" He glanced up at the young man, aware it was Luke, Nate's youngest brother.

"I don't know. He just fell to the ground, so I moved him into recovery and supported his head in case he was having a fit."

"Luke, I have him," Ethan moved to where Luke sat and carefully took over supporting Adam's head.

Adam was groaning, coming back to waking, his eyelids moving, and then his eyes opened. Ethan had never seen anything more encouraging than Adam's dark eyes looking up at him.

"W'happened," he managed.

"Shh," Ethan said.

Adam closed his eyes again and moved his hand from where it was on the ground, pressing it against his chest. "Fuck," he murmured.

The sounds of people running and a commotion, and Nate appeared with the woman from the family on his tail.

"Stand away," the woman said, crouching next to Adam, her fingers feeling for the pulse in his neck.

"She's a surgeon," Nate explained when Ethan looked up at him.

"A veterinary surgeon," she corrected him. "What's his name?"

"Adam, he's… Adam."

"Adam, open your eyes. Adam…."

Adam did as he was told; he opened his eyes and stared up at the woman poking at him. He looked more awake and even began to move to sit up.

"Stay where you are," she instructed. "You may have hit your head."

With added cursing, Adam moved and curled up onto all fours. "I'm all right," he said.

Ethan stood and helped him until he supported Adam in a standing position. Adam wasn't exactly standing upright on his own, mostly leaning on Ethan, but the doctor looked impressed. She checked him over and stepped back and away.

She indicated all the bruises. "Tell me what happened to your face?"

"A mugging," Adam explained immediately.

"Well, you seem okay. Did you trip?"

Adam glanced at Ethan and telegraphed his thoughts in his expression. "I was running," he began. "Don't think my lungs could handle it."

"I want you to see your doctor next chance you get."

"I called 911," the young girl said, arriving with a slightly winded Jay.

"Fuck no," Adam swore. "Cancel the 911. I'm fine, just tired. The doc said so, right, doc?"

She looked him up and down. "I'm more used to working with dogs, cats, and rabbits. You should call your family doctor."

"I will," Adam promised. "Thank you," he added.

"You're welcome," she said with a smile. "Horseback riding isn't normally this exciting."

Nate led her back down the hill.

"I'm Kirsten," the young girl said. She moved to stand close to Luke and entwine their hands. Luke had grown up. The last time Ethan had been at Crooked Tree, Luke had looked more like a kid than the teenager on the cusp of being a man he was looking at now.

"My niece," Jay explained.

Ethan nodded; he'd made that connection from the "Uncle Jay" comment. "Thank you, guys. I'm going to get him home now."

"Here, I'll help."

Jay was on one side, Ethan the other, but Adam mostly made it back to the house under his own steam, albeit with a couple of stumbles here and there.

"It's nice to meet you, Adam," Luke said as they reached the porch. "I don't really remember you so much, I was little when you… y'know."

Adam smirked, his expression morphing into a genuine smile. "I bet you remember more than I do," he deadpanned, and Luke grinned.

"Take care," Kirsten added.

The three of them left and suddenly Ethan and Adam were alone. Ethan managed to get Adam inside and over to the large, butter-soft leather sofa that was the only piece of furniture in the living room area.

With Adam settled, Ethan fetched a glass of water and handed it to him. "You okay?" he asked. A moot question, really, given Adam was covered in mud and looked on the wrong side of pale. "Why did you run off?"

"I didn't want to listen to your call. Meant to give you privacy."

Adam wouldn't meet Ethan's gaze, which was suspicious in itself. Add in the lowered tone of his voice and Ethan knew there was more to this than met the eye. "And?"

Adam glanced upward, then straight back down to his glass, which he'd propped on one leg. The condensation darkened his jeans alongside the flecks of mud. "And what?"

"What actually happened?"

Adam sighed. "Don't tell me—the fact you knew me as a toddler means we have a weird-ass connection whereby you know what I'm thinking at all times."

Ethan sat down next to him, turning to face him and drawing up one leg under himself. "Not really, I'm just used to seeing a guilty man who won't look at me."

"It's not guilt," he mumbled, then sipped the water.

"So what is it? What made you run when at times you can barely stumble a walk without chest pain?"

"Memories. I don't know… maybe memories. Thoughts. Justin's voice, maybe. I was running to find him." He still didn't look up, seeming happy to talk to his knees.

"Justin?"

"It must have been Luke. I saw him and thought…"

"That it was Justin? Ethan asked. "Luke doesn't look anything like Justin."

"I know. Shit, I think I'm losing my grip."

Ethan's chest tightened. No one at the hospital said he'd have to watch out for hallucinations. "We should get you to a doctor."

"I don't need a doctor."

"If you're seeing things?—"

"I don't know what I saw. Luke must have been there."

Ethan placed a hand on Adam's thigh, letting it rest there for a second.

"Maybe this is a breakthrough."

Adam cast him a doubtful look. "How can it be a breakthrough if all I see is something you tell me I can't see?" Frustration carved lines in his face; he looked at Ethan as if he was demanding Ethan make some kind of sense. "And yes, I know that sounds all kinds of fucked up."

"Maybe it's a memory, Adam."

"I hallucinated a memory? What about Justin's voice in my head?" Adam snapped the words, and then his face fell as if he regretted saying anything.

"What voices? Talk to me, Adam."

" His voice, Justin's. Memories. Saying things like he couldn't stay here and teasing me about me and you."

Adam looked so broken and he closed his eyes. Ethan took the glass from him and gathered him into a hug. They sat like that for the longest time, until night began to gather around them and Adam fell asleep in Ethan's arms.

When he woke, Ethan encouraged him in for a shower, handed him his pain meds, and suggested they go down to Branches and see about some dinner.

Adam acquiesced all too quickly to every suggestion, but he at least smiled at the idea of dinner. "Was Branches here when I was here?" he asked as he pulled on clean clothes from the bag Gabriel had left.

Adam was taller than Gabriel but their tops were the same size; it must have been nice to have soft jeans and a cozy fleece instead of the cheap shit they'd bought on the road. Ethan made a mental note that they needed to go do some real shopping, and soon, before he left and went back to work.

"It's only five years old. Started just serving breakfast to people staying in the cabins, and picnics for those on treks. Sam expanded it, but I've never eaten there."

"And I don't know Sam?"

"No, he's new here. Good guy, rides a motorbike, doesn't like horses much, but is an awesome chef."

"I'm hungry," Adam announced, pushing his feet into running shoes.

Ethan held open the door. "Let's go, then."

Sam met them at the door of Branches, his hands full of napkins and his face split with a wide grin. He looked Ethan up and down. "Every time I see you, I get bad thoughts." He gave a lascivious wink.

He couldn't have been more than five nine, but he had a temper that outstripped his size and a flirty nature that never failed to bring a smile to Ethan's face. He was all dark hair and stubble, wore leather jackets in his down time, and had a gorgeous Harley that he kept out the back of Branches. They'd only met once, briefly, but it was enough time for Sam to have flirted. Hell, Ethan might have even flirted back, but flirting, and being on Crooked Tree, never failed to focus his thoughts on how he felt about Adam. Another reason not to come home.

"Stow the thoughts," Ethan said with a smile. "This is Adam."

Sam held out a hand and Adam took it. "The wanderer returns sans memories."

"Yeah," Adam said, a smiling kind of grimace curving his lips.

"Come this way." Sam led them to the back of the restaurant, quite close to the door to the kitchen and away from the other diners.

One of the tables held the family of the veterinarian, and both Adam and Ethan nodded and smiled as they passed.

Adam took the chair with the back to the wall, and Ethan sat opposite him, where he could get a good look at him after what had happened that day without making it obvious he was staring. One of the injuries on Adam's chin had opened a little and oozed blood. Ethan had tended to it that afternoon. It looked an angry red tonight, and Ethan didn't have to stare to see that it was giving Adam some pain.

"What do you like?" Sam filled glasses with water.

"I don't really know," Adam said. "I mean, in the hotel I found out I like Mexican food."

"Hmm." Sam looked thoughtful and then his face brightened. "Okay, I have it." Then he vanished through the kitchen door.

A waitress brought over some bread and took drink orders. All Adam wanted was water, but Ethan needed a beer. Just one, to take the edge off things.

Adam saying he'd seen Justin had been a kick in the stomach. The idea that anyone could see Justin felt completely wrong. Justin was out there alive, somewhere, but he certainly wasn't in the woods behind the ranch. That was just Adam's memories coming back to him.

That was all.

Dinner was an easy hour of Sam bringing out different foods for Adam to taste. Adam loved steak and chicken, devoured barbecue, and adored the Thai red curry. He wasn't keen on the selection of sweets, though, and announced he was clearly more of a meat guy. When he said that, he smiled up at Sam, and when Sam patted him on the shoulder, jealousy cut right through Ethan.

Sam didn't mean anything by it; he was just that kind of guy, a devil-may-care flirt who flitted from one guy to the next.

But not Adam. Not there while Ethan was watching.

When they left, Adam and Sam hugged as if they were best friends, and Sam didn't hug too hard, and he was all conciliatory and kindness personified.

When they stepped outside into the cool night air, Ethan wrapped his jacket around Adam. He pulled away and thrust his hands in his pockets. He didn't know where the hell his head was at the moment. He wanted Adam in his life, then he didn't, then he had to have him, then he was scared of how he felt. A few more days of that and he would lose his freaking mind.

They walked up the hill to the Strachan house, slowly and carefully, in the dark. Although Ethan noted that Adam looked more confident as he sidestepped dips in the mud and bypassed bushes that jutted into his path. He was like a pro, like someone who'd lived here forever, instead of someone who upped and vanished twelve years ago.

They reached the house and Adam yawned. He took his last painkillers and half stretched, wincing as he did so.

"You okay?" Ethan asked, concerned.

"Oh, yeah, I'm cool. I just can't stretch the whole way yet, funny how you miss things like that."

Ethan locked the door and waited. "You want me to sleep with you tonight? Or I can take your old bedroom if you think you'll be okay."

Adam didn't look like he was considering the question; relief flooded his face. "God, yes, if you can handle another night."

Ethan nodded and held out a hand. "C'mon, then, let's get some sleep."

"And no dreaming," Adam said to himself.

Yeah, please, no dreaming.