Flaming Hearts (Beyond Reality Book 2) (15 page)

* * *

Jonathan tried to call his brother a few times after his shift on the show was over, but he wasn’t answering his phone. It wasn’t necessarily unusual because he knew Dean was up in the mountains and most of the time there wasn’t cell service up there. But Jonathan was worried about Becky. After she left in the limo, Eddie decided that Marissa had to choose two men to leave rather than only one more, as it would’ve been originally.

Marissa pitched a fit. Jonathan heard her yelling at Eddie behind a closed door. She was stomping her feet and wanting to change her original choices as a result of Becky leaving. Eddie refused to let her.

Jonathan knew Marissa was heartless, but he hadn’t realized she didn’t have a speck of honor in her body when he heard her tell Eddie without a speck of remorse, “Fine, David and Derek will have to go then because it’s no good to only have one twin. They’re only good if they’re together.”

He knew the contestants who were no longer on the show were brought to a hotel to wait out the show. Jonathan stopped by last night after filming to see if he could get a hold of Becky, but there was no answer when he was transferred to her room by the hotel operator.

They, of course, wouldn’t give him her room number so he had no way of getting a hold of her and thus no choice but to leave. His instincts were telling him something wasn’t right, but he had nothing to go on and he couldn’t get a hold of Becky. He decided he’d keep trying to call Dean and would get a hold of Becky the next day. If he had to he’d get his dad involved and see if he could get a hold of Dean, somehow.

* * *

Becky opened her eyes when the cab stopped near the front gates of the refuge.

“Ya want me to pull in, lady?” the driver asked gruffly. He’d seen how badly she’d been beaten and felt sorry for her. He’d wanted to bring her to the hospital, but Becky refused. She wasn’t ready.

She quickly answered, “No, please, just pull over here…and…if it’s not too much to ask…can you wait for me? I promise I won’t be long…I just…there’s something I have to do.”

The driver turned around and looked at the pathetic woman in his cab.

“You’re not going to do something illegal, are you?” he asked sternly. “Or hurt yourself?”

“Oh, no!” Becky answered quickly. “I just have to say goodbye to someone before I leave town.”

The driver gazed at the woman for several moments and once again tried to urge her to let him take her to a doctor. When she refused he finally gave in and said, “Okay, but the meter’s runnin’.” Becky nodded. Thank God cabs took credit cards nowadays.

She stepped out of the cab and walked a little ways down the fence line along the gravel road. She went around a small corner and sat on the ground gingerly. It hurt too much to crouch.

She very softly howled and yipped just as Dean had taught her what seemed so long ago. She really wanted to see Star. She wasn’t sure why, but she just wanted to be sure she was all right and had been eating.

After a minute or so she heard movement in the trees surrounding the fence. Suddenly the coyote was there. She walked straight up to the fence with no hesitation and whined. Becky stuck her fingers through the fence. Again, maybe not the smartest thing she’d ever done, but hell, nothing could make her feel worse right now. What was a dog bite added to everything else?

“Hey, girl…you okay? I wanted to come and see you again…before I left…”

Becky felt a tear fall down her face. She sniffed. “I’m gonna miss you, girl. Have you been eating? And making friends?”

The coyote stared at Becky and tilted her head. It was as if the coyote could really see her, could really understand her. She whined again and licked Becky’s fingers through the fence.

Becky’s tears fell harder. “Oh God, Star…” Becky’s voice trailed off. The coyote had gotten a hold of the sleeve of Becky’s sweatshirt and was pulling on it…as if to say, “follow me.”

Becky pulled back on the material, and heard it tear. Ignoring her torn clothing, she looked over toward the bend in the road where she hoped the cab was still waiting on her. She knew another car could come by and catch her…and she didn’t want anyone in Dean’s family to see her looking like she was. She wished she was braver and could go to Steve and Bethany and ask for help. But she was embarrassed and humiliated and didn’t want anyone to see her, especially the awful words that she couldn’t scrub off her body.

“I have to go, Star,” Becky said, finally tugging her sleeve free. “I wish I could stay. I wish I could be a part of this family, but I can’t…” The coyote whined. “You just don’t understand, Star…I can’t go to him…he can’t see me…” Her voice trailed off. Through her tears she managed to say, “You be a good girl. I’ll miss you.” She slowly stood up, wiped the tears from her face and made her way back to the cab.

* * *

The same afternoon Becky said goodbye to the little coyote, Dean arrived back into town and went straight to the refuge. The security job hadn’t been tough physically, but it’d been torture for Dean mentally. He’d seen what the stalker had done to the woman and he’d made it his mission to make her feel as safe as possible. He’d patiently gone over and over the codes to the alarms and explained how they worked, just so she’d feel okay about her safety after he left.

Satisfied he’d done all he could, Dean made his way back home and to his
One
. He’d missed her terribly and felt bad he hadn’t been able to talk to her while he was gone. He never liked being out of touch with his family for long periods of time, but there was no way he was going to leave the woman alone up in the mountains until he’d set up all the security systems.

He’d listened to Becky’s phone message earlier and at first couldn’t think about anything else but about how she’d told him she wanted to give them a chance and wanted to stay here with him. His heart leapt with joy. It wasn’t until he couldn’t get a hold of her when he’d called her back that he’d started to get concerned. He wondered if whatever happened on the show had something to do with it. He didn’t like not having all the details and he definitely didn’t like not being able to reach her. It made him twitchy, especially coming off of the job he had.

Now, heading to the refuge he still hadn’t been able to connect with Becky. It was making him more than a little uneasy. He wanted to be able to see her and hold her to be sure everything was all right. He’d gotten used to being able to talk to her every day. He wanted to hear about what happened on the show and to make sure she was all right. He knew Becky had been having issues and desperately wanted to leave the set, and it killed him that he couldn’t help her. All he could do was listen and try to support her from afar.

Dean pulled up to the house at the refuge center to talk to his dad and decompress. Helping with the animals was the best therapy he’d ever found, even if helping was mucking out the barn, and he was glad to be home. He cut the engine on his truck and massaged the kinks out of his neck. He’d been traveling a long time and wanted nothing more than to see and talk to Becky and possibly go for a run, in that order. He headed toward the house. The sooner he talked to his dad the sooner he’d hopefully see his woman.

The house was in chaos when he opened the door. The hair stood up on the back of his neck. All thoughts of being tired disappeared and he quickly walked over to his father. Steve saw him when he walked in the door and went over to intercept him.

“What’s going on?” Dean asked quickly as he approached.

“Becky’s missing.” Steve told him without beating around the bush.

“What?” Dean roared, feeling dizzy. How could she be missing? What did he mean?

Steve steered his son toward a chair and motioned for the other employees to clear the room. Dean finally noticed Jonathan standing near their mother.

“What happened?” Dean asked again firmly.

Jonathan answered, “We don’t know, bro’. She took herself off the show and then she disappeared.”

Dean’s head spun. Was this what she’d wanted to tell him that night?

“Start from the beginning,” Dean ordered tightly.

Jonathan recounted the events from the other night. How Becky had enough of the show and essentially voted herself off. He explained what went down after she left with the twins and Marissa and how he went to the hotel after he was released from the set and couldn’t get a hold of her. He explained how the next day, when he finally convinced a hotel employee to check on her, her room was empty. She’d left. They’d tried to track her down, with no luck. No one had seen her leave and they didn’t know where she’d gone.

* * *

Dean sat in front of his brother and parents and tried to think about what to do next. He worked in security for a living, he should know what to do, but he couldn’t wrap his mind around the fact that his
One
had just left…it felt like she’d left
him
. Had she not wanted to be with him after all? She said on the phone message she wanted to stay, had she changed her mind?

He thought he’d made it clear he wanted to be with her, that she was his. Had Dean come on too strong? Had Becky decided he was too protective, too controlling? Too many questions were chasing through his head at once. He shook his head as if to clear it…and realized the noise he heard wasn’t coming from inside him, but from outside in the pen, it was a coyote…howling mournfully out in the yard. Howling like that was unusual for a coyote. They were much more likely to communicate by yipping. He looked out the window, then back at his dad.

“She’s been doing that for a while now. We can’t get her to come near us, and she won’t stop howling,” Steve said.

Chills ran down Dean’s back. It was Star. He knew it. She knew something, she was trying to communicate with them, but he hadn’t been home. He knew how hard it was for the little coyote to trust. People generally didn’t give animals enough credit. They knew when something was wrong. There were so many stories of dogs predicting earthquakes and other bad weather. Had Becky come back to see “her” coyote before she’d left? She had to have. How else would the coyote know to be upset?

He stood up so fast the chair he’d been sitting in was knocked to the ground. He strode toward the door, Steve and Jonathan following close behind. He went toward the gate and let himself into the enclosure. He walked toward the sound. Steve and Jonathan stayed back at the fence to watch. They’d both tried to get close to the little coyote with no luck. Every time they’d tried, the coyote had run off into the bush, only to return and start howling again once they’d left. Perhaps Dean could get near her. It was worth a shot.

Dean knew it wasn’t like he’d be able to talk to the animal, but maybe he could at least calm her down. It was breaking everyone’s hearts to hear the little coyote howl so mournfully.

Dean strode through the enclosure toward the tree line. He followed the sound of the coyote’s howling. He slowed down when he saw the little coyote. She was sitting staring at the fence that lined the road to their refuge. Becky had to have been here. Why else would the coyote be sitting right there?

He said softly, “Star, what is it? What’s wrong? Do you know what happened to my
One
? Where is she?”

He didn’t know what to expect. He didn’t think the coyote would suddenly stand up and start talking, but he sure didn’t expect her to come running toward him and leap at him. He automatically caught her as he fell backward. Dean hoped she wasn’t attacking him. He’d hate to harm her, but he’d protect himself.

As he lay on his back the coyote just stood over him. Staring at him. Staring into his eyes. Dean repeated more urgently, not even thinking about how silly it was to be talking to an animal as if it would answer him. “You know what happened, don’t you? Oh God, I wish you could talk, where is she?”

Star backed off of Dean and kept backing up until she was a distance away from him. She howled again. Another mournful howl. Dean sat up and watched the coyote as she turned toward the fence once more and trotted over to it. She picked something up from the ground with her teeth and brought it over to where Dean was still sitting on the ground.

It was a piece of fabric. A small one, but it proved to Dean that Becky had more than likely been there. This coyote was smart. Dean looked at her again, closely. It dawned on him for the first time that she was probably mixed with some sort of dog. Many times coyotes would mate with feral dogs or even neighborhood dogs that were out and running around. Maybe that was why she was more willing to play with Becky and why she had such a close bond with her.

He stood up slowly, the material clutched tightly in his hand. Something was terribly wrong. He knew it. Becky wouldn’t have come to say goodbye to the little coyote if she was coming back. Something had happened. Dean’s stomach got tight, if she’d been hurt…enough of this bullshit. He had to do something. Becky wasn’t leaving him without a word. He’d find her and fix whatever had happened to spook her.

Dean turned and started back toward the house. Surprisingly the coyote followed him closely, as if she knew he’d take care of her new friend.

When Dean arrived at the gate to the pen, he turned around and kneeled to face the little coyote. He held out his hand and she came to him without hesitation. Dean scratched her ears and bent toward her, saying for her ears only, “Thank you, Star. I’ll get her back, I promise.”