Fort Lupton (6 page)

“
But I’ll get through it,”
Charlie said.

“
Yes,” Mitch
said.

They were standing in the operating room.
Charlie’s body was stitched up and ready to go to recovery. Charlie
got onto the hospital gurney and lay down. The orderly rolled the
bed out of the operating room. Charlie waved to his father as he
went past.

“
Charlie.”

Charlie opened his eyes to see Sandy’s worn
and tear-stained face.

“
Love you, Sandy,” Charlie
tried to say. His tongue felt like it was four sizes too big. He
seemed to be missing a tooth or two. And everything
hurt.

“
I love you too,” Sandy
whispered, and started to cry.

~~~~~~~~

Wednesday early morning — 2:43 a.m. ET

Atlanta, Georgia

“
Mommy!” Jabari sat
straight up in bed. “Mommy!”

“
There, there,” a man’s
voice said.

There was movement in the small room and
Bumpy sat down on Jabari’s hospital bed. His big hand pressed
Jabari back down onto the bed.

“
You okay?” Bumpy
asked.

“
I got scared,” Jabari
said. “Where’s my mommy?”

“
She had to go back to
Denver,” Bumpy said. “You know that.”

“
Yeah,” Jabari said. “I
did. But . . .”

“
It’s nice when she’s
here.” Bumpy nodded.

Jabari mimicked his grandfather’s nod.

“
Where’s my daddy?” Jabari
asked.

“
He can’t be here,” Bumpy
said.

“
Because of the courts?”
Jabari asked.

“
Courts, fans, crazy
people,” Bumpy said. “With any luck, we’ll be able to take you home
tomorrow.”

“
I want to go home,”
Jabari said.

Jabari’s small fingers touched Bumpy’s big
hand over his heart.

“
Am I gonna be big like
you?” Jabari asked.

“
Do you want to be?” Bumpy
asked.

“
Uh-huh,” Jabari said.
“Will I go to the yellow house with Mrs. Yvonne and
Rodney?”

“
We’re not sure,” Bumpy
said. “Would you like to?”

“
I want to see Mr.
Chesterfield,” Jabari said. “He’s my best friend.”

Bumpy nodded.

“
Will you tell
me . . .?” Jabari swallowed hard, and
nodded.

“
I will never lie to you,
Jabari,” Bumpy said.

“
Is Mr. Chesterfield
hurt?” Jabari asked.

“
He’s lost an eye,” Bumpy
said.

“
Which one?”

“
His right eye,” Bumpy
said.

“
I lost mine too.” Jabari
put his hand over his left eye.

“
The other one,” Bumpy
said.

His other hand covered his other eye and he
put his left hand back onto Bumpy’s hand over his heart.

“
Is he hurt in other
ways?” Jabari asked.

“
Inside,” Bumpy
said.

“
Like me,” Jabari
said.

“
Something like you.”
Bumpy grinned. “He’s going to get one hundred percent better. Just
like you.”

“
Even his eye?” Jabari
asked.

“
He’ll never get his eye
back,” Bumpy said.

Jabari didn’t remove his hand from his eye.
His good eye fell on Toto, the stuffed elephant, sitting near his
feet.

“
Toto lost his eye too?”
Bumpy asked.

Jabari gave a solemn nod.

“
Hmm,” Bumpy said. “I bet
he needs a field bandage.”

Jabari nodded. The moment Bumpy moved his
hand from Jabari’s chest, the child gave a tiny whimper. Bumpy
turned back to the boy.

“
You okay?” Bumpy
asked.

“
I feel bad,” Jabari
said.

“
I bet,” Bumpy
said.

He grabbed some gauze from the cabinet and
went back to the bed. He made a field bandage for the elephant and
one for Jabari. He sat down on the bed and put the bandage over
Jabari’s right eye.

“
You know your mommy isn’t
going to love you having this bandage,” Bumpy said.

Jabari tapped his chest, and Bumpy returned
his big hand to the spot over the child’s heart.

“
She’s at school,” Jabari
said.

“
What Momma doesn’t know
won’t kill her?” Bumpy smiled.

Jabari nodded.

“
You are your father’s
child,” Bumpy said.

Jabari giggled because he liked that idea.
Bumpy smiled.

“
Tired,” Jabari
said.

Bumpy sat on the bed until Jabari fell back
asleep. When he moved, the child made the same whimpering sound.
Bumpy shook his head.

He had no idea how this sweet boy came from
that Annette. He was just glad the boy was here now. Asleep, Jabari
snuggled Toto close to him. Bumpy smiled and went back to reading
his book.

~~~~~~~~

Wednesday morning — 8:03 a.m. MT

Denver, Colorado

“
I guess what we’re
unclear on is why you were there in the first place,” the Denver
Police detective said.

Aden nodded. They were sitting in the Castle
main living room. Samantha Hargreaves and Homeland Security Agent
Arthur “Raz” Rasmussen were sitting on the couch across from him.
He glanced at Samantha, and she nodded.

“
Charlie was supposed to
be home,” Aden said. “This month, he’s working on his
punctuality.”

“
What does that mean?” the
detective asked.

“
Charlie is supposed to be
on time everywhere,” Aden said. “He’s done pretty well, so he’s
really dedicated to it. If he isn’t late more than three times, he
gets to take his girlfriend out to dinner and a movie – no
chaperone. He was pretty excited about that. This would have been
his fourth time being late.”

“
So you went looking for
him,” the detective said.

“
I guess I wanted to help
him out,” Aden said. “He’s . . .”

Aden’s voice caught.

“
Charlie was a street
kid,” Raz said. “He’s dedicated to improving himself. School,
workouts, living here. It’s all new.”

“
He’s a good kid,” Aden
said. “Just needed a chance.”

“
So you saw the fight,”
the detective said. “How’d you know it was Charlie?”

“
I saw his hat,” Aden
said. “I called the police when I saw the fight. I didn’t know it
was Charlie then. I’d just parked on Broadway and went looking for
him. He walks up 15
^th
and takes the Colfax bus. I saw the fight, called
the police and then . . .”

Aden nodded.

“
I saw Charlie’s knit cap
and I . . . threw myself at the
men . . . I . . .”

Aden fell forward. He caught himself with
his elbows on his knees. His eyes stared straight ahead at the wood
floor.

“
Docs say you probably
saved his life,” the detective said.

When Aden didn’t respond, Samantha
Hargreaves hefted herself onto her feet. Now that she was standing,
her pregnancy was evident. She walked the detective to the door,
and then sat next to Aden on the couch. She put her hand on Aden’s
knee and he looked at her.

“
I know it seems
impossible,” Samantha said. “But Charlie is young and healthy. Well
loved. He’s going to be fine.”

Aden’s head went up and down in a nod. His
mind was numb and his ears filled with a kind of buzzing. Samantha
said something else and Raz said something. Aden got up and walked
them out of the house.

He sat down on the couch.

A few minutes later, Delphie’s new charge,
Keenan, sat down next to him. Not saying a word, the boy leaned
against Aden.

They sat in silence, staring straight ahead,
and listened to the buzzing.

Why you’re here

Wednesday morning — 9:25 a.m.

Heather grabbed her purse and started out
the door of her and Blane’s home. She’d just run in to change her
clothes and get a change of clothes for Tink. Mack was staying with
Jill. With her hand on the door knob, Heather sighed.

Would Mack even remember who she was? She
bit her lip. She’d been so focused on Blane and his recovery, her
mother and her weird antics, Jabari and everything going on with
him, and now Charlie. She spent every night with Mack, but was it
enough?

She shook her head at herself.

“
You don’t have time for
these thoughts,” Heather repeated to herself what Blane usually
said, and opened the door.

Tres Sierra was standing on the other side
holding a bouquet of Heather’s favorite roses — white ones with
deep red along the edges. She looked at him and then at the roses.
He blushed.

“
I was just leaving,”
Heather said.

“
Oh.” Tres held the roses
out to her. “I . . .”

She took the roses. For a moment, they
stared at each other. She stepped back and let him inside the
house. She set her purse and the duffle bag of clothing by the door
so she wouldn’t forget them. He stepped inside. As he passed her,
he took the roses out of her hands and walked through the house to
the kitchen. Heather followed him.

“
How do you know my
house?” Heather asked the only thing she could think of.

“
I used to come here when
Blane was single,” Tres said.

“
Enrique,” Heather said
the name of Tres’s brother and Blane’s ex-boyfriend.

“
Actually, I’d be
surprised if Enrique has ever been here,” Tres said. “Blane’s
always treated his home as his private sanctuary.”

Tres stood in their little den by the
kitchen and looked around.

“
It looks nice,” Tres
said.

“
Why did you come here?”
Heather asked.

“
Acupuncture,” Tres said.
“I threw my back out. He treated me downstairs. Plus, we met here a
few times for fantasy soccer. He used to play
before . . . he had better things to do.”

With a nod to Heather, Tres went into the
kitchen. He opened a few cabinets before he found a pitcher that
would work as a vase. He added water to the vase and found a
knife.

“
Doesn’t look like you’ve
been here much,” Tres said. He cut the ends off the roses and stuck
them in the pitcher.

“
With everything going on
I . . .” Heather started. She shook her head. “Wait.
Why are you here?”

“
Blane asked me to check
in on you while he was in the hospital,” Tres said. He looked at
Heather and shrugged. “I was over here to drop the month-end
reports off to Aden and thought I’d stop by to see how you
are.”

“
Aden told you about
Charlie?” Heather asked.

“
I got the call last
night,” Tres said. “Lipson care line. I would have been here last
night but I needed to finish the month ends. With the earthquake
and all that crap, things are pretty tight. I needed to dot every
‘i’ and cross every ‘t’.”

“
Don’t you always do
that?” Heather asked.

Tres grinned.

“
How is Charlie?” Tres
asked.

“
As good as can be
expected,” Heather said. “He survived the night, which is more than
the doctors thought.”

Tres gave Heather a sad nod.

“
I’ve known him since he
was a little kid,” Heather said. “He’s like my little brother,
or . . . I guess it’s like that for all of
us.”

“
I picked Tanesha up at
the airport last night,” Tres said. “She’s pretty broken up about
Charlie too.”

“
I know,” Heather said.
Her voice was vague.

“
Jabari seems to be doing
well,” Tres said. “Any word on whether they got on the court’s
schedule?”

“
This afternoon,” Heather
said. “In Atlanta.”

“
I knew you’d know,” Tres
said.

Heather smiled at him. He turned his
attention to cutting the roses. She’d forgotten how handsome he
was. At least, he looked really handsome today. Fit. She could see
his biceps flex through his Lipson work shirt. He smelled good
too.

“
I
think . . .” Heather started at the same time Tres
said, “When are you . . .?”

They laughed.

“
You can go ahead,”
Heather said. “I’m just talking.”

“
Me too,” Tres said. “I
feel . . .”

He fanned his chest with the hand holding
the knife.

“
First-date jitters,” he
said. “I mean, I know it’s not a date and . . . It’s
just . . . you make me
feel . . .”

“
Me too,” Heather
said.

Tres gave her a handsome grin.

“
When are you due?” Tres
asked.

“
Oh.” Heather looked down
at her belly. “Early next month. We’re hoping Blane will be out.
He’s done well with the treatment. Did you hear he started the cord
blood yesterday?”

“
Got the infusion.” Tres
nodded. “I did hear that.”

Tres cut the last rose. He went to the sink
and ran water over the knife before putting it back in the rack. He
turned back to look at her.

“
You’re very beautiful,”
Tres said.