Page 70 of Raised By Wolves

“Hey, Chief,” Officer Randall calls as Chester’s heading out. “There’s a message from an Agent Dunham—”

“Put it in the circular file, Randall,” Chester says.

Randall looks at him blankly.

“Thetrash can,” Chester says, wishing once again that his second-in-command was just a teensy bit brighter. “If Dunham wants to talk to me, he’s going to have to keep calling.” He pushes the door open and then turns back. “Course, I may or may not answer.”

Some wordless instinct makes him want to keep Dunham as far from Kai and Holo as possible. Maybe it’s because he wants to protect them.

Or maybe it’s because, deep down, he’s pretty sure they’ve got something to hide.

When Chester arrives at the hospital, Lacey’s waiting impatiently in the lobby. She jumps up when she sees him, her dark eyes sparkling with relief. He wraps her in a hard hug and buries his face in her shiny black hair. “I missed you,” he whispers.

Lacey’s shaky on her feet still, but she’s talking a mile a minute. “I swear, I wasn’t going to last another second in that room. Do you know how many episodes ofNailed It!I watched? Thirty, Chester,thirty, and all the while you were doing everything without any help at all. How are the kids? I can’t wait to see them! I feel like I’ve been gone forever.”

“It’s been three days, babe,” he says.

“And Holo’s probably grown just as many inches! You don’t eat like that unless you’re growing like a weed.Doeshe look taller? They’ve got Levi’s on sale at the Feed & Seed. We could get him a new pair this weekend.”

Chester shrugs. “Sure, okay, whatever you say.”

Smiling excitedly, Lacey tucks her arm into his elbow as they walk to the car, and Chester decides not to tell her aboutthe fight. The gun. The feud with the Hardys that keeps getting worse. For now, he can let her enjoy being released from the hospital, her life miraculously saved by a girl whose past is still a mystery.

He stops at the store to get a bottle of wine, so it’s nearing dinnertime when they pull up to the house. Lacey hurries inside, calling for Kai and Holo in an eager singsong. Chester takes an extra minute in the yard, letting the stress of the day fall away. He breathes deep. The air smells clean and fresh, and the meadow’s dotted with wildflowers. He feels a smile start to tug at the corners of his mouth. He’ll grill those fancy sausages he got the other day, he decides, and Lacey will open the wine and make a salad, and the four of them will sit around the worn kitchen table together. Maybe afterward they’ll all watch a movie.

Everyone’s home, he thinks.Tonight is a good night.

Then Lacey comes out breathless onto the porch. Her face has gone white. Stricken. “Chester,” she says, “they’re gone.”

Gone?What the hell is she talking about?

“Sweetie,” he says, “they’re probably just out by the creek, catching trout for dinner or something.”

Lacey thrusts out her arm. It’s still bruised and awful-looking. A folded piece of paper sits in the center of her swollen, bandaged palm. “They’re gone,” she repeats. “It says so right here. Is there something you aren’t telling me? Did something happen?”

He takes the porch steps two at a time. His heartbeat quickens as he reads the note. “Shit,” he whispers. He madea mistake: it wasn’t the Hardys he needed to talk to after the gun incident. It was Kai and Holo.

Lacey says, “Don’t even bother taking off your shoes, Chester Greene. You’re going out there, and you’re getting them back.”

CHAPTER 52

DOWN AT THE station, Chester starts making calls to the informal network of Kokanee Creek good ol’ boys who have helped him out before: once to find a couple of teenage campers lost on a hike; once to locate a suspected thief hiding up on Elephant Ridge.

Chester pauses before the last number on his list. It belongs to the best tracker he knows. If anyone can find Kai and Holo, he can. The problem? Reginald Hardy hates Kai and everything she stands for. He wouldn’t care if she was lost forever. In fact he’d like it that way.

Randall glances over Chester’s shoulder at the list of names. “I wouldn’t want to be in the dark woods withthatprick,” he says.

For some reason, Randall’s words settle the matter. “You don’t have to,” he retorts as he dials Hardy’s number. “I got other volunteers.”

It’s near nightfall by the time the small crowd has gathered in front of the station. Somehow Waylon Meloy is there, too,though Chester definitely didn’t call him. “You again?” Chester says, annoyed.

Waylon nods and thrusts his chin out, daring Chester to send him back home. Chester almost does it, too, but then he thinks of Kai. Maybe, if the search party finds her—sorry,whenthey find her—she’ll be glad to see Waylon’s face in the crowd. Maybe then she won’t run.

So Chester turns to the rest of the volunteers and greets them all. Says, “I know it’s not the best time to search the woods, but if we wait until morning, that’s another twelve hours they’ve got to disappear.”

The men—and it’s only men; sometimes it still feels like the 1950s in Kokanee Creek—mutter among themselves. Chester knows that most of them probably wish Kai and Holo had never come out of the woods, either. So why are they here to help find them? A chance at a little adventure, maybe, or the prospect of having a new story to tell down at One-Eyed Mike’s, the dive bar ten miles south on Route 20.We chased them dumb feral kids all night long…

Or maybe it’s just because their police chief asked for their help. It doesn’t even matter.

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