Page 64 of Cold Case Discovery

When they were finally given the go-ahead to leave, Chloe knew there’d be questions. So many questions. But she wouldn’t be able to answer any of them until Jack was okay.

When she emerged from the cave, she saw her brother. He was cuffed, sitting on the ground, a deputy talking down at him.

She could only stare. He’d betrayed her. He was part ofallthis. When he looked up and saw her glaring at him, his eyes got big and shiny.

“I know I messed up, Chlo, but I fixed it. Didn’t I?” he called across the distance between them. Cops looked at her; Hudsons looked at her.

She stared at her brother.

“He found Zeke and I,” Carlyle said quietly, standing next to her. But Chloe could hear the disgust in Carlyle’s voice. “We were pretty close, but we hadn’t found the entrance to the cave. He is why we found you in the nick of time, and we didn’t have to shake it out of him.”

She wanted to feel good. She wanted to feel relief. Her brother wasn’t all bad. He’d helped. Even with Mom threatening him the way she had, he had asked Carlyle and Zeke for help. He’d done the right thing.

She wanted to believe that, but she saw him sitting there and knew he’d just done theeasiestthing. Because he always did. So she just feltangry. Because Jack was hurt. And sometimes doing the right thing was too little, too late.

She walked over to him. He wanted reassurance. He wanted to know he’d done okay. After being such a huge part of how this had all gone so badly. Years ago, she would have reassured him. Forgiven him.

Today, she had nothing left. “If he dies, I’ll never, ever speak to you again,” she said. “I will never lay eyes on you again. I will never, ever have anything to do with you. Ever.”

Ry’s eyes widened, and the hope in them died. “You’re choosing him over me?”

“No, Ry. I’m choosingmeover you. I will always love you, but I can’t be part of your life anymore. Not until you can take some responsibility for it. Maybe jail will teach you that. Maybe it won’t. I won’t know because I won’t be in contact. I won’t be helping. I’m done.” She should have said all those things years ago. Now, just like him, it was too little, too late.

But she’d done it.

“That isn’t fair!” he yelled. After all he’d done, he thought anything should befair.

She shook her head and walked away from her brother. She hoped someday he’d find some better version of himself. But until he did...she was done.

Chapter Twenty-One

Jack thought he heard a baby crying. Where had a baby come from? It was nighttime. Somewhere. Where was he?

Cave. Cave? The cave and—Chloe.He tried to say her name, but nothing came out of his mouth except a raspy kind of noise. He couldn’t seem to open his eyes. Heavy, too heavy. After the spurt of panic, he told himself to breathe, to count, to settle. He couldn’t protect anyone if he couldn’t open his eyes.

He started to become aware of things. The beep of machines, the feel of something on his arm. The sound of people shuffling. He managed to open his eyes to bright, blinding white. Hospital.

Well, he was here, so he had to be alive, he supposed. But then he caught sight of a woman. A woman with dark hair and soft eyes. Maybe he was dead after all. “Mom?”

But it only took a second or two to realize it wasn’t his mother. It was Mary. “Sorry,” he rasped.

Her smile was a little strange, definitely teary. He tried to get his brain to engage as he looked at her standing there next to his hospital bed. She looked different. She had a little bundle in her arms. Even with his brain fuzzy, that all made sense to him. “Mary.”

“Sorry Walker couldn’t help you guys. We were a little busy.”

“You had the baby.” A baby. He’d been fighting for his life, and she’d been giving birth. What a strange, strange life.

Both his sisters hadbabies. He rememberedthembeing babies, and now they were mothers. His brain was too fuzzy to fully comprehend all this. He wanted to sit up. He wanted to ask a million questions.

“You’re going to have to hurry up and get better so you can hold him,” she said. She didn’t cry, but he could hear the pain and fear in her voice.

“I’m okay.” Of course, he had no idea if that was true. He’d been shot. Twice, if he remembered correctly. He tried to move, but he couldn’t quite manage and the pain was starting to flutter above the fuzzy feeling.

“You will be. We’ll all baby you till you are.”

“I can’t sit up. Let me see him, huh?”

She tilted the bundle until he could see the scrunched up little face of a sleeping newborn with a shock of dark hair.

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