Page 52 of Protecting Silver
“You’re welcome, and don’t worry about it. If it was meant to be, then they’d come.” Ronnie grinned. “I’ve got enough now to grow my herd and they’ve all come from being wild at one point. Every horse on this farm came from the meadow.”
“Wow, that’s terrific. I wish you luck, but now I’m going home to wash a week’s worth of camping off, along with the stink of seeing Eddie again.” They all nodded, and after loading their packs in the back of the truck, she and Patch headed for her apartment. At the end of the driveway, before pulling out onto the highway, Patch swore, threw the truck in reverse, and drove backwards all the way back to the house.
“What’s up?” Finn asked from the porch of his house.
“Forgot our phones.”
“Ah,” Finn grinned as he disappeared inside, and when he came back out, he had a beautiful yellow and green McCaw on his shoulder.
“Awk! Patch! Awk!” the bird cried, and hopped from Finn’s shoulder to the open window of the truck. He rubbed his head against Patch’s cheek, then hopped back out onto Finn’s shoulder. Laughing, Patch took the phones and said goodbye to the bird and Finn. This time when they left, they pulled out onto the highway and headed for home.
Hours later, after they both took a long hot shower, they fixed dinner, ate, and were lounging in the living room with a book.
“Want to talk about it?” Silver asked silently.
“About?”
“What Agent Babcock said. That you could be a spitting image of her boss.”
“I do, but what am I going to say? I don’t know what this guy looks like, so I can’t compare. They say that everyone has a twin out there, so what if this is something like that.”
“What if it isn’t? What if this guy reallyisyour brother? Have you gotten any results back from that website? Or from the guy running your former caseworker’s name?”
“No, I don’t have my computer here to access those accounts.”
“Use mine,” Silver said as she rose, and went over to the desk she had in the corner of the room. She brought her laptop back, fired it up, sighed in, then passed it over. When Patch sat there for several minutes without doing anything, she laid her hand over his. “Scared?”
“I am.” He nodded and held out his hand, and she saw the slight tremble in it.
“If you don’t want to know, I understand, and I won’t judge you.”
“Thanks for that, and I didn’t think you would.” Patch drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly before he accessed his e-mail. Several minutes later, he looked up and shook his head. “Nothing from that website, but I did get an e-mail from Tex, saying that he hit a jackpot of information on Merrick. He has to compile it into a report, and once that’s done, he’ll send it to me.”
“Good, maybe you can finally get some closure. Did you tell him that Eddie was apprehended?”
“No,” Patch said, and Silver watched as his fingers flew across the keys. Once he hit send, he closed down his e-mail account, turned the computer off, and set it on the table beside him. He opened his arms and Silver climbed onto his lap and snuggled against him.
“No matter what happens,” Silver said. “I’ll still be here for you.” She leaned back and smiled at him. “I’ve gone and fallen in love with you.”
“Thank god,” Patch grinned at her. “Because I’ve done the same thing. I’ve fallen in love with you, and it makes me feel great knowing that you’ll be by my side in whatever I learn about Merrick.” He nodded and wrapped his arms around her, lifted her chin, bent down and took her mouth with his. After they came up for air, he nodded once and said, “Whether I have any family or not, it’s comforting knowing you’re here for me, but you do realize that I’ll be confronting Merrick if he’s still alive?”
“Absolutely. I wouldn’t think anything less of you.”
“Thank you.” He held her tight, and they stayed wrapped in each other’s arms for a long time, before rising to go to the bedroom.
Just before they fell asleep, Patch chuckled. “As much as I enjoyed camping, I think I’m going to enjoy this comfortable bed more.” They shared a laugh and were both sound asleep in minutes.
Chapter 25
“Babcock,”Tamara said into her phone as she picked it up to answer. She’d returned from her trip to Montana late the night before and was just now finishing up the paperwork on the case. She had thought that Freedman would give her and Jackie a hassle, but Sheriff Bronson had helped escort him up the steps of the plane, then they had used zip ties to secure both hands, and both ankles to the seat. Before they had taken off, Tamara had called ahead and had several big burly agents she knew meet the plane with a van to help escort her prisoner to the local jail. However, one of the men that met her had known that Eddie was a local cop, and had pulled some strings to get him booked into a federal holding cell. He had told the judge that he didn’t want Eddie using any of his cop buddies to downplay his role in abusing seven women and getting let out of jail. The judge had agreed with him. Now it was the next day, and Tamara had come in early to write up the report.
“Agent Babcock, SSA Atwater would like to see you in his office, right away.”
“On my way, do you need agent Mann, too?”
“No, just you.”
“Be right there,” Tamara said, and finished taking the report off the printer. She looked over and saw Jackie’s desk empty, then shrugged and headed out the door. It wasn’t like they were attached at the hip, but they were work partners. As soon as she exited the room where her desk was, she started wracking her brain as to why she was being called up to the director’s office. She’d done everything by the book, and knew she wasn’t in trouble. With no clue as to what was going on, she rode the elevator up to the floor the director had his office on. As soon as she walked into the reception office, she was told to go back to Atwater’s office.
