Page 20 of Knight

I almost snort at the name of the dog. I'm not sure I'll ever get used to it. "Donut will be fine. Ransom brings Rambo in here all the time, and he's not here to gate keep what Donut's allowed to do."

"Thank God," Madden whispers under his breath. "I get he's used to Rambo being the star of the show, but Donut's here too."

Never in my life did I think I'd be refereeing fights between my K9 officers about their dogs. Just one of the many things I wasn't prepared for when I took this job. That list grows each and every day. "Let's go, I'm hungry."'

When we enter The Café , it's always like coming home for me. This has always been the place I could come in the middle of a crazy shift, or when it's storming outside, or just when I want to be someplace where I know I won't be pointed out because I wear a uniform. This place has been the calm spot of many days when I wasn't sure I'd be coming home or not.

We find a booth, get Donut situated, and then look up at our waiter. It's Cutter, so we settle in to give him a hard time. "Are they not paying you enough?" I give him a shit-eating grin.

"I mean if you wanna open up that can of worms, then I could always go for a raise. If you could do something for me, then go for it, Chief. But I'm here helping my mother, what is it y'all need?"

We quickly make an order, and Cutter stares at Caleb. "I could use some help back there at the sink. You think you can hop back there and do your old job?"

"Oh, I could hop back there, and then you'd have nothing to do," he gives him a grin. "You know I was the best one that worked here."

"I don't know that," Cutter argues. "Mom always told me I was the best."

"Because she didn't want you to have failure to thrive. She wanted to make sure you never thought worse of yourself than you should've."

"Holy shit," I choke on the water I just took a sip of. "Y'all are so mean to each other."

"It's how we deal with the stress," Caleb takes a drink of his water.

I wonder what kind of stress he's been living with. I'm hoping to get him alone before we leave, so I can talk to him for a few minutes. "Hey," I interrupt them, looking over at Cutter. "We didn't stop here just for food, although it's worth it. I heard from D that he and Taylor saw someone here who made Taylor feel uncomfortable. It could be the man I'm looking for. Is there anyway I can get into that CCTV footage? Can I log into the server?"

"Yeah, I have no issue with that, and I know Mom won't either. Let me go to the back and get you the sign in. I'll bring it with the food."

The way we're snowballing with this process, it feels as if we're getting closer to finding out where she is, and who took her. I've been through these before, and I know the longer it takes, the more likely we aren't to find her alive. I'm trying to be positive about the whole situation, but this fucker has been two steps ahead of us the entire time we've been searching for him.

"I'm going to take him outside for a few minutes," Madden says as he stands. "We're still learning when it comes to bathroom breaks."

It gives me the moment I've been looking for. Leaving me alone with my son. "Oh here it comes," he says as he notices the look on my face.

"What do you mean?" I ask, taking a drink of my water, and trying to school my features.

"Mom sent you here, didn't she? She can't stand she doesn't know what's going on in my life."

The tone he uses is enough to piss me off. "Don't talk about your mother like that. You know better."

"I do, and I'm sorry. There's just a lot going on in the background."

"I think we've all figured that out, Caleb. What I'm saying to you is I'm worried about you. Not only as your dad, but as your boss. Would you like to tell me what the hell is going on in your home?"

He doesn't want to, that's evident by the stormy darkness overtaking his face, but I'm patient. I hold off saying anything to him, until he appears to be ready to talk. Do I wish we were doing this in another setting? Yes. Do I wish I didn't have to have this talk with him? Also yes, but I'm truly thankful he finally wants to tell me what's happening with him.

"It was that stop a few months ago. The one where the guy went for my gun. You know I didn't tell her about it, and she's holding a grudge."

He says this like its the least important thing that's ever happened to him. "Wait. You didn't tell her about it? Why wouldn't you tell her about it?"

"Do you tell Mom about every single part of your day? When it's easier to not to have to listen about how you like to put yourself in danger."

"Yes, I tell your mom everything about my days, unless I'm obligated to keep it a secret. I learned a long time ago being honest was something she expected of me. I could do a lot of things she'd forgive, but not being honest with her was a hard limit. Have you talked to Ruby about it? Apparently that's a hard limit for her too."

He makes a noise in the back of his throat. "I thought keeping her in the dark was the right thing to do, I never wanted her to be worried, or have to deal with what she had to deal with when we were dating. She lost her fucking mind about what happened, that night."

"Well we all fucking lost our minds, Caleb. That guy was trying to get your gun out of your holster. That's scary as fuck, not only for you, but for people who hear about it afterward. We were scared to death when we heard that. I had to watch that video after it was downloaded into our system, Caleb. That was a new kind of hell. To sit there and listen to you struggle. You begged for help, and no one would help you. That was some fucked up shit. I had some bad dreams after watching it. I can only imagine what happened with you, since you lived it."

"It wasn't fun," Caleb shifts in his seat. "But what I didn't want is for the people I care about to make it more about them, than it was about me. I feel like that's where it's gotten. Because I did my best to keep it to myself and try to deal with it on my own; I'm now being called selfish."

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