Crocus

by Amy Lane

  “Shit. I will kill Christiana for that. That kid doesn’t have a chance. But if they’re ready to go, I’ll send the kids all home in the minivan, and I’ll go with Eamon to help find Candace. That’s what you were going to ask, right?”

  Eamon yawned and nodded. “Yeah—Larx, we’re going to need you to start asking around the school. We think she had a plan, but her mother’s hostile, her little sister’s not allowed to talk, and her stepfather….” Eamon shook his head. “He’s wandering around the backwoods with a gun, and that is a bad goddamned thing.”

  Larx and Aaron met eyes. Yes, all three of them had seen the damage brought on by someone not in their right mind holding their gun like a savior. Larx hadn’t ended up in the hospital—but he could have just as easily ended up in the morgue.

  “Let me square my kids away,” Larx said decidedly, “and I’ll start making calls.” He grimaced at Aaron. “I always thought… you know… me and you would play chess or something when this happened.”

  Aaron rolled his eyes. “Words with Friends,” he breathed.

  Larx shot him a telling look, and Aaron managed a smile.

  “I’m fine,” he insisted. “Go be a grown-up.”

  Larx shook his head, an unfamiliar expression tightening his jaw. He swallowed another yawn before kissing Aaron’s cheek while avoiding the cannula and squeezing his hand.

  “I’m going to go wrangle idiot children and let Eamon get some sleep. You rest up, Deputy. By the time we get you home—if it’s still standing, ’cause remember, Yoshi’s been there all night!—you’re going to think the hospital’s a dream vacation.”

  Larx left, and Aaron watched him go. He hated feeling helpless, hated that Larx was leaving—but God. He really loved that man.

  Eamon cleared his throat. “All done making gooey eyes at your boy’s ass?”

  Aaron smiled impishly. Painkillers, pain, exhaustion—sort of took the formality out of dealing with your boss.

  “Yup.”

  “Look, I’m going to tell you a little secret about situations like this. I’m tired, I’m cranky, and like Larx, I’m worried sick, so you’d better listen to me. Are you listening?”

  Aaron nodded dutifully. His own father had been a pale, stern man with high expectations and low communications. Eamon looked nothing like Herbert George, but Aaron really did think of the guy like a father.

  “Listening,” he mouthed.

  “Good. So, about ten years before you came to Colton, I got shot. I was in surgery for four hours and in the hospital for two weeks, and my wife was an angel of light the whole time.”

  Aww. That was lovely. Georgina Mills—loveliest woman on the planet.

  “And I thought, ‘Geez, I sure am blessed to have a partner in my life who respects my choice to go out and get my ass blasted to kingdom come all in the name of the greater good, and my life is truly a thing of wonder.’”

  Oh, Aaron loved this story. He nodded and smiled, thinking how nice it was that he had a partner like that too!

  “And then, about two weeks after I got home, as I was stumbling through the house and trying to remember my ass from a hole in the ground, that woman tried to kill me with a baking pan and asked for a divorce.”

  Aaron blinked.

  “Yeah, not what you expected to hear, is it?”

  No, no it wasn’t.

  “You promised him a happy ever after and then walked out of the car and got shot—and more than that, you left him ass-deep in kids he had to tell. And whatever is going on with Olivia and that kid you keep calling Wombat Willie is making a tic jump out in his jaw. And you left him in the middle of this, you son of a bitch, and not only that, he’s got to worry about your sorry ass too. Now I was lucky. She hit me with the baking pan, and that opened up the stitches and she saw the blood and started to cry and my ass was forgiven. But I’m telling you right now—it’s coming. I’d tell you to be ready for it, but I got no idea when he’ll blow, and I’d hazard that you don’t either. He’ll be all good one minute and freaking out the next. So be ready. Be ready to forgive. Because you almost did the worst thing you could do to that man, and you’re going to have to have that conversation more than once.”

  Aaron gaped at him. “But… but we….”

  “You think you had it. You think you’ve had that conversation.” Eamon sighed and grunted, most of his weight resting on his knees from his elbows at this point. “Whatever you think you’ve had, you haven’t had it for real until you get home and you don’t look like shit. Once you look healthy, he’ll remember you almost fucking left him. So be ready, okay? Figure out what you’re going to say to keep that boy in your life.”

  Aaron yawned. “Gonna say… love him.”

  Eamon shrugged. “Georgina needed a better package than that.” And then it was his turn to yawn. “I’m going to nap. You concentrate on healing so you’re ready when he turns around with a garden hoe and takes after your weenie-wounded ass like all the hounds of hell.”

  And with those words of reassurance, Eamon went to the cot in the corner of the room, took off his boots, and settled in like the kids had, pulling the thin blanket over his shoulders and dropping off to sleep like the old soldier he was.

  Aaron watched him for a moment before closing his eyes again himself. Well, if Eamon was right and Larx’s real meltdown would be saved for when Aaron’s lung wasn’t threatening to collapse, it was better to rest up now. It wasn’t like he had anything better to do—like go out with Larx and help find a girl lost in the snow.

  BLIZZARD

  WOMBAT WILLIE… erm, Elton Johnson… oh, holy Jesus on crackers, Elton McDaniels was actually not a bad guy.

  “So, dude!” Elton sat up in bed, eyes wide. “That nice cop with the blond hair that I thought was you—he’s in the hospital too!”

  “Yeah,” Larx said, blinking. “He had surgery this morning—he’ll probably be here for another week or so.” The boy had a lot of brown scruff on his chin and wide blue eyes—and a sort of sweetness in his smile that reminded Larx a lot of Olivia. Oh Lord—if these two kids ended up together, they were going to need a grown-up handy to remind them to keep themselves and the baby out of the rain.

  “Poor dude. I get out today.” Wombat… Elton nodded. “I….” He looked around the room disconsolately, but Olivia wasn’t there. Larx had sent her back down to the canteen to make sure Kirby was okay. He didn’t want that boy left alone after the way he’d broken down on Larx’s shoulder when Aaron had been moved from recovery to ICU. Something about knowing they were in it for the long haul had broken the boy, and Larx was going to be worried about him for a long time.

  “About that,” Larx said delicately. “Uh, right now our house is really crowded.” Elton’s face fell. “But Aaron’s house is about two miles away, and Olivia was going to move in there anyway, until after she had the baby and she had a plan for her education. So, uh, we realize you and Olivia might need some time and some space to talk and plan and”—fuck like lemmings because, Mister, you knocked my little girl up and you don’t seem at all repentant so I’m going to assume your interests are carnal—“whatever else you need to do. And we thought you and Livvy might like to use the house.”

  Elton’s face lit up. “Me and Olivia?”

  “You’d need to be prepared, though,” Larx warned. “You may get unexpected houseguests. Like the kid we’ve got right now—Jaime. A guy got shot in his house last night, and he and his brother are going to need to fix their place up again before they go back to live there. I haven’t asked Aaron yet, but, you know, extra room is extra room.”

  Elton shrugged and waved his hands. “Totally cool. Like, hippie-in-a-commune type cool. I mean, what else you gonna do? Let them live in the dead-guy house? Naw—I get it. Like, you guys got the space and all, but just ’cause Livvy and I sort of flaked out, you don’t want to punish the rest of the world, right?”

  Larx felt a little corner of his tired, wrinkled heart fill up. Yes, he was sort of a s
pace cadet, but Wombat Willie here wasn’t an awful person.

  Larx hated to piss on his parade.

  “Elton, look—I want… I want you to be happy, and my daughter to be happy, and the grandbaby to be happy and all the good things. You know this, right?”

  Elton nodded, his eyes impossibly wide. Oh wow. Olivia must have had a hard time saying no to this one. If this kid had been chasing Larx in college, Larx would have been completely beguiled.

  “Olivia—we need to get her some help. She’s depressed, Elton. And it’s bad. She wants to have the baby and I’m not going to argue with that—but you’re barely a kid yourself, you know?”

  Elton’s lower lip started to wobble. “Yeah. But she’s sad, and she needs help. I mean….” He bit his lip like he was trying to trap it and keep it from getting away. “I’m not a good student, Mr. Larkin. My parents were paying my tuition and I was trying, but… but there always seemed like something more interesting than school going on. And then I met Olivia, and she made me want to try, because she was so smart, right? But more than that—paying attention wasn’t her thing, but she wanted so bad to make you proud, right? So I thought, ‘Hey, this pretty girl thinks school is a good thing, and I’ll do my best in it!’ So she’s already making me be my best. And if I can be a good student ’cause she makes me want that for myself, I think I’d be a bitchin’ dad. Just sayin’. Lots of playing with us. I can find a job with my dad’s company or fixing video games or something—I’m not worried there. If I gotta feed the little goober and keep Olivia in medication, I’ll do things right, trust me.”

  He smiled awkwardly. “I mean… I’m sort of a train wreck now, but… you do trust me, don’t you, Mr. Larkin? That I’ll do my best? That I can be there for her, even if… you know….” And his voice broke. “Even if she never loves me like I love her?”

  And Larx’s heart broke a little.

  “Yeah, Elton.” Larx sighed. “I trust you. And call me Larx. Everybody does.”

  Elton nodded, still sad, and wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. Larx stood and got him a box of Kleenex, and then did what his dad instincts were screaming for him to do.

  Hugged the kid.

  “Welcome to the family, Wombat Willie.”

  Elton nodded into his shoulder and sniffled. Well, he’d had a rough two days. Larx could relate.

  Larx pulled away, and Elton sniffled again.

  “Why do you people keep calling me that?” he asked, and Larx gave a half laugh.

  “Young man, I’m going to wait to tell you the answer to that question until you are feeling very much better.”

  At that point Olivia came into the room, followed by Kellan and Christie, and Larx held up both hands.

  “Okay, kids, here’s the plan. Olivia, how confident are you feeling in snow right now? The plows have hit all the roads—I texted Yoshi, and he says our road is clear but his is not. You guys ready to go home?”

  There were a lot of tired nods, and Larx felt bad. Snow day, and they were probably all going to use it wandering the house in their pajamas and eating crackers and Yoshi’s famous potato leek soup.

  “Good. Then Olivia is going to drive you all home. She and Elton will spend the next few days moving her into Aaron’s place and deciding if Elton is going to stay here for the rest of the semester or go back to San Diego—”

  “Stay here,” Elton said promptly.

  “Baby…,” Olivia whined, but that soft jaw went unexpectedly hard.

  “No. You can’t make me go back for my own good,” Elton told her. “You can’t. I’m going to stay here and we’re going to make things right before the baby comes. I want to help.”

  Larx swallowed—well, he’d just done the impossible and stood up to Olivia. There was a chance—just a chance—this wouldn’t end tragically.

  “So you’re going to move into Aaron’s house as soon as he’s feeling up to it and then call Elton’s parents and talk,” Larx said firmly. Both young people nodded, so he was going to have to take that on faith. “I really mean it about your parents, Elton. Tell them to maybe wait to come up here until the roads are better, but they deserve to know where you are.”

  Elton grimaced. “They don’t expect to hear from me until tomorrow—can I wait until then? My head still hurts, Mr. Larx, and my father can yell.”

  Larx smiled slightly. “Sure, Elton. The good thing about being way out of town is you can fake a bad connection on a moment’s notice.”

  “Dad does it with my grandparents all the time,” Kirby said brightly, and Larx grimaced. Shit.

  “Kirby, while we’re planning….”

  Kirby let out a sigh. “Could you? I….”

  “Not a problem.” Larx nodded so he could pretend he meant it. “Which one should I call first?”

  Kirby sighed. “Call Tiff first, because Dad always calls Maureen because she’s easier. If you call Tiffany first, she can’t get mad like you’re trying to hide something.”

  Larx shrugged. Sound advice from a kid who had apparently been keeping his sisters away from each other’s throats since he was a very small child. “Should I call your Aunt Candy?” He had, as of yet, not spoken to Aaron’s sister, although he had seen pictures. The laughing woman with the long blonde hair and the flowing dresses looked like she’d worked hard not to fit in with Aaron’s supposedly straitlaced parents, and Larx approved.

  Kirby’s face relaxed just a tad, hearing her name. “I’ll call her. But… but you’re good to remember. Thank you, sir.”

  He said it so formally, like those hard moments in the waiting room hadn’t happened. “My pleasure, young George,” Larx said dryly, waiting for Kirby’s rolled eyes.

  Good. Kirby and Larx had bonded, Kirby was fragile, and they would never mention Kirby coming unglued again.

  “So that’s our plan,” Larx told them. “You guys go home with Olivia when Elton is discharged—”

  “And you’re taking Christi’s car?” Olivia asked, which made sense because it was smaller and lighter and had probably been a nightmare to pilot to the hospital the night before, chains or no.

  Larx grimaced. “I’m actually going out with Eamon to try to find a missing girl.”

  All of the children in the room stared at him, even the grown ones.

  “Uh, Daddy? Why would you be going with the sheriff?” Christi spoke up first, because she was always fearless.

  “The same reason I was with Aaron last night,” he told them truthfully. “Because there are students involved, and I’ve got the best contacts for them. The… the young man who shot Aaron invaded the Benitez home because he was trying to find his sister. He had a gun, and Jaime was afraid, so Jaime hid in a little outbuilding while his brother dealt with the freaked-out stepbrother. While that was going on, the girl hid in the outbuilding with Jaime, and when the shots started, she took off.”

  “Why didn’t somebody go after her?” Elton asked, but his daughter and Kellan and even Kirby were looking at him in horror.

  “Because somebody told Larx my dad got hurt,” Kirby said, eyes big. “Right, Larx?”

  Larx grimaced. “Yeah. I was heading toward the kids when Eamon called me.” He shuddered and barely managed to keep himself together. “Bad moment. But Candace Furman got away, and Jaime came to make sure Berto was okay. He was and he wasn’t—”

  “What’s that mean?” Elton asked again—maybe because he didn’t know the family language yet.

  “It means he wasn’t shot, but he was traumatized,” Kellan told him knowledgably. “It’s sort of a club we’re all in.”

  “Babe,” Elton said, wonder in his voice. “Your family is, like, badass commandos and shit. No wonder you’re afraid I won’t fit in!”

  Larx rubbed his forehead, right where his eyebrows met when he was scowling. “We really hope you don’t have to join this club,” he said sincerely. “Dues are really frickin’ high.”

  “Wait,” Olivia said, eyes narrowing like they did when she was doing math.
“Where’s Aaron’s unit? I mean, he drove it home, right? He usually drives it, unless you guys are going out in his Tahoe. The Tahoe’s still in front of the house, right?”

  Christi, Kellan, and Kirby, his bouquet of haiku poems, the teenagers in his home, were staring at him with dawning horror.

  “Uncle Yoshi had to drive you home, Daddy,” Christiana said. “Where’s Aaron’s cop SUV?”

  Larx grunted. “It got, uh, damaged. I think someone tried to fire warning shots before Aaron got hit—”

  “Were you in it?” Christiana demanded.

  Shit. “Well, not after the first shot!” Larx told her, feeling beleaguered. “But you guys see, right? Candace Furman is wandering the winter fucking wonderland and her stepfather is out there with a gun and… and a reason for her not to talk.”

  Larx had never been one to hold things back from his kids, but now, as they all looked at him with a spectrum of emotions from fear to anger, he could see why Aaron was so careful with his words when he was talking to his children.

  God.

  There were some things you just didn’t want your kids to know about days like this.

  “Daddy?” Christiana’s voice wobbled, and Larx held out his arms. She went in for the snuggle, and he looked at all the kids in the room—even Wombat Elton.

  “Guys, it’ll be fine. I’ll be with Sheriff Mills the whole time. Remember—he saved your dad, erm, Kirby’s dad—I mean your Aaron—” Weak shit, Larx. Pull your ass together. “Aaron,” he finished on a gasp. “Sheriff Mills took care of Aaron. He’ll take care of me. Let’s give the man a nap while you guys check out, and we’ll find the girl, okay?”

  “What about the angry stepdad with the gun?” Kellan demanded. “Look, I know I’m new to the party here, but… but I haven’t had people before and I… I mean, Aaron’s in the hospital and… and you’re—”

  “Going to be fine,” Larx said with all the confidence he could muster. He looked around the room and felt foolish. “Guys. You guys. I’m not doing this lightly, okay? I don’t have a hero complex. I don’t think I’m the guy with the gun and the vest who can save the day. I just have some resources Eamon needs right now. Usually Aaron taps me for this stuff and I give him the info over the phone and we’re all good. That’s not going to work for us right now. But that doesn’t mean I’m throwing on a vest and running in like the last scene from Platoon either.”