“No, no, shhh, it’s fine, mí Cariño. I’m the one who’s sorry.”
He pressed a kiss to the side of Casey’s head and then froze when he realized what he’d done.
He wasn’t the good guy in his scenario, not in any way, shape or form. He had no expectations that Casey would do anything other than hate him with every fiber of his body once he was lucid again.
But then Casey leaned into his lips, almost as if he liked having them pressed against him.
God, if only that were true.
With a sigh, he pulled them away, “Let’s get these soiled clothes off of you and get you cleaned up, mí amigo.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Vaughn
Vaughn’s phone pinged with a text just as he was stuffing his mouth full of burger.
“That’s from Rosa,” Caysun said as he too glanced at the phone.
Vaughn swiped his phone to open the text and then frowned, “It’s an address.”
“Let me see,” Caysun said as he reached for the phone.
He copied the address into maps, “It’s in the mountains near Cloudcroft, New Mexico.”
“Could be a trap.”
“Or it could be where they’re holding Casey.”
“You’re sure Rosa isn’t still working for your old boss?”
“I trust her, Vaughn, with my life.”
Vaughn stared at Caysun for what felt like an eternity before he nodded his head, “Guess we’re going to Cloudcroft, New Mexico,” he said as he began gathering up his trash.
Thirty
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sylas
He rolled his eyes, “You seriously won’t let me walk across the hall to your office?”
“Babe. it’s only been a few days. You’re not ready for that yet”
“Grainger, it’s been almost a week! I’m tired of sitting on my ass all day. I need to work, I need to do something, or my brain is going to explode.”
Grainger sighed, “How about if I bring you one of your laptops?”
Sylas glared at him even though he knew he wasn’t going to win this argument - mainly because they’d been having it every day since he was able to walk to the bathroom by himself. Every time he did, though, Grainger watched him like a hawk and he saw every twinge, every wince, every grimace, and he used them to fuel his argument. Like he was doing right now.
He sighed, “Fine. But bring me two.”
“Two? How many do you have?”
He shrugged, “Four, I think?”
“Why?”
Sy clucked his tongue and rolled his eyes but when he opened his mouth to snap at Grainger, to basically tell the man he was being an idiot, he froze. Because he saw the look of genuine curiosity in Grainger’s eyes and that look reminded him: he was the one being the idiot. He usually was when it came to his profession and his intelligence. Let’s face it, he was a nerd, a very intelligent nerd. He had a hard time having the patience for anyone who didn’t understand what he did. Or maybe it was just that he didn’t care about hurting anyone’s feelings.
Until now.
“Um, sometimes when I’m writing code for a protection program, I need to write it in several different platforms. I’m not doing any of this in Windows, I can’t open different tabs and toggle back and forth. Plus it’s safer and more efficient if I do it on multiple systems. It saves time if I run into any issues and need to go back over my work.”
“Wow, okay, that’s way over my head. Which two do you want?”
“Doesn’t matter.”
Grainger left the room and came back a minute later carrying two of Sy’s devices.
After getting Sy set up with them, he started to sit on the edge of the bed but stopped when there was a knock at the front door.
He left to go answer and then Sylas could hear voices coming back up the stairs.
“You have visitors,” Grainger said as he stepped in the door and stepped aside to reveal Cole and Kelly.
“Hey, bud, how’re you feeling?” Cole said as he walked over.
Sylas frowned, “Good, but I know that look. What’s up?”
Cole glanced at Kelly, who slowly sat on the end of the bed, “My dad called”
That deepened Sylas’ frown.
Kelly adopted father was Connor Braddock, one of the financial backers of Brent, Drake & JD’s Black Ops team, and himself a former civilian special ops operative.
“Why are you telling me?”
“He needs something. And I could do it but, you’re faster.”
Sy grinned at him, “It must’ve hurt to admit that.”
“It did.”
“What do you need?” Sy said.
“Wait, wait, wait. Sy, you’re recovering from surgery. You got stabbed, Sy. You almost died! You are not working right now,” Grainger said, his hands on his hips like a displeased mom.
The sight of it actually warmed Sy’s heart. He’d never had anyone care about his health like that other than his own mother and that was before the dementia had changed her.
“Babe,” he said without thinking. He glanced quickly at Cole and Kelly and from the smiles on their faces he realized, yep, they’d caught that.
Then his eyes moved back over to Grainger. He was worried that the man would be angry for outing them as a - what were they anyways? - a thing? That would have to do for now.
When his gaze collided with Grainger’s, a wave of pride and joy flowed off him and slammed into Sy like it was a real, tangible thing. He wanted to both cry and laugh at the same time but right now he couldn’t. “It’s not like I’m going to go run around or do something physical, Grainger. I’m just going to be using my laptop for something. It’ll be fine.”
Grainger huffed, “Fine, but no stress. I mean it.”
“Yes, dad,” Sylas said with a grin then he turned to Cole, “What do you need?”
“We need you to move a satellite,” Cole said as he held out a slip of paper to Sylas. His fingers began flying over his keyboard. “May I ask why?” he said without moving his eyes from the screen.
“Possible kidnapping/hostage situation. Need to do a threat assessment before going in,” Kelly said.
That made Sylas pause what he was doing, “You’re going in?” he said to Kelly.
Kelly shook his head, “No, a Marshal buddy of JD’s is but he’s basically on his own. He’s got one other man with him, but the guy isn’t law.”
Sy’s eyes went wide, “Shouldn’t he wait for backup then?”
“He won’t,” Kelly said.
“Why not?”
“They guy he’s trying to rescue is be his brother, the brother that went missing six months ago.”
“Oh,” Sylas whispered. The room was silent for a few seconds as that information sank in.
“The satellite is moving now. Should take about ten or fifteen minutes to get into position. How far out are they?”
Kelly looked at his phone, “About fifteen minutes.”
“Damn it, I can’t make the damn thing move faster. He can’t walk into an unknown situation on his own,” Sy said.
Kelly held his phone out, “Do you want to tell him that?”
“Call him and put it on speaker,” Sy said as he set one laptop down on the bed and picked up the other.
“Kepler,” a deep voice said when the call connected.
“Vaughn, it’s Kelly. I’m here with the computer guy, his name is Sylas. He wants to talk to you. And be nice to him, he’s a good friend.”
Vaughn growled into the phone, “I don’t know you, dude. Why should I listen to you?”
Rather than letting the conversation turn into a dick measuring contest, Sylas spoke up, “Deputy Kepler? The satellite is on the move and right now I’m tapping into the local alarm companies to see if this address has an account with them.”
“How long will it take you to get in?”
“I’m already in.”
Vaughn’s answer was silenc
e for a few seconds until, “Damn, you are good.”
“I know,” Sylas said. It wasn’t ego for him, it was just fact.
“There’s no alarm. Power is paid automatically by a bank account that’s listed as a family trust. And the power bills are small, indicating that nobody lives at the home year-round.”
“What’s the name on the trust?”
“Hang on, I’m getting to that. Want to see if the trust is who holds the deed to the home too. Give me a second.”
The voice on the phone growled again but then another, calmer voice quietly said, “Babe, let the man work. He’s trying to help.”
“The trust was set up by a Juan Miguel Flores, it’s the Flores family trust. Does that ring a bell?”
“No,” Vaughn answered after a momentary pause.
“The executors on the trust are a Donnita Perez and a Rosa Sanchez.”
The other man in the car with Vaughn said, “Sanchez is Rosa’s last name.”
Sylas frowned at his screen, “There’s a third person listed in the trust, a Miguel Perez, does that sound familiar?”
There was a pause as the two men on the other end of the call whispered to each other before Vaughn said, “Possibly. Is there anything else you can tell me?”
“Nope, other than the fact that you just missed the turn.”
“What the fuck? Did you tap into the GPS on my phone?”
“Of course, I did. Now, if you’ll pull over and stop, I can send you the image from the satellite, which is now in place over that territory.”
“You are a clever little shit, aren’t you?” Vaughn said with a chuckle.
Sylas smiled, “I have my moments. You should have the feed now. I’m not seeing anyone patrolling outside.”
“Yeah, I see that. They could all be hiding inside though. Hang on, I just got a text from the person who sent us to this address. Rosa asked us to please not hurt her nephew Miguel.”
“I guess that explains who the Miguel is on the family trust. Who is Rosa?” Sy said.
“She’s someone that, that, my, um, that…..”
“Caysun, babe, my name is Caysun,” the other man in the car said, chuckling.
“I know your name, I just wasn’t sure what title to give you.”
“Ruler of the universe is fine.”
“Can’t. That’s already taken by me.”
“Guys, this little conversation is fun and all, but can we focus here?” Kelly said, “What’s the plan?”
“We’re going in,” Vaughn said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“I suppose it won’t do any good to ask you to wait for the guys that Morgan is sending?”
“Nope.”
“Fine, but leave this call connected so we can hear what’s happening.”
“I will.”
Kelly walked closer to the bed and sat next to Sylas, so he could watch the blurry screen as it showed Vaughn’s car approaching a small cabin. The car parked about a quarter mile down an overgrown driveway, mostly hidden, at least from above, by trees and bushes. Whether or not it could be seen from the cabin itself, only Vaughn and the occupants in the cabin could tell.
They could barely make it out when both doors of the car opened, and two men got out. The driver, Vaughn, Kelly assumed, walked around to the back of the car and retrieved something from the trunk. Then they both began approaching the cabin, using the trees for cover.
Where the tree line ended, and the cabin began, there was a gap of approximately thirty feet by Kelly’s estimation.
Knowing what he would do in that situation, he watched as the two figures emerged from the trees, not right in front of the house, but at opposite ends, both approaching the house from the side. Both disappeared under the cover of the porch as they climbed the steps on either side.
It was go time.
Thirty-One
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Vaughn
His heart was going a mile a minute in his chest as he silently made his way along the side of the porch towards the front. He reached the corner of the house and peered around in time to see Caysun doing the same thing at the other end. Despite not having any formal training, the man knew what he was doing.
They were each about twenty feet from the front door when a muffled scream pierced the air. Vaughn didn’t want to think about who had made it and what kind of pain could get a man to scream like that, but he knew he had to get to whoever it was quickly.
He closed the last few feet without worrying about noise and then he turned, faced the front door, stepped onto his back foot, raised his front and kicked the door in.
It flew open, bouncing against the wall behind it and back again so fast it would’ve slammed Vaughn in the face if he didn’t have his hand out.
He cleared the room easily with a quick sweep or his eyes and gun then made his way down the hall, where he heard voices.
What he saw when he stepped into the open bedroom doorway made him freeze, made him forget all of his training, made the breath leave his body. There on the bed, curled onto his side in obvious pain as he spit into a bowl that he’d thrown up in, was, “Casey?” he whispered.
The man holding the bowl with one hand and rubbing Casey’s back with his other, turned to look at Vaughn with a terrified look on his face, “He needs help,” the man said.
Vaughn want to go to him, needed to help, but his boots felt like they were cemented to the floor.
Caysun bumped his shoulder as he moved past Vaughn and over to the bed, “What was he on?” he said to the man.
What was he on? What did Caysun mean by that?
“Fentanyl,” the man on the bed said.
“How long?”
“Um, six months at least?”
“Fuck,” Caysun mumbled. He turned to hand Vaughn the gun that he had given him, and then he dropped onto the bed. “What’s your name?” Caysun said to the man.
“M-M-Miguel.”
Caysun yanked his t-shirt over his head then stood up and began unbuttoning his pants as he toed his shoes off.
“What are you….” Vaughn began saying but the look Caysun gave him made him snap his mouth shut. It was a look that said, I am in charge here and I know what the fuck I’m doing.
Vaughn sure as fuck hoped that was true. He also wondered how Caysun would know how to treat something like this but asking him would have to wait for later.
“Miguel, I need you to go start a warm bath, can you do that?”
Miguel nodded and stood from the bed. As he carried the full bowl into the bathroom, Caysun asked him, “Do you have any orange juice in the house?”
“There’s concentrate to make some in the freezer. I was going to pull it out, but I haven’t had a chance to.”
Caysun looked at Vaughn as he slid his pants and briefs down his long legs, “I need you to go pull at least two cans out. Let one thaw on the counter but run the other under warm water to get it to thaw now. And look for some plain soups, tomato or chicken noodle are good. And saltine or plain crackers, okay?” he said then he turned to the man on the bed. He put a knee up on the bed and leaned over. His hand hovered over the shivering man but didn’t touch him. “Case, honey? It’s me, Caysun.”
Casey’s trembling stopped for a second as he whispered, “Shotgun? Oh god, it hurts,” he groaned as he began shaking again.
“I know baby, I know. I’m going to try to help but I need to touch you, okay?”
“O-o-o-okay.”
Caysun barely brushed his fingers on Casey’s back over his t-shirt and Casey hissed as if he were getting burned.
“F-f-f-f-fuck,” he mumbled through his chattering teeth.
“I know and I’m sorry. But I need to get these clothes off.”
He was just reaching for the waistband on Casey’s sweats when Casey groaned, “Need to shit!”
Caysun scooped Casey into his arms and ran for the bathroom, getting there just in time for Miguel to yank his pants dow
n while Caysun helped him sit.
Casey’s head was resting on Caysun’s shoulder as Caysun held him up.
Vaughn took that moment to dash into the kitchen pull out the orange juice, get one can into a bowl of warm water and then he searched in the pantry until he found a few cans of soup and crackers.
When he walked back into the bathroom, Casey was in the exact same spot.
Vaughn desperately wanted to ask how Caysun seemed to know exactly what he was doing, how the knowledge of getting someone through detox clung to the man with a sad familiarity. But he couldn’t. Not now.
“What else do you need me to do?” he said.
Caysun glanced at him, “If there’s Gatorade, can you bring a small glass of it?”
Vaughn nodded and turned to leave.
“Babe?” Cay said, his voice freezing Vaughn in his tracks. He looked over his shoulder and waited for Cay to say what he needed to say.
“Keep us safe,” Cay said.
He dipped his chin, “Always,” he said then his eyes shifted to the stranger in the room, to Miguel, “Does anyone know you’re here?”
“My mother and aunt do but that’s all.”
“Cell phone?”
“Out on the coffee table.”
With that final piece of information, Vaughn left the room.
Thirty-Two
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Caysun
His heart dropped as he watched Vaughn leave the room. On the outside, he appeared calm, cool and in control. But on the inside, he was a screaming, panicking mess. On the inside was a constant dialogue of No fucking way. I can’t do this again. I swore after he died that I would never, ever face this nightmare again
But on the outside….on the outside he was strong.
What a fucking lie that was.
“How’re you doing Casey?” he whispered.
“Shotgun? Is that you?” Casey whispered.
“I’m here, Case, it’s me.”
“You’re alive? I thought he killed you,” Casey whispered.
Whiteout Conditions Page 12
