Together, Tripp and I haul Beau upright. He sways, grabs Tripp's shoulder, and lets out a string of curses that reassures me more than anything else could. When we get to the van door, Amber’s cowering in the back, pressed into the corner, with legstucked up and knees tight to her chest, and a blanket wrapped around her shoulders.
Beau leans heavily against me, his arm across my shoulders, and manages to hiss out, "Go first."
Easing out from under his arm, I switch into professional cop mode and approach Amber slowly.
"Amber." Crouching so I'm at her level, I keep my voice low and even. "My name is Lisa Harris. I'm a detective with the Black River police department and a friend of your sister, Zara. We've been looking for you for a long time. You're safe now."
Her mouth opens and closes, then her eyes dart between my face and the blood on my hands.
"This isn't mine," I add, which is mostly true. "We’re going to get you out of here and take you to see your sister. Is that okay? These are the good guys, I swear."
The smallest nod. She brushes her hair back from her face, red welts visible around her wrists from whatever he’s kept her arms bound with.
Sliding into the seat beside her, I’m careful to keep my distance.
Tripp helps Beau into the passenger seat. He's moving from his own steam now, one hand pressed to his side, his colour marginally better than it was barely two minutes ago. When he pulls the door shut, his jaw is clenched and his breathing is measured, but he's conscious. Which now seems absolutely ludicrous considering the injuries he’s sustained.
Van pulls out of the lot and turns left, away from the approaching law enforcement and the nearest hospital.
I stand, stooping so I can hurry forward to stick my head between the two front seats. "Van, where are you going? Turn around. He needs a doctor."
Panic swells inside me once more. What about this don’t they understand? He’s been shot three times. He needs surgery, a blood transfusion, life-saving intervention.
"Lisa." Tripp is beside me now, his voice low and calm. "Look at him."
Beau twists in his seat and reaches back. Without thinking, I take his hand, and he presses my palm flat against his side where the bullet went through him. The skin beneath the blood-soaked fabric is now smooth and unbroken.
That can't be right.
Afraid of hurting him, I gingerly run my fingers up and down, but there’s nothing there.
"Nobody can know about me," Beau says quietly. “About this.”
My grandmother's voice floats into my head. Stories from the kitchen floor, about men who could heal, who could change, who carried the mountain inside them. Stories I grew out of and forgot about or dismissed out of hand… until right now.
“What are you?” I whisper, but Beau holds my gaze and nods, somehow sensing that deep down, I already know.
Van is on the phone to someone via his earpiece as he races down the road, checking his mirrors to see if anyone is following us.
"Chase, it's Van. We have Amber.” A pause. “She's alive, she's with us. Dimitri's down with a gunshot to the leg, and we've called it in anonymously." Another pause while Chase speaks. "We're heading back to base to regroup. Beau took three rounds. He's healing."
How on earth is that the last thing he tells him? An afterthought?
Van gives Beau some side eye. “Being a bit dramatic about it if you ask me.”
Beau’s lips curl in a tiny smile, but I’m furious on his behalf.
“This isn’t right,” I hiss, struggling to accept that we’re not endangering his life, but Beau’s hand is still holding mine against his side, and his heartbeat is strong and steady under my palm.
In the seat behind, Amber's eyes are closed, her head against the window. She’s not asleep, but she looks relaxed, or as close to it as a woman who's been held captive for months and locked in a trunk can get.
Van turns to Beau. “Chase is trying to track Caleb, but he lost them on the traffic cams…”
“Don’t bother.” Beau shakes his head and looks out the window, not seeming particularly angry, just resigned. “He made his choice. He doesn’t want to be found. At least, not yet.”
29
BEAU