Breathe

Five minutes later, five minutes less of Faye’s air, his phone rang.

He pulled it out, hit go and put it into his ear.

“What?”

“Son, you’ve had them arrested.”

His father talking soft and quiet. Ma was asleep.

“Yeah? And?” Chace clipped.

“I can hardly talk to them while they’re incarcerated.”

“Maybe your lawyer can get word to their lawyers to be smart and start talkin’.”

“I’m afraid they won’t listen. What’s happened tonight, it’s been made clear I’m out of their loop.”

“What?” Chace asked.

“You’re off-limits. Valerie’s off-limits. And when I met Faye, I communicated to them that she was off-limits. I’m alarmed they’ve made this move. It isn’t like them and I knew nothing about it.”

“Well, you makin’ that clear hasn’t been all that helpful, Dad. My life got jacked. Mom doesn’t know it but she was threatened with learnin’ about your perversion. So the people whose asses you’ve been coverin’ haven’t been all that safe. Now, including Faye.”

“I had no idea they were planning to target Faye, Chace. I had no control over the other. Fuller did that to you two,” Trane reminded him.

“You let him,” Chace shot back. “Now, as this isn’t helpin’ things, unless you got somethin’ for me that will, we’re done.”

“You need to talk to Clinton,” he advised.

“Already done. Compartmentalization. You know how he plays it. You got another name for me?”

There was silence then, “I’m not this man, Chace,” he said quietly. “I’m not the man you think I am. The only reason I had that association with Clinton, not to mention the one I was forced to build with most of those men, is because that tape forced me into that association.”

“Bonar’s been on your team for a long f**kin’ time, Dad.”

“When this started happening and we became aware that the others were facing the same thing, we allied and Clinton’s job description was adjusted accordingly.”

“My woman, the woman whose finger I put a diamond on tonight, Dad, has less than three hours of air. You givin’ me this history is not helpin’ her one f**kin’ bit. Now do you have shit for me that might help me?”

“Will the police be at my door soon?” Trane asked back.

There it f**king was.

“Don’t know. Don’t give a f**k. But honestly surprised you aren’t already in custody.”

“Your mother –”

Covering his own f**king ass.

As always.

As f**king always.

Because of that, Chace lost it.

“My woman has less than three hours of air,” he thundered into the phone. “This is not about you, this is not about savin’ your ass and this is not about protecting Ma. This is about saving the goddamned life of the woman I f**kin’ love. So do not call me unless you got shit that will help Faye.”

“I’ll keep doing what I can,” Trane told him and Chace disconnected without another word.

“You cool?” Deck asked.

“No,” Chace bit out.

“Gotta find cool, brother. We’re runnin’ against a clock. You burn out, gotta be locked down, burns time. You gotta stay ice cold.”

“Your woman’s buried alive somewhere, probably f**kin’ terrified, you have no f**kin’ idea how to save her, you can show me how you remain ice cold,” Chace growled.

“You do it knowin’ this shit’ll get done. You do it knowin’ you got your boys at your back. You do it knowin’ they will not give up and you do it not givin’ up either.”

Chace sucked in breath through his nose but the burn it brought seared through every inch of him.

“She delivered me,” he whispered.

“I know that, Chace,” Deck whispered back.

“She’s better than a dream.”

“I know it, brother.”

“She’s gotta be terrified.”

“No she isn’t. She’s Faye and she’s waitin’ for you.”

That cut through because, his Faye and her backbone, that was undeniably true.

Chace sucked in another breath and his phone went again.

He engaged it and put it to his ear.

“Keaton.”

“Chace, Max,” Max replied. “Jeff just arrested George but I got to him first. He admitted he fiddled the figures on his taxes. Fuller found out because George’s accountant was on his payroll. Not enough to make him an ugly target, just enough for him to pay the toll and tow the line. Since Fuller fell, George hasn’t heard shit. He thought it all died and was shocked as shit when Nina got up in his face. This shit tonight has flipped him out. He has no idea what’s going on and he had no idea there were others until it was all over. He’s not in with this group, Chace. He was small time. Just a toy for Fuller.”

Dead end.

“Right,” he muttered.

“I’m on my way to Carnal. You got somethin’ you need me to do?”

“Go home to your family. You wake Nina, tell her tomorrow she may be gettin’ a call from me, this gets ugly.”

“I’m an extra pair of hands, Chace,” Max told him quietly and Chace pulled in another breath.

“Then call Wood or Tate. They may be workin’ something I don’t know about.”

“Right. Done,” he muttered then he said, “Keep it together. Shit happens but more often than not, it tends to have a happy ending.”

The damsel was in distress waiting for her happily ever after.

Fuck.

“Thanks, Max,” he muttered.

“Later.”

He heard the disconnect, pressed the button on his phone and drove.

* * * * *

Bubba rolled his truck off to the side but before he did that and Chace followed, Chace saw it.

Two cars in the ditch. By their positions, one had forced the other off the road.

He stopped, put his SUV in park and cut the ignition.

Deck was already out, Deke and Bubba out in front of him.

Chace jogged beyond Bubba’s truck, rounded it and came to a rocking halt as a figure formed from the shadows.

Samuel Sterling. Self-made, African American multi-millionaire. Friend of Ty. Good man.

But not a local unless Aspen was considered local.

Fucking hell.

“What the f**k?” he asked, Sterling stopped four feet away and put his hands up.