Cade Creek 12 - Heart of a Mountain (6 page)

There was a current of terror running through Aldrin that hadn’t become bearable until he had felt Jonah grab his hand. The one and only time the medical personnel had made Jonah step back, breaking the connection between them, Aldrin had become hysterical. Even he was a little surprised at out much he had freaked out.

Only when Jonah grasped his hand again had he calmed down. After that, the doctor and nurses made sure Jonah was holding his hand at all times. His need to be touching Jonah hadn’t changed even when he had been moved to a private room. He simply felt safer with Jonah nearby.

Speaking of which…

Aldrin forced his aching eyes open, or at least as far as they would open. He knew without even touching the skin around his eyes that they were swollen. He vaguely recalled being punched in the face numerous times, which explained why his face hurt at least. There was a foggy memory of some yelling and boots kicking him, but…Aldrin didn’t remember much more than that.

And he certainly didn’t know why he had been attacked.

Again.

He swallowed hard before asking, “Did they escape?”

* * * *

“Let’s worry about getting you better first.” Jonah had no idea what had taken place, who had beaten Aldrin, or why. Since he had no answers for Aldrin, Jonah decided it would be best to keep the man’s mind on healing. “Is your pain manageable or should I get a nurse?”

Grabbing a chair from the corner, Jonah lifted it and placed it by the head of Aldrin’s bed. He took the man’s hand in his again, and noticed just how big his hand was compared to Aldrin’s. The difference was staggering. He kept his grip light, but enough that Aldrin knew they were still connected.

“I-I don’t…I never saw—” Aldrin’s hand tightened slightly in Jonah’s. “I’m sorry you had to get involved again. I don’t know why this keeps happening to me.”

Neither did Jonah, but he would find out. Enough was enough. Just seeing Aldrin lying there all bruised up and looking helpless made his blood boil. Jonah had never cared for anyone the way he cared for Aldrin. It was a new and frightening feeling, and one he wasn’t sure what to do with. But he pushed aside the blossoming feelings. He’d examine them later. Getting Aldrin better was more important.

“Don’t you dare apologize for something that wasn’t your fault.”

Jonah frowned when Aldrin smiled. The man shouldn’t be smiling. Not after the second beating he’d been through. “Why are you grinning, Aldrin?”

“I think it’s the drugs.” The man waved his free hand as if to dismiss Jonah’s worry. It flopped around like a loose hinge. “It’s just that getting beat up makes you say more words than I ever dared hope for.”

What an odd thing to say. Jonah had been talking to Aldrin. More than he’d talked to anyone else in a very long time—except for his therapist. But he didn’t count. Obviously, the guy was zonked out of his gourd.

“I think you need to rest.”

Aldrin sighed. “Now only if you’d laugh. I would love to hear you laugh.”

“You want to hear me laugh?” Nobody had ever said anything like that to Jonah before. He wasn’t sure what to think of the statement, or how it made him feel. He reached up and brushed a lock of hair from Aldrin’s face.

It crushed him to see Aldrin’s eyes swollen, to see the bruises once again littering the man’s body. Something feral unfurled inside of him and Jonah wanted to protect Aldrin, to keep the man from ever being harmed again.

“Yep.” Aldrin lifted his free hand and gave Jonah a thumbs-up. “Wanna see you naked, too.”

Jonah’s brows shot to his hairline.

Oh yeah, Aldrin was stoned.

“I think you really need to rest.”

When the drugs wore off, would Aldrin be mortified at his confession? Was it really the drugs talking or was that how Aldrin truly felt? A faint stirring moved inside Jonah’s chest. He rubbed a lock of Aldrin’s hair through his fingers, mesmerized at how silky the hair felt against his roughened hands.

“I don’t wanna close my eyes,” Aldrin said. His voice had lowered, reminding Jonah of a scared child afraid to go into a dark room. “When I do, I see—”

“Hush.” Jonah squeezed Aldrin’s hand a little tighter. “I’m right here and I can promise you that nothing is going to happen to you.”

“But you can’t protect me from the nightmares.”

Aldrin’s whispered confession broke Jonah’s heart. He knew all too well about nightmares that gripped a man in his sleep and chased him into his everyday life. Jonah was haunted by plenty of nightmares himself. “I can promise that nobody will ever hurt you again.”

“How?” Aldrin asked.

The man struggled to keep his eyes open, as much as he could open them, but lost the fight and slowly closed them. Jonah wasn’t sure if Aldrin closed them because it hurt too much to keep them open, or if he closed them to shut out the pain of what had happened to him.

Twice.

“How would you feel about coming to recuperate at my house?” Just making that offer sent ice down Jonah’s spine. Not that he didn’t want to help Aldrin, but nobody had been to his cabin since…Jonah wiped his free hand over his mouth and pushed those memories aside.

He wondered if he was making the right call. Could he handle having someone he barely knew up on the mountain with him? He’d been alone for so long that the thought of having someone else there scared the hell out of him.

“I couldn’t impose.” Aldrin did that wave thing with his hand again. “This is my problem and I’ll handle it.” The man laughed, but the sound lacked humor. “Like I’ve handled it in the past. I think I’m starting to become a pro at being used as a kicking post.”

“Don’t say that.” Jonah ground his teeth together at the thought of Aldrin being attacked. He saw red for a moment, and his thoughts grew dark and dangerous. He wanted Aldrin’s attacker dead at his feet.

Jonah shook his head to clear those images and took in a deep breath. He couldn’t allow himself to go there. That was a dark hole to sink down into. He was fully aware of that. Aldrin needed him. He had to focus on that.

“Why are you willing to help me, Grizzly?” Aldrin smacked his lips, as if his mouth was dry. “We don’t even know each other.”

Bending sideways, Jonah grabbed the cup of water that sat on the table next to Aldrin’s bed. He placed the straw by Aldrin’s mouth. “Take a tiny sip.”

The straw danced around Aldrin’s mouth as Aldrin tried to chase it. Despite the gravity of the situation, Jonah smiled as he held the straw steady so Aldrin could take a sip. “Better?”

“I don’t know about better, but I don’t feel like I’m trying to inhale through the Sahara desert anymore.” Aldrin settled back. “You’re so cute.”

One of Jonah’s brows rose. He set the cup down and turned back to Aldrin. “I think you need to stop confessing things while those drugs are in your system. You’ll regret what you said once they wear off.”

“Nope.” Aldrin’s lips popped on the
P
. “You are sexy. And big. Real big. I like big. I want to climb you like a mountaintop and conquer you.”

Well, damn
. Jonah wasn’t sure what to say to that, if there was anything to say, but he felt himself blush. “Go to sleep, baby.”

Jonah wasn’t sure if he was relieved or disappointed when Aldrin’s breathing evened out, telling him that the man was sound asleep. Sitting back in the chair, Jonah studied Aldrin. Asleep, the man reminded Jonah of an angel. Aldrin had to be. He’d successfully pulled Jonah out of his shell and given him something to care about.

Or more precisely,
someone
to care about.

* * * *

Aldrin grinned as he watched the sour look on Jonah’s face as he fed the man a bite of his green Jell-O. The stuff was pretty bad, but he wasn’t about to admit that. He held up another spoonful. “More?”

Jonah’s face turned an interesting shade of green that kind of matched the Jell-O. “Not in this lifetime.”

Aldrin tossed his head back and laughed as pure joy filled him. He had been healing for two days, doing nothing more than sleeping and waking up long enough to eat something before going back to sleep. This was the first day he felt marginally human. He was feeling so much better…until the door opened and Sheriff John Riley walked in.

The Jell-O Aldrin had just eaten turned to a stone weight in his stomach. His hand shook as he set the Jell-O cup down. Before he could reach for Jonah, the man was there, standing next to the bed and reaching for Aldrin’s hand.

Aldrin let the calm that came from Jonah settle over him before turning to face the sheriff. He knew this was coming. He had been hoping to put it off for a few more days…or centuries. “Sheriff.”

“Aldrin, Jonah.” The man nodded at both of them before pulling off his cowboy hat and walking to the end of the bed. “How are you feeling?”

Aldrin smoothed his hand over the blanket. “Bruised.”

“I’ll bet.” As the sheriff’s inquisitive eyes roamed over him, Aldrin had a feeling the man saw a lot more than he was letting on. “You’re certainly looking a whole lot better than the last time I saw you.”

Aldrin glanced at Jonah. The sheriff had been in before? He didn’t remember a thing.

“I went by your house, Aldrin.” The sheriff sounded grim.

He looked just as grim.

“There is no easy way to say this, Aldrin. Your house has been ransacked.”

Aldrin’s gaze dropped to the hand entwined with his when he felt Jonah give him a squeeze. He wasn’t sure what to say or even if there was anything to say. He didn’t own much. He never had. Most of his stuff was just materialistic possessions in his mind, easily replaced, but there were one or two items that meant the world to him. He was afraid to ask what had happened to them, except he needed to know.

“On—” Aldrin cleared his throat and tried again. “On the mantel, there was a wooden deer statue and a wooden buffalo statue. Do you know if they were destroyed or not?”

Aldrin felt Jonah’s stunned response when the man jerked.

“I’m afraid I can’t say, Aldrin. The place was pretty well gone over, but I don’t remember seeing a deer or a buffalo statue.”

Aldrin nodded, dropping his head down to hide the tears that sprang to his eyes. He had just gotten that deer back after the first beating. At this rate, Jonah was never going to make him another carving again.

“Does someone have a beef with you, Aldrin?”

“No one I can think of.” Aldrin sighed as he tilted his head back and looked up at the white tiled ceiling. “I’m a pretty low key type of guy. I’ve never even had a parking ticket.”

“You don’t own a car, Aldrin,” Jonah pointed out.

Aldrin shot Jonah a glare. “Well, if I did, I still wouldn’t have so much as a parking ticket.”

“Guys.” The sheriff waved his hands. “Trying to solve a crime here. You can argue semantics later.”

Aldrin let out a small huff. “Sheriff, I really don’t know of anyone that would hate me enough to do something like this. Besides the attack by those three jerks that turned themselves in, I’ve never even been in a fight.”

“Well, it’s not them,” the sheriff said. “They got shipped to county last week.”

“Then I don’t know. Maybe someone didn’t like the way I served their coffee or something.” Aldrin just didn’t have an answer. He tried to get along with most people, and those he couldn’t get along with, he avoided. He didn’t look for trouble. He actually kind of went out of his way to avoid violent people.

“Aldrin is going to come up to my cabin for a bit,” Jonah said.

When the sheriff looked at him again, Aldrin held the man’s gaze. Even though Aldrin hadn’t agreed to anything, he didn’t want to argue that point in front of the sheriff.

“Maybe getting out of Cade Creek for a little while isn’t such a bad idea,” the sheriff finally said as he looked away from Aldrin and glanced at Jonah for a brief moment. “Until we can figure out who is after you, staying out of sight might be a bit safer for you.”

“I’ll need some things from my house.” Like clothes. Aldrin stared down at his hospital gown with disgust. The damn thing really was horrible. And it itched. A lot.

Aldrin really didn’t want to think about exposing his ass in it. He had bigger problems…and a mighty fine ass that he wasn’t ashamed of. Okay, so flashing people wasn’t the worst thing that could happen to him.

“Tell me what you need and I’ll have one of my deputies go and get it,” the sheriff said. “I don’t want you anywhere near that place until we can figure out who is after you.”

Aldrin swallowed the tight knot in his throat. “I just need some clean clothes and for someone to see if—” He shot Jonah a look.
Damn
. He had the man’s full attention. “I need to know if my figurines got destroyed.”

“I’ll replace them,” Jonah said in a tone so low Aldrin almost missed it.

That wasn’t the point. Aldrin wanted the originals. They held special meaning to him. Having them replaced would be like having the memories of Jonah giving them to him replaced. Instead of saying that, Aldrin curled his lips in and gave a single nod.

“I’ll have my men check to see if they can find those figurines for you,” Sheriff Riley said. “You’ll have a packed bag by this afternoon.”