Second Chance Love (Heaven Hill Book 6) (22 page)

“I never wanted anyone to think I was stepping on their toes, and I respect the hell outta you, man. You went to war. I’ve never done a damn thing like that. I would love, at some point, to be patched in if Liam will allow it, so I don’t want there to be any hard feelings between the two of us,” Rooster admitted. It made him sound like a pansy, but if you couldn’t be honest to the people you wanted to be your friends, who could you be honest with?

“There are none now, I had to get over my own shit. Like I said, it really had nothing to do with you, it was just how I felt. I didn’t even have the right to feel that way, and I truly can’t explain it. It may have been part of the PTSD and you being an authority figure. Whatever, I’m over it now and I’m glad to have you here.”

Those were good words to hear and made Rooster feel much better about the situation they were in. He’d never been the type of person to get caught up in the needing-to-please-everyone game, but in this group of people, you wanted to be liked. There was so much trust and mutual respect, that it was hard to be on the outside looking in. Nobody wanted to be in that position, least of all him.

Letting his eyes travel back to the house, he noticed the coach coming out of the front door. He once again carried the duffel bag, and it looked like it was full to overflowing with product. “Look alive,” he told Layne. “He’s leaving.”

They waited until it had been a few minutes since they’d seen the car. It was getting later, past seven at night, but with it being summer, the late-day sun was just starting to set. Both he and Layne put hats on and made their way over to the house.

“Wanna try the backdoor?” Layne asked him as they saw that the street was still a little busy.

“Looks like it’s gonna be our best bet,” Rooster agreed as he glanced to the left and right. There weren’t a lot of cars, but there were a few, and the less chance they took at being seen, the better.

They both carried backpacks with them; if anyone glanced, they would probably think they were members of the football team, trying to talk to their coach. If they took a closer look, they would wonder why two grown men were carrying backpacks, but they were hoping that a short glance would be all the notice that anyone paid them. Once they got to the back, they realized this was much better. There were huge trees that were overgrown and no houses that backed up to this one.

“Mind if I do this?” Layne grinned at the other man. At one time, they probably would have argued over who would do the breaking and entering.

Rooster moved back and swept his hand out. “Be my guest.”

He watched as Layne reached up over the door, feeling for any kind of alarm system. Then he walked to the side of the house and checked the wires leading in before walking back over. Once he was satisfied that there was nothing that would let someone know they were there, he got to work. Rooster watched as he manipulated the lock, and less than a minute later, he had the door open. He had to admit that it would have taken him longer.

“You can clear the building,” Layne told him softly.

There was no more grinning and joking. A part of Layne’s PTSD could sometimes be triggered by clearing buildings, and neither one of them wanted him to have a flashback here. They couldn’t afford for him to, not when they weren’t sure about what they would be facing inside.

“Got it covered,” Rooster told him, pulling a gun of the small of his back. It had been a long time since he’d done this, and to be honest, he was looking forward to it.

Rooster took point like he always had at his previous job. His heart rate slowed down and his eyes became alert, his ears listening for anything that was off, taking in all his surroundings. He went through the kitchen, living room, and the bathroom before he came back to get Layne.

“All I’ve got left are the two bedrooms. Come with me in case there’s something in there I can’t handle on my own. Those doors are shut, and I don’t want you to be surprised if someone besides me comes outta this house.”

They went inside and stopped at the door to the first one. Rooster put his hand on the knob and nodded at Layne. Pushing the door open, they breached the room, only to find it empty. Moving to the second door, they did the same. This time, however, to their shock, there was a baby in a crib and a woman lying on the bed.

“Is she alive?” Layne asked, gesturing towards the woman. She had a tourniquet wrapped around her bicep, a needle in her arm, and her breathing was slow. Much too slow for the two of them to feel good about the situation.

“Barely.” Rooster came over to stand beside her, assessing her like he’d assessed victims for years. “Ma’am, can you hear us?”

Her eyes popped open and both men looked at one another. They had enough experience to know that she didn’t have much time left. Whatever she’d taken was coursing through her body at an alarming rate, and it was getting to be too much for her system to take. They were going to have a dead body on their hands in the next few minutes.

“Where did you get this?” Layne gestured to the needle in her arm.

She reached over towards him, pointing towards the closet. Layne walked over and opened the door, whistling. “There’s a ton of shit in this closet.” He looked back at Rooster. It looked like a medical facility storage room. Vials were stacked on top of vials. There were some names he knew, others he’d never seen before in his life. He knew, however, that most of it was high grade, and whatever this woman had taken, it was going to be the end of her. God, he hated that, because she looked young.

“She’s fading. What are you doing here? Who was the coach to you? Is this your daughter?” He glanced over at the baby, asleep in the crib, oblivious to everything going on around her. What the fuck were they going to do with a baby? What about all the questions he had?

“Please,” she wheezed. “Find her a good home. Let her have the life I didn’t get to have.”

With those words, she was gone. Layne and Rooster looked at each other, both shocked. They didn’t need a dead body on their hands, that wasn’t what they were here for. That had thrown a wrench in their plans, and now they were going to have to wing it. At least this was the coach’s house and there were enough drugs in the closet to put him away forever. “We gotta get outta here,” Layne said, grabbing up the baby stuff that he could find and carry. “You grab her.”

Rooster looked around, locating a car seat, and picked up the baby, putting her in it. Adalynn was printed on the outside; he assumed that was the child’s name. They quickly made their way out of the house and back across the street to Rooster’s truck. Once there, he reached his hand out to Layne. “Give me one of those burner cells.”

Layne took a deep breath and tossed it across the seat.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

“P
ick up the fucking phone,” Rooster mumbled as he listened to the phone ring in his ear. Finally, he heard the call connect.

“Statesman.”

“Randy? It’s Rooster.” Randy Statesman was one of the top-ranking members of the sheriff’s department and had more seniority than most everyone else combined.

“Rooster?”

“Yeah, look, I don’t have a lot of time to talk.”

“Why are you callin’ me from a burner phone?” He was quick to ask the questions that Rooster didn’t want to answer.

Those questions were not something he wanted to get into and were why he had chosen to call from a burner phone. “That doesn’t matter, but I’m going to give you some info. This didn’t come from me.”

They were quiet for a long time, and Rooster wondered if his old friend would take the info or if he would come looking to bring him in. He was taking a huge chance, but the community needed Larry Thistle locked up, and if they couldn’t take care of it, then the authorities needed to.

Finally, the other man answered. “Alright, this stays between us. What do you have?”

Rooster told him the story of the high school football coach, ending with the coach’s address, the amount of drugs he had in the house, and the fact that there was a dead woman in the bed. He left out the fact that there was a baby. If anyone knew what to do for the baby, it was Meredith. She had been doing placements for over a year at CRISIS. He was sure that Tyler knew that, but privacy laws made it so that she couldn’t tell other people. Secretly, he’d worked with her when he was working for the county. If anyone knew what to do with the baby, it was her. The baby looked to be less than a year old, and it was obvious she’d not had an easy time of it so far.

“I’m sending units out right now, so if you need to leave, you need to go.”

“Thanks, Randy. I owe ya.”

He had no doubt that at some point in the future his old friend would take him up on that favor. He tossed the phone to Layne; Layne cleaned it with a rag and then dumped it out on the ground so that the tires of Rooster’s truck would crush it. With any luck, it wouldn’t be found, not on a heavily traveled road like this.

“Where are we headed?” Layne asked as Rooster fired up the truck and took off out of the neighborhood.

“To take this little girl to the only person that we know who can help her—Meredith. I’m not leaving her in foster care. There’s no telling what might happen to her there. Meredith works with CRISIS, I have no doubt she can either find a family to keep her or figure out what to do with her. I know what happens to kids that go into foster care. I’ve sent a lot of them there already—some of them I’ve seen back out on the streets as barely eighteen-year-old criminals. I feel like this little girl needs more, deserves better. She was going to be alone in that room while her mom died. I can’t leave her life up to chance. I just can’t do it.”

Layne took a deep breath. He’d seen a lot in his years too. “I get it. Let’s take her to people who know what to do with her.”

In the back of his mind, Rooster wondered, what if this had been his and Roni’s child? Would he want that child to go people who wouldn’t give a shit about it, or would he want that child to go to people who would love her? The answer was without a doubt to people that would love her. “Why don’t you call them and tell them that we’re on our way.”

Meredith and Tyler waited in the front room of their house, watching out the front window for Rooster and Layne to pull up.