Breathe (Colorado Mountain #4)(13)

“If this is true, I’m uncertain how there’s a problem.”

She pulled in a visibly deep breath.

And then she let it out while informing him quietly, “He’s being beaten.”

At that, Chace straightened from the door but he didn’t move from it as he whispered, “Beaten?”

She nodded.

“How do you know?” he asked.

“Well, the bruise on his cheekbone I saw. And the other one around his jaw. And then there were the ones on his wrists. But today,” she swallowed, took a half step toward him, stopped and sucked in another breath before going on, “today, it was bad.”

“How bad?”

“Eye swollen shut, bruises on his face, nose swollen and a gash on his lip that isn’t being treated.”

“Fuck,” Chace muttered.

“It’s worse,” she whispered and Chace nodded to her to go on. “He… well, he’s very thin. And he’s not clean, as in, way not clean. And his clothes don’t fit him. And he’s very, very thin.”

“You said that,” Chace noted quietly.

“He’s so very, very thin, Chace, it bears repeating,” she said quietly back.

Chace held her eyes and repeated his muttered, “Fuck.” Then he put his hands on his h*ps and asked, “You know this kid?”

She shook her head.

“Speak to him?” Chace continued.

She shook her head again but replied, “Every time I’ve tried to approach, he runs away. I tried again today and chased him. He was terrified. He outran me then disappeared.”

Jesus, she’d chased him? The town’s pretty, curvy, quiet librarian chased a kid?

He verbalized his question. “You chased him?”

“Yeah, out of the library and into town. He disappeared the minute he turned onto Main Street. Well, not the minute seeing as I was half a block behind him but close after. And I told him he wasn’t in trouble but he still ran.”

“You chased him.” It was a statement this time.

“Yeah,” she answered anyway then he watched her body give a small jolt and she whispered, “Oh no, was that the wrong thing to do?”

“Sorry, honey, but you gotta know in case the opportunity comes up again. A kid being beaten and malnourished, which gives us an indication who’s likely beating him, and not taken care of, which pretty much solidifies who’s beating him, should not be chased. It’s clear he’s not livin’ a good life. It’s likely that life is filled with a good deal of fear. And him borrowin’ library books outside of acceptable practice says to me whatever’s happening at home means he doesn’t trust anyone so he takes every opportunity to dodge connecting even if it means checking out a library book.”

As he spoke he saw her eyes had grown wide, her lips had parted and she was staring up at him with that appealing wonder she’d stared at him with yesterday morning.

And alone in a small interrogation room while discussing an abused child it was far more appealing.

Then she whispered her cute, “Oh.”

At this point he was seeing his error at giving them privacy. Top to toe, she was an itch he’d wanted to scratch for a long time. Faye Goodknight talking and reacting two feet away, her voice coming at him, her face expressive, her scent filling the room, she wasn’t an itch.

She was a craving.

Chace buried it and asked, “He keeps coming around?”

She blinked and asked back, “What?”

“This kid, you said you’ve tried to approach, the times you didn’t chase him down the street, he kept coming back?”

He saw her bubblegum lips twitch but she nodded and added her, “Yeah.”

“Right,” he muttered, reaching into his jacket pocket to pull out his phone. “He comes back, you don’t approach. You call me.”

“Call you?”

“Yeah,” he bent his head to his phone and activated it, saying, “I wanna get a look at him. See if I know him or who his kin might be. Maybe find a way to make my own approach.”

“He doesn’t look familiar.”

Chace lifted his head and looked at her. “You lived here your whole life, Faye, but still, it’s likely I’ve met more folk around here than you have.”

“This is true,” she said softly.

Christ.

Cute.

“Give me your number,” he ordered.

She blinked.

Then she whispered, “What?”

“Your phone number. Give it to me. I’ll call you, you’ll have mine you can store in your cell.”

“Can’t you just give me yours and I’ll program it in my cell?” she suggested.

“I could. But, darlin’, things the way they’ve been…” he trailed off, shook his head and let that speak for itself. She might live in her books but the shit that’s gone down, he knew from the limited conversations they’d had, had not escaped her notice. “I’m not big on surprises. You need to call me, when my phone rings, I like to know what I’m dealin’ with before I answer it. I got your number, it’ll come up on caller ID.”

She nodded and pressed her lips together before she said quietly, “That makes sense.”