Page 16 of Yours on the Canvas

“This better be good, Si.” His voice is rough with sleep.

“I need Reid. Jack’s in the hospital in Vancouver, and I need to get there now, and I can’t wait until morning for the next flight.”

The panic bleeding through my voice pisses me off, but I can’t control it. Not when it’s Jack.

“Give me five.” He hangs up, no questions or wasted conversation.

I push my foot on the accelerator, and the truck lurches forward, gaining speed in the deserted streets. The phone lights up next to me, and I answer.

“Tell me he can help.”

“He says he’ll be there in twenty. Wait for him at the gates.”

Relief surges through my body. “Thanks, Cal. I owe you.”

“Nah. You owe Reid, and trust me,” he laughs down the phone, “that fucker will make you pay.”

“I don’t care what he asks of me; I’ll give him everything I have if he just gets me to Jack.”

Callan laughs down the phone. “Careful, he might take it.” Then he hangs up, leaving me alone with the weight of what I’m going to find when I get to Vancouver.

* * *

I park outside the gates to Reid’s heliport and wait. I don’t have to wait long; five minutes later, he pulls up beside me. I follow him through the gates and park next to his truck. When I jump out, the night air bites straight through my clothes, but I barely feel it.

I follow him inside and open the doors as he starts prepping the helicopter. I help him push it out onto the pad, and when he gives me the go-ahead, I climb in beside him, pulling on my headset. The cockpit feels cramped, every inch of it pressing in, leaving me nowhere to escape the weight sitting heavy in my chest.

“This is going to be a quick trip,” Reid tells me through the headset. “I’ll refuel in Nanaimo, then we’ll make the hop to Vancouver. Should get there in just under two hours.”

I nod, barely acknowledging Reid before we lift into the night. Darkness swallows us almost immediately, the coastline stretching beneath us in a long, uneven line of scattered lights. Reid stays silent while I stare out the window, watching the black water disappear under us.

Now and then a cluster of lights breaks through the dark, but most of the flight passes in silence. Not the comfortable kind; this silence is thick, heavy, filled with the same questions circling endlessly through my head. Who did this to Jack? Why was he beaten so badly? And why the hell had someone left him on a dead-end road to die?

We reached Nanaimo in a little over half an hour. The refueling stop feels painfully slow, every minute stretching while Jack lies in a hospital somewhere in Vancouver, alone and broken. As soon as we’re airborne again, I settle back into my seat and fix my gaze on the darkness outside.

“So, Silas. Tell me what happened to Jack.”

I drag a breath deep into my lungs and hold it for a moment before slowly letting it go. “Sounds like he was beaten pretty badly and left for dead on a dead-end road. Some young couple found him.” I keep my eyes on the water below because I don’t think I can look at Reid while I say the rest. “He’d been abandoned.”

“Do they think he was mugged? Police involved?”

“I don’t know much. All I know is that he was beaten badly.” My throat tightens. “He’s got a concussion, bruised and fractured ribs, and God knows what else. They’ve got him sedated.”

Reid doesn’t respond immediately. I glance over at him and find his eyes fixed on the instruments in front of him. I turn back toward the window, swallowing against the pressure building in my throat.

Questions hit hard as Reid flies me toward Jack. What if I don’t get there in time? Who the hell did this to him?

And who the hell dumped him there?

The last question hits something deep, and a wave of rage tears through my chest. I don’t even realize I’ve clenched my hands until Reid reaches across and lays his hand over mine, steadying me before I spiral any further.

“He’s going to be okay, Si,” he says quietly. “He’s a strong kid, you’ll get him back.”

His hand leaves mine, but the warmth remains for a moment.

“I hope you’re right, Reid.”

“He’ll be okay.”