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It would have to do for the night because I needed to get Caleb settled.
I hurried back to the car and went to the passenger side. I eased open the door and used my hand to keep Caleb from falling out of the car. He jolted as his body shifted, then jerked awake.
“Don’t!” he shouted as he lashed out at me.
I grabbed his wrists and said, “Caleb, it’s me, Jace. You’re safe.”
It took him several seconds to register what I’d said before he relaxed and whispered, “Jace?”
“Yeah, baby, it’s me.”
I cursed myself for letting the endearment slip out, but fortunately Caleb didn’t seem to notice because he began whipping his head around as the fog of sleep cleared.
“Where are we?” he asked.
I was glad he seemed a little more lucid than he had earlier.
“Someplace safe,” I said. “Come on, let’s get inside.”
But he didn’t move, and I felt a fine tremor ripple through his body as I continued to hold onto his wrists.
“He has a kid,” Caleb whispered. “I didn’t know he had a kid.”
I figured he was talking about the guy he’d held the gun on, but as badly as I wanted to know who the man was to him, I wanted to get him inside first. The air around us was cooling quickly as the sun fell completely behind the horizon. The higher elevation meant the temperature would drop more quickly than down in the lowlands. We’d likely see freezing temperatures tonight.
“Let’s get inside,” I urged and then I was carefully pulling him out of the car. Caleb swayed and leaned heavily against me as he closed his eyes. The dome light from the car showed his pained expression. “Caleb, are you hurt?” I asked, terrified that I’d somehow missed him getting shot or something. I began scanning his body for blood.
He shook his head. “Just a little dizzy,” he said.
“When was the last time you ate?” I asked as I closed the door and leaned him back against the side of the car.
He didn’t answer me. I left him standing there and went to the trunk to get my duffel bag, which I kept stashed in the car for emergencies. I used the opportunity to remove the fake plates from the car and tossed them into the trunk. By the time I returned to Caleb’s side, he’d closed his eyes again. I put my arm around his waist and said, “Lean on me if you need to.”
“I’m okay,” he murmured, but when I pulled him forward, he leaned against me anyway.
Once I got him into the cabin, I sat him down at the small kitchen table and began rummaging around the cabinets. I had some MREs in my bag, but I preferred to serve him something hot. Not to mention that the military style ready-to-eat meals tasted like shit. I let out a silent thank-you to whoever was listening when I spied several cans of soup. I grabbed one of the cans of chicken noodle soup and got it going on the stove, then went to the refrigerator. There was nothing in it, so I settled for some tap water in a plastic cup. Caleb was staring off into space as he sat in the chair. I worked the backpack off his back and dropped it by his feet. I didn’t like that he’d gone quiet again, but my priority was getting some food into him, so I didn’t try to engage him in conversation. The soup took just minutes to heat up. When I slid it in front of him, he shook his head.
As badly as I wanted to order him to eat, I could tell he was mentally on the edge and it wouldn’t take much to send him over and back into the state of shock he’d been in. Between his obvious lack of sleep and food, not to mention the events of the day, I had no doubt he was at his breaking point.
“Caleb,” I said softly as I covered his hand with mine where it was resting on the table. “Please eat… for me.”
It was a low blow, but I was a desperate man.
His dull blue eyes lifted to meet mine. He didn’t respond as he pulled his hand free of mine, but when he reached for the spoon, I stifled my sigh of relief. The cabin was eerily silent as he ate. I used the opportunity to send a text to Memphis telling him our coordinates from my satellite phone, since my regular phone didn’t have reception. I’d been hoping there’d be a TV or radio in the cabin so I could see what the news was saying about the shooting, but unfortunately there wasn’t either.
Caleb managed to eat about a quarter of the soup before he carefully settled the spoon on the table. He stared numbly at the bowl, as if it somehow held the answers to how his life had gone so very wrong. My heart hurt for him as I watched him, and I couldn’t resist reaching out to push his hair off his face.
