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Well, here goes nothin’.
He tucked the phone between his ear and shoulder, listening to it ring as he finally found a pair of sweat pants that looked like they might fit the kid if he pulled the drawstring tight.
There was a click, then silence, and Leland waited to hear someone on the other end. “Hello?” Nothing. “Hello, can you hear me?”
The beep of a dropped call mocked him, and he huffed out a frustrated breath. “Dammit.”
The young man twitched, seeming to focus on him for the first time, his gaze confused and curious—but finally human, not glassy and alien.
“Who’re you?”
“Hey, kid,” Leland said, immediately pocketing his phone again. “My name’s Leland Sommers. I found you out here on the road. You remember how you got here?”
The kid looked around, frowning, and Leland guessed the answer before he shook his head. “Where the fuck ishere?”
He shivered, and Leland held out the sweat pants in offering. The kid’s nose wrinkled, but he took them.
“You’re on Route 23, right outside Pine Grove, Montana.” He cleared his throat. “What’s your name?” He focused on keeping his voice steady and warm. The boy didn’t seem especially volatile, but neither had that one girl he’d found stoned out of her mind on the floor of her boyfriend’s meth lab—until she’d damn near taken a chunk out of his arm.
This guy looked more like something had already taken a bite out ofhim, Leland thought, eyeing a fresh-looking wound on the kid’s left shoulder.
“My name’s Diego.” Diego wet his lips, pulling the drawstring on the pants as tight as they would go. They still sagged on his narrow hips, theArizona Coyoteslogo down the leg looking bigger than his entire body.
Leland’s phone rang in his pocket, and Diego flinched and immediately looked around as if he’d lost something, swearing under his breath. Leland guessed he’d had a phone with him before whatever had happened. But he’d have to ask questions later; the call was coming from a local number.
“This is Leland Sommers.”
“You call this number a minute ago?” The woman’s voice on the other end of the line was brusque, no-nonsense. “This is the Pine Grove Nature Preserve’s ranger station.”
“I did.” Well, at least something was going right. “I’m the new sheriff’s deputy, coming to fill the position in town. I’m stopped on Route 23 out here east of town with a young man who was in the road with no clothes on. Is there an emergency response service that I should call?”
The woman on the other end made a noise that might have been a snort. “Closest hospital’s at least an hour away. Can you get him into your car and drive him in, or do you need a backboard and a neck brace?”
Leland darted a glance over at Diego, evaluating him. He was trying to pick the leaves and twigs out of his hair now; it didn’t seem at all like he was nursing a spinal injury.
“No, he’s ambulatory.” Diego gave him an odd look, frowning, and Leland had a sudden flash of another kid—younger, smaller, but with the same mix of wariness and cautious hope on his face. He looked away. “Where should I take him?”
“There’s a clinic. When you’re coming in to town, turn left at the stoplight, and you’ll see it in about half a mile. I’ll call Haley and Doc Fenton, let ’em know you’re comin’ in.”
“Which stoplight?” Leland asked, and the woman laughed.
“The only one in the whole town. Anything you want me to tell the doc when I call her? Injuries, things like that?”
“Just some contusions, abrasions. It does look like he got attacked by an animal, maybe. Large wound on his shoulder might be a bite mark.”
The woman went so quiet that Leland pulled the phone away from his ear to see if the call had dropped.
“Hello?”
“I’ll let them know,” she said and hung up without a good-bye.
* * *
The clinic had a single lightbulb above the door, glowing brightly in the misty morning, and one lonely car parked in the parking lot.
Diego was shivering by the time Leland helped him down from the passenger’s seat, teeth chattering, little muscle spasms shooting through him.
“You’re gonna be all right,” Leland murmured, supporting him carefully, noting the feverish heat in his skin. A peek at Diego’s face confirmed that his eyes had gone glassy again, little beads of sweat at his hairline. “We’re here at the clinic. We’re gonna get you taken care of.”
