Chapter Fifty-Seven

“I can’t believe you did that.” Dane took the phone and moved into position by the wall where Lena had called Kenzie. He was pretty damned impressed.

“I had to do something. We don’t have enough information on Tobey, and I want to help in some way.”

He kissed her hard, so happy to have her on the team. Even if she didn’t know how to shoot, she was smart and she cared about him.

He wasn’t sure if Lena’s performance would earn him a video conference with Tobey, or if it would only be a regular phone call, but the team would be ready for anything.

“Remember,” Justin reminded him. “You were really angry and have just calmed down enough to take Tobey’s call.”

“Right.” Dane nodded, dropped to the floor, and did ten fast push-ups, keeping his bum leg in the air. When he stood, he felt flushed and was slightly out of breath. Just as he would have been if he’d lost his shit and trashed a hotel room.

The sound of the phone brought on an immediate silence, other than his hard breathing.

“Ready?” Lena scanned the group to get a nod from each member.

Angel was last. She rubbed her palms together eagerly. “I’m ready.”

Lena answered the phone and immediately frowned into the screen. “Butch,” she said, even though no one had spoken yet.

“Can you see me? I don’t know how this shit works,” the giant complained.

“Yeah, I can see you,” Lena said.

“You’d better be taking care of my Jeep.”

Dane ground his teeth impatiently.

“I am. Where’s Tobey?” Lena asked, reading his expression.

“Right here. Make it quick.”

Lena let out a breath and handed the phone to Dane.

For a moment, he had the urge to run away from the phone, as if he were being handed a snake rather than a piece of technology that would allow him to connect with his son.

He was just worried about the possibility of messing things up. Once again, he felt that pain for what Lena went through every morning when Kenzie called.

“Tobey?” he said as his son’s face came into view. “Hold the phone out farther. I can’t make you out. You’re all blurry,” he said, more because they wanted to see the room he was in than because he was truly out of focus.

“Is this better?” Tobey asked.

“Much.” Dane could see the entire length of the room he was in. “I see you have some friends there.”

“Yeah. Guys, wave to my dad,” he called back to the others.

Three boys in the room waved, then went back to the board game they were playing. At least they didn’t play video games the entire day.

“How are you doing?” Dane asked his son. “Still eating a lot of pizza?”

“Sometimes we have cereal for dinner.” Tobey frowned and looked over his shoulder. “That guy”—he pointed to Butch, who was taking his turn in the game—“ate all the crunch berries out of the cereal and left the rest. Who does that?”

Tobey’s tone of disgust made Dane smile. If that was the only injustice in the way they were being treated, he would sing Butch’s praises for the rest of the man’s short life.

Focusing on the script, he put on his worried father expression and asked, “Do you ever get to go outside?”

Tobey shrugged. “Sometimes. We’ve gone up to the house to watch movies.” He gestured in the direction of what Dane assumed was the house he was speaking of.

“Do you have clean clothes? Are you able to take a shower?”

“Yeah. They got me this shirt.” Tobey frowned down at his T-shirt with a Canucks logo. It was too big, but it appeared to be clean.

Dane let out a breath. His son was okay. “Are you doing all right?” he asked, just to make sure.

“I miss Mom and Randy. And you.” It was clear he’d added that last part for Dane’s sake.

He understood Tobey wouldn’t miss him. Dane wasn’t in his life for his absence to be noticed. Still, it stung a little.

“I’m going to meet a man today,” Dane said. “And you will be able to go home.” It didn’t hurt to reinforce that they were planning to move on Masters today. Even if it was all BS.

“Time’s up,” Butch yelled. “And it’s your turn.”

“I gotta go,” Tobey said, looking wistful.

“Yeah. Me, too. I’ll talk to you soon, okay?”

“Okay. Love you, Dad.”

“Love you, too.”

In his struggles to turn off the phone, Butch accidentally gave them a 180-degree view of the room they were in. Yes!

When the call was disconnected, everyone took a deep breath and started working.

Dane walked out of the lodge and broke down.

This time for real.