She couldn’t get the words out of her head. She’d showed up like they’d asked. She helped clean up the diner after the dinner crowd and then followed Rick over to the bar, where he introduced her to the lady that just had the baby boy.
It was dark and lit by candles. There was one man in the corner drinking a beer. It all felt so normal. That was the problem. Too normal. Too complacent.
“Just down here is where we keep the radio equipment. Macy takes care of things when I’m otherwise occupied. I thought you might want to meet her. She’s a little younger than you are but she can show you around when you’re up to it.”
“Well, I’ll wait until she’s ready. She just had a baby,” Paige said.
“Oh, she’s fine. Already back to work. And she’s got a radio set up for you. All you have to do is monitor the set station,” Rick said.
When Paige entered the little office in the back the mom named Macy had a headset on and was writing something down with a newborn in her lap and another little girl napping beside her.
When she saw them standing in the doorway, she took off the headset. “Just a second. I need to get this down,” she said and finished scribbling. Then she smiled at Paige and handed the note to Rick. It must have been bad news because when he stared at it, he shook his head a little and let out a long breath.
Despite that, Macy said, “Hi. How are you settling in?” as she handed her a handheld radio.
“I’m fine but you look like you could use a hand,” Paige said.
Macy unplugged the headset from the transceiver. “Oh, I’ve got this handled. It’s what I can do and still keep track of these guys. Besides, if I need help, there’s always someone in the bar I can hand a baby off to. Now, that’s all ready to go,” she smiled.
Paige nodded at the radio in her hand and thought, I could get comfortable here.
But then the main receiver chirped on again and a voice said, “Update from Kirkland…make that five deceased and three women missing. They found five bodies and four heads. We guess there was some initial confusion. Over.”
Macy’s eyes locked with hers and the only thing Paige remembered after that was walking back to the little house where Cheryl was playing with Tehya while Graham watched over them. She didn’t remember walking through the bar or Rick calling after her.
Her boots clomped on the old wood floor as she entered the house and the screen door slapped against the frame. The girls were making a tower with cards on the living room coffee table like she used to do with her brother when they were kids. Graham was making sandwiches on the kitchen counter by the looks of things. He slapped a dishtowel over his shoulder and looked up at her as she entered. It was all so normal.
She didn’t sleep that night as Cheryl slept next to her in the double bed with an old quilt pulled up over them and Scout crowding her knees. Sheriff came in at some time during the night and lay at the end of their bed too. She’d moved her feet to the side against the wall so he had more room. Sleep didn’t come for her the next night, either.
“I said, we’re leaving. We’re not staying here.”
She shoved a bag and a few provisions the nice lady in the diner gave her into the back of the truck Dalton had said she could take.
Graham watched her while he held Cheryl’s hand. “It’s okay. I’m sure you’re doing what’s best for you and Cheryl. No one’s standing in your way.”
She eyed him. “You mean you’re not going to try to keep her from me?”
“You’re healthy. She’s healthy. No one’s going to try to keep her from you. She’s just as much your daughter as Tehya is mine. I’m glad we were able to reunite the two of you.”
Paige opened the back door of the cab. “Come on, Cheryl.”
Cheryl didn’t move.
Graham still held her hand. He raised his shoulders as if to say, This is not my fault.
Cheryl had not let go of him yet. She had one finger in her mouth while she stood stock still in place. The girl was mostly well-behaved but could be stubborn like that at times.
Why did she like him so much? Paige couldn’t figure it out. Cheryl seemed drawn to Graham as well as that man named Sam. It made her feel bad. Did she not like her anymore? Paige had done everything for the child. Everything imaginable to keep her safe over the years.
“Come on, honey. It’s time to go,” Paige encouraged. But the girl didn’t budge.
She met Graham’s eyes and she wasn’t kind about it.
He got the drift and knelt down to Cheryl’s side. “Come on sweetheart. You get to go on a trip with your mom. Here we go,” he said as he lifted her up and into the cab. “Your mom’s going to take you where you’re safer.”
Cheryl spoke little after the trauma she’d been through, so it struck her like a slap in the face as the girl said, “But I want to stay here, with you,” and held her arms out to Graham.
She had to admit at that point that Graham was a nice man and he had made them feel safer. At least for a little while.
He said, “But your mom would miss you and that would be a terrible thing.”
Cheryl nodded, and her lip trembled as he buckled her into the back seat.
Paige waved to Tehya and gave her a side hug. The girl was always shy in public, but she’d seen her lively side as she stayed in Graham’s house for the past few weeks while they healed. “Bye, Tehya. Thank you for being a friend and sharing with Cheryl.”
Paige swallowed. This was harder than she thought it would be, and she knew Graham wasn’t going to like her next step.
She opened the cab’s passenger door and let Scout jump into the passenger seat. “Come on, Enzo,” she said, patting her leg, “you too.”
“Dad,” Tehya said in a wary tone.
“What are you doing? You’re not taking him,” Graham said.
Sheriff wagged his tail and waddled over to her side.
But Tehya and Cheryl were watching them. And they’d learned to keep their many disagreements in check around the children.
In a calm metered whisper as Graham stepped closer, she said, “Come on. He’s not safe here. Can’t I take him? I know he’s important to you. But he’s very important to me, too.”
“We’re not even sure if he’s the same dog. Besides, we agreed to let you take Scout.”
By the tone of Graham’s voice, she could tell he realized she wasn’t completely serious. She knew he wasn’t about to let her have him. But she had to try.
“You really believe that now?”
“You’re not taking him and that’s final,” he said with a half-smile.
She had the feeling he might miss her a little bit.
“If they come here and they capture him, if they don’t just outright kill him, they’ll eat him. You don’t want that to happen, do you?”
He smiled. “That just proves you don’t know him as well as I do. No one’s eating Sheriff.”
“Enzo,” she countered with a smile.
“Nope,” Graham said with a shake of his head, and she knew when she was defeated. She loved the dog, but she loved Cheryl more, and though it was hard to leave him she had to get Cheryl away from the large group of people.
She knelt down and rubbed the hot fur under his old collar again. “Enzo, my love. Until we meet again. Lincoln’s waiting for you—you know that, right? He loved you so much.” She swallowed because she was going to cry, no doubt, and she couldn’t afford that now.
“Missoula by nightfall?” she said as Graham closed the cab door.
“Yes. Stay there one night, outside of town, and then keep heading south.”
She nodded and then looked at his little girl again. Tehya the intrepid one, is what she wanted to call her. She reminded her of herself. And then she eyed Graham once more. “I hope you know what you’re doing,” she said in that same lowered whispered voice, only this time…more caring than stern.
“I know that what we do, we do together,” he’d said. “I’m not parting from my children. We’re bound to fight this out.”
She knew he meant it and nodded.
Cheryl whimpered in the back seat then and waved her hand out the window.
Tehya leaned into Graham’s leg and hid her eyes with the one hand that wasn’t clenched around his leg with the dog named Sheriff by his side.
It was all a damn mess. Paige took one last look at Enzo and willed her legs to walk around to the driver’s side of the truck. She got in and closed the door. She started the engine and left. She took one last look at Graham standing there in the middle of the road with his little girl and her brother’s dog Enzo by his side and cried while she drove out of Coeur d’Alene.