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archetTitle: Angels Ain’t Easy
Author: Archet
Pairing: OMC Jody McKinnon/Matt Hawkes
Fandom: High Mountain Rangers
Summary: a story of falling in love, figuring things out and just holding on.
Disclaimer: I did not create the High Mountain Ranger character/s, only this fic and the Original Male Character, Jody McKinnon, and any other original characters in supporting roles. No copyright infringement is intended.
Notes: this fic is set in 1989, approximately a year and a half after the events of the final episode of High Mountain Rangers. There will be no acknowledgment of the events of the spin-off show Jesse Hawkes.
Note: this fic takes place a little over four months after Bad Luck, Bad Guys and High Mountain Rangers and is a sequel to that fic, so reading that first is recommended.
Additional: this fic will depict same sex physical and romantic relationships, and dominate/submissive themes. If this ain’t your thing, venture no further.
Summary this chapter: a hawk has a secret, and Jody finds a common bond with Cody.
***Additional Notes/ramblings at end of chapter***
~*~
Chapter 22: The Secrets of Hawks
“You gonna rat us out?” Jamie asked, voice rising in concern.
Jamie had just finished giving a play by play of his and Cody’s little excursion up on Bloods Point. Now that the details were out in the open, it seemed to have just occurred to the boy to worry about repercussions. He offered up a rather sheepish smile.
“We really aren’t supposed to be up there, and I do not need my dad finding out.”
In spite of his irritation with the two, Jody stifled a chuckle. “Well, what did you think was going to happen after Matt found out you guys had been up there?” He asked.
Jamie drummed his fingers on the tabletop. “We didn’t really think that far ahead, obviously.”
Beside Jamie, Cody had clammed up, the beginnings of a scowl on his face.
Thinking over all that he’d just been told, Jody lifted a hand, pinching the bridge of his nose between forefinger and thumb. The two little snoops were lucky. With all manner of grim scenarios running through his mind, Jody took a breath, calling on his patience.
“So. Let me get this straight,” he said, dropping his hand after a moment, and pinning both boys with a stern look. “You two geniuses thought it’d be a good idea to scale up to a two story balcony, just to poke around?”
Of the two, Cody seemed the least affected by Jody’s censure. “Well,” he said with a shrug, “all the ground floor doors and windows were locked.”
“Oh, well, that’s logical,” Jody deadpanned.
At Cody’s side, Jamie waved off the concern. “I mean, it’s not like we hadn’t done it before. It’s not that hard. And there wasn’t anything to see anyway, the place is practically empty. We only had time to check out one room, and it just had a couple sleeping bags on the floor, a map tacked to the wall and some papers spread around.”
A swift, slanting glare from Cody, and Jamie abruptly snapped his mouth shut.
“Oh, really?” Jody said, leaning forward. “Just how many times have you two been messing around that place?”
With a lingering look at Jamie, Cody sat up a little straighter, folded his arms across his chest, and tilted his head to the side in what Jody was coming to think of as a genetic Hawkes trait.
“Look, it doesn’t matter. We just happened to be up there when Silva drove up. Him and some other guy. As soon as they went inside, we took off. I thought Matt should know, and I don’t care if I get in trouble or not.”
Admiring the kid’s spunk, and devotion to his big brother, Jody was willing to let the pair’s previous forays into private property slide for the moment.
“Who was the guy that was with Silva?” He asked.
Cody shook his head. “Don’t know. Never seen him before.”
Jamie chimed in. “Yeah, me neither, but he was dressed like an extra out of The Lost Boys, or something. All in black, sorta, edgy like. Looked like he could use a few cheeseburgers and a vacation at the beach, if you ask me.”
The description sounding familiar, Jody asked, “I think I know him. Did he have really pale hair? Like more white than blonde?”
Both boys nodded, but it was Cody’s gaze that narrowed. “How do you know him?”
Jody grunted, ignoring the tinge of accusation in the tone. “We met the other night. Matt and I were having dinner, and he got a call at the bar. It was just a maneuver by Silva to get Matt away from the table. Silva just happened to show up out of the blue, and he had this guy with him. His name is Alex, or so he said.”
Cody’s gaze sharpened. “So Matt knows Silva is around?”
Jody paused. “Yes, he knows. Silva asked to meet with him today, supposedly to explain some… things,” Jody finished, keeping it vague. He had no idea how much Matt’s little brother was privy to regarding his prior relationship with Silva, not to mention Jamie.
Cody stared hard, and then gave one brief nod. Having arrived at a silent agreement not to get into anything more detailed in front of Jamie, Jody shifted gears. He glanced at the clock on the wall, surprised that it was later in the day than he’d realized.
“Well, Matt should be at the station by now; he was going by there on his way back home.”
Jamie, having not noticed the slight shift of topic, thumped Cody’s shoulder with the back of his hand. “See? Matt already knows, so you can stop worrying.”
“Yeah,” Cody said neutrally, looking at his friend, and then faced Jody. “I really don’t like that guy.”
“Ditto,” Jody said succinctly, and then added, “but Matt can handle himself.”
“Yeah, but Matt—,” Cody broke off struggling for a moment before pushing out the words, “he wants to help too much, takes on too much, sometimes.”
Touched by the genuine concern Cody displayed so plainly, Jody knew better than to comment on it. He was pretty certain the younger Hawkes wouldn’t appreciate the sentiment, coming from him. Leaning back in his chair, he laid one hand on the table, gathering both boys attention.
“Look, I think it’d be a good idea if you two stayed away from Bloods Point, okay? At least until we know what exactly is going on.” He added quickly, “And I’m not saying anything is, but better to err on the side of caution at this point.”
Cody’s brows lowered. “You’re probably right, but you don’t trust Silva any more than I do. Admit it; you think something fishy is going on.”
“Maybe,” Jody allowed, and as Cody’s expression darkened he pinned the boy with a pointed look. “Look, when Matt gets back you can tell him about your little sightseeing trips, and together we can decide what comes next, if anything.”
Deflated, Jamie collapsed back into his chair. “Oh, man, if my dad finds out, I’m toast. We should have, like, made an anonymous call, or something.”
Cody snorted. “And how would we do that?”
Jamie grinned. “I don’t know, man, think creatively. Maybe get one of those voice changer boxes.”
“You’ve been watching too much A-Team,” Cody said, smile curving his lips.
“It’s a real thing!” Jamie insisted.
“I don’t know,” Cody countered uncertainly.
Shaking his head as the argument escalated, Jody pushed up from his chair, a suspicion forming that Cody’s disagreement was more a ploy to distract Jamie from thoughts of doom about his father finding out about their shenanigans.
Stepping up to the counter, Jody began gathering up the abandoned cookie ingredients, arranging the items in a neat line against the backsplash. He really wanted a quiet moment to go over his thoughts in light of the new information the kids had supplied. What was Silva doing up on Bloods Point? And just what was this supposed mansion all about?
Swiping up a spot of flour from the countertop with his palm, Jody stepped over to the sink and turned on the tap. Quickly rinsing his hands, he shut off the water and reached for the kitchen towel lying on the counter. As he reached out his eyes alighted on the carved, green shape of the jade hawk, sitting innocently on the windowsill. In the full sunlight spilling through the pane, it seemed to gleam with an inner glow.
Drying his hands, Jody stared at the carving. It had remained in the kitchen since the day he’d unearthed it from the depths of Matt’s pantry. Ultimately, Matt had moved it to the out of the way spot on the window sill. Matt had wondered aloud several times what he should do with the thing, but eventually they both had simply taken to ignoring it. Matt stopped mentioning it, and Jody was content to pretend it didn’t exist.
Funny that its reappearance practically coincided with Silva’s.
Frowning, Jody reached out and cupped his hand around the hawk, lifting it from the sill. The boys paid him no mind, their argument having moved on from voice distorter boxes, to how successful Jamie might pull off an English accent. Cody snorted loudly as Jamie recited the first handful of lines of I’m Henry VIII, I Am in what might have been an attempt at a Cockney accent, through it was difficult to tell through both boys’ ebullient laughter.
Cradling the hawk, Jody tilted it to the sunlight, watching as it sparkled. His fingers wrapped around its wooden base tightened. He thought of Matt’s grin from earlier, and then imagined him with Silva, listening to whatever tale the man might be spooling out. His fingers cinched even more firmly around the hawk as the warning, angry buzz in his blood resurfaced.
Silva was trouble, Jody knew it.
Crack!
“Oh, shit,” he mumbled, staring down at the figurine in his hand.
His comment garnered the boys’ attention, and they both craned their necks to see what he was holding. Pivoting away from the sink, he held up the hawk. Cody stared at it for a second, and then sat back against his chair.
“I remember that thing,” he said flatly.
Jamie seemed mesmerized by the green carving. “Oh, man, that looks expensive.”
“It is, or so I’ve been told,” Cody said shortly.
Seeming to heed the curtness in Cody’s tone, Jamie didn’t press him for details. Instead he stood from the table and came to stand by Jody. His eyes were fixed on the hawk.
“Can I see it? It sorta reminds me of the puzzle boxes my uncle makes.”
Pausing, Jody handed the carving over with the warning, “Just be careful. Cody’s right, it is worth some money.”
Jamie nodded, and cautiously accepted the figurine as Jody handed it over.
Jody leaned against the counter watching the kid. Jamie, his brows drawn together in concentration, was running his fingers back and forth along the carving’s base. Jody wondered briefly what he was looking for; he’d held the thing himself several times and had not noticed anything unusual.
“Let me know if you find a crack. I didn’t mean to break the damned thing,” he said, then returned to Jamie’s earlier comment. “It’s just a carving, I don’t think it’s a—“
“Ah-ha!” Jamie exclaimed as an audible snick! sounded from the hawk as he applied pressure to the seam between the jade bird and its wooden base. The carving separated from its mount, pulling apart on a hidden brass hinge.
“See!” Jamie said, excitement alight in his dark eyes. “Uncle Aiden makes stuff a little like this, only he carves everything out of wood. The tourists love’em.”
Jody sidled closer, staring at the figurine in Jamie’s hands. Together they peered at the opened carving. Jamie gave it a gentle shake, inhaling sharply as a small roll of paper tumbled free from the innards of the bird, along with a plastic canister.
“Crap!” Jamie exclaimed, fumbling the hawk as it spilled its secrets.
Shooting out a hand, Jody grabbed the hawk as Jamie juggled the roll of paper and canister.
Chair sliding abruptly across the floor, Cody shot up from his spot and joined them.
“What is that?” Cody asked, expression tight.
Gingerly Jody placed the hawk on the countertop, then reached out and plucked the tiny toll of paper from Jamie’s palm. Gently unrolling it, he spread it out over his palm with two fingers. Tilting his palm toward the sunlight steaming in through the kitchen window, the trio bent their heads over the discovery. Several rows of numbers, neatly inscribed in a blocky print spanned the length of the roll, broken intermittently by blank spaces.
“Looks like some kind of codes,” Jamie noted.
“Yeah,” Cody said, then added, “and probably written at different times. See how some of them is in black ink, others in blue?”
Jody nodded, impressed at Cody’s observation. He had a theory of his own about the strings of numbers, but opted to keep them to himself for the moment.
“I think you’re right, Cody,” he said.
“What about this?” Jamie asked, holding up the black cylindrical canister. He gave it a gentle shake, and the contents inside the plastic casing rattled.
“Give it to me,” Jody said gruffly, suspecting he knew what was inside.
The warning current that had been buzzing in him all morning was practically sparking now, transmitting caution.
Handing the codes over to Cody, Jody took the canister and carefully prized the tightly seated lid up. He looked inside. It was just as he’d thought, and shaking out the contents, held it up for the boys to view.
“Camera film,” he said.
Cody asked, “But of what?”
Jody held his gaze. “I don’t know, but something important enough to someone to keep it hidden.”
A chill swept up his spine.
Cody nodded slowly. “I think we should call Matt at the station.”
Jody slid the film back into its canister and snapped the lid securely on. “Good idea,” he said, then after a breath added, “but I have a job for the two of you before we do that.”
Both boys stared.
“Cody, grab some pens and some paper. I want each of you to sit down, and copy these numbers, exactly as they are here.” He gestured to the rolled up strip Cody still held.
“When you’re finished, check one another’s work. That way we have two copies.” Handing the film back to Jamie, he said, “When you’re done, put everything back just as it was.”
Jamie nodded, an eager bob of his head. “Got it.”
Cody had already moved off to open up a kitchen drawer, pulling out a composition notebook and a couple pens. He tipped his head at Jamie and the pair moved back to the table. Taking a moment to organize themselves, they sat down to and got to work copying the rows of mysterious numbers.
Watching the two with approval, Jody leaned back against the kitchen counter as they worked. There was no way Matt knew anything about the hawk’s secret, he would’ve said as much. Which meant Silva gave it to Matt for a reason, and not just to impress his date. Something sour twisted in the pit of Jody’s stomach.
The hawk, its contents, and Silva were all tied up together in lies, and deceit.
What better place to tuck something away that you couldn’t keep on you, but to conceal it in a gift and get it out of your own hands? Give it to someone you trusted. Silva had to have known that Matt would keep the hawk. On the surface it seemed like a gamble, but it wasn’t, not really, not if you knew Matt.
Silva had told Matt the hawk was expensive. Of course, Matt wouldn’t just throw it out, and at the same time, Silva would have counted on Matt holding onto the gift because Jonathan had given it to him, and because Jonathan had meant something to Matt, even if the gift had not been his style. Even if Jonathan had hurt him, Matt would still hold onto the token, at least for a time.
A hot, red haze passing through him, Jody clenched his jaw. Silva was messing with Matt, with his boy and fuck if he would stand for it. Cutting a look at the clock, he guessed that their meeting should be over, surely. Matt was probably at the station right now, fussing over the broken short wave radio.
Taking several deep, cleansing breaths, Jody strode across the kitchen to the phone mounted on the wall by the hallway. With a quick look at the boys, who were making swift progress in their duplication of the codes, Jody grabbed the phone’s handset. Punching in the number to the station, he lifted the handset to his ear, griping the plastic casing so firmly it gave a muted crack, not unlike the hawk had.
“High Mountain Ranger Station, can I help you?”
Hearing Izzy’s steady voice sound across the line helped Jody reign in his rising anger.
“Hey, Izzy, it’s Jody. Can you put Matt on?”
“Hey, Jody. I don’t—I mean Matt’s not here. It’s his day off, isn’t it? Oh, man, did I look at the schedule wrong? Hold on a sec-”
Jody stiffened. He bore a few seconds listening to the sound of rustling papers as Izzy hunted down and consulted his schedule. Turning away from where the boys were working, Jody stared out the kitchen window and called on his control.
“No, he’s off today. Was he coming in anyway?” Izzy asked, coming back on the line.
Jody barely heard the question, and it took a couple of seconds of Izzy repeating his name for him to respond.
“Maybe,” Jody said, thinking that maybe Matt just hadn’t had time to get to the station. But as soon as the thought came to him, he knew it wasn’t so.
Something wasn’t’ right.
He could feel it.
“Sorry,” he said, and before Izzy could ask anything further hung up the phone.
He snapped the handset back onto its mount with force, the sound breaking the boys from their concentration, their heads jerking up.
“Matt?” Cody asked.
Lips pressed into a flat line, Jody turned back around, shaking his head. The red haze sharpened down into perfect intent. He would to find Matt, and then Silva. And then he was going to get some answers. He knew all the best ways to get a man to spill their inner most secrets. He’d been trained to know those ways, and trained to resist them, but resistance only went up until a certain point until it broke, and everyman’s was different. Being retired from his unit hadn’t voided that knowledge from his memory; he just hadn’t thought he’d ever have to reach for it again.
He wondered what Silva’s breaking point was.
“He’s not there. Didn’t go by the station like he said.”
Cody’s blue eyes widened, and then sharpened. “We gotta find him. That asshole Silva is pulling something, isn’t he?”
Jody exhaled. “I don’t know for sure, but it certainly is another coincidence.” They held one another’s gaze, and then Jody blinked, taking a breath. “All right, how’s it coming?”
Jamie, having watched their interaction silently, said quickly, “We’re finished. We got two good copies.”
“Well all right. Good work,” Jody said. He watched as Jamie carefully rolled the code sheet back up, and slipped it back inside the hawk along with the film canister, snapping it shut back against its wooden base.
Jody walked back to the table, and placing his hands on the chair back, wrapped his fingers tight around the wood, a grounding touch. “Listen. Take these copies and put them someplace safe. Tell no one what you saw here. I want you guys to head over to Jamie’s and stay there until you hear from me, or Matt.”
He got a bob of the head from Jamie, but Cody looked aside, unwilling to offer his endorsement of Jody’s plan.
Uncurling his fingers from the chair back, Jody straightened, willing to let it go for the moment.
“I’m gonna go find Matt. I mean, he’s probably on his way back right now, but I’ll feel better once I get eyes on him.”
Jamie nodded again, but Cody was watching him with a steady, speculative look. “You feel it too, don’t you?”
Feeling something shift inside, Jody looked at the kid and knew exactly what he was asking. It was a fixed, unrelenting, indefinable sense of just knowing. It was a feeling, and more than.
“Yeah,” he admitted.
Cody took a quick breath, and breaking Jody’s gaze, glanced at Jamie. “Matt’s in trouble.”
Jamie’s dark brows lifted. “Oh, man,” was all he said, as if there was nothing odd about their exchange of the last twenty seconds.
In a rush Jody recalled the night of the flood, of Jesse standing half in light, half in shadow on the veranda of the ranger station. Cody was watching him with that same watchfulness, if perhaps slightly less pointed. For a moment the boy looked older than Jody knew him to be, a sudden aging from the knowing that they shared.
He’s been here before, Jody realized.
As Matt’s brother, he’d been here before, waiting on the edge of worrying, of knowing something wasn’t right.
It won’t be easy, Jesse had said that night as the rain pelted down, and then as now, Jody knew it was still worth it.
Matt would always be worth it.
“It’s going to be okay,” he found himself saying. Grabbing his keys from the wicker bowl on the kitchen table, Jody gathered both boys with his gaze.
“We’ve got a plan, let’s execute it.”
Having put the hawk back together, Jamie sat it on the table and stood tall. “Right.” Next to him, Cody nodded, still watching Jody with that same unrelenting air.
“My dad’s over on the south side of the mountain. He went out with a friend of his to check a trout line, there’s no way to get in touch with him. If we don’t hear something from you or Matt in an hour, I’m calling the station.”
A plain statement of fact, and Jody nodded. “Sounds good, now you boys just—
A sudden rap against the front door stalled his words. All heads swiveled toward the sound. Snapping to, Jody turned and strode across the kitchen and through the living room. Grabbing the doorknob he yanked it open knowing Matt wouldn’t knock on his own front door, but thinking maybe…
On the sun-dappled, wood plank porch stood Jonathan Silva.
The red haze rose, sharp as a blade, and with a growl Jody reached out and fisted fingers into the soft material of the sweater Silva wore. He hauled the man inside, teeth gritted. Off balance, Silva stumbled inside the cabin, arms lifting, his hands going to the rigid bar of Jody’s arm, but before he could grab hold Jody pivoted and slammed Silva against the wall next to the fireplace.
A picture mounted on the wall of Matt and his rangers rattled, tipped sideways to hang crookedly.
Jody uncurled his fingers from the twisted, abused sweater fabric, exchanging it for something much better, Silva’s exposed throat.
Reestablishing his hold, tight on Silva’s jugular, Jody squeezed.
“Where is Matthew?” he ground out, a drumbeat of anger pulsing in his ears.
Shoulder muscles bunching, Jody leaned in, pinning Silva to the wall, letting the man feel the power of his weight through his grip. Frantic fingers scrabbled at Jody’s wrist, but his hold was locked in. A heavy sense of dark satisfaction funneled up through him as Silva’s eyes bulged wide with alarm as the tendons underneath his fingers flexed and twisted.
Jody pushed close, getting in Silva’s face close enough to see the beginnings of impotent anger brewing in those wide eyes, and snarled the question again,
“Where the fuck is Matthew?”
*****Additional Notes*****
Another posting on the fly, and I should proof this some more, but I'm ready to get on with the show! At last, and bit of Jody & Jon interaction! And once again, our Matt finds himself right in the middle of all the action, when all the boy wanted was to go home and cuddle with his man. Ah, what a world! Stay tuned!
Author: Archet
Pairing: OMC Jody McKinnon/Matt Hawkes
Fandom: High Mountain Rangers
Summary: a story of falling in love, figuring things out and just holding on.
Disclaimer: I did not create the High Mountain Ranger character/s, only this fic and the Original Male Character, Jody McKinnon, and any other original characters in supporting roles. No copyright infringement is intended.
Notes: this fic is set in 1989, approximately a year and a half after the events of the final episode of High Mountain Rangers. There will be no acknowledgment of the events of the spin-off show Jesse Hawkes.
Note: this fic takes place a little over four months after Bad Luck, Bad Guys and High Mountain Rangers and is a sequel to that fic, so reading that first is recommended.
Additional: this fic will depict same sex physical and romantic relationships, and dominate/submissive themes. If this ain’t your thing, venture no further.
Summary this chapter: a hawk has a secret, and Jody finds a common bond with Cody.
***Additional Notes/ramblings at end of chapter***
~*~
Chapter 22: The Secrets of Hawks
“You gonna rat us out?” Jamie asked, voice rising in concern.
Jamie had just finished giving a play by play of his and Cody’s little excursion up on Bloods Point. Now that the details were out in the open, it seemed to have just occurred to the boy to worry about repercussions. He offered up a rather sheepish smile.
“We really aren’t supposed to be up there, and I do not need my dad finding out.”
In spite of his irritation with the two, Jody stifled a chuckle. “Well, what did you think was going to happen after Matt found out you guys had been up there?” He asked.
Jamie drummed his fingers on the tabletop. “We didn’t really think that far ahead, obviously.”
Beside Jamie, Cody had clammed up, the beginnings of a scowl on his face.
Thinking over all that he’d just been told, Jody lifted a hand, pinching the bridge of his nose between forefinger and thumb. The two little snoops were lucky. With all manner of grim scenarios running through his mind, Jody took a breath, calling on his patience.
“So. Let me get this straight,” he said, dropping his hand after a moment, and pinning both boys with a stern look. “You two geniuses thought it’d be a good idea to scale up to a two story balcony, just to poke around?”
Of the two, Cody seemed the least affected by Jody’s censure. “Well,” he said with a shrug, “all the ground floor doors and windows were locked.”
“Oh, well, that’s logical,” Jody deadpanned.
At Cody’s side, Jamie waved off the concern. “I mean, it’s not like we hadn’t done it before. It’s not that hard. And there wasn’t anything to see anyway, the place is practically empty. We only had time to check out one room, and it just had a couple sleeping bags on the floor, a map tacked to the wall and some papers spread around.”
A swift, slanting glare from Cody, and Jamie abruptly snapped his mouth shut.
“Oh, really?” Jody said, leaning forward. “Just how many times have you two been messing around that place?”
With a lingering look at Jamie, Cody sat up a little straighter, folded his arms across his chest, and tilted his head to the side in what Jody was coming to think of as a genetic Hawkes trait.
“Look, it doesn’t matter. We just happened to be up there when Silva drove up. Him and some other guy. As soon as they went inside, we took off. I thought Matt should know, and I don’t care if I get in trouble or not.”
Admiring the kid’s spunk, and devotion to his big brother, Jody was willing to let the pair’s previous forays into private property slide for the moment.
“Who was the guy that was with Silva?” He asked.
Cody shook his head. “Don’t know. Never seen him before.”
Jamie chimed in. “Yeah, me neither, but he was dressed like an extra out of The Lost Boys, or something. All in black, sorta, edgy like. Looked like he could use a few cheeseburgers and a vacation at the beach, if you ask me.”
The description sounding familiar, Jody asked, “I think I know him. Did he have really pale hair? Like more white than blonde?”
Both boys nodded, but it was Cody’s gaze that narrowed. “How do you know him?”
Jody grunted, ignoring the tinge of accusation in the tone. “We met the other night. Matt and I were having dinner, and he got a call at the bar. It was just a maneuver by Silva to get Matt away from the table. Silva just happened to show up out of the blue, and he had this guy with him. His name is Alex, or so he said.”
Cody’s gaze sharpened. “So Matt knows Silva is around?”
Jody paused. “Yes, he knows. Silva asked to meet with him today, supposedly to explain some… things,” Jody finished, keeping it vague. He had no idea how much Matt’s little brother was privy to regarding his prior relationship with Silva, not to mention Jamie.
Cody stared hard, and then gave one brief nod. Having arrived at a silent agreement not to get into anything more detailed in front of Jamie, Jody shifted gears. He glanced at the clock on the wall, surprised that it was later in the day than he’d realized.
“Well, Matt should be at the station by now; he was going by there on his way back home.”
Jamie, having not noticed the slight shift of topic, thumped Cody’s shoulder with the back of his hand. “See? Matt already knows, so you can stop worrying.”
“Yeah,” Cody said neutrally, looking at his friend, and then faced Jody. “I really don’t like that guy.”
“Ditto,” Jody said succinctly, and then added, “but Matt can handle himself.”
“Yeah, but Matt—,” Cody broke off struggling for a moment before pushing out the words, “he wants to help too much, takes on too much, sometimes.”
Touched by the genuine concern Cody displayed so plainly, Jody knew better than to comment on it. He was pretty certain the younger Hawkes wouldn’t appreciate the sentiment, coming from him. Leaning back in his chair, he laid one hand on the table, gathering both boys attention.
“Look, I think it’d be a good idea if you two stayed away from Bloods Point, okay? At least until we know what exactly is going on.” He added quickly, “And I’m not saying anything is, but better to err on the side of caution at this point.”
Cody’s brows lowered. “You’re probably right, but you don’t trust Silva any more than I do. Admit it; you think something fishy is going on.”
“Maybe,” Jody allowed, and as Cody’s expression darkened he pinned the boy with a pointed look. “Look, when Matt gets back you can tell him about your little sightseeing trips, and together we can decide what comes next, if anything.”
Deflated, Jamie collapsed back into his chair. “Oh, man, if my dad finds out, I’m toast. We should have, like, made an anonymous call, or something.”
Cody snorted. “And how would we do that?”
Jamie grinned. “I don’t know, man, think creatively. Maybe get one of those voice changer boxes.”
“You’ve been watching too much A-Team,” Cody said, smile curving his lips.
“It’s a real thing!” Jamie insisted.
“I don’t know,” Cody countered uncertainly.
Shaking his head as the argument escalated, Jody pushed up from his chair, a suspicion forming that Cody’s disagreement was more a ploy to distract Jamie from thoughts of doom about his father finding out about their shenanigans.
Stepping up to the counter, Jody began gathering up the abandoned cookie ingredients, arranging the items in a neat line against the backsplash. He really wanted a quiet moment to go over his thoughts in light of the new information the kids had supplied. What was Silva doing up on Bloods Point? And just what was this supposed mansion all about?
Swiping up a spot of flour from the countertop with his palm, Jody stepped over to the sink and turned on the tap. Quickly rinsing his hands, he shut off the water and reached for the kitchen towel lying on the counter. As he reached out his eyes alighted on the carved, green shape of the jade hawk, sitting innocently on the windowsill. In the full sunlight spilling through the pane, it seemed to gleam with an inner glow.
Drying his hands, Jody stared at the carving. It had remained in the kitchen since the day he’d unearthed it from the depths of Matt’s pantry. Ultimately, Matt had moved it to the out of the way spot on the window sill. Matt had wondered aloud several times what he should do with the thing, but eventually they both had simply taken to ignoring it. Matt stopped mentioning it, and Jody was content to pretend it didn’t exist.
Funny that its reappearance practically coincided with Silva’s.
Frowning, Jody reached out and cupped his hand around the hawk, lifting it from the sill. The boys paid him no mind, their argument having moved on from voice distorter boxes, to how successful Jamie might pull off an English accent. Cody snorted loudly as Jamie recited the first handful of lines of I’m Henry VIII, I Am in what might have been an attempt at a Cockney accent, through it was difficult to tell through both boys’ ebullient laughter.
Cradling the hawk, Jody tilted it to the sunlight, watching as it sparkled. His fingers wrapped around its wooden base tightened. He thought of Matt’s grin from earlier, and then imagined him with Silva, listening to whatever tale the man might be spooling out. His fingers cinched even more firmly around the hawk as the warning, angry buzz in his blood resurfaced.
Silva was trouble, Jody knew it.
Crack!
“Oh, shit,” he mumbled, staring down at the figurine in his hand.
His comment garnered the boys’ attention, and they both craned their necks to see what he was holding. Pivoting away from the sink, he held up the hawk. Cody stared at it for a second, and then sat back against his chair.
“I remember that thing,” he said flatly.
Jamie seemed mesmerized by the green carving. “Oh, man, that looks expensive.”
“It is, or so I’ve been told,” Cody said shortly.
Seeming to heed the curtness in Cody’s tone, Jamie didn’t press him for details. Instead he stood from the table and came to stand by Jody. His eyes were fixed on the hawk.
“Can I see it? It sorta reminds me of the puzzle boxes my uncle makes.”
Pausing, Jody handed the carving over with the warning, “Just be careful. Cody’s right, it is worth some money.”
Jamie nodded, and cautiously accepted the figurine as Jody handed it over.
Jody leaned against the counter watching the kid. Jamie, his brows drawn together in concentration, was running his fingers back and forth along the carving’s base. Jody wondered briefly what he was looking for; he’d held the thing himself several times and had not noticed anything unusual.
“Let me know if you find a crack. I didn’t mean to break the damned thing,” he said, then returned to Jamie’s earlier comment. “It’s just a carving, I don’t think it’s a—“
“Ah-ha!” Jamie exclaimed as an audible snick! sounded from the hawk as he applied pressure to the seam between the jade bird and its wooden base. The carving separated from its mount, pulling apart on a hidden brass hinge.
“See!” Jamie said, excitement alight in his dark eyes. “Uncle Aiden makes stuff a little like this, only he carves everything out of wood. The tourists love’em.”
Jody sidled closer, staring at the figurine in Jamie’s hands. Together they peered at the opened carving. Jamie gave it a gentle shake, inhaling sharply as a small roll of paper tumbled free from the innards of the bird, along with a plastic canister.
“Crap!” Jamie exclaimed, fumbling the hawk as it spilled its secrets.
Shooting out a hand, Jody grabbed the hawk as Jamie juggled the roll of paper and canister.
Chair sliding abruptly across the floor, Cody shot up from his spot and joined them.
“What is that?” Cody asked, expression tight.
Gingerly Jody placed the hawk on the countertop, then reached out and plucked the tiny toll of paper from Jamie’s palm. Gently unrolling it, he spread it out over his palm with two fingers. Tilting his palm toward the sunlight steaming in through the kitchen window, the trio bent their heads over the discovery. Several rows of numbers, neatly inscribed in a blocky print spanned the length of the roll, broken intermittently by blank spaces.
“Looks like some kind of codes,” Jamie noted.
“Yeah,” Cody said, then added, “and probably written at different times. See how some of them is in black ink, others in blue?”
Jody nodded, impressed at Cody’s observation. He had a theory of his own about the strings of numbers, but opted to keep them to himself for the moment.
“I think you’re right, Cody,” he said.
“What about this?” Jamie asked, holding up the black cylindrical canister. He gave it a gentle shake, and the contents inside the plastic casing rattled.
“Give it to me,” Jody said gruffly, suspecting he knew what was inside.
The warning current that had been buzzing in him all morning was practically sparking now, transmitting caution.
Handing the codes over to Cody, Jody took the canister and carefully prized the tightly seated lid up. He looked inside. It was just as he’d thought, and shaking out the contents, held it up for the boys to view.
“Camera film,” he said.
Cody asked, “But of what?”
Jody held his gaze. “I don’t know, but something important enough to someone to keep it hidden.”
A chill swept up his spine.
Cody nodded slowly. “I think we should call Matt at the station.”
Jody slid the film back into its canister and snapped the lid securely on. “Good idea,” he said, then after a breath added, “but I have a job for the two of you before we do that.”
Both boys stared.
“Cody, grab some pens and some paper. I want each of you to sit down, and copy these numbers, exactly as they are here.” He gestured to the rolled up strip Cody still held.
“When you’re finished, check one another’s work. That way we have two copies.” Handing the film back to Jamie, he said, “When you’re done, put everything back just as it was.”
Jamie nodded, an eager bob of his head. “Got it.”
Cody had already moved off to open up a kitchen drawer, pulling out a composition notebook and a couple pens. He tipped his head at Jamie and the pair moved back to the table. Taking a moment to organize themselves, they sat down to and got to work copying the rows of mysterious numbers.
Watching the two with approval, Jody leaned back against the kitchen counter as they worked. There was no way Matt knew anything about the hawk’s secret, he would’ve said as much. Which meant Silva gave it to Matt for a reason, and not just to impress his date. Something sour twisted in the pit of Jody’s stomach.
The hawk, its contents, and Silva were all tied up together in lies, and deceit.
What better place to tuck something away that you couldn’t keep on you, but to conceal it in a gift and get it out of your own hands? Give it to someone you trusted. Silva had to have known that Matt would keep the hawk. On the surface it seemed like a gamble, but it wasn’t, not really, not if you knew Matt.
Silva had told Matt the hawk was expensive. Of course, Matt wouldn’t just throw it out, and at the same time, Silva would have counted on Matt holding onto the gift because Jonathan had given it to him, and because Jonathan had meant something to Matt, even if the gift had not been his style. Even if Jonathan had hurt him, Matt would still hold onto the token, at least for a time.
A hot, red haze passing through him, Jody clenched his jaw. Silva was messing with Matt, with his boy and fuck if he would stand for it. Cutting a look at the clock, he guessed that their meeting should be over, surely. Matt was probably at the station right now, fussing over the broken short wave radio.
Taking several deep, cleansing breaths, Jody strode across the kitchen to the phone mounted on the wall by the hallway. With a quick look at the boys, who were making swift progress in their duplication of the codes, Jody grabbed the phone’s handset. Punching in the number to the station, he lifted the handset to his ear, griping the plastic casing so firmly it gave a muted crack, not unlike the hawk had.
“High Mountain Ranger Station, can I help you?”
Hearing Izzy’s steady voice sound across the line helped Jody reign in his rising anger.
“Hey, Izzy, it’s Jody. Can you put Matt on?”
“Hey, Jody. I don’t—I mean Matt’s not here. It’s his day off, isn’t it? Oh, man, did I look at the schedule wrong? Hold on a sec-”
Jody stiffened. He bore a few seconds listening to the sound of rustling papers as Izzy hunted down and consulted his schedule. Turning away from where the boys were working, Jody stared out the kitchen window and called on his control.
“No, he’s off today. Was he coming in anyway?” Izzy asked, coming back on the line.
Jody barely heard the question, and it took a couple of seconds of Izzy repeating his name for him to respond.
“Maybe,” Jody said, thinking that maybe Matt just hadn’t had time to get to the station. But as soon as the thought came to him, he knew it wasn’t so.
Something wasn’t’ right.
He could feel it.
“Sorry,” he said, and before Izzy could ask anything further hung up the phone.
He snapped the handset back onto its mount with force, the sound breaking the boys from their concentration, their heads jerking up.
“Matt?” Cody asked.
Lips pressed into a flat line, Jody turned back around, shaking his head. The red haze sharpened down into perfect intent. He would to find Matt, and then Silva. And then he was going to get some answers. He knew all the best ways to get a man to spill their inner most secrets. He’d been trained to know those ways, and trained to resist them, but resistance only went up until a certain point until it broke, and everyman’s was different. Being retired from his unit hadn’t voided that knowledge from his memory; he just hadn’t thought he’d ever have to reach for it again.
He wondered what Silva’s breaking point was.
“He’s not there. Didn’t go by the station like he said.”
Cody’s blue eyes widened, and then sharpened. “We gotta find him. That asshole Silva is pulling something, isn’t he?”
Jody exhaled. “I don’t know for sure, but it certainly is another coincidence.” They held one another’s gaze, and then Jody blinked, taking a breath. “All right, how’s it coming?”
Jamie, having watched their interaction silently, said quickly, “We’re finished. We got two good copies.”
“Well all right. Good work,” Jody said. He watched as Jamie carefully rolled the code sheet back up, and slipped it back inside the hawk along with the film canister, snapping it shut back against its wooden base.
Jody walked back to the table, and placing his hands on the chair back, wrapped his fingers tight around the wood, a grounding touch. “Listen. Take these copies and put them someplace safe. Tell no one what you saw here. I want you guys to head over to Jamie’s and stay there until you hear from me, or Matt.”
He got a bob of the head from Jamie, but Cody looked aside, unwilling to offer his endorsement of Jody’s plan.
Uncurling his fingers from the chair back, Jody straightened, willing to let it go for the moment.
“I’m gonna go find Matt. I mean, he’s probably on his way back right now, but I’ll feel better once I get eyes on him.”
Jamie nodded again, but Cody was watching him with a steady, speculative look. “You feel it too, don’t you?”
Feeling something shift inside, Jody looked at the kid and knew exactly what he was asking. It was a fixed, unrelenting, indefinable sense of just knowing. It was a feeling, and more than.
“Yeah,” he admitted.
Cody took a quick breath, and breaking Jody’s gaze, glanced at Jamie. “Matt’s in trouble.”
Jamie’s dark brows lifted. “Oh, man,” was all he said, as if there was nothing odd about their exchange of the last twenty seconds.
In a rush Jody recalled the night of the flood, of Jesse standing half in light, half in shadow on the veranda of the ranger station. Cody was watching him with that same watchfulness, if perhaps slightly less pointed. For a moment the boy looked older than Jody knew him to be, a sudden aging from the knowing that they shared.
He’s been here before, Jody realized.
As Matt’s brother, he’d been here before, waiting on the edge of worrying, of knowing something wasn’t right.
It won’t be easy, Jesse had said that night as the rain pelted down, and then as now, Jody knew it was still worth it.
Matt would always be worth it.
“It’s going to be okay,” he found himself saying. Grabbing his keys from the wicker bowl on the kitchen table, Jody gathered both boys with his gaze.
“We’ve got a plan, let’s execute it.”
Having put the hawk back together, Jamie sat it on the table and stood tall. “Right.” Next to him, Cody nodded, still watching Jody with that same unrelenting air.
“My dad’s over on the south side of the mountain. He went out with a friend of his to check a trout line, there’s no way to get in touch with him. If we don’t hear something from you or Matt in an hour, I’m calling the station.”
A plain statement of fact, and Jody nodded. “Sounds good, now you boys just—
A sudden rap against the front door stalled his words. All heads swiveled toward the sound. Snapping to, Jody turned and strode across the kitchen and through the living room. Grabbing the doorknob he yanked it open knowing Matt wouldn’t knock on his own front door, but thinking maybe…
On the sun-dappled, wood plank porch stood Jonathan Silva.
The red haze rose, sharp as a blade, and with a growl Jody reached out and fisted fingers into the soft material of the sweater Silva wore. He hauled the man inside, teeth gritted. Off balance, Silva stumbled inside the cabin, arms lifting, his hands going to the rigid bar of Jody’s arm, but before he could grab hold Jody pivoted and slammed Silva against the wall next to the fireplace.
A picture mounted on the wall of Matt and his rangers rattled, tipped sideways to hang crookedly.
Jody uncurled his fingers from the twisted, abused sweater fabric, exchanging it for something much better, Silva’s exposed throat.
Reestablishing his hold, tight on Silva’s jugular, Jody squeezed.
“Where is Matthew?” he ground out, a drumbeat of anger pulsing in his ears.
Shoulder muscles bunching, Jody leaned in, pinning Silva to the wall, letting the man feel the power of his weight through his grip. Frantic fingers scrabbled at Jody’s wrist, but his hold was locked in. A heavy sense of dark satisfaction funneled up through him as Silva’s eyes bulged wide with alarm as the tendons underneath his fingers flexed and twisted.
Jody pushed close, getting in Silva’s face close enough to see the beginnings of impotent anger brewing in those wide eyes, and snarled the question again,
“Where the fuck is Matthew?”
*****Additional Notes*****
Another posting on the fly, and I should proof this some more, but I'm ready to get on with the show! At last, and bit of Jody & Jon interaction! And once again, our Matt finds himself right in the middle of all the action, when all the boy wanted was to go home and cuddle with his man. Ah, what a world! Stay tuned!
