It only took a minute for Theresa to come out of the back with an older man next to her. He was short and stocky with a full head of white hair. His face looked lumpy and uneven and etched in a permanent frown marked by deep lines. Chelsea could see that his nose had been broken more than once.
“What do you think you’re doing? Who do you think you are that you can come in my gym. Get outta here, DeMarco, and don’t ever come back,” the man spit.
“I need to know about the upcoming fight,” Blue said.
Gary’s eyes flashed to Chelsea and then back to Blue. “Go on, girl, give us a minute,” Gary said, nodding his head at Chelsea.
“No,” Chelsea said automatically. Why was everyone always trying to get rid of her? Why did they act like she didn’t have a stake in this? They had taken her sister.
“Come on,” Blue begged placing his hand on her stomach to calm her.
Chelsea quelled her anger and balled up her fists. She knew Blue was right, Gary wasn’t going to talk with her there. They needed to get information, not get into a fight, so Chelsea backed down. “Fine,” Chelsea said, brushing past Gary. She walked back to the counter where she was greeted by a cellphone-wielding Theresa.
***
They drove back to the house quickly. Blue kept his eyes on the road as they sped down empty and cold streets. Chelsea watched Snowbird pass outside of her window, but any affection she used to have for her hometown was long gone. The barren trees and the dead grass at the side of the road gave the whole place a barren and dark feeling. This wasn’t the Snowbird of her childhood, the one filled with bike rides and school dances. It was dark and dirty and dangerous now. It had been ruined.
“What did he say?” Chelsea finally asked. She had watched as Blue and Gary had a tense conversation out of the corner of her eye while Theresa snapped a million selfies. But she hadn’t heard anything. Blue rushed her out of the gym and they had been riding in silence ever since.
“Mostly what we already know. There’s a fight at the abandoned mall in three days, but he doesn’t know who the sponsors are. He said he’s out of the game now.”
“Another dead end,” Chelsea said, throwing her head back and resting on the head rest. “We wasted an entire day and we didn’t find out anything. We’re no closer to finding Jamie.”
Blue didn’t say anything. He kept his eyes fixed on the road, but Chelsea could see how strongly his fingers were gripping the wheel. She sat up and reached for his hand, pulling it towards her. She wrapped his cold hand in hers and then brought up and pressed her lips against the smooth back of his hand. She pressed his hand against her cheek and said, “It’s okay. This isn’t your fault. We’ll find her.”
Blue nodded numbly, but his hand still felt cold in Chelsea’s. There was a sudden distance between them and Chelsea needed to know what had caused it. She could still see the basement at the old gas station. The beaten dirt floor, the vodka bottles and cigar butts, it was too horrible for words. She was making Blue relive all of that and she couldn’t even imagine how much that was hurting him.
“Where are we going next?” Chelsea asked.
“Home,” Blue answered. “You didn’t sleep at all last night; we both need to get some rest.”
“I slept last night,” Chelsea objected.
“For what? Three hours?” Blue demanded. “You need to rest and we can get started early tomorrow. Besides everything we did today was a bust. I need to be smarter about this. I need to think.”
They pulled up to the house and Chelsea unlocked the door and sighed as she walked inside. With the windows blocked off and only half the furniture left, it looked even more desolate than it had before. Blue swept through the house, checking all the closets and windows and under the bed.
“It’s clear,” he said as he came out of the main bedroom. Chelsea flopped down on the couch and closed her eyes. Her sister had been a captive all day. She had been tied up in some dungeon somewhere and Chelsea hadn’t gotten any closer to finding her. She felt like such a failure; she had never felt so useless in her life.
There was a knock at the door and, with a gasp, Chelsea sat up, but Blue shook his head, “it’s all right. It’s just Paul.”
Blue opened the door and let Paul in quickly. “Anyone follow you?” Blue asked.
“Nope,” Paul answered. “I drove around for a few blocks, but I didn’t see anyone.”
“You bring it?” Blue asked.
“Yup,” Paul reached into his backpack and pulled out a small gun in a leather holster. Chelsea shuddered and backed away from it. “It’s not registered, do with that what you will,” Paul said.
“Why do you have that?” Chelsea demanded.
“It’s for you, Chelsea. You need to have it to protect yourself.”
“I don’t even know how to shoot a gun,” Chelsea said looking between Paul and Blue. She couldn’t believe they actually expected her to carry that around with her. It was so dangerous.
“Hopefully you won’t have to,” Blue said. “But if it does come to that, just point and shoot. Don’t hesitate.”
Paul put the gun on the coffee table and Chelsea looked at it dubiously. Blue sat down beside her and picked up the gun. He held out and pointed out the safety and the trigger and how to reload it.
Chelsea held it in her hands and was surprised at how light was. She aimed it at the grandfather clock, but didn’t shoot it. She put it back in the holster and put the holster on her side of the bed in the bedroom. She had only intended to put the gun away, but the bed looked so soft and warm and she couldn’t help but slip between the sheets. She promised herself she would only close her eyes for a moment. But she was so tired that sleep overcame her almost instantly. She didn’t hear Paul leave and she didn’t wake up when Blue joined her in bed.
She awoke bleary-eyed to the bright sun shining through their makeshift curtains and Blue bringing her a cup of coffee. In another lifetime it would have been heavenly to have sipped coffee in bed with Blue. But instead it was hell. Chelsea felt like there was a solid block sitting on her chest. She had cried so much for Jamie and she still ached for her sister. It was the first thought she had when she woke up and it was the one thought that wouldn’t leave her.
“I thought of some more places we can go where maybe we can see some people who will be more willing to talk,” Blue said.
Chelsea nodded numbly, but she couldn’t look him in the eye. She felt empty and broken inside; a very large part of her wanted to crawl back under the covers and wait for this to be over.
Blue’s hand caressed her cheek as he tucked a strand of hair from her face. She looked over at him and saw the large purple bruise on his face looked better already; it was lighter in color and far less swollen than yesterday.
“Did you ever try to run away?” Chelsea asked Blue. She didn’t know where the question came from. She had been thinking about that basement and wondering how anyone could survive that.
“I thought about it,” Blue said. “But a lot of guys in the fights, a lot of the guys I fought, were runaways. They didn’t have any money and they didn’t even have a high school degree so they couldn’t get a job. Most of them were on meth and I knew a couple were forced to do things worse than the fights. I knew that as bad as my house was, it was still a house with food and access to a school. I told myself I had to wait until I turned eighteen and then I could join the Army and be set. That was what got me through it. I just counted down the years and then the days until I was done.”
“You’re done now,” Chelsea said taking his hand in hers. “I’m so sorry you had to go through that and I’m sorry you’re being dragged through it again.”
“Yeah,” Blue said he glanced at Chelsea and then he pulled away from her and quickly got out of bed and stood up. “We should go,” he said. “I have a bunch of ground I want to cover today.”
“All right,” Chelsea said, she looked at him in confusion, but he was already walking out of the room and he didn’t look back. He was pulling away from her and Chelsea needed to know why. Was he embarrassed or upset? She knew talking would make him feel better, but Blue wasn’t really a talking kind of guy.
She looked sadly at the doorframe where had been only moments before. She would have to find a way to get him to open up. He was keeping something from her and she just needed to show him he could trust her and talk to her about anything. But how? How could she show a guy like Blue DeMarco, a guy raised in the fighting pits, that it was okay to trust someone.