But he needed help.He had the suddenchilling realization that Lucas Cain had probably never been givenany such assistance, had never had a guide to help him find theright path in life.He hadn’t been as lucky as Mark was.Thethought made Mark speed up.By the time he reached his car, he wasalmost running.
ChapterThirteen
Lucas took a cab from the hospital.He hadn’twanted to, since he was running low on cash and had no jobprospects in sight.But he could barely stand, even after spendingthe night in the hospital.Which meant, of course, that he was agood ways away from being in shape to start looking for workagain.
He sighed and leaned his head against thecool glass of the cab’s window, just in time for the car to bounceover the low curb at the end of the halfway house driveway.Thebruise on his temple complained as it thudded into the glass, butthe pain wasn’t a problem.It was kind of nice, really—a way toremind him that he wasn’t completely numb, not all over.
“Twelve fifty,” the driver said, the onlywords since the ride had started.Lucas had no idea if the man wasnaturally quiet or if he was one of the many folks carrying somesort of grudge, and he was pretty sure he didn’t care.
He passed fifteen dollars over the front seatand climbed out of the car.He had no bag.The hospital hadprovided him with a toothbrush and toothpaste and some mismatchedclothes from the lost-and-found to replace the ones they’d cut fromhis body, but that was all.The few belongings Lucas had in theworld were behind the doors of the house he was staring at, and hereally had no idea whether he was here to join them inside or justto claim them before leaving to find somewhere else to lay hisbattered head.
He might as well find out, he decided, andheaded for the front door.Residents were expected to letthemselves in, but Lucas knocked.An unfamiliar man wearing apriest’s collar answered, and Lucas wasn’t sure quite what tosay.
“Lucas?”the man said after a moment.“Areyou Lucas Cain?I’m Terry Groban.I’m the Rector of SaintGabriel’s, the church that manages this facility.I’m sorry Ididn’t make it in to see you while you were in the hospital.Welcome home.”
“I’m not Catholic.”Lucas wasn’t quite surewhy he said that.
And the priest seemed just as confused.“I’mnot Catholic either, Lucas.This is an Anglican facility.”
“Oh.”He probably should have known that.“Well, I’m not Anglican either.I mean, there’s no reason youshould have come to see me in the hospital.That’s all Imeant.”
“Ah.I see.”The priest stepped back from thedoorway.“Well, come on in.You look like you might want your bed?Or are you hungry?”
“Just bed, thanks.But…” There was a part ofLucas that was telling him to keep his mouth shut.This priestseemed to be willing to let him in, and he really, really wanted tolie down.And the cop had said Lucas could come back here.But…“The other guy.The other priest.He said I was out.He saidfighting was against the rules, and I wasn’t allowed to live here.Then the cop said it was okay to come back.I don’t…am I supposedto be here?”
The priest nodded slowly.“Fighting isagainst the rules.But it’s my understanding that this wasn’t afight.That is, it’s not something to which you consented?Notsomething in which you were an active participant?”
A pretty fancy way of saying that Lucashadn’t even landed a punch.“I guess not.It wasn’t really afight.”
“Well, we don’t have rules against ourresidents being assaulted.”The priest smiled wryly.“Not that wewant it to happen.But we certainly won’t ask you to find otheraccommodations just because someone else broke the rules.”
This priest seemed a lot nicer than the otherone, and Lucas let himself relax, at least a little.But he stillmight as well get all the bad out of the way before he got toocomfortable.“And I didn’t find a job.”I screwed everything up.I’m a failure.I can’t take care of myself.Lucas managed tonot say it out loud, but he was pretty sure it was obvious toanyone who looked at him anyway.
“There’s time to worry about that later,” thepriest said gently.“We’ll sort something out.In the meantime, goon upstairs and lie down.I’ll bring lunch up for you in a while,and you can see if you’re ready to come sit down with us by dinnertime.”He barely touched Lucas’s shoulder, guiding him toward thestairs with the least pressure possible.
“I don’t need lunch,” Lucas protested.“Or ifI do, I can come downstairs.”
“Nonsense.You need to rest and heal.Giveyourself a few days, Lucas.There’s no need to rush anything.”
Lucas was pretty sure the other priest wasn’tgoing to agree with that approach, but this guy was older; maybe hewas the other one’s boss.That would be nice.And whatever energyhe’d managed to find in order to have this conversation had beendrained out of him, so he wasn’t going to push any further.Hestarted for the stairs, paused halfway up to wonder if he was goingto make it, and then forced himself onward.He was dimly aware ofthe priest hovering behind him, ready to catch him if he fell, andit was more comforting than he’d thought it would be.
He was staggering by the time he reached hisassigned room and he collapsed onto the bed without even thinkingabout shedding clothes or boots.
When Lucas woke up, there was a blanketspread on top of him.He pushed it to the side and experimentallymoved his body.Stiff and sore, but not unbearable.He lay therefor a while, giving in to the luxury of warmth, safety and privacy,then forced himself to sit up and swing his feet over the side ofthe bed.His boots were sitting on the floor.Either he’d woken upat some point and dragged them off, or the priest had taken care ofhim.
He stumbled to the bathroom, and after heflushed the toilet he took a long look at himself in the mirror.His face was a mess.Bruises, stitches, and dark-blond stubble.Hecould cover up the rest of the damage, but no one was going to hirehim with a face like that.Hell, no one had wanted to hire himbefore he turned into Frankenstein’s monster.He was screwed.
He headed back to the bedroom because he hadno other options, and when he arrived, the older priest wasstanding outside the door, waiting for him.He was holding a traywith a bowl of some sort of creamy soup on it, and Lucas’s stomachgave an unexpected growl of enthusiasm, clearly loud enough to beheard.
The priest’s laugh was gentle.“I guess you’dbe willing to try a little lunch?”
Sean had always said that soup was a drink,not a food, but Sean wasn’t around anymore.“I guess so.Thankyou.”Lucas looked inside the bedroom, then back at the priest.“But I shouldn’t eat in bed, should I?I think that’s one of therules.No food in the rooms at all, I thought.”Was this atrap?
But the priest didn’t seem like the sort toset traps.The other one, maybe, but not this one.“Exceptions aremade for illness.After all, the rule is that residents aresupposed to be out of the building during the day, so you’realready breaking that one.”
“Shit,” Lucas said.He’d forgotten that rule.And he’d just sworn in front of a priest.“I mean—shoot?But if youwant me to get out for the day, I can find somewhere…”
“The hospital said you needed a couple daysof bed rest and several more days of taking it easy.We canaccommodate that, Lucas.There’s no need for you to be a hero.”Thepriest was watching him with a critical eye.“And judging by theangle you’re leaning at, I think you should be following doctor’sorders.Get back in bed, eat some soup, and take it easy.”
