“Please,” William whispered, pulling at Taylor’s sleeve. “Please, Mum will… Mum will come back and?—”
Taylor shook his head, gathering William into his arms. That time he didn’t pull away. “She isn’t coming, Will,” he said softly. “I’m sorry.”
“You don’t… you don’t know that! She might be on her way right now. I can… I can help her.”
“That isn’t your job, bud.”
He let Taylor lead him out of the house then strap him into the car. They drove in silence back to the house, the only sound coming from William quietly sobbing.
Well, if Taylor hadn’t felt like a piece of shit before, he certainly did then.
The air dropped cooler as late afternoon merged into early evening, pinky sunlight spilling into the living room as William followed Taylor through the front door. Isla didn’t mind that he’d taken the squad car home, but she did have some serious reservations about him taking William home too.
Well, fortunately for her, Taylor was a fucking expert when it came to emergency care agreements and what was and wasn’t considered a place of safety. Within the home of a police officer was one. Teachers too. And vicars, but… maybe the care system should revisit that one.
She also threatened to sack him unless he took a day off, and he couldn’t really argue with that.
“I thought you lived at the pack house,” William said, voice a little stronger than it had been before. Taylor knew damn well that Manders had skulked around the pack boundary, catching his scent in the woods more than once. It made sense that William knew it too.
“We used to,” he replied, dropping the car keys onto the kitchen table before pulling a can of Fanta from the fridge and handing it to William. “But we moved out not long before Clem and Gabby were born.”
William shuddered. “Gabriella scares me.”
“She should. She scares me too.”
William huffed out a laugh just as his stomach gave a loud growl.
“Have you eaten?” Taylor said, watching how he gripped his sides.
“I… Yeah.”
Taylor raised his eyebrows. “When?”
Shrugging, William took a long slurp from his can. “Can’t remember.”
“Fuck’s sake,” Taylor muttered, guiding him over to the kitchen table. “Didn’t the hamster family feed you?”
William shrugged again, that time more aggressively. “I wasn’t hungry.”
Taylor sighed as he placed a bowl, spoon, milk and three different kinds of cereal in front of him. “Eat,” he said, dropping a protein bar next to the bowl before turning towards the stairs. “I’m going to run you a bath and find you some more clothes. Then you’re going to eat some more, got it?”
William frowned, eyeing the cereal suspiciously. “Okay,” he said, grabbing the box of Cheerios and tipping a load into the bowl.
Taylor nodded before ambling upstairs and towards the bathroom.
“Shit,” he muttered, realising there were at least ten missed calls and three voicemails flashing up on his mobile. He listened to one. “Good afternoon, Mr Campbell! Mr Ateba is ready to be discharged, please come via the visitors’ entrance to collect him.”
Followed by another an hour later. “Mr Campbell, Mr Ateba is waiting for you at reception, please come and collect him.”
And finally: “Taylor, you bastard, where are you? I’ve tried calling three times. This is my new number. Signal’s shit, by the way.”
“Fuuuuuck,” Taylor groaned, quickly pulling a T-shirt and shorts from his drawer and hooking them over his shoulder. He heard the front door slam just as he made it to the end of the landing. “Shiiiiiit.”
As he bounded down the stairs two at a time there came a sudden “What the hell?” followed by “William?”
Taylor clenched his jaw as he rounded the corner, finding Johnny standing in the middle of the living room. He had some random tracksuit on that must have come from the hospital’s lost and found box, as well as a pair of paper-thin flip flops.
“I can explain!” Taylor said, throwing his hands up. He padded over to Johnny, resting them on his shoulders. He noticed that he wasn’t wearing the sling or a plaster cast but did have a massive multi-layer bandage covering his forearm. He pulled Johnny’s face around to look him in the eyes, but Johnny wrenched his chin free, his expression a mixture of confusion and fury.
