Probably. Abuse could scramble a brain for a while—especially a kid’s developing mind.

Hawk tugged on his ear and manned up. According to Mako, some people found it harder to share something personal than to take a bullet.

The sarge had rarely been wrong.

“I wasn’t trying to leave you, Aric.” Hawk noted the people walking by. From this height, legs looked like a moving forest. Thank fuck he wasn’t this size. “Too many people make me antsy. Piss me off some too. That’s why I was walking faster.”

Like Hawk, the kid had sandy hair, fair skin, and blue eyes. Only Aric’s eyes were big and vulnerable. The boy was so fucking cute, it was impossible to think anyone could hurt him.

Hawk frowned. Had he looked like this as a boy? His father sure hadn’t had any trouble hurting him.

He shook the thought loose and rose.

Since the kid didn’t like to talk, Hawk and his brothers had taught him some of the hand signals used in combat—and invented a few for just Aric. Like the one for want a ride?

Hawk bent and held his hands out with palms up.

Aric nodded vigorously.

Okay then. Hawk picked the kid up—so damned light, even after three weeks of feeding him everything he could consume.

Veering past a pungent batch of anglers debating about rods and reels, Hawk sighed. Combat fishing had begun, from battling for positions on the river to arguing about gear, and then, to his brother Bull’s disgust, brawling in the roadhouse over who’d caught the biggest fish.

When they passed the grocery, Dante, the owner, saluted them through the display window. Aric gave a shy wave back, and the white-haired Okie grinned.

Across the street, the local handymen, Chevy and Knox, were replacing a cracked window in the hair salon and spa.

“Yo, Aric.” Knox held up a hammer in greeting. “Hey, Hawk. We’ll be done with this job by tomorrow and free to take on more of your projects.”

“Good.” Because there were still more buildings to fix. “Call me.”

The two men nodded.

Hawk and Aric continued down Main Street. Sometimes it seemed as if there was no end to renovating the buildings he and his brothers had inherited. In the years before his death, Mako bought up a shitload of failing businesses in Rescue to help the people wanting to leave Alaska. Then a ski resort and hotel re-opened nearby, bringing in an influx of tourists. When the sarge died a year and a half ago, he’d left everything to Hawk and his brothers, expecting them to help bring the town back to life.