Page 10 of The Lovely and the Lost

Like I could get lost out there without ever leaving this car.

“Sierra Glades National Park,” Cady said. “Seven hundred and fifty thousand acres of mountains, foothills, canyons, and rivers—not to mention a forest that boasts some of the tallest, oldest trees on the continent.”

“Or as I like to call it,” Jude added from the passenger seat, “our new backyard!”

“Don’t get too comfortable,” Cady muttered as the town—what little there was of it—came into view. “We won’t be here long.”

Responding to Cady’s muttering, Silver lifted her head from my lap. Behind us, Saskia prowled, making use of the space Cady had cleared when she’d removed the third row of seats from her SUV. Pad sat calmly at the back window, ready for action.

As Cady pulled off onto a gravel road, Silver laid her head back down on my lap and plopped one paw over my leg, a clear order that I should stay put.

“I take it that our beloved grandfather is greatly revered in the town of Hunter’s Point?” Jude asked, continuing the steady stream of chatter he’d kept up for the whole drive. “For his wisdom. And his beard.”

“Unless something’s changed since I left, your grandfather doesn’t mix much with the people in town.” Cady didn’t elaborate.

“You don’t want to talk about him.” I meant that as a statement, but a question burrowed its way into my tone. Cady hadn’t told us anything about Bales Bennett. She had to have known that we’d overheard parts of their conversation, but she hadn’t so much as mentioned it—not once.

“We’re here to help with a search,” my foster mother said, her fingers tightening around the steering wheel for a split second before she forced them loose again. “That’s all.”

Cady was famous in search and rescue circles for training dogs, but as far as I knew, she hadn’t participated in an active search in years.Since she found me.

“I sense that this is something of a bittersweet homecoming,” Jude commented as Cady pulled in front of a cabin-style house and cut the engine. “Out of respect for the solemnity of the occasion, I shall refrain from confetti.”

Why did I have a feeling literal confetti would be making an appearance before long?

Ignoring Jude, Cady opened the driver’s-side door, and I took that as permission to open mine. Silver, determined to get the lay of the land, exited first. I tried not to notice the stiffness with which my aging companion jumped out of the car. It was ten or fifteen seconds before she turned back to me.

All safe,I could almost hear my self-appointed protector saying.Kira get out of car now.

I obliged. The second my shoes hit dirt, the tension that had been building inside me snapped like a rubber band. I closed my eyes and lifted my face toward the sky and listened.Birds. Running water, somewhere nearby.

I heard Jude let Saskia and Pad out of the back, and without turning toward them, I tracked their movements. Saskia stalked; Pad was more of a prancer, like a horse trained in dressage.

Another sound broke through. My eyes snapped open as I angled my body toward the source.Human.A boy—eighteen or nineteen, dark hair, dark eyes, brown skin that glistened with a layer of sweat—drilled a soccer ball into the side of the house.

Again.

And again.

Maybe he was dangerous. Maybe he wasn’t. When it came to strangers, my brain was wired to err on the side of caution.

Almost as if on cue, the stranger in question turned to look at us. Without missing a beat, he pounded the ball into the wall so hard that it rebounded over his head and into the woods.

I felt my nostrils flare but kept my lips pressed firmly together.

“I believe that is the traditional salutation of the Hunter’s Point soccer enthusiast,” Jude said, ambling to my side. Pad took up position just in front of us.

“Just curious,” I said to Jude under my breath. “Are you two protecting me from the stranger or the stranger from me?”

Jude remained suspiciously silent.

“Hello,” Cady called out.

As the boy began to make his way toward us, the tips of his fingers curled inward, a prelude to working themselves into fists, but his arms stayed dangling by his sides.

“Him from you,” Jude murmured as he took in the expression on my face. “We’re definitely protecting him from you.”

Pad went out to greet the stranger.