Page 28 of The Lovely and the Lost
The space between the sheriff and Gabriel shrank to nothing so quickly that I wasn’t even sure which one of them had closed the gap. Saskia moved lightning-quick to Gabriel’s side.
I realized a moment later that I had done the same.
“Kira.” Cady had to repeat my name once more before my eyes flickered from the sheriff’s to hers. “You and Gabriel have done your part here. I’m sure one of the rangers would be glad to see you two home.”
“I can’t go,” I said fiercely.Can’t, notwon’t.I knew on some level that Cady was probably trying to defuse the situation. I just didn’t know why—or what exactly this situation between Gabriel and the man opposite us entailed.
“I’m sure the sheriff will agree.” Cady threw him a bone. “It was one thing letting you kids search when this was a missing persons case, but this isn’t a missing persons case anymore. This is a kidnapping, Kira. And you—and Gabriel—are going home.”
“Tell me again about the part where Broody McSmirkpants called you ‘princess’ and youdidn’trip out his throat.”
The minute we’d been dropped off, Gabriel had pulled a disappearing act, and Free and Jude had descended on me. Now the three of us were sequestered in the room Free and I were sharing. Jude was lying upside down on the bed. In typical Jude style, he’d immediately zeroed in on the one thing—out of everything I’d caught them up on—thatdidn’thave weighty implications.
“I’m guessing Kira would prefer to tell us again about the teeth-gnashing injustice of being kicked off this search.” Free assumed her perch in the open window.
Being with the two of them should have loosened the knot in my stomach. It should have made me feel more like myself and less like the Girl in the Woods. But all I could think was that I’d shown Cady that I wasn’t a liability, and she’d still sent me away.
Silver nudged the back of my knees, herding me toward Jude.
“I should be out there,” I said. Cady might as well have tied me up. Ifeltlike she had. “I should be looking for Bella and hunting this predator down.”
Backing away from a challenge was never easy for me, but backing away when some sicko was out there dragging a child through the wilderness? When that child was bleeding and running and forced into the dark?
“Heads up!” That was only warning I got before a pillow hit me straight in the face. I narrowed my eyes at Jude.
“Miscreants’ Creed, line twelve,” he cited quickly, his sense of self-preservation clicking on. “Mild to moderate pillow violence is a sign of affection.”
“Not an actual part of the Creed,” Free commented. “But I’ll take it under advisement.”
An obstinate Silver nudged my legs again, then circled in front of me and gave me the canine version of Cady’sLook.She wanted me to sit. She wanted me to breathe.
“The person who took Bella has seven hundred and fifty thousand acres of wilderness to hide in.” I let that statement hang in the air, then forced myself to sit. It wasn’t Silver’s fault I’d been thrown off the search, any more than it was Jude’s fault or Free’s. With a self-satisfied bob of her head, Silver curled by my side, and the moment I felt the German shepherd’s body next to mine, something inside me gave.
“I can’t just sit here,” I said, my voice threatening to break. “Bella Anthony sleeps with a blanket.” I swallowed. “Or at least, she did. Now she’s out there, sleeping who knows where, and she’s scared and in danger, and she doesn’t even have that pathetic scrap of fabric for comfort.”
Free leaned back, her palms flat against the windowsill. “I’d suggest sneaking out and starting a search of our own, but barring extreme circumstances, even I don’t think pushing Cady that far would be wise.”
When I was a child, I’d learned to trust Cady the way that Jude had learned to read—slowly, painstakingly, painfully. That trust couldn’t be undone overnight. Cady was protecting me the only way she knew how.
Girl doesn’t need protection.My hand throbbed, and when I looked down, I saw that I’d dug my fingers into the carpet underneath me. I forced them loose, and Silver licked my palm.
Silver is here,I imagined her saying.I’m here, Kira. I’m here. I’m here.
Wasn’t that what Jude and Free had been saying in their own ways since I got back?
“Distract me.” My body physically shook with the effort of trying to take a mental step back from this case—from Bella. I bowed my head and let it rest against Silver’s. Her fur was coarse, but it didn’t feel rough against my skin. “Tell me something that has nothing to do with kidnapping or missing children or what might be happening to that little girl right now.”
My fellow Miscreants obliged.
“Bales has officially banned the use of confetti,” Jude said at the exact same time that Free opted for, “I might have made another trip to town. And I might have asked around about Ash. And Cady. And Mac.”
Nowthatwas a worthy distraction. Jude and I hadn’t really talked about the argument we’d overheard between Cady and Bales. We hadn’t discussed Ash—or what the fact that Cady had “loved” Ash might mean for Jude. I couldn’t remember Cady ever dating. She’d had Jude young.
She’d known Ash when she was young.
Jude sat straight up on the bed and twirled toward the window. “And what, pray tell, might you have learned on this trip to town, Free Morrow?”
Free took her time responding. “Cady ever mention anything to either of you about spending her early twenties as part of an elite search and rescue team?”