Military Heroes Bundle: A Soldier's Homecoming / A Soldier's Redemption / Danger in the Desert / Strangers When We Meet / Grayson's Surrender / Taking Cover

“He seems like a pretty nice guy. For some odd reason he reminds me of you.”

Micah laughed. “Faith said exactly the same thing.”

“You’re not getting much of a chance to know him.”

“That’ll come.”

Connie hesitated. “It must have been a shock when he showed up.”

“Not exactly. Somehow, at some level, I almost expected it.”

“As if you knew?”

“As if I knew.”

“Maybe you should come over to my place after school gets out. You could spend some time with him.”

“He’s not ready yet.”

She glanced at Micah, then took the risk. “How can you know that?”

She expected the stone wall of silence, but he surprised her. “I just do. He knows where to find me.”

Connie managed to stifle a sigh of exasperation. Ethan had come all this way, to the virtual middle of nowhere, to find his father, and now he wasn’t ready to talk to the man? Why did she find that so hard to believe?

Yet Ethan had said much the same thing. Something about needing the silence first.

She was still thinking about that near shift’s end, and she positioned herself strategically to keep an eye out for Sophie as she pulled up near the school and Micah got out. He walked up the street, as if checking the cars parked along the curb.

Even with the cover of routine patrol and Micah checking cars for parking violations, he was still too visible, Connie thought. Still too visible to someone trying to avoid them. This wasn’t exactly the porous surveillance Nathan had recommended. Yet how far could she let the risk run?

Life was all about risk. She knew that. Complete safety existed only in a padded cell, and perhaps not even there. But while she could risk herself, she found it impossible to risk her daughter.

She scanned the street again and noted that Micah had vanished from sight. Like father, like son. Ghost men.

She let out the brake and resumed cruising, circling the general area where the kids would walk as they left school, but trying not to get too close. Micah was surely out there somewhere, watching, as was Ethan. She could afford to create the appearance of space.

She stopped at one point to put a warning on a car with a broken taillight. She waved to the crossing guards who began to appear on corners. She knew every one of them as a neighbor. That was the wonderful thing about Conard County. Even with the recent growth, she could still get to know nearly everyone.

It was also the reason she had always felt safe here. But all of that now lay shattered like a broken mirror, reflecting scattered, distorted images.

Had it ever been safe here? Or was that an illusion?

She watched the schoolchildren as they scattered toward their homes. As usual, she enjoyed watching them and their sheer exuberance. It reminded her of the days when getting out of school for the afternoon had been enough to fill her with elation.

Unfortunately, it seemed to take a lot more to excite her these days. It occurred to her that the human race would probably be a lot healthier if they could hang on to some of that joy, wonder and exuberance later in life.

Or maybe that was just a lousy perspective to take. Maybe adults crushed themselves.

Then, once again, her thoughts wandered to Ethan. They kept doing that. Her mind, she thought wryly, had a mind of its own. Here she was, prowling the streets looking for a potential criminal, and she was thinking of Ethan.

And her thoughts, heaven help her, reeked of sexual attraction and desire. Funny thing, that. It always sprang up when you least wanted it. And, as she’d learned, often for the wrong person. After her ex, she just plain didn’t trust her judgment of men that way. Now Ethan, a man she hardly knew, was turning the key in the locked box of her desires.

She’d tested the secure power of his arms, the hard muscles of his chest, in that single comforting embrace. But she hadn’t felt his skin, and she found herself wanting to know in the worst way what his skin felt like. Warm and smooth? Rough?

Damn!

At that moment, she spied Sophie coming around a corner from an unexpected direction. Worse, she was alone.

Connie’s heart accelerated along with her patrol car as she zoomed over to her daughter. Sophie looked over and smiled.

“Hi, Mom.”

“Where are Jody and your other friends?”

Sophie shrugged. “I dunno.”

“Climb in and I’ll take you home.”

Sophie did as she was told, climbing into the passenger seat, sitting with her book bag on her lap.

“Sweetie, you know you’re not supposed to walk home alone.”

“I guess I missed the others.”

“How come?”

“I dunno.”

When she paused at a stop sign, Connie looked over at Sophie. “What aren’t you telling me?”

Sophie’s lower lip stuck out. “Nothing.”

For the first time in a long time, Connie didn’t believe her daughter. “Honey, you know there’s nothing that makes me madder than a lie.”

“I’m not lying!”

“Okay.” Connie thought about that, admitting that I dunno was the kids’ equivalent of I don’t recall under oath. “You’re going to be a great lawyer someday.”

Sophie looked at her. “Huh?”

“Never mind. Look, there’s Micah. I need to stop for him, because we’re supposed to be working together today.”

“Okay.”

Micah stood on the sidewalk, watching her approach, and when she pulled up and rolled down her window, he bent to look in. “I see you found Little Miss Lost.”

“Lost?” Connie turned her head to look at Sophie. “Sophie, where did you go?”