“I know she wasn’t happy about me being special ops.”
“Then maybe that’s all it was.”
Micah thanked Faith for the coffee and took a sip, still studying his son. “What have you been doing?”
Ethan almost heard the unspoken question, Why didn’t you come sooner? But he chose to take his father’s words at face value. “Marine recon,” he said.
“Iraq? Afghanistan?”
“Both.” Ethan hesitated. “I just got out of Walter Reed. I’ll be discharged soon. Medical.”
Micah’s face tightened. “I’m sorry.”
“I’m better off than most.”
“I can see that.”
Faith stirred. “Why don’t I go out to meet the kids at the bus? So you two can have some time. Ethan, you’re welcome to stay with us.”
He looked at her. “No, thank you, ma’am. I don’t think I’m ready for that.”
“If you ever change your mind, the invitation will be open.” Then she grabbed a sweater off the peg beside Micah’s hat and slipped out through the screen door. It slapped closed behind her.
The two men stared at one another, tied by blood, separated by a gulf of years.
“I probably should have called first,” Ethan said finally.
Micah shook his head. “It’s a surprise any way you want to announce it.”
“I suppose it is.”
“Well, hell.” Micah stood up from the table and walked once around the kitchen before going to stand at the screen door, looking out. “I knew,” he said finally.
“Knew what?”
“I knew you were out there.”
“What? She told you?”
“No.” He turned slowly and looked at Ethan. “I just had a feeling. Like a piece of me was out there somewhere. I always wondered if it would turn up.”
Ethan turned his chair so that he could look straight at his father. He crossed his legs. “My mother said you weirded her out sometimes.”
At that Micah chuckled. “She didn’t like the shaman in me.”
“She didn’t like it in me, either.”
Understanding suddenly crackled in the air between them, like lightning, a feeling almost strong enough to make hair stand on end.
“You’re my son,” Micah said. His tone brooked no doubt.
“I am.”
Micah returned to the table. “Then we’ve got a lot of time to make up for.”
Connie stood outside with Gage, her arms wrapped tightly around herself. Cops were cruising all over town and the surrounding countryside, looking for the stranger who had accosted the girls.
“Bigger than your car and smaller than mine isn’t much of a description,” Gage remarked.
“No. But a beard. I thought immediately of the guy I gave a ride to yesterday.”
Gage faced her directly. “Who was that?”
“I thought he was a major. He had the rank on his shirt collar. Native American, but with a beard.”
Gage shook his head. “Not him.”
“How do you know?” Her voice held an edge.
“Because while Sophie and Jody were being approached by this stranger, I was driving Ethan Parish out to Micah’s place.”
“Ethan Parish?”
Gage nodded. “Big guy, kinda lean, back from Afghanistan.”
Reluctantly Connie nodded. “So it’s not going to be that easy.”
“Afraid not.”
“What do we do now?”
“You know the drill,” Gage said quietly. “You escort Sophie to and from school. I’ll make sure you have time to do it. And if it’s not you, it’ll be me or one of the others, okay?”
“And Jody?”
“She doesn’t seem to have been the target, but I’ll tell her folks they need to watch her, too. And I’m going to double the in-town patrols so we can keep an eye on all the kids as they walk to and from school.”
“Good idea. Maybe he just happened to know Sophie’s name.”
“Maybe.” Gage looked past her, scanning the area. “If we don’t find him, all this activity will probably scare him on his way.”
“Probably.” But Connie still couldn’t relax. “All the parents need to know.”
“Of course. The school is already taking care of that.”
“Good.” Connie sighed. “Gage, I’m scared to death.”
“I don’t blame you. But this isn’t New York or Chicago, Connie. There aren’t a lot of places to hide.”
“In town, anyway.” She suppressed a shudder. “I promised Jody’s mother I’d bring her home.”
“I’ll do it. You just stay here with Sophie. I’ll leave Sarah here, too. The rest of us will keep searching.”
“Thanks, Gage.”
He surprised her with a quick hug, then gave her a straight stare. “You know this whole town is going to be watching now. Sophie will be safe.”
“Yes. Yes.” But something in her couldn’t quite believe that. The unthinkable had happened. And it had happened to her daughter.
She stayed outside in the gathering dusk while Gage retrieved Jody and put her in his car. Only then did she go back inside the brightly lit kitchen where her daughter, mother and Deputy Sarah Ironheart were sitting.
She tried to smile brightly for Sophie’s sake. “I was going to grill burgers again tonight,” she said, “but I don’t feel like it anymore. How about we try ordering from that new Italian place? They deliver.”
Sophie was over her fear now, and the idea of pizza thrilled her. So easy, sometimes, to be a child.
Not so easy to be a mother. Connie didn’t sleep a wink that night.
Everyone in the county knew about Sophie’s encounter by morning. Even Ethan could tell something was going on as he walked into town from the motel to get breakfast at Maude’s. He noted that he was getting a lot of suspicious looks he hadn’t received even the day before, and by the time he sat down at a table in the diner, he knew he was under surveillance.
His skin crawled with it. He waited for Maude to come to his table, pretending not to notice, but every nerve ending in his body was wound tighter than a spring. Hyper-alert, on guard, half expecting a bomb or a gunshot.
What he got, instead, was a menu, and a few minutes later Gage Dalton entered the restaurant. Gage stood looking around the room and announced easily, “This man is not the man who approached Sophie Halloran yesterday. Leave him alone.”
The eyes shifted away, conversation resumed, and in seconds Ethan had heard enough to understand the basics of what had the whole town acting as if it was under