Jilly broke free and ran to Riley.
The judge pounded his gavel and everything got quiet. He looked around the courtroom as if he couldn’t believe what had just happened.
For a moment, he just sat there, breathing heavily.
Then he looked at Riley and said, “Ms. Paige, I think I owe you an apology. I made the wrong decision just now, and I rescind it.”
He glared at Scarlatti and added, “Another sound from you and I’ll put you under arrest.”
Looking at the others in the room, the judge said firmly, “There will be no further hearings. This is my final determination on this adoption. Custody is awarded to the adoptive mother.”
He rapped his gavel again and got up and left the courtroom without another word.
Riley turned and looked at Scarlatti. His dark eyes were furious, but the two security officers were still standing beside him. He glanced at his fiancée, who was looking on in horror. Then Scarlatti hung his head and just stood there quietly.
Jilly threw herself into Riley’s arms, sobbing.
Riley held her close and said, “You’re a brave girl, Jilly. I’m never going to let you go, no matter what happens. You can count on it.”
Jilly’s cheek was still stinging as Riley wrapped up a few details with Brenda and the lawyer. But it seemed like a good kind of hurting and she knew it would soon go away. She’d told the truth about something she’d kept to herself for much too long. As a result, she was free from her father forever.
Riley—her new mom—drove her back to their hotel room, where they packed up quickly and drove to the airport. They arrived in plenty of time for their flight home and checked their bags so they wouldn’t have to lug them around. Then they went together to a restroom.
Jilly stood looking in a mirror while her mom was in a nearby stall.
A slight bruise was forming on the side of her face where her father had hit her. But it was going to be OK now.
Her father could never hurt her again. And all because she’d come out and told the truth about her little lost brother at last. That was all it had taken to turn everything around.
She smiled a little as she remembered Mom saying to her …
“You’re a brave girl, Jilly.”
Yes, Jilly thought. I guess I am pretty brave.
CHAPTER SIX
When Riley came out of the restroom, she didn’t see Jilly anywhere.
The first thing she felt was a flash of anger.
She remembered telling Jilly clearly …
“Wait right outside the door. Don’t go anywhere.”
And now she was nowhere in sight.
That girl, Riley thought.
She wasn’t worried about missing their flight. They had plenty of time before boarding. But she had hoped to take things slow and easy after such a hard day. She’d planned for them to go on through security, find their gate, and then find a nice place to eat.
Riley sighed with discouragement.
Even after Jilly’s courageous actions in the courtroom, Riley couldn’t help but be disappointed by this new display of immaturity.
She knew that if she went searching for Jilly in the big terminal, they’d probably go on missing each other time and time again. She looked for a place to sit and wait for Jilly to come back, which she surely would do sooner or later.
But as Riley gazed around the big, open terminal building, she caught a glimpse of Jilly going through one of the glass doors that led outside.
Or at least she thought it was Jilly—it was hard to be sure from where Riley was standing.
And who was that woman that the girl seemed to be with?
It looked like Barbara Long, Albert Scarlatti’s fiancée.
But the two people disappeared quickly among the travelers milling about outside.
Riley felt a tingle of apprehension. Had her eyes been playing tricks on her?
No, she was now pretty sure of what she’d seen.
But what was going on? Why would Jilly be going anywhere with that woman?
Riley got moving. She knew there was no time to make sense of this. Breaking into a trot, she instinctively reached under her lightweight jacket and patted the gun she wore in her shoulder holster.
She was stopped by a uniformed security guard who stepped in front of her.
He spoke in a calm, professional voice. “Are you drawing a weapon, ma’am?”
Riley let out a groan of frustration.
She said, “Sir, I don’t have time for this.”
She could tell by the guard’s expression that she’d only confirmed his suspicion.
He drew his own weapon and moved toward her. Out of the corner of her eye, Riley saw that another guard had spotted the activity and was also approaching.
“Let me by,” Riley snapped, showing both of her hands. “I’m an FBI agent.”
The guard with the gun didn’t reply. Riley guessed that he didn’t believe her. And she knew he was trained not to believe her. He was just doing his job.
The second guard looked like he was now about to frisk her.
Riley was losing precious time. Given her superior training, she calculated that she could probably disarm the guard with the gun before he could fire. But the last thing she needed right now was to get into a needless hassle with a pair of well-meaning security guards.
Forcing herself to stand still, she said, “Look, just let me show you my ID.”
The two guards glanced at each other warily.
“OK,” the guard with the gun said. “But slowly.”
Riley carefully pulled out her badge and showed it to them.
Their mouths dropped open.
“I’m in a hurry,” Riley said.
The guard standing in front of her nodded and holstered his gun.
Gratefully, she broke into a run across the terminal and dashed through the glass doors to the outside.
Riley looked all around. Neither Jilly nor the woman were anywhere in sight.
But then she spotted her daughter’s face in the back window of an SUV. Jilly looked alarmed, and her hands were pressing against the glass.
Even worse, the vehicle was starting to pull away.
Riley broke into a desperate run.
Luckily, the SUV bounced to a halt. A vehicle ahead of it had stopped for pedestrians and the SUV was trapped behind it.
Riley reached the driver’s side before the SUV could pull away again.
And there was Albert Scarlatti in the driver’s seat.
She pulled out her gun and pointed it through the window, directly at his head.
“It’s over, Scarlatti,” she yelled at the top of her lungs.
But before she knew it, Scarlatti swung his door open, slamming it into her. The gun fell out of her hand and clattered to the pavement.
Riley was furious now—not just at Scarlatti, but at herself for misjudging the distance between herself and the door. For once she’d let her panic get the best of her.
But she recovered her wits in a split-second.
This man was not going to get away with