LITTLE BOY LOST

In the night, a young boy goes missing from his bedroom. Police detective Austin Black assures desperate single mother Eva Billows that he’ll find her son. He has to, so he can put to rest his own harrowing memories. With his search-and-rescue bloodhound, Justice, Austin searches every inch of Sagebrush, Texas. And when Eva insists on helping, Austin can’t turn her away. Eva trusts no one, especially police, but this time, Austin—and Justice—won’t let her down.

“Eva, I’m going to do everything in my power to find Brady,” Austin said.

He held her gaze. “I promise you that. I know your son was in these woods. I know exactly where Justice lost the scent trail, and I feel confident that he can find it again, but not if we don’t go look for it.”

“Okay,” Eva said. He was right. Talking only wasted energy that could be spent finding Brady.

“Great. You can wait in your car or go back to your place. As soon as we have new information—”

“No.”

“What?” He stopped short, his eyes flashing with irritation, Justice tugging hard on the lead.

“I’m coming with you, Detective.”

SHIRLEE McCOY

has always loved making up stories. As a child, she daydreamed elaborate tales in which she was the heroine—gutsy, strong and invincible. Though she soon grew out of her superhero fantasies, her love for storytelling never diminished. She knew early that she wanted to write inspirational fiction, and she began writing her first novel when she was a teenager. Still, it wasn’t until her third son was born that she truly began pursuing her dream of being published. Three years later, she sold her first book. Now a busy mother of five, Shirlee is a homeschool mom by day and an inspirational author by night. She and her husband and children live in the Pacific Northwest and share their house with a dog, two cats and a bird. You can visit her website, www.shirleemccoy.com, or email her at shirlee@shirleemccoy.com.

Tracking Justice

Shirlee McCoy

www.millsandboon.co.uk

MILLS & BOON

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Restore to me the joy of your salvation

and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

—Psalm 51:12

Much thanks to extraordinary editor,

Emily Rodmell. Without your guidance and expertise (and patience), this book would not be what it is.

And to the K-9 Justice continuity authors—

Sharon Dunn, Lenora Worth, Terri Reed,

Valerie Hansen and Margaret Daley—

I loved working with every one of you!

Thank you for your kindness and encouragement after my accident. It meant the world to me.

Special thanks and acknowledgment to Shirlee McCoy for her contribution to the Texas K-9 Unit miniseries.

Contents

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

EPILOGUE

Dear Reader

Questions for Discussion

Excerpt

ONE

Police detective Austin Black glanced at the illuminated numbers on the dashboard clock as he raced up Oak Drive. Two in the morning. Not a good time to get a call about a missing child.

Then again, there was never a good time for that; never a good time to look in the eyes of a mother or father and see terror and worry or to follow a scent trail and know that it might lead to a joyful reunion or a sorrowful goodbye.

If it led anywhere.

Sometimes trails went cold, scents were lost and the missing were never found.

Knowing that didn’t make it any easier to accept.

Austin wanted to find them all. Bring them all home safe.

Hopefully, this time, he would.

He pulled into the driveway of a small, bungalow-style house, its white porch gleaming in exterior lights that glowed on either side of the door. Just four houses down from the scene of a violent crime and the theft of a trained police dog the previous afternoon. An odd coincidence.

Or maybe not.

Two calls to the same street within nine hours? Not something that happened often in a place like Sagebrush, Texas.

Justice whined, his dark nose pressed against the grate that separated him from the SUV’s backseat. A three-year-old bloodhound, he was trained in search and rescue and knew when it was time to work. Knew and was ready, even after the eight-hour search they’d been on earlier.

Austin jumped out of the vehicle and started up the driveway, filing away information as he went. Lights on in the front of the house. An old station wagon parked on the curb. Windows closed. Locked?

A woman darted out the front door, pale hair flowing behind her, a loose robe flapping in the cold night air as she ran toward him. “Thank God you got here so quickly. I don’t know where he could have gone.”

“You called about a missing child?”

“Yes. My son.”

“The dispatcher said that you don’t know how long he’s been gone?” Austin had heard the call go out shortly after he’d left his captain’s place. Hours of searching for Slade’s stolen police dog, Rio, had turned up nothing but a dead-end scent trail and mounting frustration. Austin had been exhausted and ready to go home. Now he felt wired and ready to hit the trail again.

“I thought that I heard Brady call for me, and when I walked into his room, he was gone. That was about ten minutes ago.”

“Has he ever run away?”

“No.”

“Ever talked about it?”

“No! Now, please, can you help me find him?” She ran back up the porch stairs, her bare feet padding on the whitewashed wood.

Austin jogged after her, stepping into a small living room. Neat as a pin except for a small pile of Legos on a light oak coffee table and a college textbook abandoned on a threadbare sofa. No sign of the woman.

“Ma’am?” he called, moving toward a narrow hallway that led toward the back of the house.

“Here.” She waved from a doorway at the end of the hall. “This is my son’s room.”

Austin followed her into the tiny room. Blue walls. Blue bedding tangled and dripping over the side of the twin mattress. Crisp white curtains. A blanket lay on the floor near the open window, the frayed edges ruffled by the wind.

“How old is your son, Ms...?”

“Billows. Eva. He’s seven.”

Billows?

The name sparked a memory, but Austin couldn’t quite grab hold of it. “Did you and your son have an argument about something? Maybe a missed curfew or—”

“He’s seven. He’s not even allowed to be outside by himself.” Her voice broke, but her eyes were dry, her face pale and pinched with worry. A pretty face. A young one, too. Maybe twenty-three or four. Too young, it seemed, to have a seven-year-old.

“Did you argue about homework? Grades?”

“We didn’t argue about anything, Officer—?”

“Detective Austin Black. I’m with Sagebrush Police Department’s Special Operations K-9 Unit.”

“You have a search-and-rescue dog with you?” Her face brightened, hope gleaming in her emerald eyes. “I can give you something of his. A shirt or—”

“Hold on.” He grabbed her arm as she tried to move past. “I need to get a little more information first.”

“Find my son. Then I’ll give you whatever information you want.”

“Unfortunately, without the information, I won’t know where to begin searching for your son.”

“How about you start out there?” She gestured out the window.

“Was it open when you came in the room?”

“Yes. And the curtains were just like that. One hanging outside. Like, maybe...” She pressed her lips together.

“What?”

“It looks like someone carried Brady out the window, and Brady grabbed the curtain to try to keep from being taken. But I don’t know how anyone could have gotten into his room. The window was locked. All the doors and windows were locked.”

He nodded. He could see the scenario she’d outlined playing out. The little boy woken from a sound sleep, dragged from his bed and out the window, grabbing on to whatever he could to keep from being kidnapped.

He could see it, but that didn’t mean it had happened that way. Most children were abducted by family or friends, and most didn’t even know they were being abducted when it happened.

“You’re sure everything was locked?”

“Of course.” She frowned. “I always double-check. I have ever since...”

“What?”

“Nothing that matters. I just need to find my son.”

Hiding something?

Maybe. She seemed more terrified than nervous, but that didn’t mean she didn’t know something about what had happened to her son.

“Everything matters when a child is missing, Eva.”

Missing.

Gone.

Disappeared.

The words just kept coming. Kept filling Eva’s head and her heart and her lungs until she wasn’t sure she could breathe.

“Do you need to sit down?” Detective Black touched her elbow, his dark blue eyes staring straight into hers.

“I need to find my son.” The words stuck in her throat, caught on the roof of her mouth, and she didn’t know if they even made a sound when they escaped through her lips.

“I’m going to help you do that. I promise. But I need to know if there’s some reason why you were careful to keep your doors and windows locked. Someone you were afraid of.” His voice was warm and smooth as honey straight from the hive, and Eva might actually believe every word he was saying if she weren’t so terrified.

“My parents were killed two years ago, but it had nothing to do with me or my son.”

“The killer was caught?”

“No.”

“Is it possible—”

“It’s not possible!” She nearly shouted, and Detective Black frowned. “I was estranged from my father when the murders occurred. There’s no connection between my life now and what happened to my parents.” She tried again. Tried to sound reasonable and responsible because she was afraid if she didn’t, the detective would linger in Brady’s room for hours instead of going to look for him.

“Is Brady’s father around?” He leaned out the window without touching it, eyeing the packed earth beneath.

Did he see anything there?

She wanted to ask, wanted to beg him to get his dog and go after her son, wanted to go after Brady herself, run into the darkness and scream his name over and over again until she found him.

“No,” she answered a little too sharply, and Detective Black raised a raven-black eyebrow.

“You’re not on good terms?”

“We’re not on any terms.”

“When was the last time you and Brady saw him?”

“Brady has never seen him,” she retorted. “The last time I saw Rick was six months before my son was born.”

“Have you spoken to him on th—”

“I haven’t had any contact with him since the day I told him I was pregnant. He’s not in my life. He’s not in Brady’s life. He didn’t want to be. He was married, okay? He and his wife moved to Las Vegas two months before Brady’s birth. That’s it. The whole story.” She’d been nineteen and foolish enough to believe every lie Rick had told. It didn’t hurt like it used to, but admitting it to the detective still made her blush.

“Is there anyone else? A boyfriend? Fiancé?”

“No. Just me and Brady. That’s all there’s ever been.” She swallowed hard and turned away. Holding back tears because crying wouldn’t solve her problems. Wouldn’t help her son.

“When did you last see Brady?”

“I checked on him at midnight. Right before I went to bed. He was sleeping.”

“You went to bed after that?”

“Yes! I went to bed. I fell asleep. I thought I heard Brady call for me, and I went to his room. He was gone. Now, will you please go find him?”

“I will. A soon as—”

The doorbell rang and Eva jumped, her heart soaring with wild hope.

Brady.

Please, God, let it be him.

She shoved past Detective Black, not caring about niceties. Not caring about anything but getting to the door, opening it, seeing Brady’s face.

Only it wasn’t him.

Her heart sank as she looked into the eyes of a uniformed officer.

“Ms. Billows? I’m Officer Desmond Cunningham. We have a report of a missing child?”

“My son. There’s already a detective here.”

“He’s with our K-9 Unit. He’ll start searching for your son while I interview you.”

Thank You, God. Thank You, thank You, thank You.

She stepped back so he could enter the house, wishing she’d had time to straighten up the living room, put the sofa cover over her threadbare couch. A twenty-dollar Goodwill find that worked fine for her and Brady but wasn’t great for company.

Such a silly thing to think about.

Such a stupid thing when her son was missing.

She pressed a hand to her stomach, sick with dread and fear.

“He’s been gone for twenty minutes already,” she said, the horror of the words filling her mouth with the coppery taste of blood.

“It takes a little time to get a search team mobilized, ma’am, but we’ll have plenty of people out here before you know it.” Officer Cunningham offered a reassuring smile, his dark eyes filled with sympathy.

Seeing it there in the depth of his gaze was too difficult, made the tears she’d been holding back too tempting. She turned away, met Detective Black’s steady gaze.

Deep blue. Bottomless. Unreadable.

“Were you home this afternoon, Eva?” he asked, and she shook her head because she wasn’t sure she could speak without tears rolling down her cheeks.

“Was Brady?”

“He was with his babysitter. Mrs. Daphne lives two doors down,” she managed to say past the lump in her throat.

“Is that close to Slade McNeal’s place?” he asked.

And odd question, but she’d answer whatever he asked if it meant getting him outside searching for Brady.

“Yes.”

Detective Black and Officer Cunningham exchanged a look she couldn’t read. One that excluded her, made her even more terrified than she already was.

“What’s going on?”

“Captain McNeal’s father was attacked today. His dog, Rio, was stolen. The person responsible is still on the loose.”

“What does that have to do with Brady?” she asked, but she knew, the cold icy feeling in her heart making her shake.

“It’s going to be okay.” Detective Black walked across the room and opened the front door. “I’m going to get Justice. Eva, if you want to get a photo of your son and an article of his clothing. Something that he wore today, preferably. I’ll be back in a minute.”

She ran into Brady’s room, trying not to think about Slade’s father, his missing K-9 partner. Trying not to think about how pale and quiet Brady had been when she’d picked him up from Mrs. Daphne’s house.

He hadn’t eaten much for dinner.

Maybe he’d just been sick. A stomach virus. Kids got those all the time.

She wanted to believe that accounted for his silence at the dinner table, his desire to go to bed early.

Check the window again, Momma. Did you check it?

The words seemed to echo in Brady’s empty room.

She should have asked him why he was worried about the window lock. Should have pressed him about his day, asked just one more time if everything was okay.

If she had—

“Did you find something?” Detective Black walked into the room, a bloodhound padding along beside him. Orange vest and droopy ears, a wet nose and big, dark eyes. Brady would have loved to see him.

The thought burned behind Eva’s eyes, and she ran to the closet, yanked out the T-shirt Brady had worn to school.

Blue today. Orange tomorrow!

“This is the shirt he wore today.” She handed the detective Brady’s T-shirt before she gave into temptation and pressed it to her face, inhaled her son’s little-boy scent.

Please, God. Please.

“He asked me to check the window lock twice. He seemed quiet at dinner. I thought he might be getting sick, but maybe...” Her guilt spilled out, and she had to stop the words so that the tears didn’t spill out, too.

“Your son’s disappearance might not have anything to do with what happened at Slade’s house.”

“But you think that it does?”

“Do you have a recent photo?” He didn’t respond to her comment, and she knew that he did.

She hadn’t realized she could be any more petrified than she’d been when she’d walked into Brady’s room and seen his open window.

She could be.

She was.

Cold air blew in, carrying a hint of rain or snow.

And, somewhere out in the darkness, Brady was scared and probably calling for her.

A tear dripped down her cheek.

“Eva, I need that photo,” Detective Black said gently, and she ran from the room, ran into hers.

So close to Brady’s.

She’d planned it that way when she’d decided which of the three bedrooms she’d take and which Brady would have.

So close, but she hadn’t heard a sound until he’d cried for her.

She grabbed the framed school photo from her nightstand, pressed it to her chest.

“Got it?” Detective Black walked into the room with his bloodhound, and Eva didn’t care that she’d left her waitressing uniform in a stack on a chair. She didn’t care that a pile of college books and papers lay beside her bed. She didn’t care about anything but handing him the photo and watching him walk out the door to find her son.

“This was taken a few months ago.” She handed him the photo, and he studied it for a moment.

“Cute kid,” he said with a small smile, and she nodded because she couldn’t speak past the tears that clogged her throat.

The doorbell rang again. This time she didn’t run to answer it. Didn’t believe that somehow Brady would magically appear on the porch, tired and scared but with some explanation that would make sense. Maybe some story about sleepwalking or thinking that Mrs. Daphne’s dog was outside whining for his attention.

She walked into the living room, her heart heavy and aching, her chest tight.

Captain Slade McNeal stood near the front door, his dark hair mussed, his face drawn and weary. “Eva, I’m sorry I couldn’t be here sooner. I had to wait for my son’s babysitter to arrive.”

“It’s okay.” Her voice sounded hollow and old.

“Have you found any evidence, Cunningham?” Slade turned to the patrol officer.

“I checked the back window. It looks like someone popped the lock on it. I’ve already called for an evidence team.”

“Good. Are you going to take Justice out to track Brady, Austin?”

“Yes. We’ll start around back and work our way from there.”

“I’ll come with you.” Eva pulled her old wool coat from the closet near the door. There was no way she could put Brady’s life in someone else’s hands. No way she could trust that anyone else would look as hard or as long as she would. He was her son, after all. Her responsibility.

“The best thing you can do for your son is stay here and answer the captain’s questions. The more information you provide, the faster we can narrow down our search.” Austin walked onto the porch, and she followed.

He might not want her to help with the search, but she had no intention of staying behind. Brady needed her, and she needed to be there for him. That was the way it had been from the moment he was born, the bond between them so strong that she’d thought that nothing would ever tear them apart.

Something had.

Someone had.

She clenched her fist.

Brady was okay. He had to be.

“I’ve called in Lee Calloway. I’ll have him question the neighbors while I work with Cunningham and the evidence team.” Slade stepped outside, and Eva walked down the porch stairs, letting him approach Detective Black. They could talk all they wanted. She was going to look for her son.

Please, God, just let him be okay. Please, help me find him.

Please.

She could not lose her son.

Wouldn’t lose him.

If that meant searching alone while the police collected evidence and speculated on the who and why and how of Brady’s kidnapping, so be it.

TWO

Justice whined impatiently as Austin followed Eva around the side of the house. She stood near the window, staring aimlessly into the backyard, her arms wrapped around her waist.

“You need to go back inside,” he said.

“I need to find my son, Detective. He’s my life.”

“I know.” Austin didn’t have children yet, but he’d heard the same story dozens of times over his years in search and rescue. He knew the depth of fear and longing, the hope and despair that lived in a parent’s heart when a child disappeared. “I’m going to help you do that, but you need to help me.”

“By going inside and answering a thousand questions?” she asked, her eyes shimmering with tears. None fell. She looked young, but tough. Like someone who’d lived through trouble, and who expected to live through more.

“If that’s what it takes to find Brady, then, yes.”

“I can’t go back inside.”

“You have to, because the longer I have to stand here talking to you, the longer it’s going to take me to get started on the search.”

“I—”

“Go inside, Eva.” He cut her off, crouched near Justice and held out Brady’s shirt. “Ready, boy?”

Justice snuffled the fabric, then bent his long snout to the ground. He circled the area, bypassing Eva, who didn’t seem at all interested in following orders.

“Do you think he can find Brady’s scent?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“Will it lead us to Brady?”

“Hopefully.”

“What—”

“Justice is ready to track. I can’t let him start until you’re inside.”

His words were like a splash of ice water in Eva’s face.

Of course, he couldn’t start the search while she stood there asking questions.

She blinked back hot tears, hating the weakness that made her want to beg and plead and cry. She was strong. She had to be, but she didn’t feel strong. She felt weak and scared, and she wanted to hover around Austin until he promised that he’d bring Brady home to her.

She pivoted, willing to do anything to have Brady back.

“Eva,” Detective Black called as she reached the corner of the house.

“Yes?” She stopped, but she didn’t turn to face him. She didn’t want him to see her despair.

“I’ll do everything I can to bring Brady home to you.”

She did turn then, wanting to thank him for the reassurance. The words died as she watched him hold Brady’s little shirt out to the dog.

Justice huffed out a breath and barked.

“Seek,” Detective Black commanded, and the bloodhound took off, his handler running along behind him. Across the backyard, into the neighbor’s. Out onto the street beyond.

She lost sight of them there.

If she could have, she would have followed them, but she knew she had to go back. Do what she’d been told. Answer dozens of questions that might, if God were willing, bring her son home.

He certainly hadn’t been willing to bring her parents’ murderer to justice, but she had to believe that this time He’d answer her prayers.

Please, God. Please.

She walked around to the front of the house, skirting by several police officers who were standing on the front porch. Three police cars were parked on the curb, another one across the street. One in the driveway. Lots of people, and that had to be a good thing.

Didn’t it?

She hoped so, because every minute that passed was a minute that Brady was alone with...

She cut the thought off. Didn’t want to acknowledge what had been floating around in her head since Detective Black had mentioned the crime at Slade’s house.

Had Brady seen something?

He shouldn’t have. He wasn’t allowed to play outside by himself, and Mrs. Daphne didn’t like being outside in the cold. Arthritis, she always said, and who was Eva to say differently? At seventy, Mrs. Daphne deserved to stay inside if it was what she wanted. The rule was, Brady stayed inside with her. A tough one for him to want to follow. He was high energy and active, and he loved being outdoors.

Had he skirted the rule?

Snuck outside or convinced Mrs. Daphne to let him go?

Her house was close enough to Slade’s for Brady to have had a clear view of it from the yard. But could he have seen enough to make him the target of a criminal?

She didn’t know. Didn’t even want to speculate. All she wanted was her son.

She walked back inside, tried to return the smile that Slade offered. “Do you have some questions for me? Because if you don’t—”

“I do. Officer Cunningham is working with the evidence team, and I’ll be conducting the interview. This should only take a few minutes.”

“All right.” She sat on the edge of the couch, her body trembling and cold.

“Was Brady with Mrs. Daphne today?”

“Yes.”

“What time did you pick him up?”

“Six.”

“Did he mention anything unusual about his day? Anything that concerned you or him?”

“Nothing. He did seem...quiet.” She knew where the conversation was heading, and she took a deep breath, tried to relax.

He narrowed his eyes. “You heard what happened at my house yesterday afternoon?”

“Yes. Detective Black told me.”

“Then you know that my father was attacked and Rio was stolen. Do you think it’s possible that Brady saw what happened?”

“He didn’t mention it, but I guess anything is possible.”

Slade jotted something in a notebook, asked another question and another.

Eva answered all of them as best she could. She couldn’t collapse, couldn’t let herself give in to the emotions that beat like bat wings in her stomach. She wanted to, though. Almost wished she had someone to lean on. Someone who could put an arm around her shoulder and tell her everything would be all right. There was no one. She wasn’t sure there ever had been.

The clock on the fireplace mantel ticked the time away. Five minutes. Ten. Fifteen.

Nearly an hour since Eva had realized Brady was gone.

An hour that he’d been missing. An hour that he’d been terrified, cold. Hungry, because he always was.

She wiped clammy hands on her pajama pants, swallowed down bile. “Are we almost done, Slade?”

“I just have a few more questions to ask.”

“I’ve already answered dozens, and I’ve answered some of them more than once.”

“We have to be thorough, Eva. It’s the only way to get your son back.”

“The only way to get my son back is to go out and look for him. That’s what I’m going to do.” She stood, her legs shaky. “Where’s Detective Black?”

“Tracking Brady. If things go well, your son will be home before dawn.”

“And if they don’t?”

“I can’t answer that, Eva. Sometimes kids are returned home in an hour or two. Sometimes it takes longer.”

She sucked in a breath. “And sometimes it doesn’t happen at all?”

“I think you know the answer to that. I also think that you know we’ll do everything we can to bring Brady home to you.”

She’d wanted reassurance.

She’d gotten truth, instead.

She should be thankful for it but she just felt sick, her stomach heaving, stars dancing in front of her eyes. “I need some air.”

She ran outside, letting cold air bathe her hot face.

“Is everything okay, Ms. Billows?” Officer Cunningham asked, stepping away from a group of officers he’d been talking to.

“Do you know where Detective Black is?” If Slade couldn’t give her an exact location, maybe he could.

“He’s organizing the search team.”

“Where?”

“Headquarters are at the east entrance of the Lost Woods. We have a team setting up there. I’m sure Captain McNeal explained everything to you.”

Eva nodded as if he had, but she’d been told nothing. Maybe Slade hadn’t known. Maybe he just hadn’t told her. The second seemed more likely than the first. He’d taken several phone calls during the interview. At some point, he must have been told that Detective Black was setting up at the Lost Woods.

He had chosen not to share the information.

It didn’t surprise her. She’d learned all about police silence after her parents’ deaths.

She walked back inside, grabbed her purse, slipped her feet into old sneakers.

“Where are you heading?” Slade asked.

“I told you that I was going to go look for my son.”

“I can’t recommend that.”

“Can you stop me?” Because unless he had a legal reason to keep her at the house, she didn’t plan on being there. Not for a minute longer.

He hesitated, then sighed. “You’re not a suspect, and you’ve answered all my questions. As long as I can get in touch with you if I need to, I guess I can’t keep you here.”

“I have my cell phone.” She jotted the number on a scrap of paper and handed it to him, trying hard not to look into his eyes. She respected Slade. He was a good man who’d always been a good neighbor, but if his son, Caleb, were the one missing, he wouldn’t be sitting in his house answering questions while other people searched.

“Just be sure you don’t get in the way of the search, Eva. If you do, it won’t help Brady.”

“I know. I just need to...be doing something.” She grabbed Brady’s coat from the closet, telling herself that she was bringing it to him. That she’d go to the Lost Woods and see him standing with the search team, cold but fine.

She jogged down the porch stairs and across the yard, unlocking the station wagon and sliding in behind the wheel. She slammed the door closed as several people called out to her. A few were neighbors. One was a stranger, a reporter maybe.

She didn’t care.

All she cared about was Brady.

“Please, for once, just start!” she muttered as she shoved the key into the ignition. The starter clicked once, then again. Finally, the engine sputtered to life and she pulled away from the curb, glad for once for her father’s advice. Never park in the driveway or the garage, kid. If you do, it’ll be too easy for the police to block in your vehicle and keep you from running.

Yeah, Ernie had been overflowing with little tidbits of information. Especially when he’d been drinking.

A police cruiser pulled in behind her, lights on. No sirens, though. No doubt Slade had called in a tail. He’d probably call it an escort. Either way, Eva knew her rights, and she didn’t stop or slow down. That was another thing Ernie had taught her.

He’d also taught her that people couldn’t be trusted. Not strangers, not friends and certainly not family. A good lesson that she’d forgotten once and would never forget again.

The road leading out of the neighborhood was nearly empty, the moon hanging low above distant trees. A quarter mile, and she was outside Sagebrush city limits, sparse trees and thick scrub lining the two-lane highway. She knew the way to the Lost Woods. There weren’t many people in Sagebrush who didn’t. The place was legend, the deep wilderness a siren’s song that had called more than one explorer to his doom.

She shivered, flicking on the heater and grimacing as cold air blew out of the vent. The car was a junker, but it ran. Until she finished school and got a better-paying job, there was no way she could afford better. It didn’t matter. She and Brady had what they needed and they had each other. She’d told herself that often over the years. She’d believed it, too. As much as she cringed when she thought about the mistake she’d made, the lies she’d bought into, the things she’d given away, she couldn’t regret Brady.

A tear slipped down her cheek. The second of the night, and if she wasn’t careful there would be more. She tightened her grip on the steering wheel, her fingernails digging into hard plastic as she turned onto the narrow road that led to the east entrance of the woods.

If Justice had tracked Brady to the woods, it meant he’d found the trail and been on it for nearly half a mile. Good news, but Eva didn’t want to think about Brady wandering through the wilderness. Anything could happen in the thick shelter of the Lost Woods. Anything could be lost there and never found again.

She pulled in behind a line of police cars, search-and-rescue vehicles and TV-news vans. A crowd of people stood in the glow of several oversize spotlights, huddled around a long table, staring at something spread across its top. A tall broad-shouldered man gestured to the table and then to the entrance of the woods, his sweeping motion including stately pine trees crowded close and giant oaks that seemed to bar entrance to the forest’s dark interior.

Detective Austin Black.

Exactly the man Eva wanted to see.

She grabbed Brady’s coat and jumped out of the station wagon, ignoring the officer who was getting out of the patrol car behind her.

“Detective Black!” she called, pushing past a couple of news photographers.

“Come on over.” He didn’t look surprised to see her. Had probably been warned that she was on her way. Good, because she didn’t want to waste more time arguing about whether or not she should be there.

She squeezed in between him and a dark-haired officer who held the leash of a border collie.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

“Justice and I tracked your son to the entrance of the woods. We were able to follow the scent trail to a stream about a half mile in. We lost it there, but I think Justice can pick it up again. We’ll have four teams working quadrants from here.” Detective Black jabbed at a map of the Lost Woods, the cool leather of his jacket brushing her cheek. She caught a whiff of pine needles and soap and some indefinably masculine thing. It settled into the pit of her stomach, mixing with her fear and worry, the combination shivering through her blood, lodging in the base of her skull. It pounded there. The beginning of a migraine.

She took a deep breath, trying to ignore the stabbing pain and concentrate on the map.

“Do you really think he’s in the woods?”

“It’s not what I think that matters. It’s what Justice’s nose says, and it’s saying your son went into the woods. I don’t know yet whether or not he’s come out.”

“Is it possible that he ran from his kidnapper and came here on his own?” That would be so much easier to think about than Brady with someone who had beaten a man just a few hours ago.

“His kidnapper was still with him at the stream. I found footprints on the bank. One child-size print. Three adult boot prints.”

“There’s more than one kidnapper?”

“I didn’t say that. I just said there were multiple footprints.” He turned his attention back to the team.

“We’re going to split up from here. I’d like you to cover that section, Lee.” He used a highlighter to mark a rectangle of forest, and the man beside him nodded. He marked two other sections, calling out names of people Eva didn’t know, but who she had to trust to do everything they could to find her son.

“I’ll take the last quadrant,” he said, marking the spot. Acres of land. That’s what he was talking about. Miles of wilderness they had to search, and Brady maybe somewhere in the middle of it.

“Any questions?” Austin asked.

No one on the search team seemed to have any.

Eva did.

She wanted to know what the temperature was, wanted to know how long it would take for a little boy dressed in nothing but flannel pajamas to succumb to hypothermia. She wanted to know what kind of person would beat an elderly man, steal a dog, kidnap a child, and she wanted to know how likely it was that Brady was still ali—

No.

She already knew the answer to the last one. He was alive.

She could feel it in her gut. She backed away from the table and the map and the group, because she couldn’t bear to look at that expanse of wilderness and picture her son lost somewhere in the middle of it. Something bumped into the back of her legs. Or maybe she bumped into it. Whatever the case, she nearly fell over.

“Careful.” A warm hand wrapped around her wrist, and she looked straight into Detective Black’s midnight-blue eyes. Thick black lashes, laugh lines fanning out from the corners. Handsome, hard-edged and someone she desperately wanted to believe in.

“I’m okay.” She pulled away, looked down at the thing that she’d tripped over.

The dog.

Justice, with his tongue lolling and his dark eyes gleaming, his droopy face matched by his droopy ears. He looked sweet and a little silly, and Eva thought again that Brady would love to meet him.

She touched his head, feeling knobby bones beneath velvety fur. “Brady would love you.”

“Hopefully they’ll meet soon.” Austin scratched the bloodhound behind his ears, crouched and held Brady’s shirt in front of him. A piece of Brady’s shirt.

His favorite blue one, cut into pieces.

She’d buy him another one when he got home. Maybe she’d buy him four, because the little savings that she’d managed to secret away didn’t matter if he wasn’t around when she spent it.

She swallowed hard as Austin put the square of fabric into a plastic bag, tucked it into a backpack and shoved a hardhat fitted with a searchlight onto his head.

“How long do you think it will take to find him?” she asked.

“I don’t know, and it wouldn’t be fair to you if I speculated. I’ll be calling updates in to Captain McNeal, though. He should be here shortly.” He gazed down at her. “Why don’t you wait for him in your car so you don’t get hounded by the press?”

“I—”

Austin issued a command to Justice and walked away, obviously not interested in a discussion.

That was fine.

Eva wasn’t interested in one, either.

She followed him across the small clearing that narrowed onto a hiking path, buttoning her coat against the cold wind as they walked deeper into the blackness of the woods.

THREE

Eva didn’t plan to give up. She was bound and determined to help find her son.

That much was obvious.

It was also obvious that having her wandering around in the Lost Woods could only lead to trouble. Dozens of hikers had been lost there over the years. Some had been recovered. Many hadn’t.

Austin had been on plenty of search-and-rescue missions in the thousand-acre wilderness. He knew the area well, and even he got turned around on occasion.

“You need to go back to base camp,” he barked over his shoulder, Justice tugging at the lead, anxious to be given his head.

Eva didn’t reply.

Not a word.

Not even a hint that she’d heard.

He pulled Justice to a stop, aggravated, annoyed and frustrated.

“I’m searching for your son, Eva. You’re slowing me down.”

“I have his coat. It’s cold tonight. He’s going to need it.” She held out a thick blue coat, her arm shaking, her voice steady.

“Thanks.” He took it, tucked it into his backpack, not bothering to explain that he had plenty of blankets and knew how to warm someone with hypothermia.

“Do you think he’s okay? It’s freezing out here, and he’s just a little guy.”

“We’re in the forties. That’s well above freezing.”

“You know what I mean, Detective.”

“Austin.” He urged Justice to seek again, not willing to stop for a conversation. Not wanting to spend any more time trying to assuage Eva’s worry. She needed to go back and wait. It was as simple as that.

Unfortunately, forcing the issue and dragging her back would waste time they didn’t have.

Forty-three degrees was cold. Especially for a kid who wasn’t dressed for the weather.

“If he’s still with his kidnapper, do you think that—”

“Eva, I don’t have time for a question-and-answer game, okay? If you want to have that, then go back to the head of the trail. I’m sure Slade is there. He can answer every question you want to ask.”

“I can’t go back. Not when Brady is out here somewhere.”

“You’ll be helping him more if you go back. Do you understand that you’re slowing me down?”

“Go as fast as you want. I can keep up.”

“For how long?”

“As long as it takes.”

“That could be hours. You know that, right?”

She didn’t respond, and he glanced over his shoulder, irritated by her presence. She was a wrench in the works, a roadblock getting in the way of the smooth teamwork that he and Justice usually achieved without effort. “This is your son’s life that we’re talking about, Eva.”

“I know,” she said simply. No dramatics. No tears.

“Then you’ll understand why it’s better for me and Justice to do this alone.”

“Let me ask you something, Austin. Do you have any idea how it feels to wake up in the middle of the night and realize that your child is missing?

“No,” he responded honestly.

“Then you can’t understand why I need to be here.”

“You’re wrong. I can understand. But finding the missing is what Justice and I are trained to do. We put everything we have into it every time. You can trust us with your son’s life.”

“I don’t trust anyone. Especially not when it comes to Brady.”

“This time, you don’t have a choice.”

“Sure I do. I trusted the police to find my parents’ murderer. That hasn’t happened. I trusted Brady’s father to keep his promises. Look where that got me.” She laughed, the sound achingly sad. “Now, I trust God and myself. That’s it.”

“I’m not anyone you’ve dealt with before, Eva. Maybe you should keep that in mind.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“When I’m on search and rescue, every person I’m looking for is my family. I don’t leave family behind. Not ever. As long as there’s a chance of recovering Brady, I’ll be out here searching for him.”

“Who decides when there isn’t a chance?” she asked quietly.

“Time.” He shoved through thick foliage, holding back branches so they didn’t slap her in the face.

“How much time?” Eva persisted.

“I don’t know. Every situation is different.”

“I can’t go home without him.” Her voice quivered, and Austin remembered the softness in her eyes when she’d held her son’s photograph. The lone tear that had slid down her cheek. She was tough, but she was also a mother whose child was missing.

“Then let’s both pray that you don’t have to,” he said, because he wouldn’t promise that he’d find Brady. No matter how much he wanted to. He’d gone down that path before. It had ended in tragedy and heartache.

For a moment, Eva was silent.

Maybe she was waiting for the vows that Austin wouldn’t make, hoping that he’d reassure her, tell her that finding Brady was a certainty.

“Thanks,” she finally said. Nothing else. No begging or pleading for a guarantee.

“For what?”

“For not feeding me a bunch of lies about how certain you are that you’ll find my son.”

“You deserve the truth, and the truth is, I can’t promise a good outcome, but I’m going to do everything that I can to make sure we have one. Come on. Let’s pick up the pace.”

He loosened his hold on the leash, allowing Justice more slack. The bloodhound leaped forward, his paws scrambling in the thick layer of fallen leaves and pine needles. They’d searched this area before, and Justice followed the scent trail easily, baying once and then taking off.

Austin ran behind him, his feet pounding on packed earth and slippery leaves. No thought of Eva and whether or not she could keep up, just focusing on the feel of the lead in his hand, the tug of Justice’s muscular body, the tension that surrounded both of them.

Justice stopped at a small creek, sniffing the ground and moving back and forth across the creek bed. He stopped at a small flag, his tail wagging slightly as he acknowledged the area that they’d searched so intently, the prints that Austin had cast and photographed.

“Seek,” Austin urged, and Justice bent his nose to the ground again, his ears dragging along the wet creek bank.

Nothing.

Another ten minutes. Fifteen.

He pulled Justice up with a quick command, bent to study a small footprint pressed into the earth. Five toes. A little heel.

A little boy walking with his kidnapper or running from him?

Eva crouched beside him, her pants dragging in the mud, her sneakers caked with it. “His feet must be so cold.”

“Kids are pretty hardy.” He tried not to think about the children who hadn’t been. The lifeless bodies he’d found on riverbanks and in deep forests. Tried not to remember little Anna Lynn. Missing for four days before Austin had finally been able to bring her back to her parents. She’d been the daughter of one of his closest friends.

The search hadn’t ended the way he’d wanted it to.

Never again.

That’s what he’d told himself. No more emotional involvement. No more allowing himself to be so personally invested. But how could he not be when a little kid was lost, scared and alone?

He shoved the thoughts away and stood. “He headed downhill from here. We picked up the trail at a creek there. Come on.”

He led the way down the steep hill, Justice panting behind him. He gave the bloodhound a minute to lap water from the cool creek, then pulled the shirt from his pack again.

“Seek!” he commanded.

Justice raised his head, sniffing the air.

“Seek!” Austin encouraged, and Justice ran to the edge of the creek, snuffled at the ground.

Nothing.

“Do you—”

“How about we just let him work?” Austin cut Eva off. He needed to focus. Needed to keep moving. Time was ticking by. Brady was still missing. As much as Austin had tried to play it cool with Eva, he knew how quickly a child could become hypothermic. Especially a wet child. Brady had walked through two creeks and there was a hint of moisture in the cold air. The clouds might open at any moment, pouring down rain or ice.

Please, Lord, help us find him before then.

He let Justice work the area around the creek for fifteen minutes, then led him from the water, Eva pressing in so close that he could hear her soft breath, feel the warmth of her body through layers of cloth. She had a presence about her, and even in silence, she was difficult to ignore.

In the distance a dog barked, and Justice cocked his head to the side, then bent it to the ground again. Still nothing.

Brady and his captor might have come this way a couple of hours ago, the scent trail diluted by time and forest life, but giving up wasn’t an option. Not now. Not an hour from now. Until Brady was home, Austin would keep searching.

Slow. That’s the way they were moving, circling one area after another as Justice nosed the ground. Eva didn’t say another word. No questions. No idle chatter. She just followed along, stayed out of the way, and let Austin and his bloodhound do their job. She wanted to run, though. Race past them both screaming Brady’s name. Hoping he would answer.

Dim light filtered through the tree canopy, the first rays of the rising sun breaking through the forest’s gloom. The area felt empty, Justice’s soft huffs seeming to fade into the expanse of wilderness that surrounded them. They moved up a steep ridge, crisscrossing the leaf-strewn ground as Justice searched for the trail. He paused, nose to the air, body taut. One quick bark and he strained against the leash, his powerful body plowing through thick foliage.

“Do you think he’s found Brady?” Eva panted as she shoved through a tangle of tree branches. Her hair snagged on a twig, and she yanked away, her eyes tearing from pain, her pulse humming with hope and fear.

“He’s found the scent again. How far we’ll be able to track it is hard to say.” Austin’s answer was brief, his breathing unlabored. He didn’t even look winded, his long legs eating up the ground as he followed Justice.

“I can’t believe that Brady walked this far.”

And she didn’t want to picture all the ways that he might have gotten there if he hadn’t walked. Carried? Dragged?

“I’ve tracked kids that have walked farther.” Another brief answer. Fine. If Austin still wanted silence, she’d give it to him.

She didn’t speak again as they crested the ridge and ran down the other side. Justice stopped at the bottom, and Eva’s heart stopped with him. If he lost the trail, would he find it again?

Justice barked, his body seeming to vibrate with energy as he strained against the leash. They were heading into hill country, the woods deepening, the feeling of being cut off from time and place growing. They ran along the edge of a steep ravine, following a game trail that wound its way through the forest. No sign of anyone or anything, but Eva was sure they were being watched. Unseen eyes staring out of the shadowy woods and tracking their movements.

A branch snapped to their right, and Austin stopped, pulling Justice up short and issuing a sharp command for the dog to cease. His dark hair gleamed in the early-morning sunlight, his hard face shadowed with the beginnings of a beard. If Eva had been alone in the woods and seen him, she’d have walked the other way.

He gestured her over, pressing his finger to his lips as she moved in close.

Another branch snapped and Eva tensed, sure that someone would step out of the woods.

Silence fell. Thick. Heavy. Expectant.

Austin pulled back his jacket, his hand falling to the gun belt at his waist, his icy gaze scanning the forest. Justice stood beside him, hackles raised, body stiff. What did he sense? A bear? A deer? A person?

Several minutes passed and Justice relaxed, settling onto his haunches, his floppy ears whipping as he shook his sturdy body.

Gone. Whatever had been in the trees, but Eva still felt the threat, still wondered what or who had been watching.

“Let’s go,” Austin said, issuing a command for Justice to seek. The dog jumped up, nose to the ground, energy pouring through his body. Seconds later he barked, straining against the leash as he led them up a steep incline.

They ran up another hill, plunged down it again. Wove their way through trees and up to a cliff that overlooked the forest, following a path that seemed disjointed and erratic. A trail laid by a frantic, scared little boy?

Dear God, she hoped so.

She wanted to crest the next rise, round the next tree, see Brady standing there waiting for her.

She tripped, slid a few feet forward on her hands and knees, the earth near the cliff’s edge crumbling and falling away. A thirty-foot drop, at least. Her heart jumped, and she scooted back.

“Careful.” Austin appeared at her side, tugged her upright, his hands on her waist. There. Gone. So quickly she should barely have felt them. She did, though, his touch burning deep, reminding her of things better forgotten. Her cheeks heated, but there wasn’t time to think about it or to care.

Justice scrambled up a steep hill, his paws churning up leaves and dirt. Austin followed easily, grabbing tree branches and fists full of foliage as he fought his way to the top. Eva slipped and slid behind them.

Austin grabbed her hand as she neared the top, tugging her onto a ridge that overlooked the forest. A mountain of foliage shot up to the right. To the left, the ground fell away. A hundred feet below the trees huddled close, their winter-bare branches revealing glimpses of the forest floor.

Not a safe place for a seven-year-old boy, and Eva’s heart jolted with panic.

“What if he fell?” she whispered, the words barely carrying past the lump in her throat.

“He didn’t. Justice is still locked on to his scent. Come on.” Austin let the dog pull ahead again, and they skimmed the edge of the cliff, the slippery leaves and loose dirt slowing their progress.

Eva glanced into the abyss to the left, her head swimming as she imagined Brady falling head over heels.

Please, God. Let him be okay.

A fat branch slapped her cheek, the stinging pain barely registering past the hollow thud of her fear. She felt sick with it, her stomach and chest tight, her breathing labored. Everything she loved was wrapped up in Brady.

Austin stopped short and she ran into his back, her feet slipping on thick leaves as she tried to catch her balance.

He snagged her arm, pulling her forward as he crouched near Justice. The dog whined excitedly, his deep bark breaking the morning stillness.

“Release,” Austin said, and Justice backed away, dropping down beneath a thick-trunked oak and panting heavily.

“Look at this.” Austin pointed to something half-hidden by leaves and dirt. At first Eva couldn’t make out what it was. White and gray and brown fuzz covered by forest debris. A splash of bright blue.

“Is it an animal?” she asked, leaning closer, the truth suddenly right there in front of her face. Blue plastic eyes, a shiny black nose, white fluffy face.

“A stuffed animal,” he responded.

“Snowflake! Brady must have brought it with him.” She reached for it, and he captured her hand, gently pulling it back.

“It’s evidence, Eva. We don’t want it contaminated.” He lifted the stuffed dog with a gloved hand, tucked it into a plastic bag he pulled from his pack.

“He was here! Brady was here!” She stood, whirling around, frantically searching for some other sign that her son was close.

“Yeah. And it looks like he was alone this time. Look.” Austin pointed to a small footprint in the dusty earth. Bare. Every toe clearly defined. Another was just a few inches away. No sign of boot prints like the ones at the creek.

That was good.

Right?

“He must be terrified.” She wanted to cry but couldn’t let the tears come.

“I’m going to radio in and get the other search teams to the area. We’ll do better consolidating our efforts. Drink this while I get people organized.” He handed her an energy drink, poured water into a small dish for Justice.

Maybe Eva should have opened her energy drink, drank it up as quickly as Justice lapped up his water. But she felt too sick, her head throbbing endlessly, her stomach churning. Worry beat a rapid pulse through her blood, and she wanted to sit down and close her eyes. Open them again and find herself back in bed, Brady safe in the room beside hers.

“We’re set.” Austin clipped his radio into place, frowned at Eva’s still-full bottle. “You’re not going to do Brady any good if you’re dehydrated and exhausted.”

He took the bottle from her hand, opened it and handed it back to her, his fingers warm and callused. There was something comforting about that. Something nice and a little too wonderful about the way it felt to look into his face, see his concern and his determination.

She swallowed a few large gulps of the energy drink. Took two more sips for good measure, and then recapped the lid.

“Happy?” she asked, feeling vulnerable beneath his steady scrutiny.

“I’d be happier if you let me call someone to escort you out of the woods, but since I don’t want to waste time arguing, I think it’s best if I just say yes.” He tucked Justice’s empty bowl into his pack, took the energy drink and did the same. “Seek!”

They were off again, and Eva had to swallow hard to keep the drink from coming back up. Her stomach heaved, but Justice was on the trail, lunging against his collar and leash, his orange vest bright in the watery dawn light.

He ran like the best think in the world lay at the end of the scent trail he was following, ran like he couldn’t wait to be united with the boy that he was seeking. Ran like it mattered, and Eva thought that if she ever gave in to Brady’s begging for a puppy, she’d get him a bloodhound. Maybe Austin could give them some tips on how to train a dog. Maybe...

She shoved the thought away.

Thinking ahead, planning for Brady’s return...that was one thing. Planning to include Austin in their lives after Brady was found, that was something she wouldn’t allow herself to do.

Sweat trickled down her face as they raced past trees and headed up a small hill. Sunlight speckled the ground with gold and warmed the winter chill, the world a blur of gold and green and brown, the only sound Justice’s frantic barks and Eva’s panting breath.

Something snapped behind her, the sound so loud and startling she turned, caught a glimpse of a dark figure deep in the woods. There. Gone. There again. Moving away from them, but somehow sinister in the forest stillness.

“You okay?” Austin asked, and she realized she’d stopped, was searching the trees.

“I saw someone.” She pointed to the area where the figure had disappeared.

“Probably search and rescue.”

“He wasn’t wearing an orange vest like yours, and he didn’t have a dog.”

An explosion ripped through the morning quiet. One short sharp report and then another.

A gun!

Austin shouted something, and she was falling, colors swirling around her as she landed hard on the thick pine carpet.

FOUR

“Stay down,” Austin whispered, his breath brushing her ear. Justice nudged her cheek but she didn’t move, barely even jumped as another shot rang out.

Her heart thundered, her body braced for the bullet’s impact. When it didn’t come, she tried to get up and find cover, but Austin’s body pressed over hers, holding her still.

“They’re not shooting at us, but let’s make sure we don’t get caught in the crossfire.”

“Brady—” She tried to move, but he was a solid wall of muscle, and she couldn’t budge him.

“Dying isn’t going to help your son, Eva.”

“What if they’re shooting at him?”

He was speaking into his radio and didn’t respond.

She didn’t think he would have, anyway. Whatever was happening, it was out of either of their control. Another shot rang out, and she flinched, her body screaming for her to get up, find Brady and make sure he was safe.

Something crashed in the underbrush to their right, and Eva turned her head, saw the gun in Austin’s hand.

“Stay here.” He left her lying on cold, hard earth, her heart pounding frantically, the thick coppery taste of fear in her mouth.

She lifted her head, watching as he moved away. Crouched low. Silent. If she hadn’t been looking at him, she wouldn’t have known he was there. Leaves rustled in a thicket a hundred yards away, and he froze. Eva froze, too, her muscles taut with fear.

“Police. Come out with your hands where I can see them,” he commanded. More rustling. A soft sigh that might have been a moan. A woman stumbled from the thick tangle of overgrowth, blood streaming down her face. She fell to her knees. Managed to stand up again. Confused. Dazed. Not dangerous. That’s what Eva thought, and Austin must have thought the same. He holstered his gun.

“Ma’am, are you okay?” Austin asked, moving toward her.

“What’s going on? Where am I?” she replied, her gaze darting from Austin to Justice and then settling on Eva.

“The Lost Woods. You’re hurt, and you need to lie down.” Eva took her arm, tried to help her to the ground.

“What happened?” She touched her head, frowning at her blood-tinged fingers.

“I was hoping you could tell us.” Austin pulled off his jacket, dropped it onto the woman’s shoulders, his gaze scanning the forest. Danger still lurked there, but Justice lay docile in the shadows of a large oak, his big head resting on his paws.

“I...don’t remember. I think...” Her gaze dropped to his gun holster, her eyes widening. “No!”

“Ma’am, I’m with the Sagebrush Police Department. Just relax, okay?” Austin put a hand on her shoulder, but she shrugged away, her eyes wild.

“Everything is going to be fine. I’m going to call for a rescue crew to come and transport you out of the forest.”

“No!” she said again, whirling away, Austin’s coat dropping to the ground as she plunged back into the thicket.

Austin started after her, heard the snap of branches and Justice’s quiet bark. Not danger, but someone was coming. He turned, stepping in front of Eva just in case.

“What—”

He put his hand up, cutting off her words as he caught sight of an orange vest. Search and rescue. Hopefully, a police officer. Justice was on Brady’s scent, and Austin didn’t want to stop the search to chase after the injured woman or to find the person who had been firing shots at her.

“Hey! Austin! I heard gunfire and your call for backup. Is everything okay?” Detective Lee Calloway called out as he approached with his border collie, Kip. A fellow member of the Special Operations K-9 Unit, Lee had been a good friend and coworker for years. His dog, Kip, specialized in cadaver detection. Hopefully, Kip wouldn’t have to put those skills to use in their search for Brady.

“We’re fine, but there’s an injured woman heading west. She may know who the shooter was.”

“How bad are the injuries?”

“It was hard to tell. She had a head wound, and she seemed confused. Could be a concussion or a fractured skull.”

“You want me to go after her or the missing boy?” Lee asked.

“Justice already has Brady’s scent. Go after Jane Doe. And watch your back while you’re at it. Someone is wandering around firing shots.”

“Will do. You have a description of the woman for me?”

“Aside from the bleeding head wound?”

“Aside from that.” Lee smiled, but his eyes were shadowed. Yesterday had been long for the entire team. The discovery of Slade’s injured father and the realization that Rio had been taken had hit the unit hard.

“Long blond hair. About five-five. Slim build.”

“Got it. I’ll radio in when I find her.”

After Lee headed west with Kip, Austin shrugged into his coat and backpack. Eva hovered a few feet away, her skin pale, her arms hugging her waist.

He didn’t ask if she was ready.

He knew she would be. Even if she wasn’t, she wouldn’t admit it.

“Come on, boy,” he urged, and Justice lumbered to his feet. “Seek!”

Justice took off, barking wildly.

Close.

They were close.

Austin felt it in the tension on the lead, the way Justice’s muscles pulled taut. The bloodhound wanted to get to the end of the trail, wanted to find the person they were seeking, wanted it more than he wanted to sleep or eat or play. That’s what made him a great search-and-rescue dog, his prey drive completely refocused into a stunning display of canine determination.

They crested one more rise, plunged down into a ravine, the ground slick with mud and dead leaves. Justice bayed once and again, frantically clawing at the ground in an effort to move more quickly.

A dozen yards ahead, a rocky outcrop sheltered a small pool of stagnant water. Beyond that, Austin could make out thick foliage partially hiding what looked like the opening of a cave. Six feet high and maybe four feet wide, it was the perfect hiding place for a scared little boy. His heart lurched, and he unhooked Justice. Let him race ahead, his frantic alerts ringing through the cool dawn.

“Is that a cave? He’s there, isn’t he? Brady! Brady!” Eva ran toward the cave, and Austin snagged the back of her coat, pulling her up short.

“Wait here while I check things out.”

“Check what out? He’s there. Justice is going crazy trying to tell us that.”

“I know, but I need to go in first. We heard gunfire earlier, and I don’t want you in the middle of more of it,” he said.

“He’s in there. I know he is.” She tried to twist away, but he kept hold of her coat.

“We don’t know—”

“He’s there.” She looked into his eyes, and he saw hope in the depth of her gaze. Saw it in her face.

He wanted to believe that it was justified, but there was no telling what he’d find in the cave. As much as Austin wanted to think they were running toward a live rescue, things might not turn out that way. He didn’t want Eva to find her son’s lifeless body. Didn’t want her to see what he’d seen too many times.

Maybe she saw that in his face.

She stilled, her green eyes staring into his, her long gold lashes sweeping her cheek and brow. She had eyes like her son’s. He felt the weight of the picture that he’d tucked into his coat pocket. Felt the weight of her dreams and hopes piled on his shoulders.

“You think he might be dead,” she rasped, and he couldn’t deny it.

“Wait here,” he said again, letting go of her coat and running toward the cave.

Thick muck sucked at his boots and splashed up his pant legs, the stagnant pool of water shallow and brown. Eva splashed through it behind him. Obviously unwilling to listen to his request.

He reached the cave a few steps ahead of her, ducked down and moved into dank blackness, following the sound of Justice’s fading barks. A few large rocks butted against the side of the cave, and he skirted around them. From there, the opening narrowed until Austin’s shoulders brushed the walls. Even crouched, his head touched the ceiling. He maneuvered sideways for several minutes, but short of shrinking down to child-size there was no way he could go farther.

“What’s going on? Why are we stopping?” Eva pressed in as if she wanted to shove him out of the way and hunt for Brady herself.

“It’s too narrow. Going farther wouldn’t be safe.”

“I’m smaller than you. Let me go.”

“We’ll both have to back out first. No way can you squeeze past me.”

“Okay.” She backed up and he followed, his headlamp flashing on dark gray rock and moist brown earth. The cave went deeper than he’d expected, curving to the left, whatever lay behind the curve hidden in darkness.

Justice’s long howl echoed against the walls, bouncing through the darkness, and Austin snagged Eva’s hand. “Hold on! Justice is alerting. He’s found something. Try calling your son.”

“Brady? It’s Mom. Are you in there?” Eva called past the lump of terror and hope in her throat. What if he was there, but couldn’t answer? What if he was injured or...

“Momma?” The word was faint, but she heard it. Wanted to climb straight through Austin to follow the sound.

“Yes. It’s me. I have Snowflake, too. I found him out in the woods while I was looking for you. Come on out, and we can all go home together.” She tried to keep her voice steady, but she was so relieved, so thankful, her body felt weak with it.

“I can’t.” He was crying. She could hear the tears in his voice, and if the walls hadn’t been pressing so tight, if Austin hadn’t been wedged so firmly into the opening, she would have gone to her son.

“Ask him if he’s stuck, and ask him if there’s a dog with him,” Austin urged.

“Are you stuck, sweetie?”

“I’m lost. I got inside here, but I can’t get out. It’s too dark.”

“Is there a dog with you, Brady?”

“Yes, but I didn’t pet him.”

“Those are the rules for normal times, but for today, you can pet the dog. He’s special. Like Captain Slade’s dog.”

“Are you hurt, Brady? Can you walk?” Austin called out.

“Momma, are you still there? Who’s that with you?” The fear in his voice was unmistakable, and her heart ached for everything he’d been through, her arms aching to pull him close, let him know that he was finally safe.

“A police detective. He and his dog have been helping me find you. Are you hurt?”

“No, and I can walk, too. And I petted the dog. He’s soft...and he licked my face.”

“His name is Justice,” Austin said. “Do you feel the harness on his back?”

“Yes.”

“If you hold on to that, Justice will lead you all the way out of the cave.”

“Really?”

“Absolutely. Are you holding on?”

“Yes.”

“Justice, come!” Austin ordered, and then nudged Eva. “Let’s head out where there’s more room to maneuver.”

“But—”

“Justice found your son, Eva. Are you really not going to trust him to lead him out of the cave?” he asked as his radio crackled.

No. She wasn’t going to trust him. Not if she had a choice. Trust was something given and then broken. She’d found that out one too many times. She backed up, anyway because the last thing she wanted was for all of them to get stuck in the cave because she’d succumbed to fear.

Austin’s voice rumbled into the darkness as he called in their coordinates and asked for a rescue unit. Eva tried to let his words comfort her. If he was calling for transportation, he must believe that Brady and Justice would make their way out.

Sunlight speckled the dirt floor near her feet, and she stopped, cold, crisp air swirling around her ankles. She pressed a hand to Austin’s back, stopping him before they collided. Firm muscle contracted beneath her palm, and she pulled her hand away, her heart thumping painfully.

Brady. He was all that mattered, and he hadn’t appeared yet. Hadn’t called out again.

“Brady?” she called, but he didn’t answer. “What if—”

“He’s coming.” Austin pulled off his pack, rifled through it and took out a thermal blanket.

“I don’t hear him or Justice.”

“Justice already found what he was looking for. He’s done alerting, and Brady probably couldn’t hear you calling. The cave is a lot deeper than I anticipated.” He sighed. “I’m glad you were with me. I don’t know if your son would have come out otherwise.”

His words took her by surprise. She’d thought him to be a little arrogant, a lot bossy. Not the kind of guy who would admit that he’d been wrong. Not the kind who she would have expected to give other people credit.

Then again, she’d never been the best judge of character. She certainly hadn’t been when it came to Rick.

“Things always work out the way they’re supposed to.” Her mother used to say that to Eva. It had taken a lot of years for her to believe it.

“True, and this time, they worked out the way that we both wanted them to.” He smiled, and it transformed his face, made him approachable in the easy charming way that would have appealed to her if she ever allowed any man to do that.

“Momma? Where are you?” Brady called, his voice muffled and distant.

Her heart jerked, the need to go to him so strong that she took a step deeper into the cave, peered into its shadowy depths.

“I’m right here, buddy. Are you still with Justice?”

“Yes, but it’s dark, and I’m cold. I want to go home.”

“Just keep walking, then. You’ll be out of there before you know it,” she called, hoping the words would comfort him.

“Use this. Brady might be able to see the light once he gets closer.” Austin handed her his headlamp, and she shone it into the cave. The light bounced off gray walls and brown floors. She wanted it to bounce off Brady’s pale blond hair and freckled face.

She watched the narrow opening, her head pounding in time with her frantic heart. Finally, something moved in the darkness, a shifting of shadows that drew closer and closer, until the shadows had color and shape and form and Brady was in her arms. Clutching him close, she felt him shivering, his skin cold to the touch.

“You’re freezing.” Eva took off her coat and wrapped him in it, alarmed at his paleness. Scratches and dried blood scored his cheek and arms, and his feet were so caked with mud that she could barely see his toes. His pajama bottoms were torn at both knees, the skin peeking from beneath the fabric raw and bleeding.

“That’s because I was cold all night. I was shaking I was so cold.”

“Let’s warm you up, okay?” She wrapped her arms around him, rubbing his back and trying to will some of her warmth into his cold little body.

“How are you doing, sport?” Austin wrapped the blanket around both of them, then crouched close, Justice panting contentedly near his feet.

“Okay. Are you the police?” Brady’s eyes were wide, his teeth chattering, his lips so pale they faded into his skin.

“Yes. I’m Detective Austin Black. You already met my partner, Justice.”

“He’s a cool dog. I always wanted a dog, but Momma says that we’re too busy to have one.”

“It’s not fair to have a dog if you don’t have time,” Austin responded diplomatically as he tucked the edges of the blanket around Brady’s head.

“If I had a dog, those bad men would have stayed away from me.”

“What bad men?” Austin pulled a juice box from his pack, popped a straw into it and handed it to Brady.

“They’re not nice. They beat mean old Mr. McNeal and they took Rio.”

“You saw the man who did that?” Eva asked, taking the untouched juice box from his hand and looking into his face. His lip trembled, his eyes swimming with tears.

“Yes,” he whispered, looking away, obviously ashamed of something.

“How? You can’t see Captain McNeal’s house from Mrs. Daphne’s.”

“I walked Fluffy. Mrs. Daphne said that I could, because I was bored and I didn’t want to watch stupid old TV anymore,” he wailed.

Despite herself, Eva couldn’t be upset. She couldn’t even bring herself to remind him of the rule that he’d broken. Not yet. That would come when he was warm and clean and safe again.

“We’ll talk about that later.”

“How many men did you see, Brady?”

“Two. The man with the brown hair and the man with the red hair. The man with the red hair is meanest. He hit me right here, because I started crying when he brought me to the woods.” Brady touched his cheek, tears spilling down his face. “He hit Mr. McNeal, too. With a brick. I even saw him do it. Then he pushed Rio right into a van and saw me.”

“It’s okay, buddy.” Eva pressed his head to her shoulder.

“What happened next, sport?” Austin asked gently.

“The man with the red hair yelled for the other man to get me. Me and Fluffy ran really fast, though, and he didn’t catch us.”

“Why didn’t you tell me about this, Brady? We could have called the police and made sure you were safe.” Eva brushed Brady’s hair from his forehead and looked into his denim-blue eyes. Rick’s eyes, but so much softer and sweeter than his had been.

“Because you told me not ever to go walking by myself, and I didn’t want to get into trouble.” He started crying in earnest, his face scrunched up and so full of misery that Eva’s heart broke.

“It’s okay.” She patted his back, and met Austin’s eyes, anxious to get her shivering, sobbing son out of the cave and to safety. “How long until the rescue team arrives?”

“Ten or fifteen minutes. It might be best if we bring him out into the sun while we wait. He’s hypothermic, and the sooner we get him warmed up, the better.” He hooked Justice to his lead. “Ready to get out of here, Brady?”

“Yes.” Brady didn’t even lift his head. Exhausted, bruised and terrified, but he was alive. That was all that mattered.

Thank You, God.

Thank You, thank You, thank You.

Dawn peeked through the thick trees and dappled the ground with yellow-gold light as they walked out of the cave. Eva hadn’t noticed the beauty of the forest while they were searching for Brady. Now she couldn’t stop noticing. The tall pines stretching toward the blue sky. The red-brown earth beneath their feet. The soft sound of birds greeting the day.

Justice growled deep in his throat, the fur on his scruff standing on end, his nose pointed toward the rise above the cave.

“Go back into the cave,” Austin shouted.

She didn’t ask why. Didn’t stop to think about who might be coming. She ran, feet slipping on slick ground, Brady in her arms, all the beauty of the morning fading into cold, stark terror.