Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 71226 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71226 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Neo stayed where he was.
She sighed and got up, brushing the dirt off her bottom before she turned around and started to come inside.
She blinked and came to a stop when she saw me already standing there. “How much of that did you hear?”
“The begging?” I teased. “Just the last little bit.”
She looked over her shoulder at Neo. “He almost let me touch him today.”
“I saw,” I said. “Maybe if you bribed him like I told you, he’d have gotten closer by now.”
She held up the half-empty bag. “He’ll eat them all, as long as he doesn’t have to come closer than a foot and a half.”
“But it was three feet two days ago,” I pointed out. “You’re making progress, honey. He’ll get there.”
Just as I said that, my phone alerted.
I pulled it out of my pocket and frowned.
“What is it?”
“They think one of the missing toddlers was found on a popular hiking trail,” I said as I shoved my phone back into my pocket. “I gotta go.” I eyed her. “Are you going to be able to get to work?”
She sighed and eyed the snow on the ground. It wasn’t much. Just a light dusting. But it was enough to give you pause.
“I can ask Bernice for a ride,” she said.
“Come on,” I said. “I have to go to the station anyway. You can ride with me. From there, if I can’t get you, Bernice or Odin can give you a ride home.”
She nodded and hurried to her RV.
I watched her go, noticing that Neo didn’t flinch away from her as she hurried past him.
He watched her go the entire way. Even got up to head to her RV. Not going inside, but going close enough that he could if he wanted to.
When she came out, he followed at her side, about a foot away, until she got to me and said, “Ready.”
I opened the sliding door again and gestured her to go first.
She did, and I dropped down to my haunches to look at Neo eye level.
“You’re breaking her heart, big boy.”
He whined.
“She needs you,” I said.
He dropped down to his belly and looked at me warily.
I stood up, closed the door, and followed Sage out of the house.
Three days had passed since we’d slept together.
She hadn’t exactly moved into my place, per se, but she’d been there almost every waking moment until it was time for bed.
She’d also finished up her job at the hospital and was starting her first official day at the doctor’s office in town. Along with Bernice as well as Odin.
From my understanding, they would all be learning together.
It would prove to be a bit of a chaotic day, but I believed in my girl.
She would kill it.
When I got outside, she was standing patiently next to my cruiser.
I opened her door and helped her inside, then slammed the door closed before getting to my side and climbing in.
We were halfway down the road when she said, “It’s awfully cold today. Why on earth would a child be at a hiking trail? And if he wasn’t brought out there today and left, he has to be somewhere close by.”
“Agreed,” I said as I drove slowly into town.
Everyone and their brother seemed to be out already, despite it barely hitting eight in the morning, so the ride to town was slow.
By the time that I pulled up into the spot at Odin’s new practice, it was ten minutes past when she’d said she was originally going to be there.
“At least my boss is your friend,” she murmured as she climbed out of the cruiser. “Hope your day goes well.”
She blew me a kiss and was out of the truck before I could say or do anything, slamming the door behind her and hurrying inside.
I watched her until she was inside before pulling away from the curb and thinking that my day would suck now because she hadn’t given me a kiss before she’d bailed.
I was grumpier than I probably should be as I headed inside, which was of course when I saw Kelly standing there, blocking my way.
“Excuse me,” I grumbled as she smiled and waved.
“Oh, sorry.” She blushed as she fell into step next to me. “What’s going on here?”
I ignored her and kept walking, heading for the main room where I could hear Black talking.
I found him in the middle of the bullpen holding a toddler on his hip, looking worried.
He had several FBI agents surrounding him, and all of them seemed to be talking at once.
“…on their way from Wyoming right now.”
“What are they doing that far away?” Agent Dempsey asked.
Black shrugged. “I didn’t ask.”
Dempsey hummed. “Interesting.”
Dempsey’s partner, Dunn, looked even more suspicious.
“What are we thinking?” I asked. “How’d he get there?”
“Cameras prove that he walked up off a side trail,” Black answered, not surprised to find me there. “Sadly, that trail leads to a ski-in ski-out area, and there are several neighborhoods where he could’ve come from.”