Endangered by Robin Mahle

her?” Rachel’s eyes suggested she didn’t want to know the truth but felt compelled to ask.
    “No. I’m afraid not. Not yet.”
    “So, everyone’s looking for this piece of shit who’s taken two kids, and he’s been able to stay hidden.” Jake tossed his drink back.
    “Not for long, I promise you. We just got the okay to take this on—officially, as a federal investigation.”
    “What does that mean for us?” Rachel asked.
    “That we’ll be able to pool our resources with the other jurisdictions and take a much more proactive approach, meaning we’ve just been put in charge.”
    “Well, I sure as hell hope you have a plan, my friend, because it’s been going on four days.” Jake’s eyes reddened as he reached for his wife’s hand. “It’s been too long.”
    “My team will be working with Detective Mason and her chief to coordinate our efforts. Our first task will be to supplement the detective’s search by identifying lodging Stroud would likely be housed in. A man on the run still needs a place to stay.”
    Rachel slowly rose from the table. “Whatever you need to do, please, Nick, just do it. Just find our son.” She shuffled from the kitchen and up the stairs, leaving the men alone.
    “I’d better let you get some rest.” Nick stood up. “I’ll keep you updated.”
    “I know you will. Thank you for coming by tonight. You didn’t have to do that.”
    “Yes—I did.”
     
    » » »
     
     
    Kate arrived to the usual solitude of the small home she still rented from the old lady and her son. The time would come soon for her to again decide if she would stay. The son had already sent a couple of reminder emails stating that she needed to give them ninety days’ notice if she was not intending to renew her lease. Well, that ninety days would be up next month. She still had no idea if she wanted to stay here and being so close to official permanent designation, she hesitated on a decision.
    Her relationship with Mike further complicated the situation. He was a small-town guy who was happy being a small-town cop. But she also knew, mainly because he’d brought it up on more than one occasion, that he would move here to D.C. with her in a heartbeat. It was a decision she wasn’t ready to make on that front either.
    Right now, though, it was difficult to think about either of those major life-altering events. Her thoughts turned to Colton Talbot and Emily Aldrich; two kids who she desperately wanted to find before it was too late. And she knew all too well that “too late” may have already passed them by.
    She walked out of her bedroom in an oversized t-shirt and gym shorts. The time showed eleven p.m. and she wondered if Nick had made it home yet. He had changed so much over the past few months. The likes of which she’d never seen in him before. His breakup with Georgia must have really taken its toll, but she suspected it was more than that too.
    In the few years that they’d become close, she had learned to read him pretty well—and vice versa. And something in him changed after the Durham investigation ended. She recalled the change very early on. In fact, it was only days after her confrontation with Durham that she’d felt it. Distant, almost, but not quite, cold. Kate figured he just needed time to get over Georgia and get back on his feet after the struggles with ASAC Campbell. But it had gone on longer than she’d anticipated and her fears about him crept back up to the surface.
    Maybe now she could help get things back to normal and stabilize their friendship once again, because when they worked together, they were virtually unstoppable—feeding off one another’s instincts. And this time would be different. This time, they would find those kids—alive. And rather than sit on her couch, absorbed by things that, in light of the current situation, seemed self-centered, she would do something useful. Sleep might eventually find her, but for now, she was reinvigorated and