“I don’t know why he’s doing this.” Nikki sounded genuinely confused, and also a little pissed off.
“How good is he at getting around?” Jericho drove and kept his gaze on the road ahead of them and the sidewalk to the left, while Nikki hopefully stayed focused on the view to the right. The last time Elijah had disappeared, he’d snuck out of his bed at night and his absence hadn’t been discovered until the next morning. This time, he’d left from school in broad daylight. With any luck that would make him easier to locate, but they hadn’t had much luck so far. “And do you really think he’s trying to findme?”
“You’re hisbrother.” Nikki’s eye roll was practically audible. “Plus, you carry a gun and boss people around and drive a car with flashing lights. You used to be a soldier.” Her voice softened a little as she added, “You saved him from the bad guys.”
“Wade saved him more than I did. I passed out about ten seconds after I found him.”
“Yeah, he was pretty impressed with all the blood too. You’re definitely his hero, at least for now.”
“For now?”
“Until he realizes you’re not on our side.” The bite was back in her voice.
“Give it a rest, Nikki.” She’d been pretty low-key when she was still in the hospital, depending on him to keep an eye on her kids in the foster home the state had found for them. But once she’d been released, her attitude had changed. He’d driven her around and helped her find a rental house on the edge of town, and he’d paid the first month’s rent without even suggesting she’d have to repay him, but apparently that wasn’t enough to make up for having taken the job with the sheriff’s department. Jericho wasn’t sure if Nikki was involved in any criminal activity herself, but she absolutely had her loyalties straight. Anyone married to Eli Crewe couldn’t have cared too much about following the law; however, Nikki clearly took it a little further and considered herself some sort of desperado. It was a pain in the ass. “Let’s just find Elijah.”
Jericho figured he’d give it about ten more minutes before he called back to the office and got a couple of deputies on the job. Ten minutes was enough time to cover every street in the damn town. Nikki didn’t want the sheriff’s department involved, of course, but if Elijah was genuinely missing, Jericho needed help.
“Duck down for a minute, okay?” he said.
“What?”
“Duck down. So if Elijah looks at the car, he won’t see you.”
“You think he’s runningawayfrom me?” He couldn’t tell if she was hurt or angry. Possibly a combination of the two.
“Not necessarily. But he knows you’ll take him back to school, or home. Right? Maybe he thinks I’ll let him hang out for a while, if it’s just me.”
Nikki reluctantly slid lower in the seat, and when her knees hit the dashboard she slumped enough that she couldn’t be seen from outside. “If someone sees me crouched down like this, next to you, they’re probably going to get the wrong idea,” she said, sounding pleased.
Jericho ignored her, and hit the switch to turn the flashing lights on. He wouldn’t disturb the peace with the siren, especially when he wasn’t really sure if Elijah would run toward or away from the noise. Hopefully the lights would attract interest without being scary. Not that Elijah had ever seemed scared of much.
Jericho drove slowly up and down the streets, trying to think like a six-year-old boy. After a few minutes he rolled the window down and caught a whiff of the pungent air; he turned the wheel and headed in a new direction.
The firefighters had soaked the remains of the bar with water, but the acrid smell was still heavy in the area, an intriguing mix of destruction and mystery. Jericho wasn’t surprised to see a familiar blond head poking through the charred remains of the building. The little turkey had ignored the barricades and was conducting his own investigation.
Jericho pulled into the parking lot, and Elijah looked up, then raised a hand in casual greeting before going back to his explorations.
“Stay down another minute,” Jericho said quietly. “He’s here, and he’s not hurt, but he’s not on good footing. I want to get him out of there before he tries to run.”
“This isn’t about him running away from me,” Nikki hissed, but she stayed crouched down.
Jericho flipped the lights off and stepped out of the car, trying to match Elijah’s lack of concern. No small, uncontrollable children climbing over unstable wreckage here. No worries about dangerous chemicals or smoldering hot spots. Certainly no frustration about being dragged away from work to spend time searching for a feral brat who should have stayed at his safe, wholesome school instead of stumbling onto a crime scene and messing up evidence.
“Hey, Elijah.” Jericho stood at the edge of the wreckage pile. “You need to come out now, okay? There’s dangerous stuff in there. It’s not a good place to play.”
“There’s a place that bounces,” Elijah announced. He pointed, and then started moving in that direction.
“If you want to bounce, we’ll find you a trampoline. But come down from there now.”
“Come up with me,” Elijah suggested. “You could keep me safe.”
“No, that’s not a good idea. It’s dangerous. Come down, please.”
“Are you scared?” It wasn’t quite a taunt, not exactly a dare, but there was enough of both in the tone to have Jericho’s inner child leaping to the challenge, ready to climb.
“I’m scared for you, yeah. I don’t want to see you get hurt.”
Elijah turned away as if considering Jericho’s words, then stepped forward and started bouncing.
