“You can help me…” Her voice trailed away as Derek caught her hand. When she looked up at him questioningly, he shifted his gaze to Rob. He knew that there was no excuse for his possessive behavior, especially when he should be focused on tracking down the missing kids, but Derek couldn’t seem to stop himself from tugging her a step farther away from the sheriff.
“We’ll check the shore if you could look over there?” Derek gestured toward the area where Artie had originally planned to search.
“Sure,” Rob said with a faint smile before striding away. Still holding Artie’s hand, Derek turned toward the reservoir.
As they walked, Derek kept his gaze forward, even though Artie’s scrutiny was making his skin prickle.
“Why don’t you look in the dive van?” she suggested. “There aren’t many places to hide around here. Maybe they crawled into the back?”
Relieved that she wasn’t going to bring up his strangely territorial behavior, he grunted an agreement and reluctantly released her hand. As he strode toward the dive van, he blew out an exasperated breath. Following her around, yanking her away from Rob, grunting—since when had he gone full-on Cro-Magnon man?
He’d ended things years ago because she’d deserved better. Afterward, Derek had punched a hole in the wall and stayed drunk for a solid month before he’d started pulling himself out of that pit of self-pitying despair. He’d thought he’d finally gotten over her, but an hour in her company had proven how wrong he was.
Forcing himself to concentrate on finding the girls, he checked the back of the dive van, looking in all the places big enough to hide a little kid or two. When he was satisfied that the van was child free, he hopped out of the back and looked underneath. He circled the van to check the front, and almost ran into Callum and Lou. The dive-team leader broke off in the middle of a sentence.
Derek stopped abruptly and eyed the two, who were standing a little too close together.Thatwas interesting.
“What is it?” Callum asked sharply. Since that was his usual tone, Derek wasn’t offended, although Lou looked slightly alarmed.
Grimacing, Derek explained, “Steve’s girls decided to go on a walkabout. Artie managed to get the rest of the monkeys on the bus, but they’re still two short.”
Callum’s only outward reaction was a twitching muscle in his cheek. “No more dive-team presentations. Fire can talk to the kids from now on.”
“I’m not going to argue with that.” Derek pulled open the driver’s door and peered into the cab. It was empty.
Lou sucked in a breath. “What if they fell in, too?”
“Zoe, the older girl, sounded the alarm when Chase went under.” Slamming the van door, Derek headed toward the shore. He saw that Artie had gone east, so he headed in the opposite direction. Callum and Lou followed. “After that, there were a lot of eyes focused on the reservoir. Someone would’ve spotted them if they’d gone onto the ice. Besides, it’d take a pretty dumb kid to step onto the reservoir after watching someone else fall through, and the Springfield girls aren’t stupid.”
Callum nodded, although his gaze still raked the frozen surface of the reservoir. “Why do you think they wandered off, then?”
“My guess? They’re the ones who talked Chase into going out on the ice. Now they think they’re in trouble, so they’re hiding.”
Frowning, Lou asked, “You think they convinced him to walk on the ice? That seems a little budding-psycho-like. Why would they do that?”
“Maya was the one who got a load of snow down her back earlier, thanks to Chase. I’ve babysat the Springfield kids. They’re…uh, feisty.”
Derek stopped and looked around. There really wasn’t anywhere for the girls to hide nearby. The rocky shore changed to scrub, which winter had stripped to skeletons. The closest concealment was the evergreens almost a quarter mile away. Wind sent powdery snow swirling across the ground as Derek eyed the dark gray clouds hanging over the forest. The cold, empty landscape sent a trickle of unease down his spine.
“Zoe!” he bellowed. “Maya!” Their names echoed over the reservoir, but there was no response. Turning, he could see Artie and Betsy still searching, and Derek’s stomach twisted. For the first time since Artie had discovered that the girls weren’t at the bus, it occurred to him that they mightnotbe hiding close by. The heavy snow clouds and whipping wind could quickly turn this situation from an annoyance into a tragedy.
He met Callum’s gaze. By the other man’s grim expression, Derek could tell he was having similar thoughts.
“Should we ask the firemen to help look?” Lou asked.
With a nod, Derek turned toward the red truck. It appeared that the firefighters were packing up to leave, so he quickened his steps. “I didn’t see Steve with them. Is he here, do you know?”
“Springfield’s on nights,” Callum said, pulling out his cell. “I’ll call him.”
Derek tapped the screen on his own phone. “I’ll call Rob.”
“Who’s Rob?” Lou’s face was tight with worry.
“He’s an obnoxiously handsome man whose tortured soul and tragic past make all women want to fix him.” When she stared at him, confused, Derek added, “And he’s the sheriff. He’s already here, but he’ll mobilize Search and Rescue.”
Her eyes widened. “Search and Rescue? Do you think the girls are really missing, then?”
“I’m thinking,” Derek answered as the phone rang, “that the sooner we find those kids, the better.”
