Zach stopped struggling. His shoulders drooped and he looked up at her with tears in his eyes. “What . . . what will they do to me?”
Linc let him go but kept a hand on his shoulder. “They’ll transportyou to a facility in Hunt County. You have to be somewhere your dad won’t be able to get to you.”
“Your father isn’t stable,” Carly said. “He’s dangerous and that’s the reason the police want you somewhere they can protect you.”
“You could protect me here.”
“I know,” she said, “but the authorities have rules and they won’t break them.”
The boy stared down at his feet. “My dad isn’t as mean when he isn’t drunk. When he drinks, he sort of goes crazy.”
Carly felt a rush of anger. Ray Archer was never getting his hands on his son again. “We bought you some clothes when we were in Dallas. At least you’ll have something to wear.”
Zach’s eyes widened. “You bought me clothes?”
Carly smiled. “I hope I picked things you’ll like. I saw the size when I washed your stuff yesterday. We got you some sneakers, too. They’re Nikes. LeBrons. Linc picked them out.”
“LeBrons? Are you kidding me? They cost a fortune. Where are they? I wanna see ’em.”
“They’re in Linc’s study.” Before she could stop him, Zach raced toward the French doors and disappeared inside the house. Carly prayed he wouldn’t just keep running.
Instead, he returned carrying two shopping bags filled with jeans, shirts, and underwear. Zach pulled out the shoe box and popped the lid, stared down at the white-and-red, hundred-sixty-dollar pair of sneakers as if they were the most precious gift he had ever received.
He pulled out a shoe with great care and examined it closely. “They’re exactly my size.” He turned the shoe over and over in his hands. “Wow, these are great.” He looked up at Linc and she caught a hint of moisture in his eyes. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” Linc said.
Zach grabbed one of the bags and pulled it open, saw the jeans and shirts. “Cool!” He fished through the bags. “I’m gonna change into the new stuff. At least I’ll look good when they put me in jail.”
Carly’s heart constricted. She turned away so Zach wouldn’t know she was crying.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Leaving Zach with child services had been even harder on Carly than Linc had expected. She and Zach both carried Joe’s blood. Maybe that was the reason the bond had formed so quickly. Or maybe it was because Carly understood what the kid was going through.
Linc had promised again it would only be a matter of days until Zach was released into their care, but with Archer still on the loose and the problems with El Jefe, Linc was glad the boy was out of harm’s way.
Tuesday rolled around, the day of the cargo run El Jefe expected Drake Trucking to make. That morning, Agent Taggart had e-mailed an attachment to both Linc’s and Carly’s laptops, containing files of mug shots. They went over them, but couldn’t find a photo of the big mustached Latino called Cuchillo or any of the men who had attacked Carly at Jubal’s. Nor did she recognize any of the men who had abducted her and taken her to El Jefe.
Then Ross Townsend phoned. The results from the cargo manifest found at the crime scene had come back from the lab in Dallas.
“You were right,” Ross said. “The rust-colored spot was blood and it didn’t belong to Hernandez.”
“Did they get DNA?” Linc asked.
“They got it. The bad news is, they ran it through CODIS but didn’t get a match.”
Linc swore softly. He’d had high hopes for that bit of evidence.
As soon as breakfast was over, Frank Marino drove Carly in to work while Linc worked out of his home office. Things appeared to be moving forward with the tire rebuilding plant, or at least the county commissioners were starting to listen to the team of environmental experts he had sent in to convince them.
A call to his project manager brought him up to speed on the highway construction going on in New Mexico, which appeared to be progressing without too much trouble.
Late in the morning, an e-mail from Millie reminded him of the charity ball coming up at the end of the week. With everything going on, he considered canceling, but the auction proceeds went to cancer research, a charity he heavily supported. It was important for him to be there and he refused to live his life around El Jefe’s demands.
At the end of the day, he picked Carly up at the yard and they drove to Greenville to the Hunt County Juvenile Detention Center to see how Zach was settling in.
Since the boy was only there for protection, he’d been separated from the main population, put in a special housing unit with children waiting to be placed in foster homes.
