He’d done it again. He’d gone and pissed Travis off.
Seemed to be par for the course these days. Almost as though Travis was looking for a reason to get angry.
Gage actually understood that part. He had a feeling he was looking for a reason, too. If he could maintain his anger and frustration, continue to worry about Travis, he didn’t have to dwell on the thoughts that plagued him. Ironically, they were the same thoughts he gave Travis shit about.
“Did Daddy-O leave?”
Turning his head, Gage saw Kate standing in the doorway, wet hair tangled, her eyes filled with concern as she watched him.
“He had to go out for a bit.” Gage patted his thighs, spreading his feet apart. “Come sit down so I can brush your hair, then you can grab a blanket. We’re watchin’Frozen.”
“You know we’ve watched this like fifteen times this week,” Kate said haughtily, a new thing she’d started recently.
“Yet it’s still your favorite,” he reminded her.
Kate grabbed a throw blanket and dragged it behind her as she headed over, dropping to her knees in front of him, her eyes already glued to the television screen. He took his time combing her hair, detangling it without making her mad, a skill he’d acquired long ago. When he was finished, she curled up on the couch with her blanket, head on a pillow, her feet poking into Gage’s thigh.
This had become their nightly routine as of late. After baths, the kids would congregate in the living room for a bit. Then one by one, they would take them to their rooms. Only in the past few days had Kate started exerting more independence, coming out of her shell after her horrible ordeal. She was still having nightmares of the days she’d spent with Juliet Prince, the woman who had kidnapped her during a field trip to the state capitol, but he had to believe they were making progress.
Although the therapist they were seeing said it was normal for her to continue to have these feelings, Gage wondered. Then again, he wasn’t trained to know what was right or wrong in this situation—or whether anyone really was—so he had to take the woman’s word for it.
And perhaps that was the reason he continued to keep an eye on Travis. Gage didn’t have to hide his feelings there. He didn’t have to pretend he wasn’t worried about Travis the way he had to pretend with Kate. Kylie continued to remind him their only goal with Kate was to show her support and love, to make sure she knew she was safe.
So that was what Gage did. And when he wasn’t plastering on a fake smile, he was projecting all his emotions on Travis.
While the kids watched the movie, Gage continued to watch the door, expecting Travis to return at any moment. Every so often, another kid would join him until all five were scattered around the living room. Kate was still on the couch, Kade had taken up his position in Travis’s recliner. Avery was lying on the floor, head on her hands as she intently focused on her absolute all-time favorite movie. Haden had been the last to join, his thumb in his mouth while he sat on the floor between Gage’s feet. And Maddox was still where he’d started, only he was now lying down, his eyelids getting heavy.
When he heard footsteps on the stairs, Gage glanced over, saw Kylie coming down.
“Where’d Travis go?” she asked, her voice low so as to not disturb the kids.
“He needed some air.”
He immediately saw the concern in his wife’s eyes, knew she worried about Travis the same way he did. And while they’d seen a significant change in Travis these past couple of weeks, it appeared that it wasn’t all that easy to simply shut off that worry.
It wasn’t that he wanted the search for Juliet Prince to stop. No, Gage merely wanted Travis to let it go, to allow the authorities to do their job. There was nothing they could do about it. The woman was long gone, and he didn’t see her ever coming back. She’d gotten her revenge by making them suffer for those couple of days Kate was missing. If he had to guess, Juliet had already moved on.
“He’s fine,” Gage assured Kylie, realizing she was waiting for more.
Kylie’s eyes cooled, her expression hardening. “You might try repeatin’ thatafteryou start believin’ it yourself.”
Before he could reach for her hand, she spun around and stomped off.
And just like that, Gage had managed to piss off both his husband and his wife.
He was on a fucking roll today.
Chapter Six
Thursday, December 31, 2020
“You can only hide for so long,” JJ muttered at the image on her computer screen. “Iwillfind you, I promise you that. And when I do…”
Oh, there were so many ways to finish that sentence.
JJ had settled into her loft office in the converted barn the Off the Books Task Force utilized as their headquarters about an hour ago, and she had everything she needed to make it a great night. Two cans of Orange Crush, a bowl of Orville Redenbacher’s air-popped goodness, and a keyboard. While everyone else was out partying, ringing in the new year together, she had every intention of taking in some caffeine and popcorn while doing some discreet digging—her polite term for hacking—into the whereabouts of the woman who was at the very top of the OTB Task Force’s Most Wanted list.
It had been one hundred and eight days since Juliet Prince kidnapped Kate Walker.
