He turned his head and saw his mother pushing through the crowd.
His mother, Katie, Tracy… all of them.
Everyone except Noelle.
The moment Ciela saw him, she burst into tears and reached for him.
Her hands grasped over and over as tears streamed down her face.
He met Patricia at the edge of the group and took Ciela into his arms.
The way she held onto him, wrapping her arms and legs around his torso, stole his breath. “Mama!”
He nodded and tried to take in a full breath. “I know, baby. Mama’s going to be okay.”
And he meant the words.
He fucking prayed that they were true.
Ciela leaned in, putting her cheek to his and he found that the tears on her cheeks were hot against his skin.
“Sweetie,” he heard Patricia’s voice and felt her gentle pats on her grand-daughter’s back, “we need to let McCrae do his job.”
Ciela went a little wild, her feet scrambling against his chest, her arms squeezing around his neck. “No… no…” She shook her head, kicking her feet, landing some good, solid kicks to his mid-section and one or two dangerously close to his nuts.
“Don’t go.” She gasped in a breath that sounded more like a cry. “Don’t go!”
The way she clung to him spoke volumes and he felt her terror all the way down to his bones.
He rubbed her back and rocked her side to side, aware that his team was assembling at the edge of the parking lot.
West hadn’t even given him a look, likely knowing that Ciela needed comfort.
Hell, he did, too.
He wasn’t going to tell that to the little girl.
She needed him to be strong and determined.
The second? He had in spades.
The first?
He’d never been so shaken before.
“Baby?”
Ciela’s eyes were squeezed shut as she sobbed.
“CeeCee?” He managed to lean her back a little and wipe her face with the handkerchief that someone shoved into his hand. “Look at me, honey.”
He couldn’t believe it when she opened one eye and then another to look at him.
“I need to go. You need to stay with Abuela. Okay?”
She looked at him as if she had suddenly become a wizened woman decades older than she was.
“I’m going to go get mommy, okay?”
