Sam and the girls stood by the entrance with the security guard. She looked at him expectantly. He’d let her down.
“I lost him in the crowd.” Admitting his failure left a bitter taste in his mouth.
“Did he say anything to you or the girls?”
Sam shook her head. “No. They didn’t see him. I showed them the picture. They recognized him.”
Liam looked at the girls.
“It was Aiden. He was the one that set the trash can on fire.” Sophia crossed her arms over her chest.
Liam needed to get his hands on the security footage, see if he could find out where the kid went. Maybe he’d be lucky and get a license plate. That could wait though. First priority was getting everyone out of here and somewhere safe.
“I think it’s time you make your purchases and we get out of here.”
Sam nodded and took the girls to the sales register.
Liam pulled his badge from his belt and showed it to the security guard. “I’m going to make sure they get somewhere safe. While I’m gone, can you pull the video footage for me? I want the common-area footage and individual footage for the stores we’ve been in.” Liam gave the security guard the names of the stores they had visited. “I want to see where he came from and where he went.”
The security guard nodded. “I can do that.”
“Good. I’ll be back for it.”
Sam and the girls joined him. “Ready?” He placed his hand at the small of Sam’s back, and she jumped. He leaned into her. “Relax. Doting boyfriend escorting his girl and their girls out.”
Her cheeks tinged as she nodded. She leaned a little closer. “Where exactly are we going?”
“I’m going to follow you back to Dean’s.” He hadn’t decided what he would do with Sophia yet. He knew that Samantha and Isabella would be safe at Dean’s house because he’d already checked into all of her coworkers. Perhaps he could take Sophia to the office, and she could sit with Aubrey.
He was woefully unprepared to be in a parenting situation right now. He used to be able to take off for wherever whenever and not have to worry about anyone but himself.
“You don’t need to follow us back. We’ll be okay.” Sam stared straight ahead.
He leaned into her. “I’m not necessarily worried about something happening as much as I am about someone following you, finding out where you’re staying, and coming back later.”
“Right.” She sighed. “Because my life isn’t complicated enough.”
He rubbed his hand up and down her back. “It will all be okay.”
“You don’t know that.”
“No, but I know the One that does.”
“Yeah, I’m not impressed with His track record.” She sped up and passed the girls, running from the conversation.
His heart ached for her. She’d been through so many hard things that she couldn’t see beyond them to what God had done in the midst of it.
Lord, help me help her.
SIXTEEN
Sam was not going to have this conversation with Liam in the mall parking lot. Not here. Not ever.
“Samantha,” Liam said.
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
He held up his hands in mock surrender. “I get it. But that’s not what I was going to say.”
