“Yes, Arden.Yoursafety.” Gina’s voice was the warm one she used when she didn’t want to make something harder than it had to be. “There’s no question in my mind that Juni is your niece. I’ve seen the photos of you when you were her age. She’s you as a child, come back to life.”
Arden’s hand gripping Kyle’s eased a fraction.
“But we don’t know Maren,” Gina continued. “We don’t have her story yet. Not all of it. For all we know right now, she could have kidnapped that little girl. And until we know—really know—she does not walk into your home.”
“Gina.” Arden was already shaking her head. “She didn’t. I know she didn’t. I watched her with Juni. She’s terrified.”
“I’m not saying she did.” Gina’s golden eyes were steady. “I’m saying we don’t know her. And until we do, she doesn’t take one step into your home, Arden. Please don’t make this harder than it already is.”
Arden’s mouth opened. Closed.
“You are myfriend,” Gina said quietly, her eyes pleading in a way Kyle had never seen before that hurt his heart. “I hate denying you anything, especially this. I know your heart is breaking. Mine is too. For you.” She looked around the room. “Forallof you. But until we get more intel, we have to keep everyone safe. All of us. Including you.”
Arden pressed her lips into a thin line and looked at the wall behind Gina’s left shoulder. Kyle pulled her in against his side. He bent his head close to her ear.
“Baby,” he whispered. “I know. I know. This is so damn unfair.”
She nodded. “It is. It’s very unfair.” Kyle watched his wife blink back tears.
Arden looked at Gina and Lach again. “I want Elissa on this.” Arden kept her voice steady. “ElissaandFlint. Now. Today. I want everything they can find on Maren Walsh and her sister. Juni’smother.” She sucked in her lower lip and paused, until she could speak again. “Everything. Because the second she’s cleared—and she will be cleared, Gina, I’m telling you right now she will be—they are out of that safehouse and in my home where they belong.”
Gina’s golden eyes held Arden’s silver ones for a long moment.
Then she nodded.
“Done.”
Lachlan took the pen casing out of his mouth and held it between his fingers. Kyle swore he was about to blow out a stream of smoke.
“All right,” he said quietly. “Gina, you get Elissa on the horn. Shane, go get Flint. I saw him in the cubicles. Juni can stay with Jodie if she’s amenable to that.” He turned to Kyle.
“Let’s go tell your bodyguards.”
SEVEN
After gate duty ended,Colin found Mac at the kennel fence where they usually met on break when they were in the office. Mac was leaning against the fence with a look on his face that said he’d spent the last half hour cataloguing something besides Malinois puppies. Thomas “Mac” MacAllister was about as good-natured as they came, and was teased mercilessly for it at Watchdog. It didn’t help that Mac reminded everyone of Woody fromCheers. He was tall, blond, and had nothing but nice things to say about everyone.
To top it off, Mac had grown up in Alberta, Canada and was former RCMP, federal division. In other words, a Mountie. Before Colin had met him, his idea of Mounties came straight from that old cartoon character, Dudley Do-Right, with red uniform, horse, and hapless damsels tied to railroad tracks. The truth was RCMP handled organized crime, national security, border integrity, drug trafficking, and outside of Ontario and Quebec, served as the provincial police force.
Colin’s perception of Mac as Dudley Do-Right was quickly corrected the first time he worked beside him. Mac proved to be smart, capable, and absolutely deadly when it came to his job.
But at that moment, Mac looked every inch like a nice, easygoing guy. When he spotted Colin, he raised his hand in greeting, accompanied by a big, open smile.
“Okay,” Mac said. “You just came from the gate, correct?”
“I did.” Colin stopped beside him and looked over the kennel yard, already knowing what was coming and wondering what he could say. Watchdog was a notorious gossip mill.
“Then can you tell me what the heck is going on in there?” Mac jutted his chin toward the offices. “I was inside when Kyle came tearing out of the big conference room where a couple of new clients are I guess. Next thing, Gina and Lach are making a beeline for the room. Then Kyle’s back with Arden—in tears, mind you—and they’re heading back into it. Now the whole brain trust is locked in the conference room with the clients. Charlie and Shane, too.”
Colin feigned surprise. He whistled low.
Mac tilted his head at him. “Sorry, but your face is doing that thing it does when you know something.” Mac waited. “Tell me what happened at the gate.”
Colin took a deep breath. As he told Mac about Maren pulling up in the Subaru and asking to see Arden, Mac leaned against the fence post with his arms crossed and the smile he wore when a story was getting good.
“—and she’s got this kid in the back seat,” Colin said, then paused.
Is that him? Are you my daddy?
