Jackson’s hand tightened painfully on hers. She winced.
“We’ll keep looking,” Jackson said. “Mark, can you let me know if you hear anything more?”
“If I can, I will.” He walked over to them. “Dylan’s out there, Jackson. You know he’s alive. And now that the department knows we’re dealing with more than a couple of runaways, I’m sure this will become a priority.”
“Thanks, Mark.”
Mia waved at Mark and left the room with Jackson. She looked at Jackson’s face. His jaw had hardened, like it was carved in granite. “Jackson? What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking I won’t stop until I find my brother and the other kids and bring them home. I’m going to take some time off work. Trent said I can have some time since I have a lot of vacation accrued. I’m going to take him up on it and not return until I find them.”
Twenty
Jackson slipped his phone back into his pocket. His boots thudded on the hospital linoleum as he paced back and forth in the waiting room, waiting for Mia to return. She’d run to the restroom when he’d announced his plan to call his chief before leaving the hospital.
“Why don’t you call while we drive?” she had asked.
“Because if the chief mentions something that should be confidential, you aren’t allowed to hear it.”
The soft padding sound of her sneakers alerted him to her return. He swiveled to greet her.
“You make your phone call?”
He patted his pocket where his cell phone rested. “Sure did. I called my boss. Told him I need to take the next couple of days off. He didn’t ask questions. Just told me to let him know when I can work again. Then I called Swanny and asked him to pray for us.”
She scuffed the floor with her left foot. “I used to be really uncomfortable with that kind of talk. Not anymore. Now, I’m grateful for his prayers.”
His heart lifted at this.
He gestured toward the sliding doors. “You ready to go?”
“More than ready.”
Jackson held out his hand, and she slipped hers into it. The warmth of her fingers interlocking with his washed over him. His skin tingled when it rubbed against hers. They headed toward the glass sliding doors enclosing the lobby, their steps in sync.
The doors whooshed open, blasting him with a wave of late-summer heat. In the parking lot, the scent of asphalt hung heavy in the air. Almost every spot in the main parking lot hosted a vehicle. It seemed midmorning was a popular time for visitors.
Jackson opened Mia’s door. He felt her gaze on him as he walked around the truck to his side.
“It feels odd, not going in to work today.” He drove from the parking lot.
“Yeah, because you’ve gone rogue.”
He smiled at the word, even though there was very little in this situation that was amusing. Cars zoomed down Main Street, and a red sports car made an illegal pass. Jackson winced. He waited until it was safe before he turned into traffic. “Not exactly. I’m going to do some more searching on my own. There have been so many overdoses lately, many connected to this new derivative of Neurosync, that the police are focused on that also. I can’t sit at home and wait for them to find my brother. You heard Reggie. Thirty-six hours. That was last night. We’re down to less than twenty-four now.”
It was hard to breathe around the pressure filling his chest. His brother, sitting in a cage, while men planned to sell him in another country. How had this happened?
He needed to focus. “I’ll drop you off at home?—”
“I’m going with you.”
Jackson nearly slammed on the brakes. “Absolutely not.”
Without looking at her, he knew she’d crossed her arms. If he glanced her way, he was sure her teeth would be clenched and sparks would be flying from her brown eyes, ready to smoke him.
“You don’t have time to waste, Jackson. You know I can use a gun, and I can fight. I also know what Dylan looks like. We could split up and both look.”
“No way.” His blood ran cold at the thought.
