Page 75 of John’s Yearning

“Yes, honey, we’re taking you home now.”

A few girls started crying, but several inched closer. Finally, he could see them all. His eyes darted from one to the other. And with every second, his heart pounded more violently.

“Buffy?” His pulse beat into this throat. “Buffy? Where are you?”

But the only black girl he saw didn’t look like Buffy at all. He counted the girls. Twelve.

“There should be thirteen.” He exchanged a panicked look with Enya, then stared back at the girls. “Where’s Buffy? Where is she?”

The girl who’d identified herself as Jane came closer. “Buffy?”

He nodded and pulled a photo from a pocket in his suit, turned it to her so she could see it. “This is Buffy. Have you seen her?”

She looked at the photo, concentrated on it, then looked up. “Yes.”

“Where is she?”

“The man took her.”

Horror filled him. “What man? Where? When?”

“Before they put us on the ship. The man came and picked her up.”

“She was never on the ship with you?”

Jane shook her head.

Tears welled up in his eyes, and he didn’t bother pushing them back. “Oh, God!”

To his surprise the girl suddenly asked, “Are you her daddy?”

He met Jane’s gaze. And because he didn’t know how else to describe his relationship to her, he said, “I promised her Mommy to bring her home.”

31

In John’s office, Deirdre put the receiver back on the phone. “They’re back.”

Savannah pressed her hand to her chest and sighed. “Where is Buffy?”

“All the girls are downstairs in the medical center, being checked out.”

Before Deirdre could even finish the sentence, Savannah was already at the door and ripped it open. “Let’s go. Show me where it is.”

“We can’t just go down there.”

“If you don’t show me where it is, I’ll go by myself.”

“Ah, shit!” Deirdre cursed, but jumped up and joined her. “You’re a pain in the butt.”

“So are you.”

“Yeah, well, we can’t all be as cuddly as John.” Deirdre’s voice practically dripped of sarcasm.

They hurried to the elevators. “You don’t like him much, do you?”

Deirdre shrugged. “He should have let me go to Russia with him, but no, he made me babysit you.” When Savannah raised her eyebrows, she added. “No offense, but I’d rather be helping take out the assholes who took those kids than sitting around twiddling my thumbs.”

The elevator doors opened, and they rushed in. Deirdre looked at the buttons and hesitated.