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What about Sadie? Two months ago, she’d celebrated her tenth birthday. Then he remembered the girl was homeschooled. No help there.
He gave the area another scan before his attention strayed back to the spot where Liv had disappeared. The longer she was gone, the tighter the knot in his stomach grew.
What was she doing here? His mind refused to settle on the obvious. But the look of terror on her face and her sense of urgency all but hammered it home.
Ten minutes later, Liv emerged with a brown-haired boy at her side. He wore jeans and a lightweight blue and white hoodie over a graphic T-shirt. His thumbs were hooked in the arm straps of a bulging red backpack.
Zeke checked the rearview mirror and noted the absence of a car seat or booster. North Carolina required kids to be in one or the other until they were eight years old. He didn’t think the boy was older than Sadie, but who the hell knew?
Heart hammering, he opened his door, slid out, and made his way over to the passenger side.
Liv stopped a few feet away. “Brodie, this is my friend Zeke. Say hello.”
The boy cast him an uncertain look. “Hi.”
“Howdy.” Zeke shoved his hands into his front pockets. “How was, um, school?”
“I beat Imar at spelling today.”
“Oh, yeah? First time?”
The boy nodded, shrugging off his backpack. “He’s really smart.”
Liv took his bag and opened the back door. Brodie climbed inside and grabbed for the seat belt, while she placed his pack next to him.
The whole exchange was all so. . . ordinary, but it set Zeke’s nerves on fire.
When Liv shut the door, her gaze touched his before she strode around to the driver’s side back door and slid in beside what he could only assume was her son.
They shared the same blue eyes, and Zeke hadn’t missed how the sunlight picked up the red streaks in the boy’s brown hair.
Staring at the tinted back windows, he thumped the side of his thumb against his thigh, a sign his patience had been poked one too many times today. He splayed his hand wide before balling it into a fist.
Once he was behind the wheel again, he caught Liv’s eye in the rearview mirror. “Where to?”
“Back to your vehicle.”
“Then what?”
“We go our separate ways.”
“Are you going to call someone to drive the two of you home?”
“You don’t need to worry about us.”
He set the vehicle in motion. “Driving in your condition,” he looked from her to Brodie, “isn’t smart.”
She brushed a hand over the boy’s head, but said nothing.
“Why is Zeke driving your car, Mama?”
Mystery solved.
“So I can listen to the rest of your story.”
“I can drive you home.” The thought of her losing consciousness while driving did weird things to his chest. “And call for a ride back to the field office.”
She gave the boy one last loving look before meeting his eyes in the rearview mirror. Her expression was no longer loving. It was resigned. “Okay.”
