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Michelle instantly switched tactics, reaching for him, one hand gently patting his chest. “Let him just think about a few things, that’s all I’m saying. I don’t want a big scene tonight, so let’s put it off till tomorrow, hmm? Maybe we can pretend that we don’t have your kids with us. Like it’s supposed to be.”
Bianca surfaced from her fear and misery to really look at her stepmother. Her dad was looking at her, too.
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“What do you mean?” he demanded.
“I didn’t mean anything,” she said quickly. “I just—miss—having you all to myself, that’s all. I don’t want you chasing after Jeremy tonight.”
Dad heaved a sigh. Bianca suddenly, urgently, wanted him to go get Jeremy, bring him back, bring him home, but Michelle had gotten to him. “It wouldn’t kill him to spend a few hours in lockup,”
he growled.
Michelle wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him in a way that made Bianca want to puke. She eased away from the door and back inside the bedroom. She felt angry and hurt. Michelle didn’t want them around, her and Jer. It was all an act. It had always been an act, she realized now. Oh, Mom, come and get me! she silently pleaded. Hurry. I’m sorry. I don’t want to live with them. Come home!
Cisco trotted into the room. As if sensing her emotions, he came over to her and pressed his paws against her legs, looking up at her anxiously. She scooped him close and he licked her face, something that would’ve seemed gross before but now she welcomed.
“Oh, doggie,” she said brokenly, burying her face into his fur.
Mom, please be okay. Please, please, please, be okay.
“Any word on finding Pescoli?” Brewster asked, sticking his head in Alvarez’s office.
“No.”
Selena was terse.
The undersheriff nodded and looked grim. He’d cooled off a bit over Jeremy, and Selena had called
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Lucky and told him where Jeremy was, but currently the kid was still in the drunk tank with Ivor Hicks. No one seemed to know what the next step should be, though Selena had made it clear she thought Jeremy should be released. She’d said as much to his stepfather, but Lucky hadn’t said whether he was coming down to collect him, which was just as well, she supposed, since Brewster probably would have tried to stop him.
“You should go home,” he said.
“I’ll go home when the sheriff goes home.” She was bugged that, after all his bad behavior, Cort Brewster felt he could tell her what she should do.
“Grayson’s still here?”
We’re all still here, Selena wanted to say. Nobody wanted to leave with Regan at the mercy of this monster.
As if hearing his name, Grayson appeared in the hallway and stopped beside Brewster. “Jeremy’s stepdad coming to pick him up?” he asked Alvarez.
“That kid’s not leaving tonight,” Brewster cut in. He might have cooled off, but he sure as hell wasn’t giving in.
Grayson gave him a long look. “That kid’s mom is missing.”
“He hit me,” Brewster ground out.
“I’ve seen the tape,” Grayson returned. Brewster whipped around to glare at Selena, who he knew had to have requested the tape be given to the sheriff. She returned his gaze coolly. Let him try to shift blame to her. The tape told the truth of the story.
“He’s going to be released,” Grayson told the undersheriff. “Alvarez . . .”
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