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A split second later the door opened and people streamed out — a deluge of kids and the adults trying to corral them.
Mauz looked through the binoculars, scanning the crowd for the Perez kid’s dinosaur T-shirt. “Come on, kid…”
“Fuck,” Jag said. “I’m on my way out. Don’t have a choice.”
Fire sirens wailed in the distance.
Frantic movement from the crowd congregating at the front of the aquarium caught Mauz’s eye in the binocular. He followed it and felt his stomach tighten.
It was the kid’s teacher, moving through a line of children, fear evident on her face as she turned to examine the swelling herd.
Mauz moved the binoculars down the line of children in front of her, obviously her class.
The Perez kid wasn’t there.
And the car that had been idling by the curb was gone.
25
“I should tell you to pack your shit and never come back!” Logan shouted. “This is unforgivable. What the fuck were you doing in there? Jacking off? Eating cotton candy?”
It was a continuation of the tirade Logan had been issuing for longer than he cared to count. He was afraid to stop. Afraid of what would happen if he did. Afraid of the guilt and shame that would swamp him.
Because he could yell at Jag all he wanted, but this was Logan’s fault.
“I’m sorry,” Jag said, his expression stolid. To his credit, he hadn’t said a word in his defense, even when he should have. It had been Mauz who provided the details that by all rights should have exonerated Jag: the crowd, the bathroom, the fire alarm.
“I’ll tell you what,” Logan said. “Why don’t you go upstairs and tell Gabriella you’re sorry? See if that makes you feel any better.”
He only barely registered that he’d used Gabriella’s first name instead of her full name, and he’d done it with one of his men.
“I will apologize if that’s what you want,” Jag said.
Logan had no doubt the other man would make good on the promise. He was a fine man, an excellent bodyguard. None of this was his fault.
Logan was the one who’d let Leo go on the field trip, who’d let his feelings for Leo and Gabriella get in the way of good sense.
“You can do that later,” Mauz said, shooting a pointed glance at Logan. “After we find the kid and everybody cools down.”
The words hit Logan like a gut punch. Leo was out there, in the hands of animals.
He thought of Leo’s sweet face, innocent and bright, looking up at him with something like love.
With complete trust.
Then he thought of Gabriella, upstairs with the police who'd arrived to take her statement, and Bea, who was trying to calm Gabriella down.
He had a flash of her keening on the floor of her office when he’d gone to tell her, of the way she’d fought him off when he’d tried to hold her.
He wanted to punch something. Kill someone.
And Nathan would be here soon, all too eager to make the point that this was on Logan, who’d promised to protect Nathan’s son.
“Get out of here,” Logan said, waving Jag away.
The other man jumped at the offer, heading for the door. Logan half expected it to slam behind him. Instead, he closed it quietly.
Logan would apologize later. Jag was on duty when Leo was taken and that meant he would always bear some responsibility, but the buck stopped with Logan.
