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ChapterNineteen
Maizie stiffened in the seat beside Kenna, then shifted, still looking at her phone but far more tense than she had been a second ago.
Kenna leaned over to the girl, her elbow on the back window shelf. “What is it?”
“We have no idea where he is, or what he plans to do with that boy.” Maizie didn’t look up from the phone. “We don’t even know what the kid’s name is.”
Ramon said, “His name is Javier, and he’s three years old.”
Maizie sucked in a breath through her nose.
Kenna rested her fingers on Maizie’s shoulder. “Which is why we aren’t going to rest until we find him.”
Stairns pressed down on the gas. “Where does this road go?”
Ramon glanced around at all of them. “It leads to the American’s compound. But none of you are supposed to know that, and you didn’t hear it from me.”
“So he just went back home? What is there at the compound for him?” Kenna asked, even though none of them would have the answer. “The guy should be taking the kid and fleeing as far as possible so that Navarro never finds him. Or is he regrouping and making contact so he can demand a ransom?”
Maizie shuddered.
Kenna flexed her fingers, then moved them off the girl’s shoulder. After a lifetime of unwanted touch, Maizie didn’t need anything that would remind her of the life she used to have.
“Is he going to kill Javier?” Maizie asked.
The fact the girl could feel empathy for another child in her situation was a good thing. It meant that everything she was inside hadn’t been seared to the point of being unable to feel. There just wasn’t enough time to unpack that with Maizie right now—though Kenna planned to do it later, when they were home.
“We don’t know what his plan is,” Kenna replied. “But it doesn’t matter, though, because we’re going to get Javier back before the worst happens.”
Whether or not Navarro had other men in front of them. If they were already racing toward where Kart had gone with Javier. Chasing him after he stole the boy and the vehicle from the ranch. It didn’t matter. Kenna just hoped they weren’t going to get in the way. Or cause more problems when she showed up to get the kid back.
“He could be doing anything to the kid.” Maizie paused, her breaths coming faster. “And we have no way to stop it.”
Stairns hit the brakes and pulled onto the dirt beside the road. It was slightly less compacted than the surface of the street, but not by much. There didn’t look to be anything around them. Just a whole bunch of nothing, plus the lights of the ranch behind them and the lights of town over to the east, across the desert hills.
“Ramon, get out.” Stairns pushed his door open.
He and Ramon climbed out and closed their doors. Then stood chatting in front of the hood in the glow of the headlights.
Gauging by their body language, Kenna realized Stairns was giving her the space to talk to Maizie. She shifted in the seat to face Maizie, but also give the girl some space. “I need you to listen to me.”
Maizie closed her eyes.
“Not everyone who is taken suffers the things that you did.”
“He’s scared.”
Kenna nodded. “Yes, he probably is.”
“He doesn’t know what’s going to happen to him.”
“He wants to get home to his uncle. But the place where he felt safe is the place where he saw the nanny who cared for him get killed. So he doesn’t understand how to find where he wants to be. He doesn’t know how to get that peace back, because it’s up to his parents and caregivers to provide it for him.”
Maizie blinked and opened her eyes. “What is he going to do?”
“He’s going to retreat into a place in his mind that will keep him protected. It’s what little kids do to keep themselves safe. They build walls in their minds that protect them from trauma.”
“It won’t work.”
