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Chloe held his coat, and he reached down the embankment with their now-long-enough stick. He snagged the hat on the second attempt.
“Yay!” she cheered. “Thank you.”
He reeled in the stick and plucked off the hat. They stood, and after he picked off a few dry leaves, he slid the hat onto her head. “I’m sorry all that happened.” He cupped the sides of her face.
“I started it.” Her sheepish expression made his insides melt.
“But we worked together to rescue your hat. We make a pretty great team.”
“Yeah.” Her voice was solemn. “Who else could talk me out of a panic attack?” She didn’t look him in the eye.
He gently shifted her face for her to move her eyes to him.
Tears pooled in them.
But he couldn’t bring himself to push her to tell him more. And there certainly was more to her panic attacks.
Chapter Six
Justaftersixo’clock,Gabe walked down the hallway of the police station toward the detectives’ squad room. Surely Buck and Martinez had something by now regarding the threat his sister had received this morning.
He found the detectives still at their desks.
Buck waved. “Hey, man. Don’t you still have a couple hours left of your shift?”
Gabe grabbed a chair and sat beside Buck’s desk. “Aren’t you supposed to be investigating who threatened Chloe?”
Buck twirled a pen in his hand. “We have. And we don’t have much of anything to go on.”
Martinez said, “We have a set of prints, but they came back with nothing. Without something to compare them to—”
“Yeah, I know. Is there anything you can do to help me keep her safe?”
Martinez shook his head. “What can we do? As far as we can tell, this was just a bad joke.”
“You know I’ll do anything I can,” Buck said. “Can she stay with you or Aliza or your parents?”
“Any one of those is a good possibility. Convincing her she needs to do that is a whole ’nother story.”
“Dr. Schneider should be able to convince her.” Martinez chuckled. “They looked awfully cozy together this morning.”
Gabe laughed. “They’re clueless of how ‘cozy’ they look together.”
Buck said, “Suppose they’ll ever admit it to one another?”
“I’m just hoping Chloe will admit it to herself,” Gabe said.
The three men laughed.
Martinez stood. “I’m sorry, Jacobs, but we don’t have anything to go on. Yourhermanaclaims she doesn’t have any enemies, so there’s nothing more we can do. If something else happens, we’ll do what we can, but until then . . .” He picked up his briefcase. “I’ll see you allmañana. I’m out.”
Once Martinez was out the door, Buck shifted his chair to look at Gabe straight on. “God’s got her. I’ve been praying for her protection all day, and I won’t stop.”
“I know. Thanks, bro.” If only the nagging fear in his mind would let up.God, help me to trust You with my sister. I know You love her and will take care of her. I believe it. I could use a little peace though.
Chloe’s phone rang, pulling her out of a troubled sleep. It took a moment for her to gain her bearings. She was in the passenger seat of her car. When they’d made it to the bottom of the trail, she’d been too tired to consider driving home. The panic attack had taken all of her energy.
The phone continued to ring, but where was her phone?
