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Still holding Evie close, Nora looked over her shoulder in search of Lawson. “She smells like urine, and she’s hurt.”
Lawson, only a foot away, was in front of them in a second.
“I haven’t been able to get much out of her since I got here,” spoke the woman in the corner for the first time. “She complained of hunger earlier, but nothing else.”
“Evelyn, darlin’, tell us where it hurts,” said Lawson gently as he ran his hand over her hair and down her back.
“She’s only holdin’ onto me with one arm,” Nora noticed.
He nodded, then slowly moved his hand toward the shoulder of her opposite arm.
“Owey,” she whined, jerking away from his touch.
Lawson and Nora locked eyes.
“Pretty girl, can you look at daddy?”
Evie twisted just enough to be able to see him without having to let go of her tight grip on Nora.
“Is it your shoulder? Can you tell us what happened?”
“I tr—tried to—to run away,” she hiccupped. It was all she could manage before she dissolved into another fit of tears.
“I think her shoulder might be dislocated.” Looking toward the woman in the corner, then out into the hallway—where Nora could hear Steele’s voice—Lawson asked, “What do we have to do to get her out of here?”
“I’ll need a couple signatures. The officers might have a couple questions, as well.”
“She’s tired,” murmured Nora, thinking nothing of her own exhaustion.
Lawson nodded, then reached for Evie, his intentions clear. Nora pressed her lips to Evie’s ear the moment she whimpered, tightening her hold with a strength that stunned her. “I’m gonna stay with you, I promise,” Nora whispered. “It’s just daddy. He’s got you. We’re all gonna stay together.”
It took a moment and few more whispered reassurances before Evie let go of Nora and draped herself across Lawson’s chest. Once he had her in his grasp, he rose to his feet and held out a hand for Nora to take. She pulled herself up off the floor just as Steele entered the room.
“They found her at a motel, couple miles up the road. Front desk clerk spotted her, and he called it in. Evie didn’t know Ashlynn’s name or the room she’d come from—and the desk clerk wasn’t on shift when they checked in. All Evie told them was that she wanted her mother, and her mother wasn’t there.
“The patrolmen brought Evie back to the station and linked her to the missing child report. That’s when we got the call. By the time they went back to the motel in search of Ashlynn—she was gone. There’s a BOLO out on her now. She’s a fugitive,and she will be caught. The fact that Evie got away means she’s sloppy.”
“She needs a doctor,” Lawson insisted, speaking of the child in his arms. “We’re ready to sign whatever so we can get out of here. Evelyn’s all I’m worried about right now—I’ll let you guys worry about Ashlynn.”
“Understood,” Steele replied with a nod.
He was obviously just as tired as the rest of them, but he took no offense at his brother’s tone. Instead, he made sure they were out the door five minutes later.
They waited nearly an hour in the emergency room, which was long enough for Evelyn to fall asleep in Lawson’s arms. Nora tried to wake her before the doctor set her arm, but she was still half out of it until she wasn’t—the pop of the reconnected joint accompanied by a wail of pain.
The sound of her cry was like a sucker punch.
His pretty girl had been through too much in twenty-four hours.
Nora sat with Evie in the backseat on the way home. They were both asleep within fifteen minutes. The two and a half hours that followed were quiet. Too quiet. Lawson’s adrenaline had faded long ago, and he was running on fumes. It was the Marine inside of him that kept his eyes open. It was the father he’d become that insistedhomewas the only place he planned on stopping.
It was nearly ten a.m. Sunday morning when he pulled into the parking lot of their apartment complex. Nora was jolted awake as soon as he turned off the truck. Evie barely stirred as Lawson took her from her booster seat and carried her upstairs.Their apartment was empty, everyone having gone to give them space and to find rest themselves.
“She’s gonna hate it, but she needs a bath.”
Lawson forced a smile and replied, “So do I.”
Of course, Nora was right. As soon as they woke her, Evelyn offered nothing but tears of sheer exhaustion. Not taking no for an answer, Nora made quick work of a bath, promising Evelyn she could go back to sleep as soon as they were done.
