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And Ronnie was getting even more upset. Murdoch just rocked her for a moment. They knew far too intimately what it was like when a kid you loved was just taken away. “You’re all safe now. And we’re going to find the guys who did this, Ron. I promise.”
Someone tugged on his shirt. “Uncle Murdoch, Uncle Murdoch.”
He looked down into Marlie’s little face. She was a carbon copy of her mother. Eyes the same shade as his own stared up at him. The thought that a knife-wielding attacker had been anywhere near this kid… “Yes, baby girl? Do you have something to tell me?”
“G-A-R-R-I-T-Y.” She nodded emphatically. “The van said G-A-R-R-I-T-Y. Like where you live when I send you pictures. I remember, because I knew how to spell it, and it is a really big word.”
“Did it? Good job. Did you see any other letters on the van?” He just hugged her close again, beyond grateful that he still could.
She shook her head. “But it had a face on it. With big eyeballs. I can draw it for the police lady.” She pointed to Detective Miller. “I like her. She’s pretty.”
“Yes she is, just as pretty as you are. Can you do that? And draw me one, too. I’ll find the van and the bad guys.”
He would have said something else, but he looked up.
And thereshewas.
Zoey Sofia.
Panic in her eyes as she searched forherbaby in the crowd.
* * *
The last thing she’d expected to see when she made it to the hospital her brother Caine ran was Murdoch right in the middle of everything. Zoey headed straight to him. “Murdoch, where’s my sister?”
She’d fought panic ever since Pen’s call.
“I haven’t made it into the waiting room where they are keeping her guarded yet. But she’s in there. Upstairs?”
He had one of his nieces in his arms. He put the little girl down and said something to his sister. Then his fingers were wrapping around Zoey’s elbow, and he was just there.
Zoey forced herself to breathe. To calm down as much as she could.
She followed Murdoch into the elevator. When they were alone, she turned to him. “Why are you here?”
“I heard the call out on the radio and was thirty minutes away. An armed attacker at my nieces’ and nephew’s school? Hell yes, I’m going to respond. They were close enough that two of my nieces saw the attackers’ faces, babe. One bastard almost tripped over Ronnie’s seven-year-old. My niece saw the color of the guy’s eyes. Marlie said the van had Garrity printed on the side, it was brown, and there were giant eyeballs on it.”
“That doesn’t sound like anything I recognize.” She paused, thought for a moment. Forced herself to calm down and get herself under control. “Wasn’t there an exterminator with a giant bug on the side in town? Before we transferred in?”
“I don’t know. I’ve not seen a van like that around town. But Marshall might know.”
Zoey forced herself to pull it together. She was the one who handled things, after all. Pen would need her to be able to handle this, too.“It was probably for ransom, wasn’t it?”
“I don’t know. I just got here a few minutes ago.”
His hands went around her waist and Zoey found herself pulled to his rock-hard chest. He cupped the back of her head. She just breathed him in. “What are you doing?”
“You look like the world is shaking apart around you. Figured I could hold it together for a moment. Those were our nieces out there today. Your nephews. Your sister. Mine. Mine was right there, too. Of course, it terrifies us. Because we know more than most the cost of what today could have been.” He tightened his hold on her. “I need the hug just as much as you. So hug me, woman. While you can. Make us both feel a little bit better somehow.”
Zoey slipped her arms around his waist and pressed her face to his chest and just let him hold her until the door binged and slid open.
She pulled back and stepped out. It was time to be in control again. Even if she didn’t feel in control at all.
But she could still feel his arms around her.
Pen looked up when Zoey walked into the waiting room, past the guards and the two TSP Major Crimes detectives she recognized.
Pen was shaking. She saw Zoey and jumped to her feet. Then Zoey had her arms full of her baby sister. “Zoey! I thought you’d never get here.”
