Cold Case Recruit. Jennifer Morey

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ without an ounce of fat. His eyes watched the kids and then turned to her. She’d only just met him and already felt a strong connection. Intimate curiosity. How could that be? From the moment she’d seen him leaning on the SUV, keenly observant, he’d struck something buried in her. He’d rekindled an interest in the opposite sex. What frightened her most, not just any man could have done that.

      She must be excited to catch Noah’s killer, that’s all.

      Opening the door, she got out as Junior searched for the Mountain Ridge shuttle van. Spotting her, he started to walk faster. Brycen got out on the other side and Junior saw him, staring a bit before looking back at his mother.

      When he reached her, she messed up the top of his hair. “Hey, kiddo.”

      He grumbled something and lowered his head.

      “What’s wrong?”

      He squinted up at her, sunlight streaming onto his face. “Gatchel Maxwell is stupid.”

      One of the kids gave him a hard time today? “What did he do?”

      “He said single moms don’t make any money and boys with single moms grow up to be crack-eds.”

      He meant crackheads. “Well, I think boys with names like Gatchel are more likely to grow up like that.”

      That sprang a smile onto Junior’s face, followed by a lighthearted laugh. A real kid laugh that reached his young brown eyes. Drury loved it. He’d withdrawn a lot since Noah died, but she could bring him out of it every once in a while.

      She faced the SUV to see Brycen had gotten out and headed toward them.

      “Who’s that?” Junior asked.

      He stepped onto the sidewalk and came to a stop beside Drury. “Brycen Cage.” He held out his hand.

      Junior eyed the hand and looked up—way up—at Brycen’s face.

      “This is the detective I told you about.” Why had he offered his hand as though Junior were a professional business contact? She stopped a laugh. “This is my son, Noah Jr. I call him Junior.”

      “Junior.” Brycen nodded once in acknowledgment, stuffing his hands into his front jean pockets. When Junior didn’t respond, he looked from the boy to the area surrounding the school, and she went to the back door of the SUV to let Junior in.

      “Where’s Mac?” Junior asked.

      He and the van driver had become fast friends. “Van broke down. We have a different ride today.” She gestured for him to get in the back.

      Junior didn’t move as he sized up the big stranger. He’d gotten shy around men she encountered. Mac had taken a while to warm up to him. Drury often wondered what went through his little mind. Did he compare them to his dad? In a blue button-up shirt that matched one she’d gotten Noah, Junior looked a lot like his father.

      “Why is he driving us?”

      “He met me after work. He’s kindly offered us a ride home.” What was it about Brycen that put off Junior? Yes, Junior was shy around men, but he seemed defensive. What was different? Had he picked up on the man’s awkwardness? Big, imposing stranger who stiffened around kids? Probably.

      And what made Brycen so anti-kid? Was it his lack of experience? Or did he dislike them? She couldn’t be sure which or if it was something else entirely, something personal that Kadin had left out.

      Junior lowered his head and kicked at the concrete sidewalk.

      “Junior?” She noticed he held something in his hand, a piece of folded paper. “What’s that you’ve got?” She went to him and held her hand out.

      He looked sullenly up at her and handed her the paper.

      She opened it and saw it was his report card. Seeing several unsatisfactory marks and long notes from his teachers, Drury quelled her sinking disappointment. “Junior, what happened here?”

      He kicked at the concrete again and shrugged as though he didn’t care. Drury knew he did care.

      “How many times do I have to tell you to keep up your grades?”

      His head lifted and defiance sprang from his eyes. “I try.”

      “Not hard enough. You used to be at the top of your class. Why are you still letting your grades fall so much?” Drury put her hand on Junior’s shoulder. “That’s not the Decoteau way. We give everything our all.”

      Junior jerked away. “Then I’ll just stay here! I don’t want to go anywhere with you anyway!” He started marching back up the sidewalk toward the school.

      “Noah Jr.!” Drury trotted to catch up to his small strides. She put her hand on his shoulder and stopped him, turning him to face her and bending to his level. He pouted at her.

      She took in his adorable face awhile. “You’re going with me and that’s final. Got it?”

      His pout plumped up his lower lip some more.

      Drury ran her forefinger down the tiny bulge. “Brycen is the detective who’s going to help Mommy. You don’t have to like him, but you do have to get into the SUV.” She straightened, taking his hand. “And you have to get your grades back up.” She walked with him back to the Yukon.

      Brycen leaned against the front bumper, ankles crossed and phone to his ear.

      As she and Junior returned, she heard him say, “Thanks.” Before putting his phone away and impassively surveying Junior and then her. “Everything okay?”

      He seemed like a completely different man than the one she’d met on the tarmac. Distant. All purpose.

      “Yes.”

      He looked down at Junior with the same detachment.

      Junior angled his head as he returned the look with defiance. “Are you going to find my daddy?”

      Drury wasn’t sure Junior fully understood his father had been murdered, or what it meant when a person died. He asked when his father was coming back every so often. Even though she said he wasn’t, Junior didn’t seem to compute.

      “I’m going to catch the man who hurt him.”

      Relieved that he had found a gentle way to answer, Drury saw how Junior wavered over what to think of this stranger.

      “You promise?” Junior asked.

      Brycen pushed off from the bumper and said, “I promise.”

      The absolute certainty in Brycen’s tone made Drury stop from opening the back passenger door. In Junior’s young mind, his father would someday come home. She’d tried to explain Noah would never come home, but she hadn’t been able to say it in adult language, to expose her son to such brutality and darkness. She hadn’t had the heart. Protecting him might preserve his childhood, to allow him to be a kid until he grew up. But that didn’t seem to work. Junior missed his father and he understood enough to know something terrible had happened to СКАЧАТЬ