Mind Games - Page 218

“Katie is easy a mile from our place. She walked so far. She’s just a little girl. When I think of what could’ve happened … Do they have her yet?”

Thea held up a finger. “Thank you. I don’t doubt it. Katie has her. Rem’s going to drive Nadine up right now,” she said to Katie as Nadine turned into Rem’s arms to sob. “I’ll tell her. Yes, I will. Thank you, Katie. Bye.

“She’s fine,” Thea told Nadine as she hung up. “She told Katie she was hungry because she didn’t pack a lunch for school. They’re going to give her some hot chocolate and some soup. Rem, you’ll drive Nadine up to Katie’s, won’t you?”

“Sure. We’ll talk later,” he said to Thea, then looked at Ty. “We’ll talk later. I’ve got this one. Whoa! You eat bricks for breakfast?” he asked Curtis Lee.

Nadine turned from Rem to embrace Thea. “Thank you.” She stepped back and swiped her hands over her face. “Adalaide’s going to school. Her daddy’s just going to have to get used to it.”

“Let’s go get the future scholar.” Rem put an arm around Nadine and led her out.

“With Bray it was minutes,” Ty murmured. “I’ve never been so scared. She’s been looking more than an hour. Pregnant, hauling a toddler, scared out of her mind. And you found that little girl. You just … found her.”

“And she’s fine. A few scratches, one tumble where she banged her knee. But she’s fine.”

“What you did? Thea—it was amazing. And you look a little pale now, so you should sit down.”

“It can take a little out of you, depending.” But she did sit, back in the kitchen, and drank the tea that had gone cold to soothe her dry throat. “Between Nadine and Adalaide, a lot of emotion.”

“You’re rubbing your hand again. It gave you a headache.”

“Opening like that…”

“It’s Riggs,” Ty realized.

“It’ll pass. I just need to settle, and it’ll pass.”

“You knew this would happen, but you did it anyway.”

“Of course I did. When you can help, you help.”

“Just like that.”

She nodded, closed her eyes as Bunk laid his head on her knee. “It’s what I have and who I am. I wouldn’t change it, not for anyone. Even you.”

A lick of temper burned in his voice. “Who’s asking you to change it? I said it before, and I’ll say it now. You’re a goddamn miracle.”

Her hand shook a little when she set the tea down again, and Ty paced.

“I wanted to call the sheriff, and was trying to figure out how I could do that while you were getting her calmed down. They’d’ve found her, eventually. But meanwhile that woman’s going out of her mind. I’d’ve been going out of mine. And all she had to do was ask for your help, and in minutes, just minutes really, the kid’s safe and drinking hot chocolate.

“And you? You’re sitting here fighting off that son of a bitch who’ll do everything he can to hurt you.”

“It’s already passing.” Faster than she’d expected. It felt as if Ty’s anger sucked the pain right out of her.

“That’s not the point.” He stopped, turned on his heel to stare at her. “It’s not the damn point. You took this on knowing he’d find a way in to hurt you.”

“What would you have done?”

“It’s not about me. No, hold on, it is. It’s going to be about me right now.”

He paced the kitchen again. “Yeah, it’s about me because I saw you do this. I saw you hold on to a handmade pink bear and find a child lost up there somewhere. I saw you reach in and know where she was, and how she felt. And if that isn’t enough of a kick in the balls, I see the price you paid for it, the price you knew you’d pay. So I know who you are now, what you have. I don’t know how you have it, but I know why.”

He shoved his hands into his pockets. “And I’m done. Finished.” He yanked them out again. “The whole idea of taking this, with you, step-by-step, slow and easy, seeing how that works? That’s bullshit.”

“Then you need to—”

“Don’t interrupt a man in the middle of a watershed moment. If the only way I can get you is that step-by-step, slow-and-easy, seeing-how-it-works bullshit, I’ll give it my best shot. Because I’m not letting go. Goddamn it, Thea, I’m not letting go.”