Stolen Child (Coastal Fury Book 13) Matt Lincoln (chrysanthemum read aloud .txt) 📖

“Do we know how old the food was?” Holm asked.

“They said it looked relatively fresh,” Marston shrugged. “And it’s still afternoon out there. I suppose it’s possible that it could’ve been from yesterday, but then there was that neighbor who saw him leave in a hurry this morning.”

“Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that,” Nina said. She’d been lost in thought during some of the detectives’ updates, worrying about Mikey and where he could be now, let alone what could be happening to him.

Marston’s phone buzzed, and he picked it up.

“Oh good,” he said as he read through a text message. “That’s Diane. She got in touch with all our contacts on islands along the coast. They’re going to be on the lookout for Mikey and the guys in the video.”

“Good, that’s good,” Nina said, nodding slowly. “I’m wondering if maybe we should release the footage of the second guy to the media, just in case.”

“Let’s give it ‘till morning,” Marston suggested, scrunching up his face as if he disliked all the possible options here. “We don’t want them to know we know about the second guy, and we don’t want even more public panic and sensationalism than we’ve already got. If we don’t have a new lead by morning, we can still release it then.”

“Good thinking,” Nina said, gladder than ever that she’d called in the MBLIS agents to help her and Osborne. “It’ll be easier to get coverage in the morning, anyway. Most people will be asleep by now.”

The three agents stayed at the police station late into the night, waiting on any word that Jackson or his fiancée had been located or that the Coast Guard saw Mikey and his abductor again. But no news came, and around two in the morning, Nina thought that it might be time to call it a night.

“Come on,” she said, standing up from her adopted desk and motioning for Holm and Marston to follow her, both of whom looked like they were in the midst of falling asleep if they hadn’t already. “We won’t be any good to anyone as zombies tomorrow. Let’s go get you guys checked in at the inn.”

Both agents nodded weakly and rose to follow her. Nina waved goodbye to the others who remained in the station. A new slate of officers and detectives had come in about an hour earlier to replace the others, while the lead detective on the case grabbed some shut-eye in the back, having agreed to stay the whole night there, and the rest went home to get some well-needed rest.

“Heh, zombies,” Holm chuckled weakly as they made their way out to the parking lot. “You know, because of our New Orleans mission.”

“Yes, I can’t say I needed that one explained to me,” Nina quipped, giving him a wry smile.

Back at the inn, Nina and Marston had to check Holm in for him as he leaned against the wall with his eyes closed, practically snoring already. Marston then helped him upstairs to his room not far from Nina’s and deposited him fully-clothed on his bed.

“Thanks for all your help today,” Nina told him as he shut the door gently behind him, leaving Holm alone in his room. “I’m glad you’re here.”

“I’m glad we’re here, too,” he said, giving her a wide if sleepy smile.

“Are you sure about that?” she asked. “Because I got the sense from Holm that you two weren’t too happy to be pulled off the Holland case, even for a little while.”

“He was less happy about it than I was,” Marston admitted as he followed her slowly down the hall toward where her own room, and his, were located. “I, for one, was glad to leave all that paperwork behind for a living breathing case. If just for a little while.”

He winked at her, and Nina felt a familiar, not altogether unwelcome, jolt in the pit of her stomach.

“Anyway,” he continued. “A missing kid trumps everything. Even Holm gets that, though he might not like it.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” she murmured, stopping in front of her door. “Well, this is me.”

“I’m down here,” Marston said, gesturing at a room two doors down from her. She nodded vaguely and swallowed a yawn.

“I’ll see you bright and early in the morning, then,” she said, already wincing at the thought of having to wake up in only a few short hours.

“Sleep well,” he said, ever the gentleman as he nodded to her and took a reluctant step toward his room.

“You know…” she called after him. “You could…”

The next thing she knew, she was in his arms, and their lips met. She’d forgotten how warm he was, how inviting.

Finally, he broke away from her, and she reached behind her to scan her hotel key against the lock.

“I thought you’d never ask,” he said, grinning down at her.

“Yeah, it kind of took me long enough, didn’t it?” she laughed, reaching up to take his face in her hands and kiss him again as she leaned her elbow down on the doorknob.

Suddenly, she wasn’t quite so tired anymore, and a few hours felt like a good long time.

12

Ethan

We managed to get a couple of hours of sleep, at least, though when Nina’s phone started screeching at five o’clock in the morning on the bedside table, I had to suppress the urge to groan, roll over, and plaster a pillow over my head.

We ended up getting up in the end, though, and crawling back into the police station at what I imagined must’ve been a snail’s pace.

Dr. Osborne was waiting for us in the front desk area. Several very sleepy detectives and officers were still congregated by where Nina, Holm, and I had left them mere hours before.

“Sorry to call you in so early,” Osborne said, crossing over to us the second we stepped through the front doors.

“It’s alright,” Holm yawned, running a sleepy hand across his face. “Nature of the case, and all.”

“What happened?” I asked, hoping that there