The boy stood, blood on his chin, and looked at me. He had the bluest eyes I’d ever seen. “You okay?”
I couldn’t breathe. Tears blocked my vision. “N-no,” I said.
“You will be.” He reached for my hand, and I took his much bigger one, holding as tight as I could. “My dirt bike is outside. I’ll take you home.”
Home. I wanted to be home. I sniffed and let him lead me out of the bad place.
“I’m Aiden,” he said. “You’re safe now. I promise.”
Years later, I sat up on my couch, surprised that night had fallen. Jareth Davey had gone to trial and then gotten off with a technicality. It didn’t matter why. He was free and had been since that day.
I received an anniversary card every year on the date of my kidnapping and around Christmas, not signed and sent from different postal locations. I couldn’t prove they were from Jareth Davey, but they had to be. They were sent to the post office box I’d kept in Silverville all these years, and the next one was due the following Wednesday. Things were coming full circle, and the nightmare was expected.
Now things had changed. Aiden Devlin was back, and now he was in trouble. Could I save him this time?
Chapter 3
Quiet chaos ruled the office when I returned the next day, although the DEA had exited the premises with what I heard was boxes and boxes of documents. I had no doubt they didn’t need most of the stuff for their case, but I hadn’t been there. I was oddly gratified to see that the receptionist’s picture with Stan Lee had survived the raid. She smiled widely when I returned, leaning over the desk. “Have you heard anything about Scot?” she whispered.
“No,” I whispered back. “Have you heard anything?” How could Scot have been arrested by the DEA? It was crazy, and nobody knew a thing.
She shook her head. While she’d been friendly during my month of tenure, she was usually busy, and I was just a deputy prosecutor. I’d obviously been bumped up a bit in her mind. She handed over a stack of messages. “I sent the interns to clean up your office, and they should be finished soon.”
“Thanks.” As the fresh and new lawyer, I didn’t have a secretary or paralegal of my own, and the interns usually handled things for the more experienced attorneys. “Is anybody else back yet?”
She shook her head, losing the smile. “No, and it’s a mess. We can’t get any answers from the DEA.”
I nodded like it was all okay and turned for my office just as two college students exited. The first was a tall woman with blue hair. “You’re good. The DEA agents left your drawers open and some files messed up, but we fixed them.”
“Thanks.” I smiled and again acted like the world hadn’t just started spinning in the opposite direction. Sure, I was thrown off by my boss being arrested. But Aiden Devlin was back in town, and he’d been arrested. I sat on my too loose rolling chair, grabbed the phone, and dialed Celeste. As Scot’s paralegal, surely she’d know something. Anything.
“Hi,” she said, no doubt having seen my extension number come up on her phone from the opposite side of our office. “How was court yesterday?”
“Uneventful,” I lied. “Have you heard anything about Scot? It’s impossible that he’s been dealing drugs.”
“I know. Whatever this is, I’m sure Scot will get it sorted out,” she said, sounding lost.
Okay. So she didn’t know anything. On to my next topic. “Please find any other documents you have on the Aiden Devlin case, so I can pursue this until Scot gets back. The casefile I took to court yesterday was missing most of what I needed.”
She sighed. “The DEA took everything Scot had on that case, and it wasn’t much. You have the case file.”
Too much was missing. What was going on? “Get me everything you can find that they didn’t take. As soon as you can.”
She promised to do so and then hung up.
I tightened my calves to keep my chair from rolling away. Then I reached to dial out again when my computer dinged a notice. Crap. I glanced at the time. I was due in misdemeanor court in five minutes. It seemed ridiculous that I was still working the day away when the sky was falling, but court was court, and I was scheduled to be there. So I grabbed the stack of casefiles I hadn’t