happen. She didn’t relish the idea of trying to keep Adam from ripping the elder Taylor apart.
When they arrived at Adam’s house, he met them at the door but didn’t invite them in. Sara tried not to be hurt, but her efforts failed her.
“Your candy came in,” Tana said as she extended the box toward him.
“Thanks,” he said as he took it.
They all stood there for a few awkward seconds before Sara said, “David has run away again.”
He didn’t even look surprised. “I’ll keep an eye out for him.” Why did his voice sound so flat, so emotionless? She didn’t want to see him revert back to the detached state he’d been living in when they met.
“Please do. He could be hurt. His dad isn’t saying.”
“That’s because he’s a coward.”
The sound of David’s voice surprised Sara. She glanced past Adam to see David standing inside.
“I’m not going back,” he said.
“I’ll make sure of that,” she said.
“You shouldn’t make a promise you can’t keep,” Adam said.
She looked at him, tried to find some shred of the man she’d made love to, who’d opened up to her about his devastating past. He seemed so very far away.
“Can we come in?” she finally asked when he still didn’t offer. “You know I can’t just walk away.”
“I don’t want Adam to get in trouble. I knew I shouldn’t have stayed so long.” David sounded so forlorn as he turned and disappeared into the house that Sara’s heart broke for him.
Tana must have heard it, too, because she shoved her way past Adam and followed David. Adam stepped back to allow Sara inside. She walked into the house in time to see Tana perch on the edge of the coffee table near where David sat.
“You can trust Mom,” Tana said. “What happened before wasn’t her fault. She hated it.”
The bunched muscles of David’s body eased at Tana’s words. Having someone his own age, a peer, to talk to might make this easier. Someone he’d trust more than the adults who had failed him.
“I’ll do everything I can for you, David,” Sara said. “But I have to take you into custody.”
“No.” Adam’s answer was cold, hard, unyielding.
“No matter what’s happened, he’s still under age. It’s still illegal to harbor a runaway.”
Adam looked at David. “Those bruises still on your side?”
David glanced toward Tana, clearly embarrassed.
“Hey, if it makes you feel any better, my parents are drug dealers who skipped the country without me so they wouldn’t be arrested,” Tana said.
Sara wanted to hug Tana close for helping to ease the way with David, for using her own awful experience to make it easier for him to open up. It worked because he stood and raised the left side of his T-shirt. Sara didn’t even have to move closer to him to see the angry purple marks the size of a man’s fist.
Her anger flared. “No authority can possibly put you back with someone who has done that to you. I know you have no reason to trust me after what happened, but I promise you I will stand right next to you if I have to until a ruling is made that you don’t ever have to go back.”
“What about Adam?” The concern in the boy’s voice touched her, and in that moment she determined to try to help Adam, too. After all, he’d only been trying to protect the boy from further harm, taking on a type of responsibility he used to maintain he didn’t want. Another layer of Adam Canfield peeled back, another thing for her to love about him.
“I’ll see what I can do. I need you to get your things together if you have anything else here.”
David looked at Adam, who stood for several long moments before nodding his agreement.
Tana squeezed his hand. “Come on, I’ll help.”
When the two of them rose and started gathering David’s things, Sara walked into Adam’s kitchen, forcing him to follow her.
“What were you planning?” she asked quietly so the kids wouldn’t hear her.
“That I would keep him here until he turned eighteen if that was the only way to make sure that bastard didn’t hurt him again.”
Sara looked up into Adam’s eyes. Law or no law, how could she argue with that? Wouldn’t she do the same for Tana or Lilly if necessary? She sighed. “I don’t want you to say anything more than absolutely necessary, understand?”
“I’ll say whatever will help the kid.”
“Then say nothing you don’t have to. Trust me.” Trust me now, even if