School of Fish (Fish Out of Water #6) - Amy Lane Page 0,59

and sister?”

“Tage…,” Olga whispered.

“We can’t promise anything,” Ellery said quietly. “We can’t. But we can try. Jackson and I would take you to the DA’s office and try to find someone who would listen.”

Tage looked at his parents and swallowed, and Jackson would always think that in spite of everything that had gone on before, this was the moment the young man grew up.

“You two go home and be safe,” he said, and the lack of irony was admirable. “I’ll go and try to help Sophie and Maxim.”

“Tage,” Jackson murmured, just so he knew. “If you come with us to be put in protective custody, you might not see your parents for a long time, even if we recover your brother and sister.”

Tage’s jaw tightened. “Then Dad can say he has no children. It’s fine.”

Boris recoiled, and Olga cried quietly in his arms. “These are our people,” he whispered.

“And I was your son,” Tage told him, wiping his face on his clean shirt. He turned to Jackson. “Can we go?”

Jackson looked at Tage’s parents, trying not to be angry. He didn’t understand. They were abandoning their son, as far as he could see, abandoning their children so they could live with the comfort of their old life. But he hadn’t walked a mile in their shoes. He hadn’t left behind the familiar for the strange, only to find that the same people were in charge. “We’ll keep him safe,” he said, hoping he was being honest.

“Thank you,” Boris said, looking wretched. Jackson felt a wave of what could only be described as relief wash off the boy. “We… we would like to know how they are, if you find out.”

“Sure,” Jackson said. He sighed. “Maybe. Are you sure? Are you sure you don’t want to come with us?”

“We have other family,” Boris whispered. “Not here, but in Carmichael, Citrus Heights. I’m the head of the house. If I betray….”

Got it. If the children left the family, the family couldn’t be held responsible, but if the father followed the children, everybody was at risk.

“Great,” Jackson muttered. He and Ellery looked at each other grimly.

“Then we’ll go,” Ellery said, his voice icy because he obviously didn’t understand. “Please let us know if you change your mind.”

They nodded miserably, and Mrs. Dobrevk darted out to kiss Tage on the cheek. “You’re a good boy,” she told him, voice breaking, before her husband pulled her way.

They escorted Tage to the car in tense silence, Tage’s thin, battered face taut, his expression brittle.

“You hungry?” Jackson asked after a few moments. Ellery started the car to begin the short drive to the DA’s office. Normally, they would have walked—it was barely half a mile—but something about having Tage exposed like that didn’t sit well with either of them.

“Yes,” Tage said promptly. “Like you said, I didn’t eat in there. I couldn’t sleep.”

Jackson had figured this might be the case. He reached into the console and pulled out a breakfast burrito from one of his favorite places; he’d had Ellery get it on the way to pick Tage up. He’d thought he and Ellery would have more time to question Officer Codromac about Mayer, but Codromac had been unavailable, they’d been told. Apparently he was locked in a room with Mayer, watching training videos and reading him the riot act, so Jackson had left his business card and promised to come back later. Disappointing, but the burrito was still warm, and Tage took it eagerly.

Jackson handed him back some napkins and a soda, which the boy put in the holder by the armrest, and let him eat as Ellery pulled into another miracle parking space in front of the office.

“This whole area looks like it was built with those big Duplo blocks little kids play with,” Jackson said musingly. None of the buildings were that tall, all of them were square, and most of them looked like you could stack them, one on top of the other, and build something taller but no more interesting.

“The seventies,” Ellery said with a shrug.

“Hunh.” Jackson turned around and saw Tage was still eating. “Ellery, you go on ahead. I’m going to wait until the kid’s finished, okay?” He paused. “I’m going to take a detour to Sodhi and Pasternak’s office.”

Eleanor Sodhi and Ethan Pasternak were in charge of prosecuting human trafficking cases, and Ellery’s eyebrows lifted.

“Just like that?” he asked. “Without me?”

Jackson shrugged. “I’ll ask questions, that’s all. You need to meet with Herrera. You can tell her what I’m