warm house and wondered what the hell to do. He wasn’t qualified for this. He wasn’t—
Stopping himself in mid-thought, he once again pulled out his phone and dialed the number of the person who was qualified for this…the person who had single-handedly raised him and his three siblings over the past sixteen years.
His dad answered on the third ring. “Will? You okay?”
Will had never been so glad to hear his dad’s deep baritone voice. “Yeah. Sorry, Dad. I didn’t know who else to call.”
“It’s not even four a.m. You’d better be in the back of a damn ambulance.”
Will had forgotten about the time. Even though it was an hour later in Chicago where his dad lived, it was still a godforsaken time of the morning to get a call like this.
“I’m sorry, Dad,” he said again, running a hand through his hair. “I just got home from this party and—”
“Have you been drinking?”
“I—what? Jesus, Dad. Yeah, I was drinking. It was a party. It isn’t like I drove home, and—” He stopped himself and shook his head. “That isn’t important. What’s important is that I got home and found this kid on my front porch.”
All grogginess faded from his dad’s voice. “A kid?”
“Yeah. She’s young and alone and freezing to damn death. She won’t talk to me and tell me what’s wrong.”
“Did you call the police?”
“I…well, no. I called you.”
“Use your head, son. You need to get her inside and call the police.”
Will cast a wary glance at the little girl. She stared at him with solemn, shadowed eyes. “She doesn’t seem to want to budge.”
“What’s the temp right now?”
“I don’t know. Somewhere around forty maybe?”
“Christ. Get her inside. You’re capable of picking up a little girl if she doesn’t want to move.”
Will edged closer to the girl, who watched him with as much suspicion as he felt. “What if she starts screaming or something?”
“Get that child in the house right now, William Patrick Campbell.”
Will ground his teeth in annoyance. He kept the line open and stuffed the phone in his coat pocket. Somehow, knowing his dad was on the other end of the line gave him the courage to approach the child.
“I’m going to bring you inside, okay?” he told her, keeping his voice calm. “It’s too cold out here for you. Then we’ll figure out where your parents are.”
She didn’t respond. He decided to do it quickly, like ripping off a bandage. In one swift move, he swept her out of the chair, keeping her in the tight ball she seemed to want to be in, and took five long strides until they were both standing in his tiled foyer. He kicked the door closed behind them and, having no better place to put her, set her right on the entry floor. He immediately pulled the phone back out of his pocket.
The smell of urine hit him as he stood back up. He glanced down at his suede coat and saw a wide damp spot.
“Son of a bitch!”
“Hey,” came his dad’s sharply toned voice through the phone’s earpiece. “Don’t be cursing like that in front of a child.”
Will brought the phone all the way to his ear. “I think she peed on herself. It got all over my Berluti.”
“Serves you right for spending five grand on a damn jacket,” his dad rejoined. “Since it’s already ruined, you should put it on her. Sounds like she needs to warm up.”
To hell with that, Will thought. His jacket could probably be saved by the right dry cleaner. No sense making it worse.
He stepped over to the hall closet a few feet away, reached in, and pulled out one of his thick cotton workout hoodies. He hurried back to the little girl. When she met his gaze this time, he staggered to a halt.
In the light, her gray-blue eyes looked eerily familiar.
“Did you get the coat on her?” his dad asked through the phone still pressed to his ear.
“Um, yeah,” he said, shaking off the odd feeling. “Doing that now.”
He bent down and draped the hoodie around the girl’s shoulders. As he awkwardly tried to pull it closed over her chest, he heard a rustling sound from beneath her tattered sweater. The corner of a baggie holding a piece of paper stuck out from between two buttons.
“There’s some kind of protected paper under her sweater,” he told his dad. “It looks like a note.”
“A note? What does it say?”
Will frowned and again met the girl’s gaze. “I’m going to get this