Page 99 of Broken Warrior
“We’re sisters.” I shrug. “What did you expect?”
“This is true.”
“You and Jackal sound alike sometimes.”
“I didn’t mean your voice, Tate.” Fin chuckles.
“Neither did I.” I grin as he frowns. “You say some of the same phrases, that’s all.”
“Now that you’ve thoroughly insulted me before the sun came up, have you seen my wallet?”
I shake my head. “You gonna put a shirt on before you walk out of this house?”
“Yes…”
“Good. I’ll go look for your wallet in the other room while you look for a shirt.” I head for the bedroom door. “I don’t want anyone at the gym seeing my man in all his half naked, chest hair glory.”
Fin laughs as I walk out of the room, a smile on my face because this really is perfect. I love having him here. He completes our little family and it makes me happy.Finmakes me happy.
Except when he loses his wallet.
I search the kitchen and the dining room. I look through the coat closet, all over the living room. It’s not in the couch or under the coffee table. Fin’s wallet isn’t in the hall bathroom or on the patio. For someone who is a little OCD and struggles with anxiety, my boyfriend loses everything, but I’m sure that’s more because he’s a bit of a slob by nature. His brain runs too fast to focus on what he’s doing and it won’t hold onto mundane or mindless things—like where he puts his wallet—because those little gray cells categorize it asunimportant.Which means I’m forever looking for his keys or wallet.
Frowning because the stupid flap of leather is still missing, I stop outside James’s room.
They played together all day yesterday.
Fin and James built at least three quarters of his stockpile of Lego sets and I saw most of them when I checked on my son after I got home. If they spent the day in James’s room there’s a pretty good chance Fin’s wallet is in there somewhere.
There’s also a pretty good chance that once I go in and start looking for it, my baby boy will wake up and insist on staying up because we’re both awake.
And that means no bath and reading for Mama.
But find my boyfriend’s wallet I must, so I carefully grip the knob on his door, turn as quietly as possible, then step inside.
Only to have my heart drop to my toes when I look at my son’s bed.
It’s a rumpled mess of stuffed animals and blankets, his pillows are on the floor like usual, but there’s one major difference between this morning and every other one.
His bed isempty.
James isn’t in his bed.
He’s not under the Star Wars blanket Dori gave him, his Yoda slippers are still under the bed and,oh no… “James?” I rush toward Spider, the stuffy from Fin that he never goes anywhere without, scoop it up and start searching. “James? Baby?” I look under the bed, in the closet, and in the toy box. I even pull out his dresser and check behind that. “Theodore James Covington, this isn’t funny. You come out here right now before you end up in big trouble.”
Hope.
That halfhearted threat was made out of hope because the stone sitting in my stomach is telling me that my son isn’t hiding. I know he’s not. James and I never played hide and seek because we did very real, very scary drills so he knew what to do if he needed to get somewhere safe. If he needed to really hide because something happened to me.
James doesn’t play like this.
“Baby? Where are you?” Tears roll down my cheeks as I rip apart my son’s bedroom, furiously going through every inch until a voice comes from behind me.
“Tate?” I spin to see Fin standing there, a t-shirt in his hand and a confused look on his face. “M’eudail,what are you doing?”
“He’s gone,” I choke out. “James, I can’t… I can’t find him.”
Immediately, Fin charges into the room, scans the mess I’ve made, then sees something I missed. He moves across the room quicker than I can track, grabs the sill and jumps out theopenwindow.
