Jeannie Watt - Kids on the Doorstep / Cop on Loan - Kids on the Doorstep / Cop on Loan

He decided to keep them talking in the hopes that the food would distract them into divulging some details about their situation. “So, where you girls from?”

“Arizona,” Taylor answered, scooping the last of her beans onto her spoon with her fingers. She looked to him with her empty bowl, her small tongue snaking out to lick her lips. “Is there more?”

Alexis looked up from her bowl. “Don’t be a little piglet.”

Taylor shot Alexis a scowl. “I’m no piglet. But I’m still hungry.”

John smiled and took Taylor’s bowl. “There’s plenty more where that came from. I made extra this time around.”

He handed Taylor her refilled bowl and focused on Alexis who seemed intent on her supper yet John got the sense that she was covertly taking everything in.

“What’s your mom’s name?” he asked.

Alexis ignored John’s question and, noticing that Chloe had stopped eating, pushed her bowl away. “We’re tired. Can we go to bed now?”

“Chloe’s not finished with her supper,” he said.

Alexis squared her jaw but remained silent. He wondered what was going through her head.

Sighing, he decided this battle wasn’t worth fighting. He wasn’t going to get any answers tonight. He was looking into the face of a child who knew something about keeping secrets. He hated to think of what the kid was hiding from. “All right, no more questions. Bedtime.”

The ranch house was plenty big enough for three small, uninvited guests and an elderly companion but the house rarely had so many people milling around, not since he and Evan were kids and their mom had once rented the extra rooms out to help make ends meet.

He gave them each one of his T-shirts to sleep in and after they’d changed in the adjoining bathroom, they ran to the bed.

Alexis helped Chloe up and Taylor climbed up by herself.

“You need anything else?” he asked gruffly.

“Mister—”

“John,” he corrected Chloe.

“Mr. John, do you have a mommy here?”

“A mommy?”

Alexis clarified. “She means do you have a wife?”

He shook his head. “No. Just me and the horses.”

Taylor, who had already snuggled into the pillows, sat up with a gap-toothed grin. “Horses?”

“That’s right. This is a horse ranch. I’ve got about ten stabled right now. Why? You like horses?”

Taylor nodded. “Can I see them tomorrow?”

He didn’t want to make promises. The first order of tomorrow would be to call the authorities. “We’ll see.”

Clicking off the light, he closed the door but not before catching a glimpse of Alexis’s face turned to the window, an incredibly sad expression on her young profile.

He suspected that little girl felt responsible for her sisters but there was only so much a child could do. It wasn’t right. But it happens. That was something he knew well. He just hated seeing it because it dredged up a litany of feelings he’d buried a long time ago. Something about that little girl’s expression poked and prodded at the tender spot in his heart in the same way an animal did that everyone else would rather give up on than save.

And to be honest, he didn’t know how he felt about that but he suspected his quiet life was about to get noisy.

Chloe coughed, the sound worrying him. No matter what else happened tomorrow, at the very least he was taking that baby to the doctor.

RENEE DOLLING DROVE SLOWLY down the dirt driveway, glancing once again at the address she’d scratched on a piece of paper before leaving Arizona, and prayed that Jason’s great-aunt hadn’t moved in the ten-plus years since she’d last seen the old woman. From what she remembered, Gladys Stemming was a mouthy one although harmless. But then, Renee had only met her once and who knew what she was like now.

She’d come here as a last-ditch effort. She’d been to all the usual places Jason used to frequent in their neck of the woods in Arizona and had come up empty. Far as Renee knew, Gladys was Jason’s only living relative so it served to reason, he might’ve taken the kids there before he split. If they weren’t here…

Think positive. You’ve gotten this far, don’t give up now.

She went to the door and knocked, the absolute stillness of the countryside unnerving her. She knocked again, harder than the first time but the sound just echoed into the inky dark. She glanced around, noted the absence of a vehicle as well as any other sign of civilization and fought the wave of despair. She didn’t even know if this was where Gladys still lived. Okay. Focus. Look for some kind of sign that she does, Renee instructed herself so she didn’t dissolve into a puddle of frustrated tears. Walking across the short porch, she peered into a window and saw the lumps of furniture but nothing that might tell her who lived there.

She rubbed her arms briskly. She’d forgotten how cold it got here. Stomping her feet to keep the circulation moving, she caught the shadowed outline of the mailbox at the end of the driveway. Climbing into the car, she drove to the edge of the road and pulled open the mailbox to feel inside.

Bingo.

Pulling a stack of mail, she glanced at the address and nearly went weak with relief. Gladys Stemming. She still lived here. But even as she thumbed through the hefty stack her elation was short-lived. Apparently, it’d been at least a week since the mail was picked up, which could mean the old woman hadn’t been home for a while. Replacing the mail, she chewed her bottom lip. She’d have to come back tomorrow, maybe go into town and ask around. Somebody was bound to know where the old woman was and perhaps, if Gladys had them, her children.

Putting the car into drive, she looked down at the bedraggled and ugly stuffed rabbit that had belonged to Taylor. Renee had found it, abandoned, at their old house after she’d gotten out of rehab. That was four months ago. She’d been searching for him and the girls ever since. Renee didn’t much care where Jason went—heaven help him if she managed to get her hands around his neck for this latest stunt—but she needed her girls.

Tears pricked her eyes again but she sniffed them back. She was close. She could feel it.

A fresh flood of anger followed. Damn you, Jason. Where the hell have you taken my kids?

Renee reluctantly drove away, refusing to believe that her children were far, that Jason had taken them to a place where she’d never find them. She tried to ignore the guilt that rose to slap her in the face whenever she let herself remember that she was the first one to walk out on their children.

It wasn’t her proudest moment but hitting rock bottom usually isn’t. Admitting to herself she was an alcoholic trapped in a loveless marriage was a tough pill to swallow, and even as she was committed to sobriety the price had been pretty steep.

Ten long years of missteps and mistakes with Jason, a man who had less depth than a cartoon character. It was enough to make her want to hide in shame over every bad decision she and Jason had put their girls through but she’d vowed things would be different once she got out of rehab.

Only to find them gone. Renee imagined Jason made the decision to take off shortly after she told him she wanted a divorce. He’d known this was the best way to hurt her. And damn, he knew her well.

Every day without her girls felt like knives in her heart.

THE FOLLOWING MORNING just as he always did, John rose at 5:30 a.m. to start the day and for a split second, as he set the coffee to percolating and stoked the coals in the fireplace to a fresh blaze with kindling and a small piece of seasoned oak, he almost forgot that he wasn’t alone. But when a person had been a bachelor as long as John there were some things that didn’t slip your notice. Such as the prickling feeling at the back of your neck when you know someone is behind you, staring. He turned and found Taylor standing in the archway, scratching her leg with her toe, her eyes fixed on him.