“What?”

Nathan lifted a hand in the air. “Settle, it sounded like a simple pissing match to see who wore the bigger boots. Nothing you three didn’t do, I’m sure. He’s more upset about not being able to talk to Rachel. But he cares too much for her well-being to risk the phone call.”

“You told him she was in jail.”

Nathan looked directly in Jason’s eyes. “He already guessed.”

“Can you imagine what we would have done if someone put our mom in jail?” Glen asked.

Jason shook his head. “Yeah, but Owen’s smarter than we were.”

“Let’s hope so,” Trent said.

The women returned to the kitchen. All of them had been crying.

Jason felt his system short-circuiting. He could hardly handle one tear-filled woman. Three was way out of his wheelhouse.

Apparently with age came understanding. Nathan came to the rescue. “Do you all feel better now?”

The three of them looked at one another and offered silent nods, and then jumped in to finish fixing dinner.

“Have you spoken to your parents?” Mary asked Rachel during dinner.

She pushed the food around on her plate as she talked. “No. I’m not sure how to tell them I was in jail.”

“It really is unbelievable,” Monica said.

“I doubt any parent wants to hear their kid is in jail. Besides, they told me from the beginning that the Colemans weren’t going to blend into the background, regardless of where I lived.”

“What do you mean?” Glen asked.

Rachel didn’t hear the question.

“Rachel took the job with us to move closer to try and appease Owen’s grandparents and avoid a custody battle.”

Rachel glanced up and caught up on the conversation. “I didn’t realize how screwed up they’d be.”

Mary placed her hand over Rachel’s. “You tried to do the right thing.”

“Lotta good that did. I should have beelined to the border and learned Spanish.”

“What did Emily tell you about them?”

Rachel gave up on trying to eat and left her fork in her food. “She didn’t know them. TJ had told her that they were controlling parents that didn’t give him the opportunity to live. Which is why Em refused to tie him down. She saw how he fled when he had the chance, and didn’t want Owen to become dependent on him and then have him disappear.”

The phone in the house shot two short rings.

“Expecting anyone?” Glen asked Jason.

Jason shook his head and got up to answer it.

“Hello?”

“What is that?” Rachel asked.

“The gate at the entrance of the house,” Mary told her.

Jason glanced around the room, his gaze stopping at Rachel.

Her heart kicked hard in her chest.

“Come on in.”

Jason pressed a button on the phone before hanging it up.

“Who is it?” Glen asked.

“Local police.”

Rachel started to shake. Her breath caught high in her throat.

They walked to the door and watched while Jason opened it.

Mary stood at Rachel’s right, Monica to her left.

The squad car drove up, and two uniformed officers stepped out.

A radio squealed from one of their shoulders, their belts clicked as they approached. “Good evening.”

Rachel heard a chorus of polite hellos.

“Which one of you is Rachel Price?”

Did everyone just move closer to her, or was the universe sucking air from her lungs?

“What’s this about?” Jason asked.

The officer speaking introduced himself and kept scanning the lot of them. His eyes fell on her. “It appears Owen has run away,” he said without preamble.

If not for the women at her side, there was a strong possibility that Rachel would have fallen over.

“Run where?” she cried.

Both officers focused their gazes on her.

“We were hoping you might know.”

“Oh, God.” Owen!

“I don’t know where he went,” Ford told them. They stood in Ford’s home with the boy’s father at his side.

“But you knew he was leaving?” the police officer asked.

Rachel had a strong desire to shake the kid. He knew something he wasn’t telling them.

“He said he wasn’t going back to that place.”

“What place?” Rachel asked.

“The foster home. He had a fat lip,” Ford announced. “The kids there talk with their fists.”

Rachel squeezed her eyes closed. “Owen doesn’t fight.”

“Yeah, that’s why he had a fat lip.” Ford glared at the cops as if they were to blame. “If everyone just left him where he was, none of this would have happened.”

Rachel pushed the dread in her heart away and tried to focus. “Did he leave any clue as to where he went?”

Ford shuffled from foot to foot.

He knew something.

“Ford? He’s fifteen and it’s winter. Please. He might think he’s all tough, but we’re from California. It’s supposed to be in the teens tonight,” Rachel told him.

Jason placed an arm around her shoulders.

“He, a . . . he said something about the city.”

“New York?”

Ford shook his head. “Might be. He didn’t say much. Just that he could be there in a couple of hours.”

Rachel turned to Jason. “He could have taken the train.”

“And gone where, hon? The city might only be five miles long, but you know how vast it is.”

The thought of him alone in the city had her close to tears. “We have to look.”

Jason placed his hands on her face. “We’ll look.”

She nodded a couple of times.

“Is there anything else?” the officer asked.

“Yeah.” Ford removed a phone from his pocket. “I found Owen’s cell phone in my backpack.”

The police had given her hope that they’d be able to trace a call from his number the moment he used it. Now that hope was gone.

Rachel took it from Ford’s fingertips and started to scan his recent texts. Many were back and forth from his friends, and a few were from Nathan. She scanned through recent calls while the officers questioned Ford.

She opened his pictures to see if maybe he’d taken a selfie at the home he was in. Anything to give her a clue. The first thing she saw was an image of Owen’s bruised face. She pressed the triangle to see the video he’d taken.

Hey, Rachel. Owen’s voice caught her throat with emotion. The room went silent, and everyone turned to her. Jason placed his hand under hers when she started to shake. I know you’re gonna be pissed and worried. I’m sorry for that. But I can’t go back to that place. And I’m not living with the hag and her sidekick. And if my dad is behind all of this, well, fuck him. This wasn’t right. Once all the adults start acting like adults, I’ll be back. And if they can’t . . . well, my mom didn’t raise a fool. I love you.

The screen stilled.

“Was that Owen?” one of the officers asked.

She nodded and turned the phone his way and watched the video again.

“Does any of that mean anything to you?”

“The hag is how he refers to his grandmother, the sidekick is the grandfather.”

Jason glanced at the officer. “Needless to say, he isn’t interested in living with them.”