Page 42 of Flashback

No matter how much he tried, for the life of him he couldn’t understand how a mother could allow her own child to be harmed.

Thank goodness for strong women like Allie.

I don’t know what You have in store for her, Lord, but I’d like to be worthy of a woman like that. I know I’m not there yet. But with Your help, I could be. I could be Your guy.

He punched the buttons and grabbed the sports drinks that dropped down. After finding some chips and protein bars, he brought them back to the others.

“Any word on Jen?” he asked quietly by Allie’s ear.

“Nothing yet.”

But soon after chowing down on the snacks, the doctor came by to give a report that Jen was going to be okay. She wanted to see the boys, but they needed to clean her up and run another scan first.

Happy for the chance to see his mom soon, Nolan crawled into Allie’s lap with a picture book from one of the tables and asked her to read it. Ethan’s thin shoulders finally rested against the back of his chair as the doctor left.

“Your mom’s gonna be okay. We’ll stay with you until we know you’re safe. Okay?” For some reason Dakota wanted to reiterate that.

Ethan nodded. He was a strong kid. Probably because he had to be. And now that he didn’t have to worry about his mother, this might be a good time to get some answers. The cops would be here any moment. He could protect the boys best if he knew what they were dealing with.

Dakota pulled out the paper with Kurt Paulson’s picture and caught Allie’s eye before she started reading. She gave him a slight nod yes.

“Hey, Ethan, can I show you something? I was wondering if you could help me out.”

“Help how?”

He showed Ethan the picture. “When you talked about the scary man you said you saw in the forest, was he with this man?”

The boy’s eyes grew wide. “Yeah! That’s the one the scary man shot!”

The older woman sitting next to her husband by the wall perked up at Ethan’s loud voice.

Great. Busybodies. Dakota lowered his voice. “Are you sure?”

Ethan nodded emphatically. “The tall ponytail guy?—he has a tattoo of a gun and flag going up his arm—he was yelling at that man in the picture. When he walked away, he shot him in the back. This guy fell, and then the man shot him again.”

Dakota’s gut clenched. So it had been the murder they’d witnessed. The woman listening leaned in, probably hearing every single word. Allie paused in her reading and shared a look of concern. She turned the page and kept Nolan occupied.

Dakota looked back at the older boy. “What happened then?”

“We ran away. We…we tried to tell my mom, but she already had stuff going on. And I wasn’t technically supposed to be off the trail.” Ethan’s brows dipped in worry. “Are we in trouble?”

Not if Dakota had anything to say about it. This kid was a victim, not a troublemaker. “No, you’re not in trouble, bud. But we’re going to have to talk to the sheriff so he knows. They’re trying to find the man who shot him.” He nodded toward the photo. “You could be a big help in solving this case. But we also want to make sure you and your brother stay safe. Did the tattooed guy see you?”

“I don’t know. He yelled like he saw us, but we were pretty far away and uphill. And we ran fast.”

“What are you doing with those boys?” Ray’s yell cut across the room.

Dakota glanced across the waiting area and saw the boys’ stepfather at the entrance of the hospital. He stumbled in on his unlaced work boots, drips of something on his dirty T-shirt, and ran right into a chair. He swung a heavy arm and shoved the chair out of his way. The older couple sitting on the other side of the room watched, mouths agape.

Dakota jumped to his feet to put himself between Ray and the boys, but he didn’t move forward. He needed to be the clear-headed one here and defuse the situation.

“Ray, calm down. We’re just keeping an eye on them while Jen is being treated.”

“We don’t need any help from you.” The bald man lumbered forward. Even with twenty feet between them, Dakota could smell the cigarette smoke and alcohol. Great. He was a belligerent drunk.

The older woman in the loud purple-and-green shirt stood and approached Ray. “Now, Raymond, you’re in no shape to?—”

“Shut up, Betty. No one asked you. You’re a mean old gossip, and no one cares what you say.”

---