Page 79 of Things We Hide from the Light
“Keep the dog,” I said, tossing Piper’s leash to Nolan and following her inside.
My blood was still pumping, focus still narrowed. In the middle of the gray living room carpet was a man—no, a boy—curled on his side, hands covering his ears as he rocked and howled with a pain only he could feel. Next to him were the splintered remains of a toy brick castle.
“The cops? Really, Xan?” A woman bearing a striking resemblance to Xandra knelt just out of range of the violent kicks from the boy’s long, gangly legs.
“Very funny,” Xandra said dryly. “I’ll get the blinds.”
“Can I do anything?” I asked cautiously as Xandra quietly closed the curtains on the front windows.
“Not yet,” Xandra’s sister said over her son’s plaintive screams. “We have a doctor’s appointment in an hour. His headphones are charging.”
I stood inside the door feeling helpless while the two women worked in tandem to make the room darker, quieter. A protocol, I realized.
The wails soon quieted and the boy’s mother slid a weighted kind of cape over his shoulders.
Before long, he sat up. He was tall for his age, with dark skin and the spindly limbs of early puberty.
He glanced at the ruined castle and let out a low moan.
“I know, buddy,” his mother said, carefully sliding an arm around his shoulders. “It’s okay. We’ll fix it.”
“Amy, this is Chief Morgan,” Xandra said. “Chief, this is my sister Amy and my nephew Alex.”
“Chief,” Amy said as she rocked Alex in her arms.
“Hi. I just came by to thank Xandra for…”
“Saving your life?” she prompted with a small smile.
“Yeah. That.”
“Sorry for the disturbance,” she said, accepting the book Xandra handed to her.
“No apologies necessary.”
“And you were worried how well your first interaction with the cops would go,” Xandra teased her sister.
Amy’s lips quirked again before she pressed a kiss to the top of her son’s head and began to read.
“That’s another strategy. Laugh even when things aren’t funny,” Xandra said, handing me a fabric tote.
With Alex shooting looks of concern in my direction, I did my job and helped restore order, brick by brick.
When the room was clean and the story was over, I nodded to Amy and followed Xandra to the door. Alex got to his feet and slowly crossed to us. He was tall and broad-shouldered, and the grip of his hand on my arm was strong. But there was a sweet, little-boy smile on his face as he looked at my chest.
“He doesn’t believe in personal space,” Xandra warned in amusement.
Alex reached out and traced a finger over my badge, point to point to point. After he’d traced the star twice, he nodded and released me.
“Nice to meet you too, Alex,” I told him softly.
With my arms full,I gave the door two light kicks and waited.
It opened seconds later and everything in me went warm when I saw her. Lina wore leggings in a dark purple. Her sweater was a fleecy ivory that stopped an inch above the waist of her pants. A wide tie-dye headband held her hair back. She was barefoot.
“Evenin’,” I said, strolling across the threshold and dropping a kiss on her cheek. Piper followed me in and made a beeline for the couch.
“Well, hello. Uh, what’s all this?” she asked, closing the door behind me.
