Found and Lost by Amanda G. Stevens Read Free Book Online Page B

sign here for your new bundle of joy. What he really needed was a stork suit.
    The man took the carrier, took the child, and a strange twinge passed through Clay’s chest. He was transferring guardianship of a child from one home to another as if he knew where this child belonged.
    The man set the carrier onto the mudroom floor. Clay handed him the base and diaper bag, and he set them down inside as well. He leaned down to cup Elliott’s soft shoe in his hand, then turned back to Clay and smiled, ignoring a moth that fluttered past his head into the house.
    â€œWe’re on schedule, leaving tomorrow morning around six. No one will ever know he was here.”
    Clay scrambled to decipher the subtext that, as Marcus, he should clearly know. Leaving tomorrow … a stack of boxes in the garage … Clay peered over the man’s shoulder as surreptitiously as he could. The mudroom was empty. Not even a rack of coat pegs hung from the walls.
    They’re moving. And taking this child with them.
    Before the pause could loiter, Clay smiled. “Perfect.”
    â€œThank you for everything you’ve done. We’re so happy to give him a home.”
    What would Marcus say? A question Clay never expected to ask himself. “I know you’ll take care of him.”
    â€œWe surely will, sir. Thank you.”
    Clay nodded. Escape now. Before his ignorance exposed itself and destroyed this entire operation. “Good luck.”
    A nod, a smile, and at last a closed door. Clay dashed the several steps to the Jeep and fled. No more of this. Pretending to be someone else, wrenching kids from place to place like some omnipotent social worker. That baby’s father might still be searching. No, surely Marcus had attempted to find him. A vague queasiness knotted Clay’s stomach. What he’d just done …
    In the rearview mirror, green lights rotated.
    Run.
    As if there was any point. But he had to try. The Constabulary squad car gained fast, rode his bumper, and … passed him. It rocketed down the road. Cars ahead had already pulled over. Clay’s hand slipped on the wheel as he jerked the Jeep to the gravel shoulder.
    â€œWhat was that, God? A warning? Or are You just cracking up from Your heavenly throne right now?” He leaned back against the headrest and swallowed hard. The air in the Jeep suddenly tasted sour. “Okay, whatever it was, I got the message.”

7
    Khloe leaned across the Jeep’s backseat to whisper in Violet’s ear. “I seriously owe you.”
    Violet shrugged. Her stomach was balled so tightly, she could barely sit up straight. She felt like Jekyll and Hyde. Her Jekyll half wanted to march into this terrorist church and text the address to the Constabulary. Her Hyde half wanted to confess to the Hansens. Or maybe dash off into the night.
    Clay parallel-parked on the left side of the street and turned off the ignition. Silence seized them all, him and Natalia in the front seat, Violet and Khloe in the back.
    â€œOkay,” he said. “Everybody out.”
    Violet hopped down to the blacktop and held back as she shut her door, but the noise still sounded too loud. She jumped as Khloe’s door slammed.
    â€œOops,” Khloe whispered.
    â€œShh!” That was Natalia.
    They followed Clay single file across the empty street, over to the next block. Violet brought up the rear of their stiff and silent parade. Unseen traffic passed a few streets over, a muted whir, normal people driving to and from legal destinations. Violet glanced back in the direction of the main road, just in time to glimpse a white flicker in the clouds above the horizon. Then another. No thunder, though.
    Khloe appeared at her side. “Heat lightning.”
    â€œThe air got cooler on the way here,” Violet said. “Maybe it’s a storm.”
    â€œNah, just looks like one.”
    Ahead of them, Natalia beckoned with a quick, taut motion. They jogged a