“I don’t know, sweetheart.” Her thumbs smoothed over his damp cheeks. “But I’m going to make sure he never hurts anyone ever again.”
“How?”
Blow him to smithereens. Tear his head off. Hang him by his nuts—
“The how is not for you to worry about, young man,” Regina said in her most hoity-toity voice. “All you need to know is that your brave, smart mama will always win the battle against evil people.”
His grandmother’s outlandish prediction seemed to be what Brodie needed. The fear clutching his sweet face faded, though his next question revealed his need for things to return to normal. “Can we go home?”
She lifted her head to speak to her mother. “Anything from Callie?”
“Not yet. I left her a message to call me.”
A new misery wrapped around Liv’s chest. She couldn’t expose him to another bombshell today. Until her sister sent word that his room was ready, she had to keep him away from the house.
Looking into Brodie’s hopeful eyes, her mind blanked on how to tell her distraught son he couldn’t go home.
“Mom, would you mind if we imposed on your hospitality awhile longer?”
“Absolutely. You’re both welcome anytime.”
“I have a better idea,” a newcomer said.
Zeke filled the doorway, and Liv had to force herself not to move, not to run blubbering into his arms. The same gale of emotion whirling inside her was evident in his beautiful brown eyes. Fear, fury, helplessness, joy, and. . .
“Let me be clear. I love you, Special Agent Olivia Westcott.”
The echo of his declaration was like a warm waterfall washing over her. She wanted to stand beneath it for hours, days, years. All of their years.
A small bundle of energy bounced up and down before him. No doubt the weight of Zeke’s hands on the girl’s shoulders was the only thing keeping her in place.
Sadie Rios, with a smile as big as the sun, waved at Brodie.
“How about you and Sadie take a trip to the water park?” Zeke suggested, then looked at Liv. “If it’s okay with your mom.”
“They have eleven slides and a game room,” Sadie added, excitedly.
Interest sparked in Brodie’s eyes, though he didn’t move from her side. “Can we go, Mama?”
“Your mother isn’t going anywhere,” Regina said. “She needs to rest.”
Liv didn’t want to disappoint her son, but she couldn’t fathom letting him out of her sight at the moment. Regina was right, though. The last thing she should do right now was go to a noisy, manic water park.
Zeke said, “My mom and your aunt have agreed to escort them.”
An army vet and an active police detective. A mother couldn’t ask for better guards. She recalled the torn picture of her and Brodie screaming their way down a water slide. The joy on his face.
“We even brought you a pair of swim trunks and a beach towel,” Sadie said. “Hope you don’t mind Marvel. The store didn’t have any DC towels.”
“I like Marvel,” Brodie said, his arms slipping free of Liv’s waist.
No matter how much it pained her to be parted from him, Liv couldn’t deny her son an afternoon of escape. She bent to kiss his head, lingering there for a few seconds to drink in his familiar scent, praying she wasn’t making a horrible mistake.
Decision made, she lifted her head and met Brodie’s hopeful gaze. “Do you promise to listen to Mrs. Blackwell and Aunt Belinda?”
“Yes, Mama.”
“No hiding from the adults.”