Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
ANITA
I was in the gym doing my leg workout when the music I was listening to suddenly shut off.
"What the…?"
Sloane cut me off. "You said you wanted background information on Krista, right?"
I set the dumbbells back on the shelf. "Yeah. What do you have for me?"
"Krista Ann Smith. Thirteen years old. Mother died six months before she was taken.
No father listed on the birth certificate.
Straight A's in school up until her mother died, then everything went to shit.
Attendance became an issue. Grades became an issue.
Behaviors became an issue. She was bounced between foster homes because the families that took her in complained she was too troubled. "
I knew all about that. It was like getting a glimpse into Nova's past. She’d had the same issue before my mother was granted permission to become a foster parent and took Nova in.
My mother was a single parent, and the system frowned upon that when it came to fostering.
Thankfully one of the child advocates understood what Nova needed and pushed to get my mother approved.
After that, Nova never had problems again.
"I thought you would find this interesting though." Sloane pulled me from my thoughts and handed me the tablet. I focused on the part she highlighted.
"Wait, she's from the same hometown as Nova and me?"
"Yup." Sloane popped the P. "A little strange if you ask me, considering the population of your hometown is like five hundred people."
"More like five thousand but I get what you mean. It's a small town."
"And apparently a small world."
Yeah, I'm not sure why that sat with me the wrong way. There was no reason for it to. It was merely a coincidence.
As I handed the tablet back to Sloane, it let out a blaring horn.
"What the hell is that?"
Sloane frowned. "I set up special alerts for Krista. I didn't want to miss anything, so I made it as obnoxious as possible."
The noise sure was that. "Okay, so what's happening with her?"
I knew it was bad just by the look on Sloane's face. "Mary just contacted Hawk. Krista's missing."
Shit! Had I known about her background before this, I could've expected this would happen. "Grab the rest of the team. We're headed to North Carolina. I want boots on the ground there while we look for her."
I should never have left her there. I should've known by the look she gave me she would do something like this.
It was the same look Nova had every time she was dropped off at a new foster home.
She hadn't liked being left there either.
I needed to do the same thing for Krista that my mother did for Nova.
Find the one place she felt safe and make sure that was where she stayed.
We were in the air less than an hour later.
"Tell me Hawk has good news for us?"
"Nothing yet but I'm sure they will have something soon. She's a thirteen-year-old girl. She can't escape Hawk forever."
I thought the same about Mason, but somehow he managed to do it for seven years. My team knew what it meant to live off the grid, and that shit wasn't easy.
"What did Mary say when you talked to her?" Nyx had taken point on that, so I directed the question to her.
"She was both upset and concerned. She's blaming herself for not seeing the signs earlier. She was trying to give Krista space because she thought that's what she needed, and then this happened."
It wasn't Mary's fault. It was rare she took on anyone under the age of eighteen. Not from our team anyway. What else she did for Hawk was between the two of them, but I was under the impression it was usually adults.
"We'll find her," Sloane assured me. "Hawk's made Krista a priority, so all other assignments are on hold, but they think it won't take long."
"I forgot to say it earlier, but thank you for setting up those alerts. I know it's not custom for us to keep tabs on our assignments after we've completed them."
"I should actually be apologizing for that. I gave you shit for it, and that was a lousy thing for me to do."
"It all worked out in the end." I was going to focus on that. After the blowup we’d had, we were mending fences, and I wasn't about to jeopardize that by being a bitch or saying “I told you so.” My team was right. We needed to work together.
We were descending into a small airport about thirty minutes away from Mary's house when Hawk had something to report.
"CCTV footage caught Krista at a bus station five minutes ago. She bought a ticket for a northbound bus that leaves in forty-five minutes. It's going to be cutting it close, but Hawk's going to find a way to stall the bus from leaving."
"Where did she get the money for a bus ticket?" Krista had nothing when we dropped her off with Mary, and although Hawk would've ensured Krista had the necessities, I doubted cash was part of the deal.
"We could always ask her once we get there?" Nyx shrugged like it was no big deal, and maybe it wasn't. But I didn't want to think about Krista stealing from someone to get away.
The forty-five minutes dragged on. First, the runway was too long.
It actually wasn't, but it felt like it.
Then I would swear every driver on the road in front of us was doing the speed limit or under.
Several times, I considered asking Nyx to run different cars off the road.
I bit my tongue instead. My team wanted to get to Krista as fast as I did, so my commentary was unnecessary.
"How's Hawk doing with stalling the bus?" I turned around and asked Sloane.
We were still five minutes out, and the bus was scheduled to leave already.
"Bought us fifteen minutes, but we need to hurry. The bus company isn't going to give us much more than that before they call the cops and tell them they have a runaway on board."
The last thing we wanted was the cops involved.
Thankfully the bus was still parked in its designated spot when we pulled up. No cops in sight. But there was one very irritated bus driver standing next to the open bus door when I approached.
"You Anita?"
"I am." I sized up the grizzly old man. He was just shy of six feet with a potbelly and greasy hair.
"Good. I'd appreciate it if you got your kid off my bus so I could get going. You're making me late, and that's going to throw my whole day off."
I kept calm despite my first reaction being to tell him he could shove his schedule up his ass.
"I'll grab her now so you can be on your way."
I stepped onto the bus and scanned the seats. It didn't take me long to locate Krista about halfway back. She was doing everything she could to make herself small to go unnoticed.
I walked straight up to her and brushed my hand down her arm. "Come on."
Krista didn't fight me. She picked up her small bag and stepped out into the aisle. With shoulders hunched forward, she walked ahead of me and straight off the bus.
"I appreciate you waiting." I gave the driver a chin lift and walked away with Krista by my side.
"Am I in trouble?" Krista asked as soon as we joined the rest of my team.
"Why did you run away, and where were you headed?"
Krista stared at the ground and kicked a pebble around with her shoe. "I wanted to be with you."
Her confession was a kick to my stomach. Why the hell would this amazing thirteen-year-old want to be with me? A woman who barely had her life figured out and was one step away from pissing off her own teammates at any given moment.
"You have to know the life we live isn't exactly conducive to raising a child." I didn't want to tell her too much in fear that I would freak her out, but she had to know we weren't good people. Not by society's standards.
She looked up at me through her lashes. "I know, but I've never fit in anywhere else. You're the first person I've felt comfortable around in a really long time."
Well, hell. If that didn't tug on my cold heart, I didn't know what would. I looked at each of my teammates. For what? I didn't know. Help maybe? Reassurance that sending her back to Mary was the right thing to do?
I didn't find that though. Each one of them was looking at Krista with love. I knew right then and there what they would say even though no words were exchanged, but it was Sloane who gave me the go-ahead.
I let out a slow exhale. "Okay."
Krista's head shot up. Hope shining in her eyes.
"You can come with us but on a trial basis. I'm not promising anything," I quickly added when it seemed like Krista was about to jump into my arms. Physical touch wasn't something I was known for.
"I promise you won't regret it."
Yeah, I wasn't so sure about that. I didn't know the first thing about raising a teenager. But maybe I could be for Krista what my mother was for Nova. Or maybe I would fuck this girl up, and she would hate me for the rest of my life.
It was a tossup which way it would go. I just hoped like hell I didn't just make the biggest mistake of my life. We were meant to save Krista, not destroy her.