Page 101 of Silver Linings

“Nothing suspicious?”

“Not according to the report. They held a private ceremony for him, but the local papers all published his obituary and his parents made a big donation to the local elementary school in his honor. They certainly weren’t trying to keep it quiet.”

“Okay, I’ll let Lily know.”

“How’s she holding up?” Hawk asked.

Before Gunner could respond, his phone buzzed in his pocket.

“She must have known we were talking about her,” he answered the call. “Hey, beautiful. I was just?—”

“Gunner, I need you to come home.” The tears in Lily’s voice had him standing up, waiting to run if she needed him to.

“What’s going on? Are you crying?”

“Someone called child services. I let the woman up because she had two sheriff’s deputies with her, but she’s saying that Sage needs to go to a foster family because someone said I was neglecting her,” she cried. “Please come home. They can’t take her, Gunner.”

A growl tore from his throat as he stalked out of the conference room.

“Whoa, what’s going on?” Hawk placed his hand on Gunner’s shoulder.

“I’m coming, Lily. Don’t let them leave. I’ll be there in one minute.”

Gunner ended the call and turned for the front door, but Hawk’s hand, still squeezing down on his shoulder, stopped him.

“Reap. What the hell is going on?”

“Someone called child services on us. Lily let them into the apartment because they had deputies with them. Said they’re upstairs right now, telling her Sage has to go into foster care.”

“What the fuck? I’ll call my lawyers and see what can be done.” Sebastian moved back towards the conference room.

“Thanks, Cap.”

“You want us to come up with you?”

“No. Stay here. I’ll let you know if I need backup.”

Gunner took off running. There certainly was an advantage to living above the place where he worked, and he wasted no time running up the stairs instead of taking the elevator. If they thought for one minute that Sage was leaving with them, he was about to be arrested.

Jogging into the hallway, Gunner made a beeline for the apartment door, which was wide open.

“Lil?”

“In here.” Her voice sounded thick with emotions and he could tell the tears didn’t stop when he ended their call.

Rounding the corner to their bedroom, Gunner stopped when the blood began pounding in his ears. Lily was sitting on their bed, Sage in a wrap on her chest, as two deputies tore through all of Sage’s things.

“Someone better produce a search warrant right now,” Gunner growled.

“No need for a warrant, sir. Mrs. Brooks agreed to let us look.”

“While she may have agreed to that, I am sure she did not agree to you tearing apart our home. I want your names and your badge numbers. You can bet I’ll be speaking to Sheriff Porter myself about the actions you’ve taken here today.”

“Gunner…”

“No, Lily. This is so fucked up on so many levels. I want to see your identification right now. Same goes for you.” Gunner pointed to the woman in the room’s corner, apparently texting furiously on her phone.

“Mr. Brooks,” she said in a soothing voice. “These deputies are here to ensure a smooth handover of the child to me. We will place her with a foster family until we can substantiate the claims made against Mrs. Brooks.”

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