Page 26 of Be Courageous

He didn’t want her stumbling onto Grayson’s dead body. “I understand.” Turning her back on the buffet, she headed for the exit.

Ten minutes later, with Charlotte driving and Fitz eyeing the map on his cell phone, they led their small convoy of unmarked vehicles toward the address supplied by Brian Sutton’s parole officer. It was just six miles from their hotel.

With the feeling that she was caught up in a dream, Faith sat in the center of the back seat so she could see, though her visibility was hampered by the mist hanging in the air. Clasping her cold hands together, she braced herself for the possibility of Grayson’s demise while clinging to the hope that they would find him still alive.

Charlotte could not be driving any faster as she sped them across the state border back into Virginia. Soon there was nothing around them but farmland and the occasional house. How odd that Grayson would be out here in the middle of nowhere.

All at once, Faith’s watchful gaze fell upon the silhouette of a man—no, it was a boy!—walking on the other side of the road. At their approach, he waved both arms as though to catch their attention. “Wait, is that…?”

Fitz and Charlotte saw him, too, turning their heads to glance his way, but they didn’t slow down.

Faith whipped around to peer out the back window. “That was Grayson!” Or was her hopeful mind just imagining things?

Fitz cast an incredulous glance back at her. “Are you sure?”

Charlotte took her word for it. Without waiting for permission, the dauntless redhead stabbed on her hazard lights, then her left turn signal, conveying her intent to the agents behind them. As they came to a crossing in the median, she slowed abruptly, sending the car into a squealing, 180-degree turn and prompting the two vehicles behind her to do likewise.

“Don’t hit him, please!” Faith was already taking off her seat belt.

“Stay in the car,” Fitz ordered, but she wasn’t going to obey him if it was Grayson she had really seen.

Eyes glued to the side of the road, she spotted him standing just inside a parking lot for a lone Dollar General, still closed on this early Saturday morning. “There he is!”

ItwasGrayson, hugging himself from the cold, looking forlorn and scared. Dizzying relief flooded Faith’s arteries. A sob of pure joy escaped her.

No sooner had Charlotte pulled into the parking lot behind him, followed by two more cars, than Faith shot out of the back door. “Grayson!”

He turned toward her, his expression of hopefulness morphing into a look of wonder. “Mom!”

She rushed at him, then gripped him fiercely, knowing right away that he’d not showered since leaving home. His hair was lank and musty smelling, but she inhaled his adolescent body odor as if it were the sweetest-smelling flower. And given the way he gripped her back, he felt the same way.

“Mom.” He burst into tears, fighting at the same time to control them.

“It’s okay. You’re safe now, honey. You’re safe.”

“I’m so sorry.”

Faith was aware that all six remaining FBI agents had gathered around them, including the SOGs and Seth, waiting to hear from Grayson what had happened.

“It’s not your fault, honey.” She stepped back just far enough to inspect him. His face was grubby, his sweatshirt stained with what looked like spaghetti sauce, but she saw no apparent injuries. Nor did she think now was the time to question him about his captor, but the expectant expressions on the lawmen’s faces told her they were itching to arrest someone.

Seth stepped forward first, as Grayson already knew him. “Son, where’s the man who took you, Brian Sutton? Did you escape from his home?”

Grayson stiffened perceptibly. His gaze darted back to his mother, and his face tightened the way it did whenever he told a lie. “I don’t know who you’re talking about.”

Seth grabbed Grayson’s forearm and held it up, displaying a ring of reddened skin around his wrists. “Where’s the man who tied you up, son?”

Faith gasped at the visual evidence that her baby had been forcibly restrained.

Grayson’s expression turned mulish. “I wasn’t tied up.”

“It’s okay, honey. You’re not in trouble. We know about Brian Sutton, how your father got him arrested and what happened to his son.”

“I ran away, okay?”

Grayson’s sudden outburst silenced them all.

“I ran away because I thought I hated my life. I thought I hated our new house and how Dad was gone and now Fitz is here.” He gestured at Fitz, who’d stepped closer to Faith at Grayson’s outburst. “But I was wrong. I just…I just want to go home. Please.” His face crumpled and tears filled his eyes.

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