Page 4 of Complicated Past

If she remembered correctly, that was Bri’s grandmother. How old would that make Jalen’sgreat-grandmother? She’d pull up Bri’s file and verify that. Also listed was Linc Porter’snumber. The soldier who’d gotten his sister into rehab after her arrest.

Kendra hadn’t seen him since they’d met when he’d been at Bri’s when she came to do the home inspection. However, Bri had brought Linc up. Usually, complaining about him acting like an overprotective dictator. Kendra understood he cared about Bri staying clean and out of trouble, probably so he didn’t have to keep coming to her rescue, but she’d rather not have to deal with the alpha soldier. He likely felt the same after what happened before.

“Do you have a booster seat?” Rachel asked.

“I do.” One of the job’s requirements, even if she didn’t have kids of her own—yet.

“Jalen, it’s okay to go with Miss Andrews.”

He settled onto the booster seat, and Kendra fastened him in. The older Jalen got, the more he resembled his uncle. Same brown eyes and soft brown skin color. Similar facial features, though she didn’t know if Linc had a dimple. Jalen’s smile was all Bri’s.

“I hungry,” Jalen said.

“Me too. Would you like chicken nuggets or a hamburger?”

“Chicken nuggets and French fries.” His face brightened.

Perfect. She knew where they could eat, and he could go to the play area to buy her more time to reach Bri, her grandmother, or her brother to avoid entering Jalen into the system.

“We’ll see you tomorrow,” Rachel said.

Hopefully.Kendra closed the car door. “If you hear back from anyone, have them call my cell. I’ll take Jalen to my office and try to reach them again before I find a respite care placement.”

THREE

Linc powered his cell phone on when the C-17 touched down. Taking the military transport beat waiting for a commercial flight and making connections to Fort Liberty, but it wasn’t set up for comfort. There was no inflight food service, internet, charger ports, or entertainment for him or the other two passengers bumming rides back to the States.

He’d stretched out the best he could and maybe dozed off for an hour or two. Not enough. Nervous energy flowed through his body like touching a low-grade electric current as he took his phone off airplane mode. Immediately, it pinged with voicemail notifications. He’d be pissed if he’d bagged out on his team and flown across the ocean, only to land and hear everything was fine. Still, he’d happily take that over finding that Bri had relapsed, or worse, overdosed and was in a hospital or morgue. He’d run through all the worst-case scenarios, hoping to prevent them from coming true.

He hit play without checking the call record. Instead of Bri’s voice, he listened to the director of Jalen’s daycare program telling him that Mrs. Feldman hadn’t picked up Jalen from school.

His pulse picked up—not in a good way. He tamped down his personal feelings about Regina Feldman.

It made sense that Bri would ask her grandmother to help with Jalen, especially with Linc deployed. But where would Bri have gone that she wouldn’t take Jalen with her? If she’d gone to Atlanta to see her oldfriends, she’d have dropped Jalen off at Regina’s. God, he hoped Bri hadn’t fallen back in with the crowd she’d run with there.

The next message, also from Rachel at the daycare, said she’d have to contact the Department of Social Services if no one came for Jalen in the next half hour.Crap. She’d left that message close to two hours ago. He skipped to the last message and stood as soon as the huge aircraft came to a stop.

“Mr. Porter, this is Kendra Andrews with DSS. I’m your sister’s case worker.” Like he’d forget her? “I picked up Jalen from the daycare and am taking him to dinner. If you get this message, please call me as soon as possible. I?—”

He hit the callback button without listening to the rest of the message. “This is Linc Porter,” he started before she’d finished saying hello.

“Uncle Linc!” Jalen called out his name over the speaker phone.

Thank goodness she still had Jalen with her. It sounded like they were in a car. “Hey there, J-man. You okay?”

“I want Mommy.”

Linc wanted Bri too. “How about I come get you?”

“O-kay.”

“Where can I meet you, Ms. Andrews?”

“I was headed to my office?—”

“Let’s meet at Bri’s apartment instead. I can stay there with Jalen.” While he figured out where Regina was. And why Bri had left. And where she’d gone. So many questions he needed answers to.

Kendra paused before speaking. “That’ll work.”

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