Page 66 of Loco

She nodded gratefully and took Kaida’s hand again. “Come on, you two.” She guided them toward the living room. “Let’s find the crayons.”

I heard the rustle of paper and the excited shuffle of feet as she pulled out the coloring books. Kairo’s little voice carried down the hall, asking for the dinosaur pages, while Kaida squealed over something pink.

I turned back to the stove and got started. It was going fine—the rice was toasted, the broth was added in batches, and the salmon was flaked and ready to go—until I got distracted by checking a message from Kai about Nolan’s charges being formally filed. When I looked up again, the risotto was threatening to turn on me.

“Damn it.”

“Woah, careful.” Sayla was suddenly behind me, appearing like magic and sweeping in to rescue the pan.

She grabbed the spatula, stirred like a pro, and added a bit more stock and a quick handful of parmesan. Somehow, she turned it from “questionable” to “restaurant quality” in less than a minute.

“You weren’t kidding,” I muttered, impressed.

She offered a tired smile. “Risotto waits for no one.”

That’s when I really looked at her. The shadows under her eyes, the slump in her shoulders—this wasn’t just end-of-day tired, this was‘something happened’tired.

“You okay?” I asked quietly, stepping closer. “You look beat.”

She hesitated, like she was weighing whether to say anything, then sighed. “Last night, I heard something breaking outside my place, and it put the willies up me.”

I stilled. “What?”

“I didn’t see anyone, but I heard it, so I stayed up for hours afterward. You know when you just can’t settle?”

I clenched my jaw, already moving toward the front door. “I’m gonna check it out.”

“You don’t have to?—”

“I do,” I argued firmly, pulling my keys out.

Finding the broken pane in a side window facing the backyard didn't take long. It’d been smashed from the outside, and there were fresh footprints in the soil below it—the kind of thing you could easily miss if you weren’t looking.

I pulled out my phone and dialed Judd.

“We’ve got something,” I told him once he picked up. “Broken window at Sayla’s. Looks like someone tried to get in, but she scared them off.”

“Shit,” he muttered. “You in Piersville right now?”

“Yeah.”

“Man, it’s killing me to remind you, but you need to call DB.”

DB picked up after two rings. “Roque?”

“Hey, we’ve got a situation,” I told him quickly. “Looks like someone tried to break into Sayla’s house last night. We’ve got an active case on our end involving her, and this might be connected.”

He was quiet for a beat. “All right, I’ll send a unit to secure the scene. Keep her at your place, and don’t let her near it.”

“Got it.”

I hung up and took one last look at the window before heading back across the yard, heart pounding harder than I liked. Whoever did this wasn’t just sending a message anymore, they were testing the lock. And I was done waiting for them to knock.

Sayla helpedme get the kids down, but they were both so full and sleepy that they barely made a fuss. Kaida was out the moment her head hit the pillow, and Kairo only made it a few minutes longer, mumbling something about the sunflower bird before drifting off.

We crept through to the kitchen, rinsing dishes and stacking them in the dishwasher. She worked beside me like she’d always belonged in that space, sleeves pushed up, her hair a little messy from bedtime chaos.

“Sayla,” I began, drying my hands on a towel, “you can’t go home tonight.”

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