Page 5 of Save Her Life

“No offense, Mom, you know I like Eric, but I’d rather hang out here with Avery.”

Sandra smiled. “I thought you’d say that. Let me know if Avery’s parents are okay with you staying over. I’ll hold, or you can put me on with them.”

A dramatic sigh, followed by, “One sec.”

She listened as her daughter asked Avery’s mother, Tammy Porter.

“No problem at all, sweetie,” Tammy said. “Tell your mom to stay safe.”

“Thanks. Did you hear that, Mom?”

“I did. Remember only contact me if?—”

“It’s an emergency. I know the drill.”

“Love you,” Sandra told her daughter, slightly torn between going to her and doing her job. Being a single parent was a challenge every day. It felt like even when the right decision was made, it was still the wrong one.

“Uh-huh. Back at ya.”

Before Sandra could say goodbye, Olivia was gone, and the catchy beat of a nineties dance tune came over the speakers. She turned it up and sang along, letting the song sweep away thetension from the day. It also took her to the past when it would have been popular. Sam was already gone by then, but how he would have hated it. The thought of him took her back to the parole hearing. At least she wouldn’t need to face her brother’s killer for another two years.

She might have pressed her foot harder on the gas. The drive from Washington usually took about forty-five minutes, and she wanted to make up the lost time from stopping.

Her phone rang, cutting off the song mid-chorus, and Eric’s name splashed on the screen. She answered with a smile.

“There she is. How did the hearing go? Sorry I couldn’t call sooner.”

His job made his schedule somewhat unpredictable. “It went well. I think.”

“I’m sure you did a great job stating your case.”

She wished she had the same level of confidence, but the uncertainty of the verdict dampened it.

“When will you hear back?”

“They said by the end of the week.”

“Nothing like living in suspense. I could come over and help take your mind off it.”

“I’d love that, but I’m not home.”

“Oh?”

“I’m on my way to Woodbridge for an incident.”

“After the day you had? Didn’t you book it off?”

“I did, but Elwood didn’t have a choice.” Eric knew her boss, and that their relationship was professional but didn’t stand on formality.

“All right, well, you know what you’re doing.”

“Well, I have been at it a while. I pretty much have compartmentalizing down to a fine art.” It was hard to believe her FBI career had started twenty-five years ago in administration at HQ when she was twenty-two. After two yearsin that capacity, she enrolled in the FBI Academy, and upon graduating was assigned for the next four years to the Norfolk Field Office helping locate spies, before returning to HQ to work in counterterrorism. That was when she’d met Olivia’s father and had fallen pregnant eleven months later. She took eight weeks off after her birth, and six months after that, left as a single parent, and transferred to the WFO. After a year there working strictly on manhunts, she was recommended for negotiation training, which led to her joining the CNU. She’d been posted at the WFO for the last fifteen years.

Eric laughed. “Well, be safe. I’m sure it will be wrapped by tomorrow night.”

“God, I sure hope so.”

“What do you say to meeting up for dinner at, say, six? We can go to La Gioia Ristorante.”

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