Page 89 of Hold

“But I have to—I have to get someone here for Benji. Goddammit!” He imagined her pacing her tiny bedroom.

“I can come.”

“Yes! Thank you! No, wait.” She might have slumped down onto the bed. “Stay there. See if you can get to see Jake. Tell them you’re his dad. I’ll call… someone else.”

She hung up. He didn’t blame her, though he had a whole slew of emotions he couldn’t translate about the fact that she couldn’t say Gabriel’s name in front of him.

Liam went up to the station door and into the glass and fake-wood paneled space. Several officers, male and female, were standing behind the bulletproof glass that topped the counter, talking to the duty officers, who were furiously writing notes. A door behind them opened, and Liam could hear raucous shouts and cries from inside. None of them sounded like Jake, but the sound still made his stomach clench.

“I’m here to see Jake Donaghy,” he said once someone came up to the counter.You suck at this. You should have given himyourlast name.

“You’re quick. They only just arrived. Are you his parent or guardian?” the woman asked in a bored voice.

“Yes.” At least, he’d guard the kid for the rest of his life, whatever happened between him and Thea.

“Name?”

“Liam McConnell.” She raised her eyebrow but didn’t address the difference in last names. “You’ll have to wait while we get them all sorted out.”

“But he wasn’t—” he began. But what could he say? He didn’t know what condition Jake was in. “Is he… safe back there?”

“Oh, yah,” she said. “They’re not violent. Just partying.”

The one could turn into the other in a minute, but Liam wasn’t in a position to argue. He found the waiting room, which was even more soulless than the reception desk, got himself a truly disgusting cup of coffee from a machine, and sat down to text Thea the update.

Megan is coming, she texted back.I’ll be there in a half hour.

So, not Gabe. It gave Liam hope. She wasn’t at the point of relying on her husband in emergencies.

Then he remembered and thumped his leg at his stupidity. She wasn’t asking Gabe to babysit because she was probably telling him his son was in jail. Liam had been so caught up in his own worry about the boy, he’d forgotten that another man had more claim to Jake.

So the half hour passed painfully. More parents arrived, presumably called by their children as they were processed. The difference in attitude between parents was interesting to observe. Some came in ranting, insistent that this was overreach and their child was innocent. Some were tight-lipped and stoic, not looking the cops in the eye, filling out the paperwork in silence. Some apologized with profuse exclamations that “Johnny has never done anything like this before!”

Just as Liam was about to go to the desk to see what the holdup was with Jake’s processing, Thea ran through the doors.

He hadn’t seen her since yesterday morning, since she’d stood at his car and told him Gabe was picking up Benji. She looked about twenty, dressed as she was in light jeans with a rip in one knee and a big Boston College sweatshirt that fell off one shoulder. Her hair was messy, as though she’d been in bed five minutes ago. Utterly kissable, in other words. Liam’s mouth went dry.

She ran toward him, and he almost put his arms out, the urge to hold her was so strong. But she halted a couple of feet away. “Have you seen him?” she said.

Her eyes were wide, afraid, luminous in the harsh fluorescent lights. “No. But they’ve been letting some of the kids go. I was just about to—”

She’d already turned away to hurry to the reception desk. “Jake Donaghy?” she asked the duty officer, who was filling out something on the computer and looked at her with one eyebrow raised. “Sorry,” Thea said. Liam instinctively stood by her shoulder. “Please,” she went on. “I’m sorry, but could you let me know about Jake Donaghy?”

The duty officer sighed, stopped typing, and spun around in her chair. “Tyrone?” she called to another man with his eyes on a computer. “You got a Jake Donahue there yet?”

“Donaghy,” Liam and Thea said together.

“Donaghy,” the woman repeated. “S’wat I said, Donaghy.”

The man looked at his notebook. Liam could feel Thea quivering with tension in front of him, and he risked putting a hand on her waist. Immediately, she leaned into him, her back against his front. It wasn’t a kiss, but it spoke volumes. He dropped a kiss on her hair, and Thea leaned into that, too.

Liam was just settling into feeling really good about tonight, on the whole, when two more people strode through the doors. Thea’s brother and elder sister.

“T,” Kane said, and Thea moved away from Liam to hug him. So Liam hated him. Hated that he was so much taller and that Thea easily went into his arms.Great. Now you’re jealous of her brother.

The sister, Catherine, he thought her name was, scowled at him.

“Hi, Cat. You didn’t need to come,” Thea said.

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