“I asked if he’d play with me.” More tears fell. “That’s when he pushed me. Said he didn’t have time to play with a baby.”

Dani glanced to the terrace, then at Meredith. “What happened then?”

“He looked shocked,” Meredith said, still rubbing Joshua’s back. “Then he ran.”

Diesel squeezed Dani’s shoulder. “I’ll talk to him.”

“Tell him I’m sorry,” Joshua cried. “I’m sorry.”

“Oh, baby,” Dani crooned. “You didn’t do anything wrong. Michael’s just had a hard few days, okay? We all have.” She wiped at his tears, somehow managing to keep her own at bay. Diesel was out on the terrace, his big arms around Michael, rocking them both where they stood.

Dani made a decision. She stood up and squared her shoulders. “We need to get out of here, even if it’s just for a little while.”

Meredith nodded once. “I think that’s a very good idea.”

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Loveland, Ohio
Tuesday, March 19, 5:05 p.m.

“Thank you for bringing us here,” Michael signed to Coach, who hadn’t even frowned at him after he’d lost it with Joshua. Coach should have. So should Dani. Everyone should have. Because I’m like them. In a minute of temper and self-pity, he’d become the mother and stepfather he’d despised.

“You’re welcome. Don’t you want to play with the puppies?” Coach signed back.

Dani and Coach had somehow managed to get them out of that condo, which couldn’t have been easy. They had four FBI agents as bodyguards, and the men all seemed super-tense, always looking around for danger. Dani told him that her brother Deacon hadn’t wanted them to go, but that she’d convinced him that their mental health—Michael’s mental health—was important, so Deacon had sent them the extra two bodyguards.

Michael considered telling Dani that it was all right, that they could just stay, but he’d needed to escape the condo more than he’d needed to breathe.

He shivered just thinking the word. Condo. It was more like a prison. It was a nice place. Nicer than any place that Michael had ever seen. Still a prison.

It wasn’t Dani’s house. It wasn’t home.

Delores’s shelter wasn’t Dani’s house, either, but it was nicer than the condo. Plus, there were animals. Dogs and cats and rabbits and even a ferret. Plus three pygmy goats and a llama in the field behind the house that connected to the shelter. They all had names and Delores knew every one of them.

She’d been nice enough to meet them out here, taking time away from sitting with Stone in the hospital. She’d waved off Michael’s thanks, telling him that she needed to shower anyway. She knew a few signs because Greg came out here to volunteer sometimes, cleaning cages and grooming animals.