“I should be out there,” I said. Cady might as well have tied me up. I felt like she had. “I should be looking for Bella and hunting this predator down.”

Backing away from a challenge was never easy for me, but backing away when some sicko was out there dragging a child through the wilderness? When that child was bleeding and running and forced into the dark?

“Heads up!” That was only warning I got before a pillow hit me straight in the face. I narrowed my eyes at Jude.

“Miscreants’ Creed, line twelve,” he cited quickly, his sense of self-preservation clicking on. “Mild to moderate pillow violence is a sign of affection.”

“Not an actual part of the Creed,” Free commented. “But I’ll take it under advisement.”

An obstinate Silver nudged my legs again, then circled in front of me and gave me the canine version of Cady’s Look. She wanted me to sit. She wanted me to breathe.

“The person who took Bella has seven hundred and fifty thousand acres of wilderness to hide in.” I let that statement hang in the air, then forced myself to sit. It wasn’t Silver’s fault I’d been thrown off the search, any more than it was Jude’s fault or Free’s. With a self-satisfied bob of her head, Silver curled by my side, and the moment I felt the German shepherd’s body next to mine, something inside me gave.

“I can’t just sit here,” I said, my voice threatening to break. “Bella Anthony sleeps with a blanket.” I swallowed. “Or at least, she did. Now she’s out there, sleeping who knows where, and she’s scared and in danger, and she doesn’t even have that pathetic scrap of fabric for comfort.”

Free leaned back, her palms flat against the windowsill. “I’d suggest sneaking out and starting a search of our own, but barring extreme circumstances, even I don’t think pushing Cady that far would be wise.”

When I was a child, I’d learned to trust Cady the way that Jude had learned to read—slowly, painstakingly, painfully. That trust couldn’t be undone overnight. Cady was protecting me the only way she knew how.

Girl doesn’t need protection. My hand throbbed, and when I looked down, I saw that I’d dug my fingers into the carpet underneath me. I forced them loose, and Silver licked my palm.

Silver is here, I imagined her saying. I’m here, Kira. I’m here. I’m here.

Wasn’t that what Jude and Free had been saying in their own ways since I got back?