Standing there, in that stuffy office, Katarina had forgotten how to breathe. What did she know about being a mother? About keeping an entire other person alive, and not even a full-grown one at that?
A sudden urge to flee had seized her legs. No. She’d screwed up. She needed to tell them all that she’d made a huge mistake. Bethany would be better off adopted by a loving family. Anyone. Just not Katarina.
She’d shaken off the panic paralyzing her vocal cords and prepared to tell them as much.
Until the little girl appeared with the tall FBI agent in the cowboy hat and piped up in her sweet, high voice. “Who are you?”
Katarina’s hardened, jaded heart had melted on the spot. She was this beautiful little creature’s mama.
Her legs had buckled, and she’d dropped to her knees. “I’m your real mother. Your first mother. Your last mother. Your forever mother.” Eyes wet with tears, she’d opened her arms wide and waited.
Across the room, Bethany had sucked on her lower lip and hesitated.
The disappointment had hit hard, but Katarina hid the emotion. She understood better than most the confusion and chaos that kids internalized when they were constantly shuffled from home to home.
The next instant, Bethany had taken one halting step, her little face solemn. That step turned into another, and another, until her shoes pounded the floor, and she’d launched herself in Katarina’s arms.
When that warm little body pressed itself to hers in the awkward hug, Katarina’s heart squeezed, pumping love and protectiveness through her vessels like oxygen. She’d made a silent vow right then and there over that sweet-smelling blonde head that they’d never be separated again. That she’d go to whatever lengths necessary to keep her daughter safe.
And she had. Right up until Kingsley swept them all up into another one of his demented games.
Despair crashed over her. That psychopathic asshole who’d raised her had shattered Katarina’s vow into oblivion. Stolen her daughter for the second time, and why? As punishment for her sins? Because he couldn’t bear for one of his little chickens to fly the coop?
“Argh!” Katarina whirled and lashed out. Again and again, while her blood boiled with helpless rage.
“Uh, I don’t think that cement block is going to care much about your rude treatment, but your toes might.”
Jillian’s wry comment prompted Katarina to pause and glance down. She’d been so pissed that she hadn’t even realized she was kicking cement. And, dammit, now that she mentioned it, Katarina’s big toe was throbbing.
She shook out her foot, glaring at the wall. “You’re lucky I don’t have a sledgehammer.”
“Okay, that does it. Let’s walk across the street and grab a coffee before you go all Fixer Upper on government property and land both of our asses in trouble.”
Katarina’s knee-jerk reaction was to snarl and tell the little busybody to mind her own damn business. But her toe hurt, and she was going nuts marching around out here in the cold while Ellie took her sweet ass time.
Once the phone was safe in Katarina’s hands, she could give a shit if the entire building and surrounding area—including the stupid, incredibly hard wall—imploded and disappeared into a giant sinkhole right then and there. Until that time, she could use a distraction.
Preferably before she lost her shit, charged inside the precinct, and landed her butt in a holding cell. “Fine. Coffee shop. But you’re paying.”
A few minutes later, she straddled a chair at a small outdoor table, plucking at the cardboard sleeve on her cup in-between sips of black coffee. She’d chosen a spot with a clear view of the police station’s front doors. The next time they swung open, two people emerged into the halo of illumination cast by the exterior light fixtures. Even from across the street, Ellie’s red hair glowed like a beacon, and her appearance eased the chokehold on Katarina’s stomach.
Finally.
A tall, muscular man in a cowboy hat exited with her. It was the FBI agent who’d helped arrange her WITSEC deal.
Katarina’s eyes narrowed as she blew on the fragrant steam. Agent Studly was walking awfully close to Ellie, much closer than she’d expect two regular old law enforcement partners would. Did that mean the hot agent and Detective Carrot Top were an item now? Interesting.
“Over here!” Jillian waved at Ellie, who scoured the patio until she spotted them and waved back. The FBI agent pulled a phone from his pocket and pressed it to his ear, motioning her to go ahead.
The detective nodded and jogged across the street while Katarina sipped the bitter brew with a scowl. Great, now Detective Carrot Top showed a little hustle. Where the hell was that speed inside the precinct when Katarina had stood around with her thumb up her ass?
After all this time, Ellie had better not be joining them empty-handed, either. It would be such a shame if Katarina’s coffee just so happened to end up all over that shiny red hair.
Katarina’s fingers flexed around the cup, relaxing again when Ellie plopped into a chair and slid the confiscated phone onto the table.
“Got it.”
“Good job!” Jillian beamed at her roommate like she’d performed some sort of miracle.
Katarina gritted her teeth. “If you’re all done with the cheerleading, could we, I don’t know, actually look at the freaking phone now?”
Instead of the irritated response Katarina expected, Ellie lifted her eyebrows at her friend. “Has she been this delightful the entire time I was inside?”
“Why do you think we’re at the coffee shop? I was afraid if we stood outside the precinct door for much longer, she was going to charge inside and start tearing the place up until she found the phone herself.”
In unison, their heads swiveled toward Katarina, who slouched lower in the uncomfortable plastic chair. Huh. Maybe the tiny blonde elf-girl was more observant than she’d given her credit. “What? It was
