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The Protector’s Daughter

Page 196

by Susie McIver

“We’ll figure it out,” he says.

“Sage?”

“All of it.”

I want to believe him.

I want to believe there is a way to build something from everything that was taken from us.

Not the life we would have had.

That life is gone.

Something new.

Something honest.

But first, we have to keep Sage alive.

We have to find Navarro.

And somewhere inside Daniel Price’s files are the names of girls who are still waiting for someone to bring them home. I prayed they had a home to go to.

14

SEAN

At seven thirty in the morning, Sage is still asleep.

Hayley isn’t.

I find her sitting at the kitchen island with a cup of coffee and one of Sage’s untouched cream cheese Danish in front of her.

She is staring toward the hallway.

“She’s safe,” I say.

Hayley looks at me.

“I know.”

“You’ve checked on her three times.”

“Four.”

I pull out the stool across from her.

“Was she awake?”

“No.”

“Then stop opening the door.”

“I don’t open it. I stand outside and listen.”

That is somehow worse.

“She needs sleep.”