Red by Kait Nolan

sister?”
    Sawyer let me do the talking. The more I
told Sheriff Beasley, the deeper the creases around his mouth
became, until he resembled nothing so much as an angry English
bulldog who’d aged a decade before my eyes. He didn’t ask me
anything about how I’d found Rich.
    When I finished, he radioed back to base and
had them reorganize the search along the river.
    “ Where do you want us to
reconvene?” I asked.
    “ Nowhere,” said Dad. “We’re
done for the day.”
    “ But Molly—”
    “ The rest of the team is
still out there looking. They’ll find her. You’re done. We’re going
home,” he said.
    The chill crept back. The search wasn’t
finished and Dad was pulling us both out? Crap, this couldn’t be
good. The sheriff was thanking us for our efforts, telling me what
a good job I’d done, but I heard almost none of it. I was too busy
trying to figure out what this meant and how I was going to cover
my butt.
    Patrick walked over, and I felt a fresh
spurt of panic. Oh God, don’t let him ask if I can come to work
the rest of the day . Instead he looked over at Sawyer. “Give
you a ride back?”
    “ Sure.”
    Sawyer turned to me, looking again like he
wanted to say something. Instead he said, “Later,” and pulled one
of those male head jerks that’s supposed to count as a wave.
    Okay, good. Great. One potential threat
down. Two more to go.
    I made a generic wave to everybody, and
walked past David and Patrick without catching their eyes as I made
my way up the road to where Dad was standing by our ancient Ford
pickup. He said nothing as I climbed in, just cranked the engine
and pulled a three point turn to head back toward home. I quietly
watched him out of the corner of my eye and tried to figure out
exactly how deep in it I really was.
     
    ~*~
     
    Sawyer
     
    No, really, I’m not a stalker, I
thought as I crept through the woods to the edge of Elodie’s
property. There were so many things wrong with what I was
doing. It was broad day, and I shouldn’t be on four feet, but I
could move faster this way and I trusted that my fur gave me enough
natural camouflage that no one would notice me. I shouldn’t be here
again, particularly after Elodie had busted me this morning. I knew
that. But, she was afraid again. And this time it wasn’t of me. She
was scared of her father.
    I didn’t like it. And maybe she hadn’t asked
for a guardian werewolf, but if something was going on with her dad
that shouldn’t be, I wasn’t going to leave her to face it
alone.
    I’d watched the old black pickup disappear
from view, already calculating how I’d get away. The opportunity
presented itself when we’d returned to base camp so I could pick up
my Jeep. The call came in that they’d found Molly Phillips, alive
and terrified, but unharmed, somewhere along the river, exactly as
her brother had said. It was easy to lose myself in the midst of
all the celebration.
    The argument was in full swing by the time I
got within listening range of Elodie’s house.
    “ . . . the hell did you
think you were doing?” Her father, showing none of the emotional
control he’d displayed in public.
    “ I was on the search just
like—”
    “ No. No, it wasn’t like any
other search because you were not out there with an adult. You were
on your own with some other kid .”
    Never mind that this “kid” can do more to
protect your daughter than any member of that search team, I
thought.
    “ And we found Rich,” said
Elodie in a reasonable tone. “What are you so upset
about?”
    “ What am I upset about?”
His voice went up several decibels, and I found myself leaving the
shelter of the trees and slinking closer to try and peer in the
picture window on the back porch. “There’s some kind of lunatic out
there and you’re just wandering around with no protection. I don’t
know what the hell Eileen was thinking.”
    They were in the living room, squared off on
either side of a coffee table. Mr. Rose paced in