Amya shook her head at Grace, telling her it wasn’t a big deal before raising her voice so Kit would hear her. “You are free to love whoever you want in this house, Kit. And so are we.”

  “But do I have to see it?”

  “Yes!” Both Amya and Grace answered in unison.

  It took a minute, but they settled into the couch cushions together. Grace sipped at her coffee until Kit stalked back into her bedroom, closing the door behind her. She turned on Amya. “You had a safe sex talk with her?”

  “At the school.” At Grace’s continued blank stare, Amya elaborated. “For the after school program, when you couldn’t go. I told you taxes were not my arena, so I talked to them about safe sex and healthy relationships and boundaries.”

  “Oh.”

  “Did you forget?”

  “Completely.” Grace buried herself in her coffee, not wanting to think about how much she had missed because it was more than she ever wanted to admit. When her phone rang, she groaned, but it wasn’t Paige. It was dispatch. Grace showed Amya the number before holding it to her ear. “This is Halling.”

  “We’ve got a lead for you on Andrew Erikson.”

  “Give it to me.” Grace stood up sharply and stepped straight to the kitchen to grab a pen and paper. She wrote down everything dispatch told her. As soon as she hung up, she pointed at Amya. “You’re taking Kit to work.”

  “Really?”

  “Yup. This is about my case.”

  “All right.”

  Grace called Abrams while she changed her clothes. She’d text Paige after she was done that way. There’d be no chance of Paige jumping in her cruiser and heading over to the scene. It was a breech in protocol but one Grace was willing to risk.

  She met Abrams at the gas station on the far side of town. They stayed back, watching the car in question. The uniforms had staked it out before they got there, their radio telling them no one had come in or out of the vehicle since the call had been placed.

  Grace snuck out of her SUV and over to Abrams car, both choosing to take private vehicles instead of cruisers to keep their identities a secret for a bit longer. He rolled down his window to his sedan as they chatted.

  “You having a good Thanksgiving?”

  “Not likely. Anyone come in and out yet?”

  “Nope.”

  “Want to approach?”

  “I’ll tell the uniforms.” Abrams got onto the radio in his hand and called it over. Grace felt around her side for her weapon just in case, unzipping her jacket so she’d have easier access to it. Like true midwest, snow started to fall as soon as Abrams opened the driver’s side door. They walked together, uniforms pulling up in the parking lot to block exits if necessary and provide backup.

  Grace peeked through the back window of the green Subaru. The infant was buckled neatly into the car seat, perfectly contained. The blanket was laid over the feet to keep the baby warm. And there was not a peep as the baby slept the entire time. Grace tried the door handle, but it was locked.

  Well, there was that at least. Grace sent Abrams a glance, trying to determine what he thought of the situation. Grace nodded to one of the cruisers and a uniform came over. “Stay here. We’re going in.”

  “Got it.”

  Abrams walked next to Grace as they stepped through the doors to the gas station. For a holiday, it wasn’t busy, which Grace had suspected. She was pretty sure he wasn’t Andrew. They had the same coloring, but this baby looked different.

  The gas station was one truckers frequented because there were showers in the back. With the other trash that had littered the seats, Grace had a sinking feeling whoever mom was or whoever had the baby didn’t have a place to live. She stepped close to the counter, flashed her badge as Abrams watched the rest of the building.

  “I’m looking for whoever came in that green Subaru out front.”

  The cashier nodded. “I’m the one who called. She’s in the back taking a shower. The third door. Here’s the master key.”

  Grace took it. Great, she was likely going to deal with a naked suspect. That was something she had gladly avoided since she’d become a detective and wasn’t taking daily calls. Abrams walked two steps behind her. Grace closed her fist and drew in a breath. Abrams flanked the door, his hand on his weapon.

  Pounding her fist on the door, Grace drew in a sharp breath. “Open the door! Police.”

  “What? Hold on!” the woman’s voice called through the closed door.

  “Ma’am, I need you to open this door immediately.”

  “I’m just getting dressed. Hold on.”

  Grace shot a glance to Abrams. Too much could be hidden in a few seconds. “Open the door now or I do it.”

  “Fine.” The door flung open, revealing a young woman in her mid-twenties, pants on but chest wrapped in a towel, her damp hair clinging to the skin at her shoulders and back.

  “We have some questions for you.”

  “Can’t it wait until I’m dressed?” Her attitude was hitting close to over the top.

  “Get dressed now, where I can see you.”

  “Everyone else can see me!”

  Grace drew in a deep breath. “Turn around and do it. Door stays open.”

  It didn’t take long, but she emerged with a shirt on and her hands on her hips. “What the hell is this about?”

  “Do you own the green Subaru parked out front?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did you leave your baby in the back seat?”

  She paled. “Y-yes.”

  “That’s what we’re here about.” Grace beckoned the woman out with a curl to her finger. “Let me pat you down. I don’t want any surprises.”

  “Are you arresting me?” Her voice quivered.

  “Not at this particular moment. I just don’t want to get stabbed unexpectedly.”

  “I don’t have anything on me.”

  “Good. Then this will be quick.” Grace had her put her hands against the wall, and skimmed her fingers over the woman’s body. Sure enough, she had nothing on her. “All right. Turn around. What’s your name?”

  “Daria Winthrop.”

  “Who is the baby?”

  “M-my daughter, Jasmine. I’m so sorry. I just…I needed to take a shower for this job interview tomorrow, and she was sleeping, and I didn’t want to wake her up.”

  “Daria, calm down.” Grace shared a look with Abrams. “My partner here is going to get your stuff, and we’re going to go talk outside, okay?”

  “Okay,” Daria muttered.

  They all walked out together, Abrams carrying Daria’s bag. Grace slid the key over the counter to the cashier, and they stopped at the Subaru.

  “Where’s the key to the car?”

  Daria pointed to her bag. “Second pocket on the front.”

  Abrams looked in the pocket before he stuck his hand in there. With the key between his fingers, he handed it over to Grace. She unlocked the car, opened the door and pulled the carseat out, setting it on the trunk of the vehicle.

  Muttering to the uniform, she said, “Call DCFS, would you? Also request a bus just to check this little one out, though I’m pretty sure nothing is wrong.”

  He nodded and walked away. Grace checked over the baby as best she could without taking her out of the carseat. She could save that for later. Daria looked like she was going to cry. Grace’s heart went out to her, but it was clear she shouldn’t have left the baby alone in the vehicle.

  “You have no place to stay?” Grace asked suddenly and quite out of the blue. Abrams wrinkled his nose.

  Daria nodded. “I can get into a trailer as soon as I get a job and can prove income. Until then we’ve been living out of my car.”

  “No family?”

  Daria stilled. “None I can trust.”

  “All right. I’m going to have a paramedic come look over Jasmine. I’m not planning on arresting you today, Daria, but I’ve got to tell you, this isn’t good.”

  “What’s going to happen to my baby?”

  Grace drew in a deep breath. “That’ll largely be up to DCFS and the district attorney if they want to charge you with anything.”

  “With what?”

  “Neglect,” Abrams said, his voice low and a grumble coming from behind Daria.

  Daria turned her head to look at him. “I didn’t neglect her. I let her sleep.”

  “Alone. In a parked car in a parking lot. You can’t do that.”

  “What was I supposed to do?”

  “Take her with you.” Grace’s gaze hardened. She did have a heart, but Daria’s mistake had been a stupid one to make.

  Daria broke down. Grace let her. Maybe the reality of the situation and the danger she’d put Jasmine in would set in a bit. As soon as the ambulance arrived, Grace took the baby to them while Abrams watched over Daria and continued to talk with her. Grace got into the back of the bus and settled in next to the EMTs.

  “I need to make sure this baby is a girl,” she stated.

  “What?”

  Grace sighed. “This was called in not because she was left in the car but because she matches the description of a missing baby.”

  “Andrew?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Got it.” The EMT stripped the baby down, undoing the diaper. Definitely not baby Andrew. Grace sighed at that. She hadn’t thought the baby would be, but it still would have been nice to find him, especially since her case seemed no closer than it was before.

  It took an hour for DCFS to show up, and another two hours to get all of that straightened out. By the time Grace made it in to fill out her report, she was dead tired. She rebraided her hair down her back, realizing it was way too long and needed cut, but she’d never find the time for it. Paige wasn’t there, thankfully, and she had a quiet blissful hour while she filled out her paperwork, checked messages, waited for another call to come in before she gave up and headed home.

  ###

  Amya was surprised Grace came home so quickly from the call. She had just figured she’d get sucked into work or Paige would insist she stay and she wouldn’t see her again until they woke up in the morning. Grace dropping her keys into the bowl by the door was welcome.

  “How was it?”

  “Not Andrew.”

  “That’s a pity.”

  “I guess.” Grace flopped onto the couch, closing her eyes.

  Amya ran her fingers over Grace’s arm, longing to see into those brown eyes. “Was the case okay?”

  “Tough one.”

  “What happened?”

  “Woman stuck in a rock and a hard place made a stupid decision that will likely follow her the rest of her life.”

  “I’m so sorry.” Amya leaned against Grace’s side. “You know, I didn’t expect you home this soon. We have the whole house to ourself.”

  “Oh?”

  “Peter’s at work. Kit’s at work for another two hours.”

  “Why didn’t you expect me home so soon? I came as soon as I finished.”

  Amya balked. The tone Grace was giving her was a strange one, and she couldn’t decipher it just yet, not with her only being home for a few minutes at most. “I figured you’d work late.”

  “I don’t like to work late.”

  “I know you don’t.” Amya touched Grace’s shoulder. “But you seem to always work late.”

  “Not always,” Grace muttered. “I’m home today, aren’t I?

  “You are.”

  “And I came home Monday. I was here for our Thanksgiving.”

  “You were, but Grace, you were on the phone half the time talking to Paige or Abrams. You might have been here, but you weren’t here.”

  Grace scoffed and stood up, every muscle in her body rigid. Amya should have known better. She just wanted to spend time with Grace, something they hadn’t been able to do in forever. She missed her partner.

  “Grace…”

  “I don’t want to hear it, Amya.”

  “Hear what?” Her tone was sharp, but she didn’t care. She was so tired of this, of living a basically single life without her partner, without the woman she loved.

  “I don’t want to hear about your issues with Paige.”

  Amya’s chest rose and fell sharply. Standing up, fire in her chest, she glared at Grace. “My issues with Paige?” Her voice rose at the end as her anger pooled.

  “Yes, Amya. This damn jealousy you seem unable to deal with.”

  “I’m unable…I’m unable to deal with it?” Amya stepped close to Grace, getting into her face. “You’re the one who hasn’t done a damn thing about it. You’re the one who refuses to file a report, who refuses to consider a transfer to another department, who keeps trying to play these stupid games so that you can…what? Not piss anyone off?”

  Grace’s gaze hardened. “Be careful.”

  “No! I’m tired of running this house by myself. I’m tired of being the only parent here. I can’t do this without you, Grace. I don’t want to.”

  “This is ridiculous. I need to be able to do my job, and that requires me to go in on days off sometimes and stay late sometimes.”

  “But not all the time.” Desperation clung to Amya. If Grace didn’t understand what she was begging for this time, she wasn’t sure Grace ever would. The hope she’d held on to that they could talk this out rationally fled. A year ago, when Amya had first told Grace about her jealousy where it concerned Paige, Grace had brushed it off, and here she was doing it again.

  “I don’t work late all the time.”

  “Yes, you do!” Amya lost control. She’d done so well at keeping it tight in her grasp, but Grace had pushed her to the edge and shoved her over. She had to get this out, had to let it loose because keeping it balled up inside wasn’t helping anyone. “You work late all the time. You even know it. You’re exhausted. You can barely function most days. You drag your feet. You hate work.”

  “I love my job!” Grace punctuated every word. “How dare you tell me I don’t?”

  “Because you don’t. Not anymore. You may love being a detective and being on the force, but you hate your job. This isn’t how you wanted your job to be, and it’s written all over you.”

  Grace growled, stepping around Amya and heading toward the kitchen. Amya had no idea why, but Grace turned and spun as soon as she reached the island. “What do you want from me? I can’t be this perfect girlfriend who is here every minute and still has a job and is a fantastic parent to our two wayward kids. That’s not me. I told you I didn’t want a family, and here we are.”

  Amya paused. She cocked her head at Grace as she studied her, trying to figure out what Grace was thinking and feeling. But she got nowhere. This was the first time Grace had thrown the foster care situation back at her, and they’d been foster parents for nearly a year at that point. Amya shook her head, walking forward. “I want you to come home at night with enough time to actually spend with your family.”

  “I can’t do that. I have cases to solve. I have a baby I need to find.”

  Amya bit her tongue. “Is he more important than your family?”

  “What family?” Grace spat the words out in anger. “The family here? The one that’s leaving in a few months. Yeah, sure, some family.”

  “Grace—”

  “No. We’re not doing this. I can’t do this.”

  “Do what? Admit that this isn’t what you wanted?”

  “I never wanted a jealous girlfriend.”

  “To be fair, Grace, did you even want a girlfriend?” Amya planted her hands on her hips. She’d known she’d pushed Grace, but at the pace Grace moved, they’d still be in the awkward beginning dating stage if she’d had her way.

  Grace’s jaw dropped. “What do you mean by that?”

  “I mean you don’t exactly treat me like your girlfriend. We live together, but we don’t do anything together. You don’t even text or call to tell me you’re going to be late anymore, you just show up, crawl into bed, and leave in the morning. Every night is like that. I’m tired of it.”

  Grace remained silent, her eyes glued to Amya’s.

  Amya stepped closer, trying to break the argument, trying to calm it down so maybe they could come to some sort of resolution, but Grace seemed so distant. “I don’t want you to be any further away from me.”

  “Like hell, Amya. You don’t want me to end up with Paige.”

  “Of course I don’t!” Amya’s voice raised again. So much for control. Cursing herself, she slammed her palm on the top of the counter. “Why would I? She treats you like crap. She doesn’t respect your boundaries. She’s your boss, Grace, and still she’s pulling this kind of crap. She’s playing with fire, and she will get burned.”

  “What are you going to do?” Grace’s eyes widened with fear.

  Amya shook her head. “I should probably report it myself. I should probably march myself up to IAB and file it since you don’t have the guts.”

  Her head hurt from the argument, from holding back everything for so long and releasing it in such a rush. Amya relaxed her jaw and rolled her shoulders. When Grace said nothing, did nothing, didn’t even bother to move, Amya shook her head and let out a sigh. Having the last of her hopes dashed, she turned on her toes and walked into their bedroom, shutting and locking the door behind her.

  Amya sat on the edge of the mattress, her hands covering her face as the tears released. She couldn’t be the strong one anymore, the one who stood by and watched as Grace refused to do anything to change the situation she found herself in. Grace had to make some decisions, and Amya wasn’t sure how much longer she could hold on and wait for her to come to the conclusion that Paige wasn’t going to change, and that if Paige ended up permanently a captain in Missing Persons that nothing would change, nothing would be different, except Grace would absolutely loath the one thing in her life she might have loved more than Amya herself.

  She didn’t move when she heard the front door open and shut hours later or the car in the driveway start up. It took exactly twenty minutes for them to come back, Kit chatting as the door shut, her voice carrying in from under the doorway.

  As much as she wanted to go talk to Kit, see how her day at work went, she couldn’t bring herself to walk out into the living room. Amya pulled the blanket over her shoulders as she turned on her side and curled into a ball. She didn’t bother unlocking the door, didn’t care for Grace to try and grovel and snuggle against her. She couldn’t even think about Grace against her right then. Her stomach churched, her head ached, her eyes were dry.