Stolen Child (Coastal Fury Book 13), Matt Lincoln [ebooks children's books free TXT] 📗

press conference early this morning with the family, once Jackson’s fiancée flew in. The whole thing was pretty melodramatic, lots of crying, but I got through it.”

“You were in the press conference?” I asked, unable to hide my surprise that Nina would put herself through such a thing willingly.

“Try not to sound so surprised,” she said dryly. “But yeah, someone had to brief the press on the law enforcement side of things. I told Osborne not to get used to the company, though. I won’t be doing any more of those things if I can help it.”

Her eyes flicked involuntarily to the TV screen I had been looking at before, which we could see through the large glass double doors to the hotel.

Sure enough, there was Nina standing at a podium, looking more uncomfortable than I’d ever seen her. But she was there alright.

“They keep showing it,” she grimaced. “I don’t know why they keep showing it. Not just locally, either. It’s all over the national networks, too.”

“Well, it is big news,” I chuckled. “And I’m sure you did just fine.”

“Ugh,” Nina groaned, rolling her eyes and peeling her eyes off of the screen.

“Why didn’t you wake me for the conference? I would’ve been happy to help out,” I told her, though I secretly didn’t mind not having to deal with any of that mess.

“Yeah, well, I figured one of us should get some sleep, at least,” Nina shrugged. “Plus, I’m going to be on this thing for a while yet, dealing with the Durham part of the case. I figure the public might as well get used to me.”

“I thought you said you weren’t going to be doing any more press briefings,” I reminded her, shooting her a sly grin.

“Yeah, well, my supervisor might make me,” she grumbled, shooting another scathing look back at the television screen. “He says they liked me or something.”

I practically roared with laughter at this.

“Well, I can’t say I blamed them,” I chuckled, as she turned that glare of hers right on me.

Just then, I heard a familiar voice come roaring out from where the throng of reporters still stood.

“Hold up, hold up, let me through,” Holm hollered at them. “Federal agent coming through! No, I will not answer any of your stupid questions.”

I laughed again and opened the front door for my partner, pulling him through and into the entryway where Nina and I stood. His clothing and hair were all tousled, and he looked a little tired, but otherwise, he seemed no worse for wear.

“You’re back!” I cried, patting him on the shoulder as he smoothed out his rumpled clothes. “How are you feeling?”

“Oh, I’m fine. Those doctors are always overzealous anyway,” he said, waving away my concern. “All they’re worried about is lawsuits.”

“I don’t know about that,” Nina said skeptically. “You weren’t looking too hot when we went to see you yesterday.”

“Yeah, well, we all know that was just an excuse so you two could keep all the glory to yourselves,” Holm said, winking at her. “I thought I told you not to go breaking this case without me!”

“Well, I thought it was all about finding the kid,” I pointed out, rolling my eyes, though we all knew that Holm was just messing with us.

“Yeah, but you did that already!” he cried. “Now I get to complain about it.”

“Oh, okay, is that how that works?” I laughed, shaking my head at him.

“Damn straight,” he said, giving me a wink this time.

“Were you actually discharged, or did you run out of there the second you saw the news?” I asked, giving him a stern look.

“Well, I can’t say the news didn’t speed things up a bit, but I was discharged,” he relented. “I’m the proud owner of a clean bill of health! Well, with orders to follow up with someone back in Miami when we get home.”

“Make sure he does that,” Nina said, giving me a pointed look.

“Oh, I will,” I assured her. “And so will Diane. Come on, partner, let’s go get you some coffee.”

I dragged Holm through the double doors to the lobby and back to the breakfast area, Nina following close behind us.

When we got to the table strewn with cereal, coffee, and pastries, however, I turned around to find that she was gone. I scanned my eyes around the clusters of people all over the lobby until I found her spiky black hair. She was talking to the man I remembered coming up to her the previous night when we got off the helicopter, who I assumed to be her supervisor. They seemed to be deep in conversation.

“Speaking of Diane, I talked to her this morning,” Holm said as he filled a cup to the brim with black coffee, not seeming to notice that Nina had gone. “She said you didn’t even call her to tell her you broke the case.”

His tone was one of mock chastising, and I groaned as I realized that he was right. I pulled out my phone to find a couple of missed texts from Diane congratulating me for finding Mikey and asking when I thought we would be back in Miami to pick up work on the Holland case.

“I forgot,” I said, running a hand across my face as I tried to remember everything that had happened the night before. It was all such a blur.

“It’s alright, she’s not mad,” Holm said, handing me a cup of coffee of my own. “She figured you were just tired or got caught up in everything else that was going on. Man is it a relief that you guys found that kid, though. I was starting to get worried the case would go cold, or even worse.”

“Yeah, me too,” I admitted, grabbing a cinnamon roll from the table and sitting down across from him at a nearby table. “I’m just glad nothing major happened to him while he was gone.”

“Is that so? The news was pretty vague about the details, obviously,” Holm said. “So he