Page 11 of Shattered By the Currents

“Oh, you’re here.”

They all looked up as Briar Allen stopped beside them. She was a caregiver here at the residence. She’d also gone to school with Raven.

Briar smiled at her. “Hi, Raven. Gene.” Then she focused on Connor. “He’s been gone about half an hour.”

“He’s a happy explorer,” her mother whispered to Raven.

“We’ll find him,” Connor said, and a shiver ran down her spine at the power in his voice. The man was all height and breadth and power.

Briar brushed past them to the other man as Connor looked expectantly at her mother.

“Oh, this is my mom, Gene,” Raven said quietly. “Mom, this is Connor.”

Connor reached out a hand. “It’s nice to meet you, ma’am.”

“Thank you, son.” She glanced between them, her eyes sparkling. “You two are friends?”

Were they?

“Yes.”

Raven’s attention flashed back to Connor at his easy answer, a tingly sensation running over her skin.

Dangerous. He was too dangerous and easy to fall for.

She cleared her throat. “Well, it was, uh, good to see you, Connor.” She tugged her mother closer. “I hope you find Harry.”

“Herbert,” her mother corrected.

“Herbert.” Dammit. She was flustered. She slipped around him, trying to ignore the fact that his very presence did things to her body that it had absolutely no business doing.

Connor’s grinwidened as he watched Raven walk away with her mother. His eyes were still on her when she turned and looked back at him. She obviously wasn’t expecting him to be watching her still, because her cheeks turned a pretty pink shade.

Then she was gone.

“What’s Raven doing here?” Joel asked as he came to stand beside Connor.

“Her mother’s here.” Was her mother the reason she came back to Deep River? Did she have a father? Siblings? So many questions. He looked at his friend. “Come on. Briar said he’s been missing for about thirty minutes.” He pushed through the doors outside. “It didn’t take them long to call us this time.”

The last time they’d come down, Herbert had been missing for an hour, and the time before that, over two.

Joel lifted a shoulder. “Must be getting quicker at realizing he’s gone.”

“You’d think they’d get better at keeping the gate between the residence and the forest locked.”

Joel chuckled. “I heard he’s pretty good at charming the nurses and swiping the key.”

Sneaky old man.

It wasn’t Herbert’s fault. He just forgot where he was and decided he needed to explore beyond the gate. He usually wound up in the same spot. It was this area at the edge of the river, half a mile into the forest. How the elderly man made it all the way there by himself with memory issues, Connor had no idea. But he did. Every time.

“How’s Polly doing?” Connor asked, as they unlocked the gate and moved through.

“She’s good. You’d think nothing even happened to her. She yelled at me this morning because, and I quote, ‘You need to stop beating yourself up over that day.’”

Connor nodded. He could understand why Joel was beating himself up. He’d unknowingly left Polly at Bloom when she’d been locked in the cellar. Connor would have kicked his own ass too.

Joel pulled out a banana. “Want half?”