Page 89 of Riding the Line

Them.

Tiny faces, tired and thinner, butalive. Their hair longer, some of their clothes too big or too small, but they were there.Safe. Their eyes lit up the moment they spotted their families, and all hell broke loose in the most beautiful way possible. Screams of joy. Tears. The sound of feet running across linoleum as kids launched themselves into arms that had been empty for far too long.

“Mommy!”

“Auntie Mae!”

I covered my mouth with my free hand. If I hadn’t been sitting, I would’ve hit the ground. Tears began to run down my cheeks, and Mac pulled me closer into him. I hadn’t realized I was shaking until Dalton scooted closer, reaching for me.

“Katie?” Hartwell said. “They’re home. You did it.”

I could barely breathe. “I didn’t find them. I… thought they were gone.”

“No,” he said, “buttheydid. Dalton. Mac. They didn’t stop. They tracked the last link down. Ran it to the ground. TheFeds handled the final extraction, but it was your boys that cracked it open.”

In the background, Gabriella’s mother picked her daughter off the floor, clinging to the girl like a lifeline. She came closer, until she was right there, and Hartwell handed the phone to her.

I knew her voice, her daughter’s face. “I can never repay what you have done for my family. God bless you. God bless you all.”

I barely managed a trembly smile as the screen flooded with kids and families all trying to saythank youat once.

“We thought you should see it,” Hartwell said, a little gruff. “Closure. Not for a case. Foryou.”

I looked over at Mac and Dalton, both watching me with that same look in their eyes. I turned the phone so they could see the screen. They both went still. Mac’s grip on me got just a bit tighter. Dalton leaned closer to the screen, and to me. I smiled at them, trying desperately to tell them everything I was thinking with a look.

“Thank you,” I whispered.

Hartwell just grunted. “Don’t make me sentimental, kid. That’s your thing.”

The screen went dark. I sat there for a long moment, phone in my lap, heart full to bursting. I looked over at Holly and Jackson, both whom offered me a warm smile. A glance at my friends who had become family. This little slice of heaven that was never supposed to be mine. Cliff was openly crying too, and Rodney handed him one of the napkins that he had been fiddling with.

Shelly met my eyes and winked “You did it. Best damn cop I ever worked with.”

I shook my head. “Wedid it. All of us.”

They were safe.

They were home.

And so was I.