Page 192 of The Advocate’s Ultimatum

“No.” But he still opened the door.

Rourke looked up calmly as DuBois entered and sat across from him.

“How’s Hannah?” Rourke asked.

He wasn’t concerned about his situation. Just Hannah.

“She’s safe.”

Rourke looked down at his cuffed hands. “You frightened her today.”

“You abducted her at five years old.”

A tightening crossed Rourke’s jaw. “She wasn’t safe there.”

Maybe he believed that once, maybe even now.

“You know what I can’t figure out?”

Rourke stayed silent.

“You had eight years to disappear completely. Why come back to San Diego?”

That finally got a reaction.

“Hannah wanted to.”

Interesting. DuBois waited.

“She remembered things,” Rourke said softly. “Places. People.”

“Like Sabre? The pancakes? Home?”

“You think finding her fixes this?”

DuBois didn’t answer because no, it didn’t. Eight lost years didn’t get repaired by handcuffs.

Rourke shook his head. “She’ll never belong anywhere now.”

That was his real fear. Not prison, but loss of control, loss of identity, and loss of the world he’d built around her.

“She belongs to herself.”

For the first time, anger flashed across Rourke’s face. “You don’t know what they’ll turn her into.”

“No. But I know what you already did.”

There was a long silence this time. Then DuBois finally said the thing he came in to say. “Hannah identified you.”

Rourke looked beaten. “She wouldn’t do that.”

“But she did.”

Chapter 75

Friday morning

As Sabre slid into her seat, the bailiff called, “Matter of Bay Mercer.”