Free Unbreakable Bond by Rita Herron Page B

person she’d thought would have had faith in her. But he hadn’t trusted in her when she’d needed him most.
    She spun around and walked out of the office, knowing she’d never be back.
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    R EBECCA DANGLED HER feet belong the swing, pumping her legs hard to make the swing move back and forth. She was too short to touch the ground, and her legs were weak so it took a bunch of tries, but finally the swing moved.
    She didn’t care if the kids laughed at her.
    She would learn to pump herself even if they teased her until school was out. When her mommy came to get her, she was going to show her everything she’d learned.
    A black car drove by the fence near the parking lot, and someone rolled down the window. The sun nearly blinded her, and she scrunched her nose, her glasses slipping down.
    But someone in the car pushed a camera out the window and began to snap pictures.
    Her stomach spasmed. Why were strangers watching the school? She’d heard other foster kids talk about the news and how kids went missing every day.
    That men stole them and did mean things to them, and the kids never came back.
    She jumped from the swing to go tell the teacher, but she stumbled again and her knee hit the ground. A big boy with a ball cap on laughed, and she frowned at him as she tried to get up.
    Then the flash of the camera blinded her once more. When she finally could see again, the boy had run off and she was alone on the playground.
    Alone except for the man in the car watching her… Was he one of the bad men the other fosters talked about?

Chapter Seven
    Questions and doubts assailed Slade as they left Raleigh and headed back toward Sanctuary. Nash had seemed sincere in his concern for Nina.
    But his condescending attitude had irritated the hell out of him.
    Even though Nina had put on a brave face, hurt had laced her voice when she’d stood up to her father.
    If anyone should have believed her, her own father should have. So why hadn’t he?
    Nina might be slightly obsessed over finding the truth about her daughter, but she didn’t seem irrational or delusional. She also didn’t appear to be taking drugs as her father had suggested.
    And dammit, he understood her single-minded focus and the reason she’d asked questions. Obsession had driven him to keep looking for his sister until he’d located her. And although he hadn’t liked the outcome, at least he had closure. And his sister had received a decent burial.
    Nina deserved to have closure, too.
    Considering the fact that Nina was the only one who’d wanted the child, that left plenty of suspects. All who had means, motive and opportunity.
    Her father. William Hood. Hood’s mother.
    Any one of them could have paid someone to kidnap the baby.
    But they couldn’t have predicted that the fire would break out the night Nina had delivered. Still, Nina’s father and Hood might have come to the hospital when the baby was born, and jumped on the opportunity.
    He frowned and maneuvered around traffic. And Hood’s wife, Mitzi, topped his suspect list. Mitzi was upset about Nina’s pregnancy. What if she’d been afraid William would change his mind after the baby was born and decide he wanted Nina and his daughter in his life?
    Would she have been desperate enough to steal the baby?
    Hood’s mother was an even bigger question mark in his mind. She’d tried to bribe Nina to have an abortion. Had she kidnapped the baby so she wouldn’t have to live with the stigma of an illegitimate child in the family? Or maybe she’d been worried that Nina might demand money. The baby would have had legal rights to the Hood fortune….
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    N INA STARED AT THE PASSING scenery, desperately trying to wrestle control over her ping-ponging emotions. She would not behave like the delusional psychotic her father and William had described.
    â€œNina?
    She braced herself for Slade to announce he was dropping