Not while I was there.
She looked at me for the first time then.
There was no relief in her face.
Only calculation.
Children who have been scared for too long do not trust rescue right away.
They measure it.
They weigh your voice.
They listen for the trap.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
She swallowed.
“Grace.”
“Grace, are you hurt?”
She shook her head, but the movement was too fast.
A child will lie to protect the thing behind them if lying has worked before.
I shifted my flashlight lower.
Something rustled deeper in the pipe.
Grace lunged forward so fast I almost pulled back by instinct.
Both of her hands clamped around my wrist.
Her fingers were ice cold through my glove.
“Don’t shine it on him,” she whispered.
I froze.
“On who?”
She shook her head hard.
“He said if anyone saw Mason, he’d leave him where the trucks can’t hear him.”
The sentence took a second to settle.
