Save Your Breath (Morgan Dane #6)(20)

Mia looked up, fumbled the shoelace, and had to start over.

Sophie exhaled an exasperated breath through her nose. If she were a dragon, she would be breathing fire. “Let Lance do it. The store is gonna close.”

Mia frowned at her little sister. “I want to tie my shoes myself.”

“There’s no rush,” Lance said. “The store won’t close for hours.”

Sophie bounced to the front door, hopping on both feet like Tigger on his tail.

Mia tightened her final knot and grinned. “I did it.”

Lance stooped and high-fived her. Then he straightened and ushered the girls to the door. He said over his shoulder to Gianna, “We’ll be back in about an hour.”

“Good luck,” Gianna called.

As the kids bolted through the front door, a little voice in the back of his head warned him he might need it. He strapped the children into their car seats in Morgan’s minivan, and they chattered nonstop for the next fifteen minutes. In the parking lot of the Halloween store, he helped them out of the van. He took firm hold of Sophie’s hand. She was the runner of the bunch.

“Mia.” Lance held his free hand out, and she grabbed it. “Ava, hold Mia’s hand.”

Getting three small children across a parking lot safely took more precision and planning than executing an arrest warrant on a violent offender. A bell jingled as Lance opened the glass door and herded the girls inside.

“I know exactly what I’m going to be.” Ava took off down the princess aisle.

“Hold on!” Lance picked up Sophie, grabbed Mia’s hand, and hurried after the oldest. Normally, Ava made a point of acting more mature than her younger sisters, especially in public. But Halloween costumes were too exciting.

Ava turned, her eyes huge as she scanned the high walls covered with colorful ruffles and tiaras. “I have to be Elsa. Where is she?”

“Elsa from Frozen?” Lance asked. Over the past six months, he’d seen every animated princess movie in existence.

“Yes.” Ava spun in a circle, her eyes widening and her voice rising in desperation. “I don’t see her!”

Proud that he could identify all the princesses on the wall, Lance pointed to a blue dress. “What about Cinderella?”

“Kaitlin is being Cinderella,” Ava said. “And Jessie is gonna be Belle. Kinsey picked Ariel.” She rattled off several more names. Her second-grade class was going to be a sea of princesses.

Lance spotted the shiny blue-green dress hanging high on the wall. “I see Elsa. Hold on. I’ll get it for you.” Lance set Sophie down and released Mia’s hand with a firm, “Don’t move.”

He reached up and tugged an Elsa costume from the hook. Turning, he handed it to Ava. “Here you go.”

“Yay!” Ava’s squeal could have ruptured an eardrum. She hugged the costume to her face.

Lance spun around. Shit!

Mia and Sophie weren’t in the aisle.

“Where are your sisters?” Panic sparked in Lance’s chest like a struck match. How far could they go?

Ava lowered the costume. “What?”

“Your sisters?” Lance took her by the hand and hurried to the end of the row. They went around the corner and looked up the next aisle. Relief stole his next breath when he spotted the two little girls about twenty feet away. He caught up with them and let go of Ava’s hand.

“Look what I got!” Ava thrust her shiny costume at her sisters.

“That’s the one I want!” Mia was jumping up and down and pointing to a white unicorn costume. It was a wearable stuffed animal with four dangling legs, a pink mane and tail, and a shiny silver horn. On her next jump, she caught a leg and yanked. A dozen costumes cascaded to the floor. Lance picked them up to replace them on their hangers, but all the legs were tangled. He gave up with a prickle of guilt.

Job security for the clerk, right?

“Girls, you cannot walk away from me,” he said.

Ava hugged her costume. Mia danced in a circle with the unicorn. Both nodded and looked appropriately apologetic—for about two seconds.

The girls were usually well behaved. What had gotten into them?

Gianna’s voice echoed in his head. Halloween.

“Where is Sophie?”

Ava pointed. “Right there.”

She was only about six feet away, but her little body was half-hidden by an adult-size cardboard cutout of a zombie. She extended a hand toward a display of rubber zombie masks. They were gory and bloody and completely inappropriate for a four-year-old. If she wore one of those to school, every kid in her class would have nightmares for a week.

Lance felt a tug on his pants. Mia had wrapped one arm around his thigh. She looked up at him with tear-filled eyes.

He crouched down to her level. “What is it, Mia?”

She pointed at the zombie mask and whispered in his ear, “That’s scary.”

“It’s all right.” He wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “It’s just a mask.”

Mia leaned into him, sniffed, and wiped her nose on the unicorn. He was definitely buying that costume now.

He turned to Ava. “You two stand right here. We found your costumes. Now it’s Sophie’s turn.”

“OK.” They nodded. Mia moved to stand next to her sister.