VIVIENNE

~•~

"No," Liam said.

I let out a breath I'd been holding so long my chest hurt.

But he wasn't done. He rubbed his nose with the back of his hand and kept looking at Hale, crouched there in front of him.

"Nobody here scares me," he said. "But I get scared sometimes."

"Of what, sweetheart?" Hale asked, real gentle.

"That somebody's gonna make me go away." He said it small and sleepy. "Back to the old house. I don't like the old house."

"Why would somebody do that, ...