Kisscut

"Lacey?" Mark said, his voice softer, but in a more menacing way than before. He walked around the desk. "It's only go

Sara crossed her arms. "What's purity, Mark?"

Mark looked under the desk, cursing when he found it empty. He kicked it, moving the steel desk across the floor a couple of inches.

"Did you make Je

"Get out of my way," he ordered, walking toward Sara.

She put her hand on the door, blocking his exit.

"Get out of the way."

"What's purity?"

He looked like he might answer, but Sara realized too late he was just trying to throw her off guard. The next thing she knew, she was being pushed back, and hard. She fell into the hall, whacking her head on the floor.

"Sara!" Molly said, ru

"I'm okay," Sara managed, trying to sit up. She looked down the hallway and saw that Lacey was still there about the same time that Mark did.

"Run!" Sara told her. Lacey hesitated, but finally seemed to understand she needed to get out of here. She ran to the door and slammed it open.

"Bitch," Mark yelled, taking after her.

Without thinking, Sara reached out and grabbed at Mark's foot. He tried to yank it away, but she caught the leg of his pants in her fist.

"Stop it," Sara said, trying to hold on.

He reached down, hitting at her hand with his fist. When this did not work, he punched at her face. Sara saw the glint of the red stone in his ring before the first blow caught her on the forehead, and she was so surprised that she let go.

"Oh, my God," Molly breathed, putting her hand to her mouth.

"Crap," Sara hissed, touching her forehead. Mark's ring had caught her right at the temple. She looked at the blood on her fingers, but then thought of Lacey and made herself stand.

Molly began, "Maybe you should-"

Sara took off after Mark and Lacey, shouting, "Where the hell is Jeffrey?" over her shoulder.

Sara stopped outside the back door, trying to get her bearings. The sun was beating down, and Sara shielded her eyes as she tried to spot Lacey in the trees behind the building.

"Did they go around front?" Molly asked, jogging toward the side of the clinic. Sara followed her, bumping into the nurse as she turned the corner.

Molly was pointing to the road. "There she is."

They both took off at the same time, but Sara's stride was longer, and she soon left Molly behind. The road in front of the clinic was hardly a busy thoroughfare, but at lunchtime the professors and students left campus to come into town. Sara watched as Lacey ran into the street, Mark right behind her, screaming at the top of his lungs.

Somehow, they both made it across the road. Lacey ran toward the lake, but Sara watched as another figure, a blur, really, came from the side and tackled Mark to the ground. By the time Sara and Molly crossed the street, Lena Adams was straddling Mark's back like a rodeo rider as she jerked his arms behind him and cuffed his wrists.

"Oh, shit," Lena said, looking up the street.

Lacey was too far away for Sara to recognize her by any other means than the bright yellow raincoat. Sara stood helpless, watching as an old black car stopped beside the girl. The passenger-side door swung open and an arm reached out, grabbing Lacey around the waist and pulling her inside the car.

Sara touched the bandage on her forehead as she got out of the car. Molly had sewn in two sutures, then canceled the rest of Sara's appointments so that she could have some downtime in order to recover from the ordeal at the clinic. Sara's head hurt, and she was hot and irritable. She might as well have stayed at the clinic and seen patients, but Molly had not really given her a choice. Maybe the nurse was right. Every time Sara thought about what had happened at the clinic, she felt as if a band were being tightened around her chest. Knowing another one of her kids was in jeopardy and that there was absolutely nothing she could do made Sara want to put her head on her mother's shoulder and cry.

"Mama?" Sara called, kicking off her shoes as she closed the front door behind her. There was no answer, and Sara walked back to the kitchen, asking, "Mama?" again.

There was still no answer, and Sara felt her heart sink. She filled a glass with water and finished it all in several gulps, then wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

Sara flopped onto the kitchen stool and picked up the phone, dialing Jeffrey's number. Lena had taken Mark off to the station before Sara had thought to ask her where he was.

"Tolliver," he answered, and she could tell from the hollow echo of his voice that he was in his car.

"Where are you?" she asked.

"I got caught up in Alabama for a while," he told her. "I talked to Lena. She told me about Lacey. You didn't get a look at who was in the car?"

"No," Sara answered. "Did you talk to her parents?"

"Frank's with them now. They don't know anybody who drives a car like that."

"What has Mark said?"

"He won't talk to anybody," Jeffrey told her. "Not even Lena."

"Who would want to kidnap her?"

"I don't know," Jeffrey said. "We've put out an A.P.B. all over the state. I want to talk to Mark and see if we can find anything out."

"I feel like we're missing something big here," she said. "Something right under our noses."

"Yeah." He was quiet, and she could hear the engine rev in his car as he accelerated. He said, "Tell me what happened today. Begi

Sara took a deep breath, then told him. The part Jeffrey seemed to focus on most was Mark hitting her, probably because it was the only thing he knew he could take care of.

"What did he hit you with?" he asked, his tone sharp.

"His ring," she said, then amended, "His fist, really, but his ring did most of the damage. He wasn't really hitting hard. He just wanted me to turn him loose." She put her fingers to the bandage. "It's not bad."

" Lena wrote him up on assault?"

"Probably," Sara answered, letting him know he should drop it.

He got the hint. "Did it look like Lacey knew the people in the car?"

"It was so far away, Jeffrey. I don't know. I wouldn't have even known it was her except for the bright-yellow coat she was wearing."

" Lena knew the car. Some of the kids from school had seen Je

Sara played with the cord of the phone as he told her what Lena had learned at the high school. When he was fin-ished, all she could say was, "That doesn't sound like the Je

"I'm begi

She said what had been nagging in the back of her mind all along. "Do you think Mark and Lacey are the parents?" she asked. "I mean, I know that's why you wanted the sample on Mark, but it never occurred to me that…"

"I know," he said. She could tell from the quick way he answered her that Jeffrey had been thinking about this for a while. "I think it's possible."

She asked, "What was your reading on Teddy Patterson?"

"Possible there, too."

"I doubt he'll submit to a test without an order."

"You got that right."

Sara sighed, wondering how all of this fit together. "Maybe Je

"Could be," he said, and she could tell he was concentrating on something else.

"Jeff…" Sara began, not knowing how to broach the subject without making him angry. "Mark was cut across his abdomen. It wasn't bad, but I think someone probably tried to hurt him."

"Good."

"No," she stopped him. "He's a kid. Promise me you won't forget that."

"A kid who may have raped his sister and pimped out her friend," he said. "A kid who punched you in the face."

"Forget about me," Sara told him. "I mean it, Jeffrey. Don't make it about me."