The new social worker assigned to Sydney's case talked on the phone and ignored her. She hooked her feet behind the legs of the chair and leaned against the table in the dining room of the group home for unplaced foster kids under watch by the judge. She'd already served thirty days in the group home run by a woman named Stella and her time was up.

She'd tried to run away four times. Every week, she broke out of the home only to be snitched on by one of the other foster kids. Now, she was being locked up in JDH—Juvenile Detention Hall.

Mrs. Hawthorne hung up the phone. "You will be escorted to JDH by a uniformed police officer." She removed a piece of paper from her opened briefcase and slid it across the table. "Please read the instructions. If for some reason, you can't read them, I will read them to you." She set a blue ballpoint pen down in front of her. "You must initial after each rule and sign your name at the bottom of the paper. Do I need to repeat the instructions?"

She shook her head and read.

The rest of the rules blurred in her vision. She grabbed the pen and scribbled her initials at the end of each sentence. Because the state couldn't find an appropriate home for her within thirty days, she was being shoved into a cell at JDH.

Signing her name, she gave back the pen and pushed the paper away from her. "Done."

"I will meet with you every Tuesday. You will not know the time I'll show up, but it's mandatory that we meet. If for any reason you refuse to meet with me, I'll contact the judge. There could be punishment or/and monetary charges that would be held and served after your eighteenth birthday." Mrs. Hawthorne pushed another paper at Sydney. "Please sign that you know the appointment day and acknowledge that you will be tested for drugs once a month at my discretion."

She signed her name.

More papers were shoved at her. "You can keep these. They're the rules that you'll be expected to follow. You'll initially be put in a room by yourself. Prove you can get along with others and you could be moved to having a roommate."

"Can I have visitors?" asked Sydney.

"Only parents or guardians." Mrs. Hawthorne looked over her glasses at her. "The foster parents that you ran away from have signed off on their roles as your guardians. There will be no other acquaintances allowed inside the visitor's room."

"What about siblings?"

Mrs. Hawthorne's mouth tightened. "Only siblings that are over the age of eighteen."

Refusing to let the strict rules get her down, she shut her mouth. Tomorrow, she'd have some freedom. From a prior stay in JDH, she knew phone calls would be allowed. She could call Kylie. Maybe she would be able to find out Jett's phone number and let him know she was being put in JDH so he wouldn't worry.

She swallowed hard. Leaving Kylie had been the hardest thing she'd lived through. Until she got used to sleeping beside Jett. Her heart hurt. It hurt so bad, she couldn't even cry.

***

JETT SLAMMED THE DOOR of the clubhouse. The violent noise he needed to hear in the large room never happened because of the fucking music blaring.

Chief stopped him halfway across the room. "Anything, son?"

"No." He walked with Chief to the kitchen where they could talk without shouting.

Chief leaned against the counter. "Our contacts with the P.D. couldn't help?"

"Wasted trip." He opened the fridge, pulled out a sandwich, and unwrapped the Saran Wrap. "Even the police can't get into the state records of minors. They're sealed by the courts. We'd need a judge."

"Tried before. The two sons of bitches sitting on the bench were selected by a legislative committee at the state level." Chief gazed at the counter, frowning. "She wasn't in the group home you checked out?"

He wiped the crumbs from his beard over his rushed dinner after not having eaten all day. "The guard believes she left three days ago. Apparently, he knows some chick in the office down in juvie and is going to try and get more information for me. Until then, I wait and keep looking."

"We've got a run in two weeks," said Chief.

He stepped over to the sink and filled a glass with water. "I'll be ready."

Whether he found Sydney or not, he wouldn't jeopardize Brikken business. It took years to keep the same men on the road, each one having proved his loyalty to Brikken.