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Confess the only thing I wanted to do was protect her. Save her from the fate I brought to those closest to me.
Save her from me.
I picked it up, staring at her plea, her promise that we could do this together, my insides a riot of desperation and need.
I forced myself to shove it into my pocket.
Responding would only make it worse.
I needed to end this.
Sever it before it was too late.
But it already felt too late, didn’t it?
Like I’d dragged a hot blade through both of our spirits, rending them apart.
Spilling our hearts out.
Gutting pain was the only thing left.
Daybreak hovered at the edge of the sky, a hue of gray spreading over the heavens that should usher in warmth but sent a cold chill slipping beneath my flesh.
I would have to wake Evelyn soon.
Break her heart all over again.
Zipping up the case, I reminded myself there was no other way. Staying here and putting the child in danger was not an option. I never should have believed it would be safe in the first place.
Never should have given.
Never should have settled into this comfort.
Never should have fallen.
I carried the rest of my things down to the first floor where I’d already set a bunch of bags at the door, then I forced myself to return upstairs, preparing to once again be the one to destroy the child’s joy.
The one to bear news I never wanted to give.
Only the last time, there’d been a wall of stone between us, a vacant place where this connection hadn’t lived.
Could I be enough to comfort her this time?
My jaw locked as I hit the second-floor landing. I kept my footsteps quieted as I took the path toward her room, and I ignored the piercing agony that struck me as I passed the emptiness that echoed from Paisley’s vacant room.
I couldn’t contemplate it right then.
Only I felt that same emptiness echo from the bare crack of Evelyn’s door. An awareness that hit me as hard as slamming face-first into a brick wall.
A spindle of dread curled down my spine, and I nudged the door farther open.
A dusky haze infiltrated her room, the space still trapped in shadows, though I had no issue recognizing that her bed was empty.
Her covers pushed back, the spot where she had slept divoted and vacant. I had just checked her monitor thirty minutes ago, and she had been there.
“Evelyn?” I pushed inside. I spun in her room while my heart thudded out of time. When there was no response, I rushed into the en suite bathroom. The door was open, and I flicked on the light, searching the barren space.
Nothing.
I ran back into her room and dropped to my knees to search beneath her bed.
Nothing.
Ice shivered through my soul, and I rushed back out into the hall, shouting, “Evelyn? Evelyn, where are you?”
Ominous silence shouted back.
My pulse raced, a vicious banging that pounded through my veins in a thunderclap of desperation.
Fear and torment and agony.
I blew into Paisley’s room, searching every inch the way I’d done Evelyn’s.
Again, it was empty.
I barreled back out and into the next guest room that had been vacant since we’d come here, my voice frantic and edged with a plea. “Evelyn? I need you to answer me. Right now. I know you might be upset with me over what happened with Paisley yesterday, but I need to know you’re safe. Please.”
The stillness screamed.
I darted in and out of rooms, the chaos in my chest beating harder with each room that was empty.
The downstairs was just as desolate as above.
The horse.
The horse.
It finally occurred to me where Evelyn would have sought sanctuary, and I rushed out the front door and ran down the path to the barn. I busted through the double doors.
Hope drained out of me when I found Mazzy alone in her stall.
“Evelyn!” I ran the length of the barn, shouting it from the top of my lungs. “Evelyn!”
Mert appeared at the open doorway, squinting through the murky film of morning light that streamed in through the cracks in the walls. “What’s going on?”
“I can’t find Evelyn.”
“You check the house?”
“She’s not there.” I couldn’t keep the bite out of my voice. “I want everyone up, searching every inch of this ranch for her.”
“Yes, sir.”
Mert turned and walked out, and I dialed 9-1-1. “9-1-1, what’s your emergency?”
“My daughter is missing.”
And I realized it was the first time I’d said it.
Claimed it.
Understood what it meant.
I gasped as the agony clawed and ripped at my chest, talons that tore through flesh and muscle and bone, flaying me open to where only spirit and soul existed.
I gave the woman all the information I could then I dialed Ezra’s number. He answered, his voice garbled with sleep. “Caleb, what’s going on?”
“Evelyn…she wasn’t in her bed this morning, and she’s nowhere to be found. He was here. He took her.”
