Chapter 11
Taken
Present day…
Iknow exactly what I need to do. Or really, who I need to go to. If this was another time and place, I would appreciate the irony of the situation—that this morning I was avoiding him, hellbent on running away, and now I’m running to him.
I clutch my phone in my hand so tight I’m afraid the glass will shatter, and then where will I be? I had just stopped the video. I’m going to be sick, but I can’t now. I have to get to Rick. If anyone can fix this, it’s him. I know we have a lot to atone for between us, but I also know I can trust him with this.
My lungs burn with the air that isn’t filling them as I race from my small office in the First Lady’s offices to the presidential offices.
“Stop, ma’am,” one of the marines who guards the offices says. “No one is allowed back here.”
“I need to see Rick Donovan right away,” I tell him as I flash my badge. My voice is thread, and my hands shake. “It’s an emergency.”
“Right this way, Ms. Donovan,” Gus, one of Jake’s Secret Service agents says from somewhere behind me, surprising both the sentry and me. Granted, I’m a little jumpy right now. “You can wait in his office. I’ll tell him you’re here.”
“Can’t I just go to him?” I ask. “It’s important.”
“No, ma’am,” he tells me gently. “He’s in a closed-door meeting,” Gus explains.
“Oh okay,” I say. “Just… please hurry.”
I pace Rick’s office while I wait for him. If he doesn’t show soon, I’m going to puke in his wastepaper basket. My stomach is turning over and over. Sweat beads my upper lip and my hairline. The room swirls around me while I struggle to get my bearings. The offending video on my phone plays in my brain on a loop.
These things are time sensitive, right? And my baby. I can’t bear for her to be away from me for one more minute. I need to get to her, but I don’t know where she is. I left her safe and sound at school just a few hours ago, and now she’s just… gone.
“What the fuck could be so important that you’ve interrupted me during a closed-door meeting, Cara? Did you break a nail?” he seethes. I know he probably hates me again after my refusal of marriage last night. I hate me too. I did things he will never understand to protect him, to protect Rachel, and now it was all for nothing.
“She’s go—” The words get stuck in my throat, and I can’t get them out.
“Who’s gone?” he asks, his body instantly alert.
“Our daughter,” I explain, holding out my phone with the video queued up. “Somebody took Rachel.”
“Our daughter,” I explain. “Somebody took Rachel.”
And poor Rick. He just found her, and now if something happens to her, it will gut him. I know he hates me, and I accept that he should, but Rick is a good man and an even better father than I could have dreamed he’d be. He is the way he is because of me and my actions, not because of him or who he is deep down.
“What do you mean somebody took Rachel?” Rick asks after a pause.
“She’s gone, Rick,” I answer in a panic. My belly is churning with acid and I know I’m going to be sick just saying the words. “Someone took her from the school.”
I hold out my phone with the video queued up. Rick takes the little stack of glass and metal that hold our whole entire world in them.
Rick takes the phone from my outstretched hand and I watch as he hits play, his face is blank until the video starts and I watch the tightening of his jaw, his fingers whiten around my piece of shit phone, it’s the only outward sign he gives that he’s upset. Rick is a fortress and I’m that little piggy’s straw house, one more gust and I’m toast.
I clench my eyes tight and will the sounds of our daughter begging me to come get her away, but I can’t. I can only use them to harden my heart and steel my resolve to find her by any means possible.
“I think I know who did it,” Rick says after a moment. He still doesn’t look at me; he just continues to scroll through the messages on my phone. He sees everything, and I’m okay with that. For the first time in almost ten years, I’m not hiding anything from him, and it feels so much better.
“You do?” I ask, surprised. How could he know who did this? But even if he does, this is good. We can get her back right now. “Well, go get her. We have to get her back.”
“I’ll get Rachel back if it’s the last thing I do,” he vows. God, I hope it’s not. He and Rachel need time to get to know each other after spending almost nine years apart. I don’t want anything to happen to either of them. I love them both, and I always have. If we get through this, maybe we’ll finally have our chance at the family we were denied years ago. But it’s too soon to let myself hope now. Now, I have to do whatever Rick says we need to.
“Please,” I beg. I hope he knows I mean I need him to get our daughter back but also need him to come back in one piece as well.
“I don’t know exactly who it is, but I think I knowwhy.”
