Page 96 of Blood Money

“It will pass.” Daisy guided her to a chair. “As horrible and gut-wrenching as it feels right now, one day it will pass. You know it’s true, just as you know one day you’ll meet someone else.”

“Maybe.” Alex sat at the table. Maybe not. “I’d really hoped, I thought… I was so in love with him, but he couldn’t understand. He doesn’t have it in him. He’s unbendable to a fault. The very thing that makes him a good cop, makes it impossible for him to forgive what I’ve done.”

Daisy set plates of steaming lasagna onto the table and sat beside Alex. “What you did was protect your son. If Gray can’t see that, he doesn’t deserve you and it wasn’t meant to be. Sometimes love can conquer all. Sometimes it can’t.”

Alex laughed bitterly. “It sure isn’t the fairy tale it’s supposed to be. Look at us, both yearning for men who don’t want us.”

Daisy’s face went blank, leaving Alex to believe she’d touched a seriously tender nerve. When her friend grabbed a fork and knife and began cutting up her lasagna like she wanted to kill it, Alex instantly regretted what she’d said. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bring up an unpleasant subject for you.”

“You didn’t.” Daisy crammed a mouthful of food into her mouth and chewed. After swallowing, she pointed her fork at Alex. “I’m usually a good judge of men. I thought Dom and I really connected. I never felt that way about a man before, and I never had sex with one after knowing him for only four hours. That was stupid. At least you and Gray really had something, you know? If he hadn’t turned out to be such a jerk, I believe you guys could have had something good.”

“Me, too.” Alex began to eat, although the lasagna she normally had culinary orgasms over tasted like cardboard.

Her cell phone rang. A quick glance at the screen said it was Nicky’s school calling. Alex’s first thought was that he’d spiked a low-grade fever, which happened sometimes during the few days preceding his next treatment. “Hello?”

“Ms. Romano, this is Principal McNally at Nicky’s school.” Alex froze. From the alarmed tone of the woman’s voice, she instantly knew something was wrong. “I—I don’t know how else to say this. Nicky is missing.”

Alex stood so abruptly, the chair she’d been sitting on toppled to the floor behind her. “Missing?” That one word conjured up every mother’s nightmare.

“Yes. I don’t know how this happened. I called the police, and they should be here any minute. I have a technician pulling up footage from all the cameras covering the school property. You should come here right away and bring a recent photo of Nicky for the police to use.”

“I’ll be right there.” She hung up and sucked in gulp after gulp of air. Her heart galloped in her chest. She was on the verge of hyperventilating.

“Alex. Alex!” Daisy grabbed her arm. “Talk to me. What’s going on?”

“Nicky’s missing. I have to go to the school.” Alex looked around the kitchen, not really knowing what she was searching for.

Shock. I’m in shock.

She blew out long, slow breaths, trying to smash down her escalating panic. She brushed past Daisy and ran into the living room. “I have to find a photo…of Nicky…to give to the police.”

“I’m going with you.” Daisy grabbed her handbag. “I’ll call Gray. I know you don’t want to talk to him or see him, but maybe he can help.”

“No.” The mention of Gray’s name snapped Alex out of her terrified stupor. “He’s out of our lives, and this has nothing to do with him. The school called the police, and they have experts who find missing children. That’s not Gray’s expertise. There’s nothing he could do that they can’t.”

“Alex, I don’t think this is the time to—”

“Don’t you dare call him.” Alex grabbed a photo album from a shelf. “Go downstairs and get us a taxi.”

In seconds, Daisy had her coat on and was out the door. Alex went directly to the back of the album for the most recent school photo of Nicky she knew was on the last page.

“It’s here,” she muttered. Her hands were shaking so badly now she was barely able to turn the pages. “It’s got to be here.” Finding what she was after, she yanked the photo from the plastic sheath and shoved it into her pocketbook.

She ran to the door, flung it open, and slammed it shut behind her. Once outside, she realized she’d forgotten to grab a coat.

Daisy stood at the curb next to a yellow taxi. At seeing Alex, she hastily shoved her phone into her pocket and opened the rear door of the car. They both got into the backseat.

“Please, hurry,” Alex said to the taxi driver after reciting the school’s address. Her voice was shaky and sounded panicked. I am panicked. “My son is missing.” Tires screeching, the driver floored the taxi down the street, braked at the red light, then made an illegal left turn.

Daisy looked at Alex, her forehead creased in concern. “I hate to say this, but do you think this is connected to everything else that’s been going on? This can’t be a coincidence. Can it?”

“I don’t know.” Or do I?

Alex squeezed her eyes shut, willing this all to be a bad dream she would wake up from any second. She dug her nails into her pocketbook, twisting the soft leather between her hands.

Again her breath came in quick gasps.

Please, let this all be a giant mistake, that Nicky was playing hide-and-seek outside and he’ll be there when I get to the school.