Page 61 of Her Honorable Hero

“Okay, well I’ll leave you to it. Bye,” Scarlett said just before she hung up.

Miranda immediately clicked over to the other text. It had an attachment.

My granddaughter is beautiful.

The hair on the back of her neck raised.

Miranda’s thumb swiped on her screen. It took a long moment for her to comprehend what she was seeing. It looked so normal. There was Livvie like she had seen her plenty of times before, sitting in the grocery store shopping cart, holding onto her stuffed giraffe with one hand, and the cart’s handle with the other. Griff’s back muscles were well-defined in his T-shirt as he reached up to a shelf for a can of something.

Livvie was wearing her little yellow outfit from yesterday.

Wait a minute. This picture had been taken when Griff had gone to the store with her last evening!

Now the picture was going out of focus.

No, wait, her hand was trembling.

The phone vibrated again.

Blocked caller.

Bastard!

Her eyes flashed upwards. Her door was closed.

“You tagged your message, didn’t you?” she hissed into the phone. “What do you want?”

“It took you long enough to open it. Anyway, can’t a man just take pride in his flesh and blood. I can’t believe you’ve denied me a chance to meet my granddaughter. She’s really lovely, Miranda.” Butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth.

“This isn’t fun and games anymore. You can have me on a string as much as you want. But my daughter? You’ve crossed a line. We’re through. I’m calling the police.”

“And tell them what, exactly?” he asked smoothly. “I haven’t done one thing wrong. All I’ve done is try to establish a relationship with my daughter.”

She hung up.

She forwarded the text to Griff’s phone. Before she could then dial Griff, another text came through from the blocked number. It had another attachment. She couldn’t open it fast enough. It showed a picture of the exterior of Livvie’s daycare. When her phone rang and the blocked number showed again she didn’t answer it, because she was dialing the daycare center.

“Answer, answer,” she chanted into the phone. On the third ring, they picked up.

“This is Mrs. Porter, Livvie Porter’s mom,” she blurted out as soon as she heard the person answer the phone.

“What?”

Miranda didn’t recognize the voice.

She took a breath and then repeated herself.

“How may I help you, Mrs. Porter?”

“I’m going to be there in a twenty or thirty minutes. Please only release my daughter to her father Griffin or to me. Please ensure that both of us provide our identification.”

Dammit, how was she going to get there? She didn’t have her SUV.

“Please hold.”

“Susan!” she yelled.

Miranda was suddenly confronted by static-y music.