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She nods and she is wordless.
“Please, rest. You have to think of the baby. Please, Mila. I’m going right now. It’ll be ok. I swear it.”
I kiss her hard and fast, and I grab the box out of the desk.
Then I’m out the door. There is so much adrenaline pumping through me that I don’t even feel the pain in my leg as I drive Danger to the airport. I can’t think, I can barely breathe. All I can think about is that picture of my daughter in the back of a stranger’s car.
Her life depends on me.
I have to behave.
Just as he’d said, my plane is waiting at the airport, ready to depart. I climb the steps, and we take off within minutes.
The flight is two hours. Mila calls me and texts me several times.
“Have you heard anything?” she asks me.
“No. Please just stay inside, babe,” I tell her. “Don’t go out.”
“Ok. Natasha is back. She has your crutches.”
Mila breaks down into tears, and I console her the best I can.
“Babe, don’t cry. I’ll get her. It’ll be ok. He wants me. Not Zuzu. It’ll be ok.”
“Nothing can happen to you,”
she cries out. “Please, Pax. God. I can’t be without you. Not now.”
“You won’t,” I tell her firmly. “Call Maddy. Have her and Gabe come over and sit with you. Set the alarm. Ok?”
“Ok,” she agrees. “Please be careful.”
“I will.”
She hangs up, and I’ve never felt more alone, more scared, than I feel right now. I’m suspended above the clouds, in a plane that is flying me towards my old home, and hopefully toward my daughter.
I’m the only one who can fix this.
I know that.
When we land, I walk toward the airport and inside, there is a driver with my name on a sign.
“Sir?” he asks as I stop in front of him.
“I’m Pax Tate. Who sent you?”
He’s confused. “Someone set up your transportation from the airport. Are we not needed?”
“No, you are,” I tell him. “Let’s go.”
I direct him toward Angel Bay, and within the hour, we’re pulling up in front of my lake house.
He drives away, and I’m alone in front of the dark house.
I stare at it for a moment. The modern loft-style home is perched on the tip of bluffs, and I don’t know what I’d expected. Perhaps that Zuzu would come running out into my arms.
But she doesn’t.
