Page 116 of Juniper Hill (The Edens 2)

“What do you mean, missing?”

“Just tell me!” I screamed the words, the hold on my sanity beginning to break.

Before I could hear my father’s response, Knox ripped the phone from my hand. “Talk. Now.”

A tear sped down my cheek as I stared up at Knox. His jaw ticked and his nostrils flared at whatever my father said. Then he dropped the phone from his ear and ended the call.

“What?”

“He refused to pay. Told her to fuck off. Hasn’t heard from her since.”

“Oh, God.” A hand flew to my mouth to hold in a sob.

How could I have been so foolish? In the past weeks, I’d let myself have hope. I’d let myself be blind. My father had never intended to help me. Not once.

I was about to crash to the sidewalk when a strong arm banded around my back, holding me up. “He called her bluff. And she called his.”

“Does he have a name?” Winn asked.

Knox shook his head. “No. He didn’t get one.”

“This is my fault,” I whispered. “I should have dealt with it myself.”

“No. This isn’t on you.” Knox took my face in his hands, his thumbs wiping furiously to dry the tears. “We made this decision together.”

“It was the wrong decision.”

The anguish on his face only made my tears fall faster. “I know.”

“What do we do? Where is he?”

“We’ll find him.” Knox pulled me to his chest, holding tight as he spoke to Winn. “What do we do?”

“I know you don’t want to hear this, but I need you both to wait.”

I growled into Knox’s chest, the terror morphing to frustration and despair. “I can’t sit in that car and do nothing. I can’t watch mothers walk into the center and pick up their children. I can’t.”

“Walk to town if you want,” Winn said. “But we’ve got a lot of people looking for Jill. I’ll check in with the team and be back with an update shortly.”

“Then let’s go.” He let me go and grabbed my hand, pulling me down the sidewalk as we set off toward Main.

My legs were stiff and wobbly over the first two blocks, but then they began to warm and my strides lengthened. We walked in silence but the dull scream in my head grew louder with each step.

If my father had no idea who the woman was who’d tried to blackmail him, there was one person who would.

I stopped so abruptly that my hand slipped from Knox’s firm grasp.

“What’s wrong?”

“We have to know who this woman was. Even if it’s not her, we have to know.” The time for burying my head in the sand was over. I’d made the mistake thinking that in Montana I was unreachable. Maybe this had nothing to do with the blackmail but I wasn’t going to take that chance.

“You’re going to call Oliver,” Knox guessed.

I nodded and dug out my phone, finding the number I’d hidden under a fake name.

“Yes,” he answered, his voice as cold as the winter air.

“Who knows about us?”