AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Hey, you okay?” I stand from my seat, my concern for him growing by the minute.
“I- I'm sorry for just stopping by like this without an appointment.”
I wave my hand dismissively. “You’re fine. What’s going on?”
“I just received a call from the kids' school saying that they never showed up. I dropped them off myself.”
I stand up straighter, already dreading where this conversation is going. “What happened?”
“She must have been there waiting for them somehow because I watched them walk inside. I left work the second I got the call from the school and called her. She answered.”
“What did she say?” My hackles keep rising more and more and I know I’m already trying to figure out how the hell I’m going to fix this.
“That they need their mother. I’ve never heard her sound like this before, Anya. She’s completely lost it.”
I’m grabbing my purse before he even finishes talking. I’m not exactly sure what can be done, but I do know who I can turn to for this.
“Go home, Noah. I’m going to start making some phone calls and try to get this figured out. But you need to go home in case for any reason she brings them back. And call the police.”
“What will the police do?” I’m already walking toward the door and Noah is following me.
I stop at his question and turn to him. “She shouldn’t have them right now, Noah. Not only was this not within her visitation time, but she took them from school without properly checking them out. She just kidnapped your kids.” I pause while I let that sink in and the pure dread and remorse on his face has my heart breaking for him. The only thing Noah has ever tried to be is a good father. “We’ll get them back and get this resolved. But I need you to go to the authorities. They need to know what’s going on just in case anything happens.”
“You- you mean if they hurt my kids?” I give him a sad smile and place my hand gently on his arm.
“We need to be prepared for any possibility.” He nods once, but it’s jerky and forced. I watch the way he swallows heavily, trying to save back tears. “Go home, Noah. Just call the police and handle that end of things. I’ll start making other phone calls and I’ll be in touch.”
He follows me out of the office, I don’t even pause to tell Willow what’s going on. I’ll just call her in a minute and explain. I wait as Noah gets into his car and drives away. I can only hope he’s able to drive home. Once he’s out of site, I rush to my car and the moment my phone connects to Bluetooth I’m dialing.
“Lars Martin’s office.” The bubbly voice on the other end only makes me even more angry.
“I need to speak with Lars immediately. This is Anya Matterson.”
“Hello Miss. Matterson, I’m sorry but Mr. Martin is in a mee-”
“You can tell Lars to speak to me now, or the authorities will be at his office in fifteen minutes.” The line goes completely silent, and I know she’s relaying my message. I weave my car in and out of traffic, trying to keep myself calm as I make my way out to Alec’s house. I probably should have told Hunter that I was leaving, but he’ll find out soon enough.
“Anya, you’re interrupting my-”
“Are we encouraging our clients to kidnap now, Lars?”
He sputters a few times. “Excuse me?”
“Mariah Baxter. Did you tell her to kidnap her kids, or just hint at it?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” His voice sounds so damn haughty that it only serves to piss me off even more.
“Well, you might want to get on the same page, Lars. Otherwise I’ll be sure to let the authorities know that you were fully aware of what was going on. I’m sure your firm would love that kind of press.”
It’s as if I can hear Lars sitting up straighter in his chair. “I have nothing to do with it.” I’m not even a little bit convinced that that’s true, but I don’t have time to argue with him right now.
“Then I suggest you get your client on the phone and try to convince her to do the right thing. Because if you don’t, the alternative will be jail time for them and unemployment for you. That’s if you’re lucky enough not to be charged as an accessory and disbarred.” The line goes dead, and I know he’s heeding my warning. Lars may be a sexist asshole, but he at least has some sense of self-preservation. He’s not going to risk his job and livelihood, or his license, for a deadbeat mother.
I turn off the highway onto the long stretch of road that leads right to Alec’s house and hurry and call Willow to fill her in. We have a meeting with another client in an hour, but it’s one she can handle since it was scheduled for both of us. Once I give her the full rundown, she assures me that she’ll hold down fort at the office for as long as I need her to.
When I pull into Alec’s driveway, I don’t even have the car turned off before my brother comes storming out.
“What the fuck is going on?” he growls angrily. I glance at his front porch and see Tanner and Hunter both standing there. While Tanner looks concerned, Hunter looks just as pissed as Alec. Probably because I didn’t let him know I was leaving the office.
