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My phone rings. Timeo rubs a hand across his temple.
"That's that lovebird song for her ringer, isn't it? Is this the universe giving you a break? Because if it is, that's some really fucking awesome shit you just did, bro."
I look down at my phone. My heart leaps into my throat.
Dani.
"Hello?" I sound too desperate, too eager, but I don't fucking care.
"Ricco…" She's obviously crying. I'm on my feet, gripping my phone tightly, my other hand fisted into a ball.
“Dani, what happened?”
"It's Emmy, Ricco. Help me. She’s gone.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
“I’M ON MY WAY”
Dani
"Where are you?" My voice is wobbly, and I'm not sure how I even get the words out. I haven't even called Sarah or Jason yet. My finger was on Ricco’s number while I could barely process the next step. Ricco was the first person I called.
And I know that says something about me, about us, that in a tragic situation like this, he's the only one that I call. But I don't have time to figure all that out right now. I have to keep my shit together.
"I'm at her school. The cops are here," I tell him. “I was watching her on the video feed, and I could tell it wasn't her. She wouldn't wear a dinosaur costume, Ricco!"
"Stay calm, I'm on my way. Tell me everything as I get into the car and come to you.” His voice is calm, and I can actually breathe, just hearing him on the other end.
I tell him everything I know. That she's been with me over the past couple of days because I was distraught and feared for her safety. How I discounted my own worries, because there have been too many instances of worrying about her that turned into the boy who cried wolf in my own mind. That I had to let her go, I had to trust that she was okay. But that I had to make sure that she was safe.
"Some other child had her shoes on, Ricco. Whoever took her was clever enough to swap her shoes with someone else’s, and then put the other child in a costume. I don't know how long she's been gone. The teacher says they've had the costumes out all day. And they have shit video surveillance here. I may have been pissed off at you because you had video cameras in my studio, but I sure as hell wish they had some decent surveillance at the school. It's a school, with children, for crying out loud!" My voice rises.
"I know, babe. Schools don't have the money for good surveillance equipment sometimes."
I can't listen to his rationalizing right now, I'm in a total panic because my daughter’s missing.
"The police are here. I had to call the police. The school was twiddling their thumbs, thinking that maybe she was in the bathroom, maybe she went for a walk, maybe she decided she was thirsty and went to go get some apple juice from the cafeteria." Anger begins to rise because I hate the way they treated us. To be fair, a child being abducted or taken off school grounds isn't something that anybody even wants to admit could ever happen.
"Who could've done this?" I ask him.
"I don't know, Dani. But we're going to find her. I promise."
I don't think that his promise means anything to me after what he's done, but just hearing him say that, I want to believe him. I have to believe him. I don't know what else to do except believe him.
We talk on the phone, me telling him every single possible detail while he's on his way.
When he reaches me at the school, my reaction surprises me. When he exits his car, my heart leaps into my throat.
I can breathe again. I didn't know that the presence of another person could actually help me breathe again.
When Ricco stalks over to me, all stern and fierce and competent and respectable, I know that he's going to do everything, fucking everything, to find my daughter. The police have already told me that they have a twenty-four-hour protocol they have to follow.
"She's a child, and she's gone," I tell them.
"Children go missing often," one police officer patiently tries to tell me. “Without evidence of abduction, we need to ensure she hasn’t walked off or fallen asleep somewhere.”
I’ve been seething, ready to throttle them, when Ricco shows up.
To my absolute delight, the police officers suddenly start taking me seriously. Ricco storms over to one of them.
Ricco told me once that when he’s only wearing a tee, it’s to show off the Montavio family crest tattooed on his arm. It signifies who he is and what he demands.
He’s only wearing a tee right now.
“Ladies, gentlemen,” Ricco greets in a voice that gets everyone’s attention. The police officers stand straighter, and a few of them give each other looks. "I'm Daniella’s boyfriend. Name’s Ricco Montavio."
