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“No, I need to look. If she’s lost somewhere, she’s probably scared! This has never happened before. God, how is this even happening now?”
“Hey.” Nora turned at the sound of Lawson’s voice, immediately looking him up and down, disappointed when she saw he was all alone. “Vollucci’s here. He and Moretti are both lookin’ for her, too.”
“Okay. Well, I can’t just stand here.”
“Mitz, you stay,” Steele ordered. “Lawson, you take Nora and keep lookin’. I’ll look, too. If anyone finds her, we’ll call one of you.”
“Yeah. Okay. Let’s go,” demanded Nora, this time headed in the opposite direction.
An hour later, Nora wasn’t merely panicked or afraid. It felt like her skin was crawling; like she’d entered an alternate reality where dreams didn’t come true, only nightmares did. She was trembling from head to toe, but she barely noticed—too distraught to think about herself. She knew she was crying, that she couldn’t stop crying, but that didn’t stop her from yelling her daughter’s name over and over again.
“Baby—baby, come with me,” coaxed Lawson. With one arm wrapped around her middle, his body at her back, she didn’t have much choice but to follow his push as he guided her through the distillery and out into the cool air. Nora didn’t realize how hot she was until the kiss of winter grazed her wet cheeks.
“I need you to breathe,” Lawson murmured directly into her ear.
Until he spoke the words, she hadn’t realized that she couldn’t. She couldn’t breathe.
“I can’t. I—I can’t,” she sobbed, doubling over in his grasp. “Where’s my Evie!? Where’s my baby?!”
“We’re gonna find her. I swear to you.”
She wanted desperately to believe him—but she heard it. She heard his fear. She heard the tremble in his voice, and it only made her cry harder.
“Songbird, I need you to be strong. Our little girl needs you to be strong. Take a deep breath, baby. Please?”
Thinking of Evie, of how scared she must be, it was enough to make Nora drag in a single ragged breath. Then another, and another, each one deeper than the last. When she felt a little more in control, she righted herself, then turned in Lawson’s arms and sought out his gaze. His brown eyes were warm and safe; but rather than see the eyes of the lover she’d longed for since she was fourteen years old, she saw the eyes of the man who had captured her daughter’s heart with promises of forever. And as he stared back at her, she saw in his gaze that he was going to find her—because when he gave away pieces of his heart, he made sure to keep close those he’d trusted with it.
“Lawson…”
Both he and Nora looked behind him at the sound of Steele’s voice. He stood with Leo, both of them wearing the same no-nonsense expression.
“She’s not here. We need to report this.”
Clinging to Lawson’s shirt, Nora buried her face in his neck and whimpered, “Who took my little girl, Lawson? Why? Why would anyone take her?”
As soon as the question was spoken, her stomach turned at the possible answers. She sealed her eyes closed tight andpressed further into Lawson, wishing the worst away. She couldn’t handle it. She couldn’t think of the perverted ways of man; of the chance that when she got her baby back, her innocence would be gone. She couldn’t go there. Net yet.
Before she could completely shove aside her worst nightmare, she felt Lawson flinch. He swore under his breath. Then he let her go and swore again. “Fuck.”
“What?” asked Leo.
“Ashlynn.”
Nora’s spine went rigid at the sound of her name.
“You thinkAshlynntook her?” Steele asked.
“She was here, at Jay’s booth. I confronted her, not thirty minutes before you got here. I told her to leave. What if she didn’t?”
“Are you tellin’ me that crazy bitch has my Evie?” spat Nora.
“She was here,” replied Lawson with a shrug. She could tell by the look in his eyes the act wasn’t flippant so much as it was desperate. They needed answers, and Nora found herself clinging to this one as Lawson said, “It’s the only thing that makes sense.”
“It’s a lead,” declared Steele. “I’ll call Reed. We’ll get all we can on her. Leo, call the local PD, then find someone who can give us access to the damn security camera footage.”
“Fucking fuck,” muttered Lawson, reaching for his own phone. He found Ashlynn’s contact info and called her without delay, placing the call on speaker. Both Steele and Leo joined Nora in staring at the device, waiting for an answer. When the call went directly to voicemail, Lawson hung up and tried again. It went to voicemail a second time, and that was all the confirmation Nora needed.
She didn’t care how little evidence she had; she knew one thing for sure—no way in hell would Ashlynn ignore Lawson’scall without good reason. He was who she was after. He was the prize, and the psycho had made Evie his bait.
