Epilogue
EPILOGUE
HOLDEN
S he wasn’t at home. She wasn’t, as far as anyone could tell, at school or anywhere nearby. From what his agent who’d gone to check out her dorm said, she’d left about three days ago.
Around the same time she’d ghosted everyone.
Including him.
Of course, it wasn’t the first time she’d pulled this act with him. Which was why he hadn’t worried too much when he hadn’t heard from her or seen her at the club for a few days, even though he’d thought they were making headway in their relationship. Slow, painfully slow headway, but headway nonetheless. But from what he could tell of her relationship with Lottie and the others, it was definitely the first time she’d gone dark on all of them.
And that worried him. A whole fucking lot.
“Where the hell are you, baby?”
The phone he’d kept clutched in his hand from the moment he’d left Club BDE buzzed and he looked down, his heart constricting in his chest.
Why the hell would he be getting a call from a hospital at nearly one in the morning?
“Holden,” he answered with a grunt.
A slight pause before a woman’s voice responded. “Mr. Prescott?”
“Yes. Who is this?”
“My name’s Julie.” The woman’s voice had a soothing cadence, probably meant to keep whoever was on the other end of the phone call calm. But all it did was make his stomach twist with fear. “I’m a nurse over at MUSC University Hospital. We have Francesca Legare here and she listed you as her emergency contact.”
Already at the front door, he grabbed his keys and yanked the door open, racing down the front steps. “What the hell happened? Is she okay? Where is she?”
“She’s awake and alert, but I’m afraid that’s all I can tell you for now.”
“Fine. I’m on my way. Tell her…” Tell her Daddy’s coming . “Tell her I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
Hanging up the call, he punched the address for the hospital into his GPS and backed out of his driveway as he hit the button to dial Braden’s number.
Not even two rings later, his friend’s worried voice filled the car. “Did you find her?”
“Yeah. Can Lottie hear me?”
“No. She’s upstairs. Cried herself to sleep. What’s wrong?”
“Hospital called. Frankie’s there. Nurse couldn’t tell me much, other than she’s awake and alert, but I’m on my way there now.”
“Fuck.” Braden blew out a breath, and Holden could picture him pacing the floor of his office, running a hand through his hair as he processed what he’d just heard. “Should I wake Lottie?”
“No. Let her sleep. I’ll call you back when I know more.” No point in getting Lottie up, making her worry before they had the full story.
“Thanks. I’m about to go up and check on Lottie, try and get some sleep myself. If I don’t answer, just text me. Lottie will lose her mind if I have to tell her Frankie’s in the hospital and I don’t have any other answers for her.”
“Will do.”
“Appreciate it. And Holden… take care of our girl.”
Like he would do anything less. “Always.”
The call ended, leaving him alone in the car with his thoughts. And his panic, though he was doing his damnedest to keep that tamped down. Whatever had happened tonight, Frankie would need him to be calm. Steady.
She would need her Daddy.
At the hospital, he parked, silently cursing the number of cars filling the parking lot as he ran for the emergency room doors. A rather frazzled-looking nurse glanced up when he approached the front counter.
“I’m looking for Francesca Legare.”
“Family?” the woman asked, tapping the information into the computer.
As a rule, he didn’t make a habit of lying. But his babygirl had asked for him, specifically, and he’d be damned if he let a bunch of bureaucratic bullshit keep him from her. “I’m her Daddy.”
There. Not technically a lie. Nobody needed to know exactly what kind of Daddy he was. And if the nurse was put off by the term, it didn’t show on her face as she took down his information before finally giving him a visitor’s badge and pointing him in the right direction.
Heart threatening to pound out of his chest, he made his way up to Frankie’s room.
And stopped dead in his tracks at the sight of her, looking so small and frail in the oversized hospital bed. Her eyes were closed, her lashes dark against her unusually pale cheeks.
Oh, baby. What the hell happened to you?
Forcing his feet forward, he stood beside the bed, forcing his own chaotic emotions down as he took her hand. Her eyelids fluttered open, revealing the deep brown, glazed with sleep. Or possibly whatever medication they had her on.
“You came,” she croaked out, her voice hoarse.
“Of course I came, little siren. Wild horses couldn’t keep me away.”
He’d hoped to make her laugh, but to his horror, tears filled her eyes, slipping down her cheeks. Cheeks, he was noticing now, that seemed a little too sharp, a little too hollow. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I just didn’t know who else to call. I fucked up and now I don’t know how to fix it and everything is ruined and I just… I need you, Daddy. Please.”
Sitting on the edge of the bed, he gathered her in his arms as sobs racked her body. “Don’t worry baby. Daddy’s here. Whatever it is, we’ll fix it. Together.”
He held her as he cried, and the thought flitted through his mind that he’d finally gotten what he wanted. His babygirl, back in his arms.
Immediately on the heels of that thought came a question that made his blood run cold. Yeah, he had her back, right where she’d always belonged.
But at what cost?
After months of chasing down his wayward babygirl, Holden is finally getting what he’s always wanted: Frankie, in his bed, safe and sound where she belongs. But his girl has been keeping secrets. Big ones. And he’s determined to get to the bottom of them, no matter what it takes, in Break Me, Daddy .
The End!