Chapter 29
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Catharina
She’s gone. Lost somewhere on this island that suddenly feels impossibly, stupidly large. Night has fallen, but we’re still out here, our beams of light traveling over the forest floor as we call for my babygirl.
“Alexis!” Maxwell’s voice carries through the dark. “Alexis, honey, if you can hear us, yell!”
We all pause, waiting for any sound, any hint she might be close by.
But all that greets us is silence.
Sliding my hand into my pocket, I grip the locket we found up in a tree. Clearly put there as a decoy, a clever trick I can’t help but admire despite my worry.
A clever trick she will be answering for once I have her back where she belongs. In my home, in my bed, safe and fucking sound.
“Cat!”
Whipping around at the sound of Evander’s voice, hope and terror tangle in my chest, a crash of emotions that knocks the very air from my lungs. “What? What is it? Did you find her?”
“Yes.” He appears from the dark, his flashlight barely illuminating his stony face. “But she’s not on the island.”
“Where the hell is she?”
“Here.” He thrusts a large, bulky phone at me and I snatch it from his hands, holding it up to my ear.
“What the fuck have you done with my babygirl?” I snarl into the receiver.
The voice that comes through the phone is familiar, deep and smoky and distinctly feminine. “Well, that’s a fine greeting,” Grayson Thorne answers with a low chuckle. “Here I am, doing you a favor and you’re swearing at me. Tsk tsk, Catharina.”
“Gray.” My head swims with relief. “Do you have Alexis? Is she with you?”
“She is. Safe and sound and well fed. Poor Little thing stumbled right into my office looking like she’d been crawling through mud for three days straight.”
“Let me talk to her.”
“Do you want to talk to your Mommy, sweetheart?” There’s a pause, followed by a low hum. “She’s shaking her head.”
“Grayson, I swear to god—”
“Hang on a minute, sweetheart. Auntie Gray is just going to step outside and talk to your Mommy for a minute. You sit your bottom right there in that chair until I get back, understood? Good girl.”
My stomach twists with jealousy, ridiculous as it may be.
That is my Little girl, and the sound of another woman calling her a good girl has my vision going red at the edges.
I try to breathe through it, to remind myself that I’m grateful Grayson is taking care of my baby and she isn’t lost or injured somewhere in the dark.
It feels like an eternity I have to wait for Grayson to speak again. “All right, Cat, what the fuck happened?”
There’s the Gray I know and… well, love might be a strong word. Tolerate and respect, certainly. “I wish I knew, Gray. I put her down for a nap after our trip to the waterpark and when I went to get her out of her crib, she was gone.”
“She didn’t want me to call you.” Gray’s voice is more somber than I can ever remember hearing it.
“Not because she was worried you’d be mad, but because she didn’t think you’d care.
It was hard to figure out what she was saying through the tears but I can tell you one thing for sure, I’ve got a very heartbroken Little girl in my office.
One who thinks her Mommy doesn’t love her. ”
Nothing, literally nothing could have shocked me more than those words. But on the heels of it comes a determination stronger than anything I’ve ever felt before.
“Send Evander your coordinates. I’m on my way.”
I’m still not sure what the hell happened this afternoon. But if my Little girl needs me to prove to her how much I love her, then that’s exactly what I’m going to fucking do.
Lexie
Behind me, the door opens again and Auntie Gray slips back inside, her expression carefully neutral as she settles into her seat across from me again.
Behind her stands a giant of a man with a thick dark beard, his arms crossed over his chest. Uncle Axel, I’ve been told to call him, has been watching me with the same dark eyes as his sister while Auntie Gray went outside to talk to Mommy.
I have to fight the urge to squirm in my seat when Auntie Gray pins me with her own dark gaze. “Your Mommy is on her way.”
Excitement and hope flare to life inside my chest, but they’re quickly smothered by heartbreak.
Sliding down in my chair, I cross my arms and turn my head away from the stoic blonde across from me.
In the back of my mind, I’m well aware that I look exactly like a sulky child, no matter how hard I’ve tried to insist that I’m not a Little girl. “She’s not my Mommy.”
“Tell me why you feel that way.”
Not a question, but also not a dismissal of my feelings. “Cuz she’s not.”
“Alexis.” There’s a hint of steel now in Auntie Gray’s tone, enough to have me giving into the need to shift nervously in my chair.
I’m not entirely convinced she’d spank me, but I’m also not entirely convinced she wouldn’t.
“You are going to tell me what’s going on, or you are going to put your nose in that corner until you’re ready to talk. ”
The threat of cornertime convinces me to sneak a peek at her face to see if she’s bluffing. But it’s the concern I see there, the warmth of it in her dark eyes that finally loosens my tongue.
“She doesn’t want me,” I whisper, tears blurring my vision. “She wants Tori, but she can’t have her, so she settled for me.”
“Bullshit,” Uncle Axel growls, his eyes narrowing. There’s such fierceness in the words, in his expression, that I can’t help but shrink away from him.
“Axel, hush. You’re scaring the baby.” Rising now from her chair, Auntie Gray rounds the desk to crouch down in front of me, her hands resting on my thighs. “I can promise you that’s the furthest thing from the truth. Your Mommy loves you and wants you.”
“How would you know?” The tears I’ve been trying to hold back slip freely down my cheeks. “You don’t even know me.”
“True. But I’ve known your Mommy a very long time.
She helped me and my brothers out of a tight spot a few years ago.
” A smile curves her lips. “Truthfully, she saved our lives. So believe me when I tell you that I know Cat, and I know she wouldn’t be on her way here, right now, if she didn’t believe in her very soul that you are hers. ”
“Really?” I want to believe her, so bad it’s a physical ache in my chest.
“Yes, sweetheart.” Auntie Gray’s lips twitch slightly, her expression turning sympathetic. “Unfortunately for you, that also means your bottom is going to be rather sore once she gets her hands on you.”
My stomach twists at her words. Somehow, in all of this, I never actually considered what would happen if I was caught.
Perhaps because, deep down in my very soul, I really did believe Catharina wouldn’t care if I escaped.
But now, knowing my Mommy’s on her way to come get me, I’m both terrified and elated. “Did she sound very mad on the phone?”
“Absolutely furious.” Her voice is far more chipper than it should be under the circumstances, and she flashes me a bright grin. “So we should probably take advantage of the little bit of time we have before she gets here. How does chocolate cake sound for dessert?”
“Gray, you’re going to spoil her,” Uncle Axel scolds from his position behind the desk, but even beneath his bushy beard I can tell his lips are twitching.
“Of course I am.” A wide grin stretches across Auntie Gray’s face. “It’s an Auntie’s prerogative, after all. So, how about that chocolate cake, little one?”
Lexie
The cake is surprisingly delicious, though I do turn down the offer of milk to wash it down. I’m too embarrassed to ask if it came from a real cow or the cows on the island, and if my Mommy finds out I drank someone else’s milk, I’ll be in even more trouble than Auntie Gray says I’m already in.
We’re just polishing off the giant slice we shared while Auntie Gray told me all about the home she shares with her six—six—brothers when the knock comes. A giant man, more slender than the others but still clearly very muscular, sticks his head in the office. “Helicopter incoming.”
“Thanks, Bane.” Pushing her chair back, Auntie Gray rises to her feet and holds a hand out for mine. “Come on, little one. Time to face the music.”
Heart pounding, I let her take me by the hand and lead me out of the office. Up a few flights of stairs to the deck, where the wind tugs playfully at my clothes and my hair, pulling the curls free of my ponytail as we wait.
Like something out of a movie, the helicopter lands on a pad at the far end of the deck, with dozens of men making hand gestures I don’t understand to guide the aircraft onto the landing pad.
It’s barely on the ground before Mommy is climbing out of the back, and my heart nearly stops at the sight of her. Even crouched low to avoid the blades, she’s still the most stunning, graceful woman I’ve ever seen and just the sight of her is enough to send me running.
But Auntie Gray’s hand clamps down hard on my shoulder. When I look up at her, she shakes her head, and even though everything in me wants to run straight into my Mommy’s arms, I force myself to wait.
The moment she’s given the all-clear, Mommy straightens, her head whipping around as she snarls at the crew. “Where is my baby?”
Unable to bear it a second longer, I break free of Auntie Gray’s grasp and run toward her. “Mommy!”
“Oh, god. Alexis!”
We collide in a tangle of limbs, and her body shakes against mine as she presses her face into my hair. “Mommy’s here, baby. I’m right here. You’re okay. You’re safe. You’re safe.”
I get the impression she’s trying to convince herself more so than me, and guilt settles heavy in my chest as I press myself as tightly against her as I can manage. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, please don’t hate me!”
“My precious baby.” Pulling back, she cups my cheeks with her hands, tears sparkling in her eyes as her gaze roams my face. “I could never, ever hate you. I love you, so fucking much, Alexis. And I plan to spend every day of the rest of my life making sure you know how much I love you.”
Though she doesn’t sound angry, my bottom still clenches as though she’s just threatened to spank me every day for the rest of my life. Which is actually a possibility, now that I think about it. “I love you too, Mommy. I’m really, really sorry I worried you.”
“As you should be. You’re lucky I don’t borrow your Auntie Gray’s belt and whip your bare bottom right here in front of the entire crew.”
Heat rushes to my face and I instinctively throw my hands behind me to protect my bottom. “Mommy, no!”
“Don’t worry, little one. I have a much more personal punishment planned for you. But first, you need to tell your Auntie Gray thank you for taking such good care of you until Mommy could get here.”
Turning, I run back to Auntie Gray, wrapping my arms around her waist. “Thank you for taking care of me. Maybe we can come visit you soon.”
“I’d like that very much, sweetheart. It gets a little lonely up there in the mountains with just my goofy brothers for company.”
When I pull away, Mommy is standing right behind me, and she shocks me by stepping forward to pull Auntie Gray in for a tight hug.
She whispers something in Auntie Gray’s ear, something that has both of them laughing and sending meaningful looks my direction, and I can’t help but worry whatever she’s said doesn’t bode well for my bottom.
“Come on, little imp.” Taking my hand in hers, Mommy gestures toward the waiting helicopter. “Mommy’s going to take you home.”