Chapter Thirty-Two
Thirty-Two
Julie
I stared at the phone as I sat at the kitchen table, trying to get the courage to speak to Joel.
It wasn’t that I wanted to delay finding my daughter.
It was that I had so much anger and hatred toward the man that I wanted to rip his fucking throat out.
But if I approached him like that, I knew he wouldn’t tell me where Daisy was.
Even worse—I worried he would hurt her, just to get back at me.
“Are you ready?” Gage asked, sitting beside me with the phone between us.
I took a deep breath in and exhaled slowly as I nodded.
It was now or never. I had to be strong enough to do this because Daisy’s life was on the line.
I was hoping he would answer the call, since this was the last phone number he had texted from.
The other messages had come from a different phone number, so it was clear he was using burner phones.
Gage pressed the call button, and we waited as it rang on speakerphone. My knee bounced nervously beneath the table as we waited through several rings.
“I was wondering when you’d call,” Joel said, finally picking up.
“Where is my daughter?” I snarled, my whole body trembling as Gage rested his hand firmly on my knee to make it stop bouncing and to remind me to stay calm. “I want to talk to her.” I softened my tone the best I could as I sighed heavily.
“Our little Daisy is currently sleeping. She had quite the busy day.”
“I need to know she’s okay,” I said, trying to hide that I was crying. “Please. Show me that she’s okay.”
“You’ll just have to take my word for it.”
“I can’t do that. You know how much she means to me. Please, Joel.”
“She means a lot to me, too. I thought you knew that by now? There’s nothing that I wouldn’t do for my family, Julie. I’ve been taking care of Daisy since she was just a baby. What makes you think I wouldn’t take care of her now?”
“She needs her mother. She needs to be with me. Just please tell me where she is and I’ll come get her.”
“You and I both know that’s not how this is going to work. You can’t take something that’s mine away from me, Julie. I thought I made that clear?”
I covered my mouth as I cried, not knowing what else to say.
“I’ll tell you what,” he said, his tone changing to the menacing one I heard the night he attacked me. “Instead of me coming to find you, why don’t you come find us instead?”
“I don’t even know where to begin,” I stammered. “Please, just tell me where she is. I promise there won’t be any trouble. I just want my daughter.”
“Not to worry, we’re closer than you think. You come find us, and if you bring anyone with you, I’ll put a bullet in your daughter’s head. Time is ticking. Tick tock.”
Then the line went dead.