Chapter 26
Twenty-Six
SLOANE
Monday came around, and I hadn’t wanted to let Callie out of my sight. My instincts screamed at me to keep her home, but the security team convinced me she would be fine and protected at school.
I, however, was not fine. Even though I wasn’t supposed to, I kept my cell on me all day in case Callie needed me.
And also in case the police called. We’d updated the detective inspectors about the phone call at Flora’s on Saturday, and they had an alert out with Nathan’s description.
I knew I wouldn’t rest easy until they caught him.
It had to happen soon. The villages in this part of the country were close knit.
Yes, Ardnoch had a ton of tourists, so it made things more difficult, but this was a quiet time, and outsiders stood out.
For a start, Nathan had to be staying somewhere.
The first thing the police did was start checking accommodation—B and Bs, hotels, holiday parks.
One of the worst things in the world is waiting by the phone for someone to bring you good or bad news.
Sometimes my mind would wander from it to Walker.
To the early hours of Sunday morning when we’d lost ourselves in each other.
That night, I’d tried to fall asleep, but I kept popping my head into Callie’s room to check she was okay.
She’d been pretty shaken up, and it had taken a bunch of Disney movies and pizza with Aria to get her to relax.
She fell asleep on the couch, and I carried her up to her bed for the first time in a long time.
When I checked in on her a fourth time, she woke up, said, “Mom?” and then fell back asleep.
Realizing I was going to wake her, I’d forced myself to stop going into her room and instead paced in mine.
That’s when I saw Walker. The moment I saw him standing outside, guarding us, I needed him.
And my instincts told me that’s what he needed too.
I was playing a dangerous game with Walker Ironside.
“Sloane.”
Turning from dumping dirty laundry into the bag attached to my cart, I found Aria hurrying along the carpeted hall toward me. She wore a deep frown.
“What’s wrong?”
Aria waited until she’d reached me. “I don’t want to alarm you, but there’s been an attempted breach of the estate. The security team are out checking it, but Jock has asked me to bring you to my office to wait there until we can be certain.”
My heart raced. “To be certain … that it’s not Nathan?”
She nodded.
“Oh.” Frannie opened the door of the bedroom we were cleaning, carrying a refuse bag. “Ms. Howard.”
Aria gave her a tight smile of acknowledgment. “I need to steal your colleague away for a moment. Will you be all right finishing up here by yourself?”
Frannie’s gaze filled with curiosity, but she nodded. “Of course.”
And that’s how I found myself in Aria’s office a few minutes later, jittery and hopeful that Nathan was stupid enough to attempt to breach the estate. He’d be arrested, and this could all be over soon.
Seated in the chair across from Aria’s desk, I tried to stop my knee from bouncing but couldn’t. Aria leaned against her desk, watching me with concern, but neither of us said a word. When her cell phone rang, we both jumped a mile.
She fumbled for it, cursing under her breath, and then her expression tightened.
“It’s my mother.” She answered. “Mamma, can I call you back?” Aria’s lips pursed.
“I’m sure that’s not true.” Casting an apologetic look, Aria pushed off the desk and held up a finger to me.
She mouthed, “One minute,” and I nodded in understanding as she strode out of the office, gesturing that I should lock the door behind her.
Not even thirty seconds passed when my cell rang. Hoping it was Walker with some good news, I yanked it out and saw it was an unknown number. Usually, I’d ignore it because of spammers.
However, for whatever reason, my gut told me to answer.
As soon as I said hello, his voice grated down the line.
“If you ever want to see Callie again, you’ll come meet me.”
My heart raced, but this time I wouldn’t let fear win. He couldn’t get to Callie on Saturday, and he couldn’t now. “Callie’s in school.”
“School’s out, bitch.” There was a rustle and then ice flooded my veins at the sound of my daughter’s voice.
“Mommy,” she sobbed.
She hadn’t called me mommy since she was six years old.
“Callie!”
But then Nathan’s voice was back in my ear. “Proof enough.”
I stood, rage seething through me as I hissed, “You listen to me, you son of a bitch. If you do anything to hurt my daughter, I will put the next bullet in your fucking head.”
“Ooh …” He laughed softly. “I always knew you had wild in you, Sloane.” His tone hardened.
“And she’s our daughter. Got my eyes. Look, I just want to talk without your bodyguards in our way.
So here’s the deal: I’m going to give you instructions, and you’re going to tell no one because if you’re followed or I end up back in prison, the next time I get out, Sloane, I’ll kill our daughter right in front of you. ”
I heard Callie’s frightened cries, and pain and terror unlike anything I’d ever known winded me. Silent, screaming sobs tried to burst forth, and I bent over, clutching my stomach.
“You got that? Sloane, you got that? Sloane!”
I fought through my panic at his agitated yell just as my phone screen showed Regan was trying to call. Probably to tell me Callie was missing. How did he take my girl?
“Fuck, Sloane?!”
I had to choke out the words. “I got it.”
“I’m going to send directions to your cell. You’re going to follow them. And you’re going to tell no one.”
“I’m on the estate. I can’t get out without the guards knowing.”
“Then do what you have to, to get out without them noticing. For Callie’s sake.” Nathan hung up.
I felt sick to my stomach, but I shut it down. I shut down everything so I could think.
Think, think, think.
My phone beeped with a text with the directions Nathan had promised. He was about thirty minutes south of Ardnoch.
Aria’s SUV. Unlike everyone else here who drove around in the estate fleet of Range Rovers, Aria drove a BMW X7 with tinted windows. Perhaps the guards would realize too late it was me driving out of the gates.
Perhaps it was stupid.
In hindsight, it was definitely stupid.
Not to call for help.
Not to tell Walker.
But I believed Nathan when he said he’d never leave Callie alone if I didn’t do this.
And I had to believe that it was me he wanted, not our daughter.
A sick part of me, that raging, exhausted part, wanted to fight him.
Wanted to be the one to hurt him. He unleashed a savagery in me I hated him for too.
Rounding Aria’s desk, I yanked open the drawers until I found her car keys.
Grabbing them, I hurried out of her office, glancing left and right, relieved to see she was nowhere in sight.
Never had walking through the castle been so nerve-racking as I tried to keep my steps slow and calm.
I passed Wakefield, who gave me a nod of hello, but otherwise didn’t stop me, and then I was out through the staff exit.
Aria’s BMW gleamed under the fall sun. As soon as I got in, I drew up the navigation map and figured out where Nathan was from his directions.
Storm’s Bluff. I’d never heard of it, but it looked like it was in the middle of nowhere.
The urge to drive like a maniac was real, but I drove steadily, my hands trembling around the wheel as I kept glancing in the rearview mirror, expecting someone to come racing out of the castle, demanding where I was going.
No one came.
As I approached the guarded exit out of the estate, I thought I might throw up, my heart raced so hard. Sweat dampened my armpits and along my hairline as the SUV pulled up toward the exit.
The gates swung open before the guards could even see my face.
They thought I was Aria.
As soon as the opening was wide enough, I floored it.
I sped onto the main road, too fast, afraid to look in the rearview. Instead, I drove toward Ardnoch. When I was supposed to slow inside the village, I didn’t.
My cell rang again, and I glanced at where I’d put it on the passenger seat and saw it was Walker. The entire drive, my phone didn’t stop. Walker, Regan, Aria, Brodan, Walker, Walker, Walker. Call after call.
They knew.
I reached over with one hand and put my phone on silent. They were all probably frantic, and I hated to put them through that, but I knew Nathan. He’d keep his word. We would never be free of him if I didn’t do what he said. My daughter would never be free of him.
And yet he’d underestimated me. He thought that I’d go to him and let him do what he wanted.
He didn’t know that a mother would kill to protect their daughter.
That I would kill to protect Callie.
My fury drove me to him. It kept me calm, focused, despite the trembling in my limbs.
When the GPS brought me to coastal land, I realized it was some kind of parking lot. There were two trailer homes on it. Beside one of them was an old blue car. But nothing else. No one. No witnesses.
As I stopped the BMW, the door to the trailer nearest me opened.
Nathan came out of it, dragging Callie down the steps.
Grabbing my phone, I stuffed it in my pocket and then jumped out of the SUV, almost falling in my hurry to get to Callie.
Nathan whipped out a gun and pointed it at me. “Ah, ah. Stay there.”
Raising my palms outward, I halted.
Callie stared at me, pale and tear-streaked.
“It’s going to be okay, baby girl,” I promised.
“Were you followed?” Nathan asked.
I finally looked at him.