Chapter 28
ZANDER
I’m dressed warm but my face is cold, and all I can feel is an overwhelming sense of worry for these little girls.
Grady found footprints leading toward this forested area, so we’ve all rushed this way, but once we reached the edge of the tree line, the tracks disappeared. He’s split us in three directions, telling us to look for broken twigs, leaves, anything that might look out of place.
It’s a tall order, and I wish it’d snowed a little harder last night. They’d be so easy to find if that was the case, but the light fall has mostly melted away already, and we’re down to hiking over wet clumps of leaves that all look the same.
I can hear Grady calling for his daughter as he heads left of me.
Carson’s to our right, hollering Harley’s name, and Sienna, Zoey, and I have taken the middle trail.
Zoey’s up ahead of me, searching the area and shouting for the girls every ten steps or so.
I can’t even imagine what Carson and Grady are going through right now.
Actually, I kind of can.
When Zoey was little, she was taken by her Uncle Russell. Fucking asshole. He picked her up from the babysitter without Sienna’s say-so and tried to take her away from us. The psycho thought he was a better father than I could ever be and was trying to “protect” Zoey. By kidnapping her?
We found her pretty fast, but that hour or so when I thought I’d lost my baby girl… fucking harrowing.
My baby girl.
I stare at her now. All fourteen years of her.
She’s so grown up.
Becoming independent.
So beautiful.
She’s a lot like her mother but has parts of me too. She actually looks like my sister, Monica, but has her mom’s sweetness and bright spirit. In saying that, her Aunt Monica’s feistiness has always shined through too. She’s such a blend of both families, and I love her.
I love her so much.
But the older she gets, the more I want to cling.
I know I have to let her go, release her into this big, scary world and let her figure it out, but I just hate the idea of her getting hurt.
It kills me.
I want to keep her safe, nearby, protected.
“Harley!” Sienna yells, and I flinch, brought back to reality with a quick jolt.
“Kendall!” I add my voice to the mix, hoping our calling isn’t pushing the girls farther into the forest.
If they’re determined to hide away from the big bad parents, then they’ll keep going.
But maybe they’re cold enough to want to come home.
Kids might get pissed off, but they ultimately want a safe, warm haven they can come back to.
That’s what we are.
That’s what we’ll always be… no matter how far they run from us.
Or how long they go without talking to us.
I frown, staring ahead at my daughter again.
“Kendall!” she calls. “Harley!”
We pause to listen for a response, but there’s nothing. The silence is eerie and disconcerting, my insides writhing as I try not to let that edge of panic move forward in my brain.
We’re going to find those girls.
And we’ll find them in one piece.
Shit.
We better.
I feel sick as I continue hiking down this undulating trail, catching Sienna’s arm when she skids on a slippery tree root.
“You good?”
“Yeah.” She nods, giving me a weak smile.
Her blue eyes say so much, and I don’t have to ask what she’s thinking. Our daughter is just up ahead, and if this search has reminded us of anything, it’s that life is short and precious, and we can’t waste a moment of it on angst and fractured relationships.
We have to fix this thing with Zoey.
We have to fix it now.
“You go first,” she whispers. “I might head off the trail this way for a minute.” She points to an open area that looks safe enough to investigate without getting lost. The trees are more widespread, the brush not so dense.
“Be careful.” I’m still holding her arm, so I pull her in and plant my lips on hers.
When she eases away from me, I stare into those blue eyes and practically feel my heart melt. “You know I love you, right?”
“Yes,” she whispers, her eyes glassing over. “You know I’m always yours, right? You’re my one and only.”
“I know.” My voice is gruff, and I steal one more kiss before she leaves me.
We have a lot more talking to do about her future and what she needs, but for now, it’s good to know that we’re solid. She loves me, I love her, and no asshole from the gym is going to take that away from us.
I still want to throttle him for doing that to my wife, but I have more important things to deal with right now.
“You go first.” Sienna’s command was soft but firm, and she’s right.
I’m the one who growled at our daughter, confiscated her phone. I did it for a good reason, and Zoey still needs to apologize to Sienna, but maybe I can pave the way to make that happen.
I steal one more glance at my wife while she carefully picks her way through the forest, calling out for the girls, before rushing ahead to catch up with my lil’ love bug.
She’s not so little anymore, and I know she can’t always be mine, but I’m not going to waste the precious time I have left with her in some icy, silent standoff.
It’s time to end this mini feud, because if something were to come and steal Zoey away from me, I’d regret it for the rest of my life if we’d left things on bad terms.