Chapter 2
Chapter
Two
September 1 st
9:26 A.M.
As though his presence could change the outcome, Cade screeched his car to a stop outside where cops were rolling out crime scene tape to keep people out of what looked like the set of an action movie.
There were crashed cars littered about.
Blood was smeared on the asphalt.
And he could see white sheets covering bodies.
Whose bodies?
Essie?
Gabriella?
The bodyguards?
Innocent bystanders?
Panic coursed through him as he shoved open his car door and jumped out. Not bothering to waste time closing it, he ran to the closest officer.
Thankfully he knew the man who seemed surprised to see him there. “Cade, is this related to Prey?”
“No. Personal,” he muttered. Much too personal. As personal as it got.
He knew he should have said no when Gabriella asked if she could take Essie to her swimming lesson. It wasn't safe. Nowhere was safe, but he hadn't wanted to send his little girl away to live with people she barely knew.
That desire to keep Essie close and keep her life as normal as possible could have wound up costing his daughter her life.
If she died, he’d never forgive himself.
Never forgive Gabriella.
There was no way he should have allowed himself to be talked into letting Essie go to the pool. She could miss a few weeks of swimming lessons, and he was sure Gabriella could have kept her distracted and she never would have even thought about the pool.
Dragging his hand down his face he knew it wasn't Gabriella’s fault.
It was his.
He was the dad.
Giving him a sympathetic nod, the cop lifted the tape to allow him to pass under it and now that he was this close to the carnage, Cade found that he could barely force his feet to move.
His steps slowed until he moved so slowly that he may as well be going backward. If it was his daughter’s body under that sheet he was going to lose it.
The only reason he had survived losing Gretel was because of Essie. His sweet little daughter was his reason for living. In so many ways she reminded him of her mom, and he loved seeing her grow and learn new skills. She was so confident, bright, warm, loving, and caring. She was funny and silly and rarely threw tantrums.
Essie was perfect.
There was no way she could be gone.
The cops standing near the bodies looked over at him as he approached, one he knew, one he didn't. The one he didn't started toward him, his hand hovering by his weapon, but his voice was calm and confident when he spoke.
“You can't be here, sir,” the man said in a tone that brokered no argument.
“It’s okay, we know him,” the woman said, stepping up beside her partner. “I didn't know Prey was going to be here.”
“Personal,” he said, hating that word more each time he had to speak it aloud. “How many dead?”
“Just two,” the woman officer replied. “There were a few minor injuries, but all witnesses are saying that the shooters were targeting this vehicle specifically. I’m guessing you know why.”
Unfortunately, he did.
Two dead gave him hope though.
The bodies under the sheets seemed too large to belong to either his little daughter or Gabriella, and the text he’d received had said they intended to kidnap Essie not kill her, but he couldn’t allow himself to believe it until he had confirmation.
Kneeling beside the closest body, he reached out a hand that trembled slightly and pulled back the sheet.
Relief rushed out of him in a harsh breath.
It wasn't his little girl.
Not that Dave deserved a death like this.
Knowing he had to do it, he covered the man’s body back up and rounded the car to the other side.
This time he was able to pull back the sheet without shaking. Gavin’s body lay beneath it, riddled with bullets just like his partner’s had been. These were two good men, men who didn't deserve to be gunned down in the street just because three rich, powerful men thought they got to play God with other people’s lives and do whatever they wanted.
Rage clogged his throat making it almost impossible to breathe.
“You know them?” the female cop asked gently.
“Yeah. They were hired to watch my daughter and her nanny.”
“Witnesses said an SUV pulled up, blocking traffic. Four men got out and fired at this vehicle. A woman and a little girl tried to run but they were grabbed and taken by the men in the SUV,” the male cop informed him.
Did it make him the most horrible human being ever to be glad that Gabriella had been abducted too?
Cade knew it did. Gabriella was everything he could have hoped for in a nanny for his daughter. Given the nature of his job, he needed someone he could trust to step in and be a parent to his child when he was traveling. Not only did Gabriella parent Essie, but she actually loved his daughter every bit as much as he did.
He was lucky to have her, but he never went out of his way to make sure she knew that.
If anyone was going to do everything within their power to protect his daughter it was Gabriella, but it was a lot to ask of her. She was young, almost a decade younger than him, and she didn't need the job, he knew she was worth millions. Yet she stayed, worked hard, gave Essie everything she had to give, baked, did crafts, and got down on the floor and played with Lego and dolls. They made puppets and put on shows, went to the park, and made frequent trips to the beach. They went to swimming lessons, ballet classes, and gymnastics. Gabriella even coached a soccer team for Essie and her friends.
Now because of him and his family and their quest for answers, she’d been abducted. Her life was on the line, and unlike with Essie, their kidnappers had no reason to keep her alive.
She was expendable.
“Cade!”
Shoving to his feet he saw Cole and Jax running toward him. As soon as he’d gotten the message telling him they were going after his daughter, he’d sent out a text in the group chat to let his brothers know that not only had the meeting with John Jones been a bust, but that Essie was being targeted.
“She’s not here,” he told his brothers as he walked toward them.
“Gabriella?” Cole asked.
“Gone as well,” he replied as guilt surged inside him. Guilt for blaming Gabriella even for a second, guilt for not firing her the second he realized these people were ruthless and would go after anyone, guilt for not sending both Essie and Gabriella away someplace safe, guilt for being glad she was still with his daughter.
“This was pretty ballsy,” Jax said, looking around the scene. “Taking a woman and child in broad daylight like this, right out in the open, with a whole ton of witnesses. Takes a whole lot of guts to do that.”
“Whole lot of determination and a whole lot of money,” Cole added.
“We’re going to need security footage,” Cade said, turning around and noting that three of the four businesses on the corners of the intersections appeared to have cameras. He needed to contact Prey’s Cyber Team and get them tracking the vehicle on every camera they could find. They needed to track where Essie and Gabriella had been taken before anyone laid a hand on his precious little girl.
“We need to talk to the witnesses as well, get everything out of them that we can,” Jax said.
A couple of dozen people were hanging about, another half dozen police officers working their way through questioning them all. It would take hours to interview all of them and hours for Prey to access all cameras in the area in an attempt to follow the SUV that had been used in the abduction.
Too long.
Longer than Essie and Gabriella had.
For six weeks, the men who had raped his mom and set her up as a traitor to try to silence her and get her out of the way had been trying to get to them. For six weeks they kept failing. Cole and Susanna had survived being targeted, as had Connor and Becca. These men were getting desperate. They knew his family was doubling down on safety and that trying something risky like this was the only way to get to them.
Now they had an innocent little girl at their disposal.
What better way to manipulate him and his family into backing off than causing injury to a helpless child.
If they hurt his daughter, would he be able to keep up this hunt for answers?
Cade loved his mother, and he harbored a lot of guilt over how he’d treated her those last few months when she remarried Jake and Jax’s dad. Because of his anger, his younger brothers had also treated their mom badly. That was on him, and he’d vowed after her death to be a better role model.
As much as he loved his mother, Essie was his daughter, and she was only a little girl, virtually nothing more than a baby. Nothing was more important than her, and he would do anything to protect her.
Including backing off and leaving his mother’s name forever tarnished.
September 1 st
11:58 A.M.
They’d been driving in circles for so long, switching vehicles multiple times, that Gabriella was completely turned around and could no longer figure out where they were or where they might be going.
It didn't help that with each vehicle change, she’d been shoved down into the same cramped position between the front passenger seat and the back seat, crammed in between the legs of the man occupying the back seat.
Forced to sit as she was, she was painfully aware of the fact that the man’s legs were spread and there was a bulge in his pants. One she was sure that sooner or later she was going to be made to address.
From the smirk on the man’s face, he knew it too.
And he couldn’t wait.
At some point, maybe after the third vehicle change but she couldn’t quite remember anymore, all the men had removed their ski masks.
That wasn't a good thing.
Gabriella knew enough to know that.
If they were okay with her and Essie seeing their faces, it meant they weren't worried about either of them being able to give the cops details on their descriptions.
Because they weren't going to be talking to any cops.
They wouldn't be able to.
They’d be dead.
Still, if there was a chance, however miniscule, that she could save Essie’s life, or at least buy enough time for Cade and the others to find them, she was going to take it. Nothing was more important to her than that little girl’s life.
If she didn't make it out of this alive, she wouldn't be leaving behind anyone important. Just a biological father who probably didn't know she existed, a biological mom who cared more about drugs and alcohol than her child and could have already put herself in an early grave, foster parents who had been ambivalent toward her, and an ex-husband who didn't think she was good enough because she couldn’t produce him a child.
The closest thing she’d ever had to a family was Cade’s family. They’d accepted her immediately and without reservation. Watching them, she’d learned what unconditional love looked like, and for that, she would be forever grateful.
In return, she had to repay them by doing everything in her power to save Essie.
“Gabby, I have to pee,” Essie wailed in desperation. It wasn't the first time the little girl had asked, but both previous times, the men had refused to stop the vehicle and let her find a bathroom for the child.
Since she’d been Essie’s nanny for almost four years, she knew what that tone meant.
It meant they had about five minutes at the most before she was going regardless of whether she was sitting on a toilet or not.
“Okay, cuddle bug,” she soothed, mustering calm she definitely did not feel in an effort to keep the little girl’s terror to a minimum. Then she mustered a little courage and looked at the man whose legs she was sitting between. “She’s desperate. If you don’t let her go, she won’t be able to hold it more than a couple more minutes.”
“I'm not sitting in a car filled with urine,” the man in the passenger seat snapped in irritation. “Let the kid go to the bathroom.”
“I'm not stopping now,” the driver snapped back. “It’s three minutes tops until we get to our location. The kid can hold it. The kid better hold it,” he added, and she heard the threat in his voice even if it passed over Essie’s head.
If Essie didn't hold it, she was going to be punished.
“Baby, can you hold on just three more minutes?” Gabriella looked over at the terrified little girl, wishing she could pull her into her arms. But the couple of times she’d tried she’d been rewarded with a hard slap to the face. Not that she minded being struck, she’d take anything to protect her little charge, but each time she got hit, Essie got progressively more agitated. Now she reached out a hand to the girl. “That’s not even as long as it takes to count to two hundred. Can you wait that long, baby?”
“Not a baby.” Essie huffed. If there was one thing the little girl hated above all else, it was being treated like she wasn’t the big girl she believed herself to be.
“I know you’re not, cuddle bug. That’s how I know you can wait just a few more minutes. How about we count together?” Essie was so smart and she loved numbers and words. Even though she wasn't supposed to start kindergarten for another couple of days, she could already write several words by herself and knew all her letters. She could count all the way to one hundred with hardly any help, and she knew some simple addition and subtraction.
“O-okay,” Essie agreed.
“There’s my good little cuddle bug. We’ll count together, you ready?” When Essie nodded, they began.
They reached one hundred and thirty-two before the vehicle finally stopped outside a large warehouse. There was nothing else around other than another three warehouses that looked exactly the same as this one, and she was pretty sure that whoever had organized their abduction owned them all.
Running in broad daylight with five armed men in the car, and another who knew how many more inside would be pointless.
But she wasn't giving up.
She’d find a way to protect Essie no matter what she had to do.
As soon as the man sitting before her got out of the vehicle, she scrambled out so he didn't get a chance to reach in and grab her, then hurried around to Essie’s side of the car. The man who had been sitting with her had picked the little girl up, but Gabriella didn't hesitate to reach out and snatch the child into her arms.
“Where’s the bathroom?” she asked.
“Follow me,” the man who had been holding Essie ordered, and she did.
He led them inside, past a couple of closed doors that likely led to offices or smaller storage rooms, and then to a bathroom.
With no time to waste, she set the girl on her feet and lifted the lid. “Do you have to stay in the room with us?” she asked the man still standing in the open doorway.
In response, he merely smirked, leaned his shoulder against the door jamb, and crossed his arms over his chest.
Gabriella would love nothing more than to smack that smirk right off his face, but because she knew that would be stupid, angering these men was only going to make things worse for Essie, she turned her back on him and stood so she was blocking his view of the little girl.
Essie had already stripped off the dress she’d put on over the little girl’s swimsuit, so she leaned over and helped Essie pull the swimsuit down so she could climb up onto the toilet. The child sighed in relief as she did her business, and Gabriella was so proud of her. Essie had inherited her dad’s strength, and it was the only thing that was going to get her through this mess and out the other side.
“You did so good, cuddle bug,” she told the child.
“I never helded it so long afore,” Essie told her.
“You haven’t. That’s because you're almost five,” she said, brushing a wisp of baby-fine hair from Essie’s face. The little girl’s skin was warm and blotchy, her eyes red from crying, but so far, she’d done everything Gabriella had asked of her. She prayed that continued.
“I don’t want to stay here, Gabby,” Essie said in a loud whisper she was sure the man watching them could overhear. “I wants to go to my swimming lesson, and then I wants to have milkshakes likes we always does. Then I want to go home, and I want to finish choosing my cake for my birthday. I don’t want to miss my unicorn party.”
“Oh, cuddle bug, you won't,” she lied. Essie’s fifth birthday was only three weeks away, but she could not ensure they would be found and rescued—or even still alive—by the time Essie’s birthday rolled around. “I promise you, I will do everything I have to do to make sure you don’t miss spending your birthday with your daddy, at your unicorn party, with all of your friends.”
Because she was only four and so very trusting, Essie nodded, and she helped the girl off the toilet, then helped her get her swimsuit and dress back on after she’d wiped herself. Then she flushed the toilet, washed their hands, and lifted the little girl into her arms, wanting Essie as safe as she could make her.
As she walked back over to the man in the doorway, he straightened and reached out to palm the bulge in his pants. Keeping Essie’s head tucked against her shoulder so she didn't have to explain any grown-up things to the four-year-old, she met the man’s dark eyes with a fearful gaze.
“You want to protect the kid, I'm sure we can all come to some sort of arrangement,” the man told her with another smirk.
Gabriella gulped. Knowing exactly what arrangement he wanted to make with her and praying she was strong enough to hold up her end of the bargain.
She had to be.
For Essie.
For Cade.