Chapter 29—Willow #2
“No,” all three Leone brothers answer at once. But Bobby is the only one who I feel, his hand tightening around mine as if he’s forcing me to stay seated. His face is full of anger, directed at me for the first time since I met him.
I turn and look at the other two. “But those are my girls. Mine.” I look back at Bobby, putting my other hand on top of the one he has around mine and giving it a squeeze, showing my own strength.
“I already let their father take them from me. I won’t let them get hurt again if I can help it.
” There’s no quiver in my throat, no tears that fall.
I mean every word I say. I have to be there for my girls. I have to. I can’t let them down again.
“I’m not losing you too,” Bobby says with a shake of his head.
I open my mouth to protest, but I’m talked over before I can utter a word.
“I’m sorry, Willow, but I can’t allow that,” Danny says calmly, holding his hand up to keep me from interrupting him.
“We don’t know what we’re walking into. We’ll do our best to cover all the bases we have, but this will be a tight extraction.
We won’t have time for hours of prep to plan for all scenarios.
If you go in and the girls see you, one of them, or even you, could run to the other. ”
He says no more. He doesn’t have to. I understand this time what he’s leaving out. And I say it out loud for them to know I get it, but also so I can let it sink in more. To fully believe it with all the conviction I have.
“And draw Trevor’s eye.” And whatever that might entail.
I have to think Trevor is unhinged. More so than just kidnapping his daughters to blackmail me.
I have to assume the worst, despite not wanting to.
Which means I have to think he would hurt me or the girls.
Or both. If I’m there, I could jeopardize my girls and all the work Bobby and his family have already done to help us.
“I understand,” I say with a sadness I feel to my bones. I get it. I just hate it. “But they need someone they trust there. Someone they know.”
Bobby nods and agrees with me. “Marco will be with Tommy and Danny.”
I shake my head. “They know of them, but they don’t trust them. Well, they might trust Marco. But not like they trust you.” I look at Bobby with a plea in my eyes. “They adore you. If you’re there, they’ll know it’s okay. They won’t be as scared.”
I hold his eyes, letting everything fade away as I whisper my last words to him. “Save my girls?”
Save our girls.
He holds my eyes, and I swear he can read what I’m thinking through them because his widen a second before narrowing, and then he nods. “I’d be honored to. I will bring them home, Wildflower. You can trust in that.”
The ringing of the phone on the table scares me, even though I’d been expecting it.
Bobby grabs my hand and holds it tight as I look at Danny, who nods at me. He told me to only answer it once he nods that he’s ready to track it.
I put it on speaker, and everyone is dead quiet. We even landed the plane about an hour ago on a random airstrip to shut off all the noise so Trevor wouldn’t guess I was up to anything.
Danny assured me that if Trevor’s somehow trying to track my line, like we’re tracking his, it will show that I’m still in New York at the apartment.
I don’t ask how he can do that, but that seems to be my new MO: Do not ask questions and just do what they say.
They’ve led me this far without issue. I have to trust them to continue to do so.
Especially since my expertise is in looking at data and going over the numbers. Theirs is… this. And other things, I suppose.
“Trevor,” I say when I answer. I try to remain calm, like Danny told me to be. That crying and begging for the girls wouldn’t do much to help us. It could inflate his ego and he could mock me, or it could annoy him and he could hang up before we can get a trace.
“Do you have my money?” He speaks as if it’s a business deal, like we aren’t talking about money in exchange for him not hurting his children.
I look around, and all I see are reassuring faces, nodding at me and letting me know I can do this. “I’ll come to you. I… I quit. I emailed my supervisor last night.”
He doesn’t respond, and the line goes silent. I look at Danny with panic in my eyes, asking without words if he’s hung up. All he does is gesture with his fingers to keep going. Trevor is still on the line. He’s just being silent because he didn’t hear what he wanted to hear.
“Where are you?” I ask.
Still nothing.
“Please, Trevor,” I beg. It’s not an act, but the truth. I’ll get down on my knees if he wants me to. Anything to find out where my girls are. “I did what you asked. I quit. Tell me where you are so I can come get the girls.”
“San Antonio. You have until tonight to get to the airport.” His voice is gruff, and it’s clear he’s mad. He sounds like he’s about to hang up, and I don’t know if we got what we needed. I pick up the phone and hold it close to me.
“Tonight?” I grasp at straws, trying to think of questions I’d be asking if I were still in New York and on my own, not with a man who cares for me enough to risk his family’s safety for my own. “What if there are no flights? It’s the day before Thanksgiving.”
“Find a way. It’s not my problem. Or….” He stops talking, and I take the bait he’s dangled in front of me.
“Or?” A small hope flares inside me. Maybe he’s realized this is all too much. That he shouldn’t be doing this.
“Get me the money. Or I could just leave them at the airport and wait for you. However, they are very cute kids. Who knows what will happen in such a busy airport so close to the border?”
I know nothing about Texas, no clue if San Antonio is as busy as what I see on the news about the airports in New York.
All I know is that San Antonio is closer to Mexico than I’m comfortable with right now.
It’s not the location, just the idea of the girls being taken out of the country.
I know those stats. Children kidnapped and taken away from a family are significantly harder to find if they’re moved internationally than they are within the United States.
Not that finding a kidnapped child isn’t hard inside the US as it is.
It just gets even worse when they go outside the country.
“No!” I scream and then close my eyes when I hear Trevor’s chuckle come across the line.
He said it for my reaction, and I fell for it.
“I’ll come get them. Tonight.” I take another breath and look at Bobby, who nods—all the encouragement he can give me—and I keep going.
“When I get there, where should I meet you? What’s your address? ”
“Get to the airport first, and then I’ll call you.”
“But how will you—” He hangs up before I can finish speaking, and I look at the phone and then the men before me. “He doesn’t even know when I’m flying out. I mean Payton. How will he know when to call?”
“He doesn’t care,” Marco growls through clenched teeth.
“Nor do we. We got a lock on his location: Abilene, Texas. Get on the phones and get me details on this address.” Danny points to something on the screen that half the team can see and then starts barking orders at the other half just as the plane’s engines start back up.
“You did good, baby. Real good.” Bobby pulls me into his arms and hugs me tight before he moves me back to my seat as we take off again.
“Do you think the girls are okay? What if he doesn’t have them?”
“He will,” Liam says as he sits opposite me, and his friend Mason sits beside him. “If not with him, then still close. He needs to use them as leverage to get the money. Trust me, he’ll keep them until he gets the money. They always do.”
The haunted look in Liam’s eyes should frighten me. And it does, but it also makes me sad. He must know from experience to look that cold. And I don’t think he was the threat, but a victim. Or knew someone who was.
“We’ll find them. I promise.” Bobby’s words calm me, but the twisted smile on Mason’s face scares me. He looks far too happy about the possibility of something happening.
Maybe Bobby is right not to trust the Strays. I’d rather trust them than Trevor, though, and I’m not sure what that says about me.
Or if I care.