Chapter 16 Gabe
GABE
Gabe shifted the picnic basket to his other hand as he made his way down the sandy path toward the beach.
Trinity had told him they’d be near the old beach access behind the inn, and he’d decided to surprise the three of them with snacks and cold drinks.
The afternoon was perfect for the beach, warm without being too hot, with a light breeze coming off the ocean.
He muttered under his breath about his stupid leg as he limped along, trying to keep sand out of the medical boot.
It was impossible. Sand was getting everywhere despite his careful steps, working its way into the edges of the boot and irritating his still-healing injury.
The uneven terrain made every step awkward, and he had to concentrate to keep his balance on the shifting surface.
But Trinity had been so happy when she’d told him about the beach plans. Her face had lit up when Jane invited her and Maddy to spend the afternoon by the water with Duke. Gabe would limp through hot coals if it meant seeing that joy in his daughter’s eyes, so a little sand in his boot was nothing.
A car roared out of the parking lot as he turned the corner toward where Trinity said they’d be set up.
The vehicle drove too fast for the small lot, tires kicking up gravel as it accelerated toward the main road.
Something about it felt wrong, but Gabe couldn’t pinpoint what exactly.
Just a feeling. The kind of instinct that had kept him alive through multiple deployments.
He rounded the corner fully and stopped, confusion washing over him at first.
Jane was lying in the sand. He knew it was Jane because, much to his chagrin, he remembered exactly what she’d been wearing when he’d seen her earlier that morning.
Navy blue tank top that made her auburn hair look even more vibrant.
Denim pants. Simple and practical and somehow beautiful in its simplicity.
She was lying awkwardly, face down in the sand near where a blanket and beach toys were scattered. Duke was tied to the stairs that led down to the beach, barking frantically. The sound was desperate, panicked, nothing like the dog’s usual happy greeting.
That’s when Gabe realized something was very, very wrong.
He dropped the picnic basket and dashed forward, ignoring the sharp pain that shot through his injured leg with every pounding step. Adrenaline overrode everything. Years of Marine training kicked in automatically. Assess the situation. Secure the injured. Locate any threats.
He reached Jane and dropped to his knees beside her, sand flying up around him. Carefully, he turned her over, supporting her head and neck in case of spinal injury. Blood matted her auburn hair near her temple, a dark stain against her pale skin. Someone had hit her. Hard.
His fingers went to her neck, searching for a pulse. Relief flooded through him when he felt the steady beat beneath his fingertips. Alive. She was alive.
Gabe pulled the blanket from the discarded picnic basket and gently positioned Jane on it, keeping her head elevated slightly. Then he pulled his phone from his pocket and turned to scan the beach, looking for the girls.
They weren’t there.
Trinity. Maddy. Gone. He shouted, “Trinity, Maddy!” Nothing.
His heart started to pound, combat-ready adrenaline flooding his system.
He ran to where Duke was tied to the stair railing, the dog’s barking reaching a fever pitch as Gabe approached.
He freed the Great Dane with shaking hands, and Duke immediately bolted back to Jane, whining and licking her face, trying to wake her.
Gabe’s fingers flew across his phone screen, dialing 911. His hands were shaking, but his voice came out steady when the operator answered.
“911, what’s your emergency?”
“I need an ambulance. There is an unconscious woman with a head injury. We’re at the beach access behind the Christmas Inn on Anastasia Island.
” He gave the specific location, his military training making him precise even as panic threatened to overwhelm him.
“And I can’t find my kid and her friend.
Two twelve-year-old girls. They were here, and I can’t find them. ”
“Sir, do you think the children have been kidnapped?” The operator’s voice was professional, calm, launching into procedure questions.
The questions felt stupid, meaningless, when his daughter was missing. When Trinity was somewhere out there, possibly in danger. Panic rose in his chest like a tide threatening to pull him under.
But years of training kicked in. Gabe had been in life-or-death situations before. He knew how to function under pressure. He forced himself to breathe, to compartmentalize, to push the fear into a box he could deal with later.
“I don’t know what happened,” Gabe said, his voice becoming calmer, more controlled. “The woman who was with them is unconscious. I’m going to call my mother to come stay with the injured woman so I can search the beach. Her name is Jane Christmas.”
“Sir, I need you to stay on the line—”
“Just ensure the ambulance is on the way. I gave you the location. I need to find my daughter.” He hung up before the operator could protest.
His next call was to his mother. Holly answered on the second ring.
“Hey, sweetheart,” Holly’s cheerful voice seemed to add fuel to the flames of suppressed panic burning through him.
“Mom, I need you and Jack at the beach access behind the inn. Now.” Gabe’s voice was hard, leaving no room for questions. “Jane’s hurt, and Trinity and Maddy are… are missing. Bring Jack. Hurry. I need to search for the kids.”
He heard the sharp intake of breath, heard the shock in his mother’s voice, but Holly didn’t waste time with questions. That was Holly. Always reliable in a crisis.
“We’re coming. Two minutes,” his mother assured him.
The line went dead, and Gabe turned back to Jane. She was stirring, her hand going to her head with a groan. Her eyes fluttered open, confusion clouding them at first. Then clarity slammed into her expression, and he saw the exact moment she remembered.
She tried to sit up too fast, swaying dangerously. Gabe reached out to steady her, but she pushed past his hands, trying to stand.
“Where’s Maddy and Trinity?” Her voice was frantic, wild with fear. “Did that evil man take them? Did he—”
Gabe grabbed her shoulders, keeping her from running down the beach in her panicked state.
“Jane. Jane, look at me.” He made his voice firm but gentle.
“I need you to breathe. An ambulance is coming. You have a bad gash on your head that needs to be attended to.” His eyes held hers.
“My mother and Jack are on the way. But I need you to tell me what happened.”
Jane’s hands were shaking as she touched her head, wincing at the pain.
“I... we were playing. Building a sandcastle. Duke was...” She looked around wildly, and seemed relieved to see the dog nearby.
“A man approached us. He said he was Maddy’s father.
That he wanted to talk to her.” Tears started streaming down her face, mixing with the blood from her head wound.
“I said no. Told the girls to stay behind me. But he grabbed Maddy. Trinity tried to stop him. She grabbed onto Maddy’s arm and wouldn’t let go.
He shoved Trinity. Hard. She fell.” Jane’s voice broke.
“I tried to stop him. I got between him and the girls. He hit me. I don’t.
.. I don’t remember anything after that. ”
The sound of running feet made them both turn. Holly and Jack were sprinting across the sand, Holly’s face pale with terror, Jack’s expression grim and determined.
“Gabe, what’s going on?” Holly called out as they approached. Then she saw Jane sitting on the blanket, blood on her face, Gabe’s expression. “Where’s Trinity?”
“Taken.” The word came out flat, cold. “A man took both girls. Jane says he claimed to be Maddy’s father.”
He looked at Jane, taking in her pallor, the way she was swaying slightly even sitting down. But he needed information. Needed anything that could help him find his daughter. “Can you describe him?”
Before Jane could answer, the wail of sirens cut through the air. The ambulance pulled into the parking lot, and paramedics rushed down the beach access with their equipment.
At the same moment, Isabella appeared at the top of the stairs, Christopher right beside her. They must have seen the ambulance. Charlie and Logan were close behind them, all of them running across the sand.
Isabella took in the scene with one sweeping glance. Jane with blood on her head. The paramedics. The scattered beach toys. No sign of Maddy or Trinity anywhere. Her face drained of all color.
“Where’s Maddy?” Her voice was barely a whisper.
Gabe turned to face her, and he felt something inside him go cold and hard. Every emotion locked down behind ice and steel and deadly purpose. He became the Marine, the warrior, the man who’d led soldiers through combat zones and never lost one.
“Some lunatic took my daughter and Maddy,” Gabe said, his voice cold and controlled. More terrifying than if he’d shouted, because it promised violence and retribution.
Isabella went even paler, her hand reaching out blindly. Christopher caught her, steadied her. She looked at Jane, her mouth opening to ask something, but her phone rang.
The sound was jarring in the tense silence. Isabella pulled the phone from her pocket, her hands shaking. She looked at the screen, then at Christopher, then at Charlie.
“It’s him,” she whispered.
“Put him on speaker.” Gabe’s voice brooked no argument. This wasn’t a request. It was an order from a man accustomed to being obeyed in life-or-death situations.
Isabella’s hands were shaking so badly she nearly dropped the phone. She managed to hit the speaker button. “Hello?”
“Isabella.” The voice that came through was smooth, confident, with something evil underneath. “I hope you’re listening carefully.”
“Where are they?” Isabella’s voice cracked. “Where’s my daughter?”
“Safe. For now.” A pause, letting the threat sink in.
“You have twenty-four hours to get me what I want, or you won’t see Maddy and her little friend again.
” Another pause, deliberate and cruel. “I know plenty of families willing to pay top dollar to adopt kids. Especially cute twelve-year-old girls.”
The line went dead with a sharp click.
Silence crashed over them. Everyone stood frozen, processing the threat, processing what he’d just said. He was threatening to sell two little girls.
Gabe’s eyes met Christopher’s across the small group, and something passed between them. Understanding. Recognition. Christopher understood what needed to happen now.
“You will tell me everything there is to know about this man and why he has my daughter and Maddy,” Gabe said, his voice still that cold, controlled tone that promised violence. “Right now.”
Isabella opened her mouth, but no words came out.
Christopher stepped forward, his posture stick straight.
“His name is Todd Berkley. He’s Maddy’s biological father, who abandoned them twelve years ago.
He signed away all parental rights in exchange for being released from child support.
” His voice was clipped, professional, delivering a tactical briefing.
“He’s been trying to extort Isabella into giving him money by threatening to file for custody.
Yesterday, we recorded him making those threats at a meeting.
Last night, he contacted Maddy directly on her phone.
And now...” His voice hardened. “Now he’s escalated to kidnapping. ”
Gabe’s expression didn’t change. Stayed cold and deadly. But something shifted in his eyes. Calculation. Planning. The tactical mind of a combat veteran assessing a mission.
The paramedics were working on Jane, checking her pupils, bandaging her head wound. One of them was trying to convince her to go to the hospital, but Jane was shaking her head stubbornly.
“I’m fine,” she insisted, though she clearly wasn’t. “I need to help find those girls.”
“Ma’am, you have a head injury—”
“I said I’m fine!” Jane’s voice cracked with guilt and fear. “This is my fault. I was supposed to protect them. I should have—”
“This isn’t your fault,” Gabe interrupted, and something in his tone made Jane look at him. “You did exactly what you should have done. You put yourself between the girls and a threat. You got hurt trying to protect them. That’s not failure. That’s courage.”
Jane’s eyes filled with tears, but she nodded.
Gabe turned back to the group. “Then we have twenty-four hours to get them back.” He looked at Jack. “Call the police. Tell them everything. Make sure they understand this is a kidnapping and potential child trafficking situation.”
He turned to Christopher. “You and I are going after them. I need you ready to move as soon as we have a location.”
Then to Isabella and Charlie. “I need everything you know about this man. Where he’s staying. What kind of car he drives. Any associates. Financial information.”
“I can do that. I’ve already did background checks on him,” Charlie said, already pulling out her phone. “I have his hotel information, his rental car information, financial records—”
“Good. Forward all of it to me.” Gabe demanded, “I want to know everywhere this man has been since he got to St. Augustine.”
He looked around at all of them. At the family that had formed over the past few days.
At people who’d become essential to him in ways he was only beginning to understand.
His mother, pale but composed. Jack, grim and ready to help.
Charlie and Logan, both looking determined.
Isabella, terrified but not falling apart.
Christopher, standing ready for orders like the soldier he’d been.
And Jane, sitting on a gurney with blood matting her auburn hair, guilt written across her face, even though none of this was her fault.
“My daughter and Maddy are out there with that man,” Gabe said, his voice cutting through the sound of waves and sirens and panicked breathing.
“Trinity is scared. Maddy is scared. And that man thinks he can use them as leverage.” He paused, and when he spoke again, his voice carried the weight of every promise he’d ever made, every oath he’d ever sworn as a Marine.
“I will get them back. Whatever it takes. Do you all understand me? I will get my daughter and Maddy back.”
And everyone standing there knew he meant it. Knew that Todd Berkley had just made the worst mistake of his life.
Because he hadn’t just taken two little girls for ransom.
He’d taken a Marine’s daughter.
And that Marine was coming for him.