Before Jessica could offer some words of wisdom, his phone began to ring, and he pulled it out, seeing Ashlyn’s name on the screen. Despite the constant tension rolling in his gut, the smile that came to his lips was automatic as soon as he thought about the gorgeous blonde who had gifted him with her love.
“It’s Ashlyn,” he told Jessica as he answered the call. “Hey, honey, did you find the key okay?”
“Something’s wrong,” Ashlyn blurted out. There was real fear in her voice, and it reminded him of the day seven months ago when he’d saved her from being abducted, raped, and possibly murdered.
Snapping immediately into cop mode, he found himself already moving toward the door. “What is it?”
“I got into your house okay, and I put the water in the snow. But then I heard something.”
“A burglar? Hide, I'm on my way.”
“No, Grant. It’s worse than that. It was Lindsay. She yelled at me. I tried to remind her how much you love her, but I knew it was best for me to leave. As soon as I got outside, I heard what sounded like her having a tantrum, yelling, and throwing things.”
He sighed, wishing that he could say with absolute certainty that his nearly sixteen-year-old daughter would not behave that way.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t.
“Then I heard a second voice, Grant,” Ashlyn continued. “It sounded like a boy’s voice, so I climbed the fence to get into your back yard so I could get a look, and I saw them. It’s that boy she’s been dating, I think he hit her, and now he’s yelling at her. I can't hear what he’s saying, but she looks scared.”
The bottom dropped out of his world as he pictured his baby girl being hurt.
“I'm on my way,” he assured Ashlyn.
“I'm going in, I won't let that boy hurt your daughter,” Ashlyn said fiercely.
Seemed there was a second bottom in his world.
Because the thought of both his girls in the hands of a potentially unstable and violent teenage boy had him staggering under the weight of the fear.
“No, Ashlyn, don’t. Hide and wait for me. I'm coming.”
“Lindsay is your daughter. I'm not going to stand by and let her get hurt. I love you, Grant, please hurry.”
With that, the call ended, and he took off at a dead run through the halls of the precinct, praying with a desperation he’d felt only once before in his life, when his wife bled out giving birth to their third child, flooding his veins.
Chapter
Nineteen
December 13th
12:33 P.M.
Bad idea or not, she was doing this.
Those were the same thoughts Ashlyn had nine months ago at her brother’s wedding when she had her one-night stand with Grant.
Even if she’d known back then how difficult things were going to be between them, she would have gone through with it. Loving Grant was worth every second of trouble they’d endured because of Lindsay’s hatred for her.
Loving Grant was also why this was easy to do.
Lindsay was his daughter, and he loved her with every fiber of his being. Going in there and protecting the girl was the only thing she could do. Despite his words, he’d never forgive her for standing by and watching as his daughter was hurt, while she cowardly kept herself safe.
Sneaking back to the front of the house, she tried to figure out how she was going to keep herself and Lindsay safe until Grant got there. The precinct was fifteen minutes away, andwhile he would likely also send the nearest patrol car, that could still be several minutes until anyone else got there.
Really, she was just hoping that her presence was enough to scare the boy off.
Stupid, maybe, but it was all she had.
