But my eyes were looking at the wall. It was dark, but I swore I saw something up there in the corner. "Faith?" I pointed at it. "What's that?"
"Brody says it's for the security system," she explained.
"There was one in the bathroom too?" I asked.
She bobbed her head. "Yeah. I used to think it was a spider den or something. It's like a hole. He says there's a sensor inside."
My heart thumped too hard. "I didn't see one in the living room," I mumbled, trying to think back to if I'd even looked.
"No, just in here, their bedroom, and the bathroom."
My heart stopped. "What?"
"Yeah, Mom said it's proof we're safe here." She shrugged. "Said he did it himself, so we don't even have to worry about a keypad."
And I shoved to my feet. "Honey, turn on that light beside your bed? I need to get something."
She rolled over to do that, but I headed back for my bag. Of all those things I'd seen, I knew there was a multi-tool in there. What kind of security system was only used in the bedrooms and a fucking bathroom? There wasn't even a window in the bathroom, so it wasn't exactly a point of entry. And no keypad? Then how did it even work? I might not know a lot about a lot of things, but I knew how to make things run, and this? Naw, it didn't make sense.
But Faith always complained about Brody sending her to her room. She said he was always making her take a shower. Cy said that asshole had a picture of my girl on his phone. If they were right about her cutting, then was I the one that was wrong? Well, if nothing else, I'd learned that it was better to be safe than fucking sorry.
Grabbing the pliers, I snagged a chair from the kitchen and headed back. Faith was still sitting on her bed, looking at me like I was crazy, but I didn't care. Let them say I had a meltdown. It had been a shit night already, so I was just rolling with it now. Setting the chair as close to the corner as I could, I climbed on it and stuck the long tip of the pliers inside the hole that had been drilled out of the drywall.
There was clearly something on the other side. It took a little work - ok, a lot - for me to get a grip on it, but then I eased it forward, out of the wall. As soon as the tip of it was visible, I felt all of my rage come back. Clenching my jaw, I tugged a little more, and a small device came free, hard wired into the house's electricity. Flipping the tool around, I snipped the wires, pushing the loose ends back in, and then I looked at what I had in my hand.
There was no doubt about it, that was a little camera. The kind people used for nannies or such. Fuck, it was the kind that connected to a laptop, probably over wifi - or one of those wires - and it had been pointed right at my daughter's bed. Just like the one in the bathroom had been pointed at the shower, set high enough to see over the curtain.
"Faith?" I said softly as I turned to show her what I'd found. "Honey, I need you to grab a bag, get exactly what you need and can't live without, and I need you to do it fast."
"Why?" she asked.
"Trust me, cupcake," I begged. "Get as many clothes as you can fit, underwear, your toothbrush, and your stuffed animals, ok? Two bags if you have to." I jumped off the chair and headed to her closet, where I knew she had a few of those. One was a backpack, but the other was a gym bag I'd given her. "Put it in here, and I need you to do it quietly and quickly. And get dressed while you're at it."
"Dad, I'm scared," she breathed.
"Me too, honey, but I'm gonna take care of this. I don't know how, but I'm gonna take care of this."
Chapter Sixty-One
Listening to Faith move around as she gathered her stuff, I hurried back to the living room to get my own things. My ears strained, waiting for the sound of Brody's door opening, but it never came. Just Faith sneaking into the bathroom and back out. While she did that, I carefully placed the camera at the bottom of my bag, pulled on a shirt and some socks, then crammed my feet in my boots. I found my keys, tucked those in my pocket, but didn't worry about a belt. Not right now.
That was a fucking camera, and it had been pointed at my little girl. Someone had been watching her! I didn't even know how to tell her why we were leaving, so I could only beg her to trust me, but that wasn't even the biggest problem. I had nowhere to go. That asshole had been looking at my little girl, and I didn't have a good way to save her.
But one memory kept spinning around in the back of my mind.Doesn't matter if we're fighting about something else, trying to ignore stupid shit we did, or any of that. If you need help, shit stops, and we help.Right now, I needed a whole lot of help, and I wasn't too proud to care where it came from. I had to get my daughter safe. I had to take care of her. I was supposed to be a good dad, and I hadn't seen a thing.
I'd fucked it all up.
My heart was hammering in my chest, but I had to stay calm. I didn't want to scare my daughter any more than I already had. I just needed to get her out of here first, and then I could deal with the rest. Then I could kill that motherfucker, because no one who looked at my child would get to live to tell the tale.
I was going to beat the shit out of that man. I'd make him hurt enough to make up for the pain Faith was about to suffer. That bastard had looked me right in the eye with no shame, and the whole time he'd been creeping on my kid? Did Meredith know? Was she in on this? Was that cunt selling her own child for her fancy-ass house and comfortable little life? I couldn't believe that. I was pretty sure she'd simply been too wrapped up in her own drama to pay attention to the signs. There had to have been plenty, especially since she fuckinglivedwith him!
I just couldn't believe I hadn't noticed anything either. I'd all but called Cy a liar when he'd said there was a problem! I was supposed to be a good dad, but I'd failed my daughter. Well, not anymore. She came first. Faith would always come first, and there was only one place I could think of that might give her the time of fucking day right now. Maybe they wouldn't want a damned thing to do with me, but I was pretty sure they'd still help her, and that was all I needed.
I'd burned that bridge, but fuck it. If I had to fucking beg, I would. Not for me. No, I was a fucking idiot, and I sure didn't deserve a second chance, but Faith did, and they had to help. Didn't they? Even after all those things I'd said, they wouldn't turn my daughter away. They couldn't, because if they did, I didn't know what the fuck I'd do.
Cy had tried to tell me, and I'd thought they were trying to screw me over. I'd convinced myself that they had to be wrong because I just didn't want them to be right, but why else would there be a fucking camera in a child's room? In a bathroom! No, I'd rather go to jail for kidnapping her than take that risk. Fuck it all. I'd burn this whole place down before I ignored what was staring me right in the face. And maybe I didn't know what to believe, but I knew one thing: Faith trusted Violet.
Slinging my bag over my shoulder, I headed back to Faith's room to find her trying to shove a stuffed pig into the top of her backpack, but it didn't fit. Her gym bag was closed, and it looked stuffed full, which meant she'd gotten something in there. Didn't even matter what. Dropping my bag beside it, I headed over to help her with the backpack.
