My mind is spinning and my heart feels like someone is twisting it in a goddamn vice, regret gnawing at my gut.
“Look at this.” Danny motions for me to come over. He pulls up a surveillance video of what appears to be Lyla talking to a woman in a toy store. After a few moments, another figure comes into the frame, swiping the baby from the cart of the distracted mother.
“Holy shit. They are using the kid as a distraction.”
“That looks just like Lyla,” I say, asking him to replay it again.
“Fuck me,” Danny curses.
That’s how the piece of shit has been making his money.
“Jesus, I’ve seen this video circulating on some of the news stations. They’ve been chasing after these guys for months but haven’t been able to get a positive ID on them.”
Rage fills my gut when I’m hit with the cold realization they have been using Lyla as a distraction to kidnap babies. The assholes are even more fucked up than I thought.
Right about that time, one of the officers come rushing in with a cell phone in his hand. “We just got a call from the sheriff in Browder County. A woman who works at Bixler Toys says she thinks she spotted the missing girl and her mother.”
“Where is Bixler Toys?” I ask.
“About half an hour from here,” the agent replies.
He holds out the phone, and although the photo is grainy and Marley is wearing a wig and Lyla is wearing a ball cap, I know it’s them.
“Let’s go,” I order, already halfway out the door.
“I’m right behind you,” Danny shouts, following me out of the house.
Chapter 28
Marley
Zayne keeps his distance but he also keeps a close eye on me as we walk through the store. Lyla is enthralled, wonderment dancing in her eyes as she looks at every toy.
She’s easily distracted, stopping to play with this or that along the way. It all makes sense now. Steven dangled sparkly things in front of her innocent eyes and groomed her. Used her as a diversion, a distraction so his evil partner could snatch up these unsuspecting mothers’ babies.
I don’t even want to know what they do with them, my heart ripping to shreds at the frightening thought. I’m pretty sure this is how Steven made his living. My heart clenches in my chest, wondering how long Steven has done this. How long he’s been destroying people’s lives. I’m almost thankful that Zayne killed him but I still ache at the thought of my daughter grieving him and the fact that someday she will find out just how evil her father was.
