“I say we celebrate,” Marie says.
“Agreed,” Kevin nods. “Lunch at that swanky new place on Broadway would be great.”
“That place is reservation only,” Marie points out. “We’ll never get in last minute.”
Kevin looks at me. “Ava could pull some strings with Dagen Fox and get us in.”
I raise my brow. “What makes you think I have that sort of pull?”
All three of them laugh and I flush.
“Come on, Ava,” Julia teases. “We can tell that man is smitten with you. You could probably call him right now and?—"
The sound of my phone ringing cuts her off.
“Speak of the devil,” I say, smiling and answering the phone. “Mr. Fox. We were just?—”
“He popped up,” Dagen says immediately. “Otto is on point right now, but he was near Elsie’s school thirty minutes ago. We?—”
Another call starts beeping through and I look at the caller ID in confusion. My eyes widen when I see it’s Elsie’s school.
“They’re calling me. I gotta answer it,” I tell Dagen, switching over without waiting for his answer. “Hello?” I ask as soon as the call connects. Oh god. Please no. Please don’t do this to me. “Hello?” I say more frantically when someone doesn’t immediately answer.
“Mrs. Hutcherson? This is Mrs. Clark at the school. I need you to come here right away,” the woman on the other line says, her voice frantic. In the background, I can hear what sounds like sirens.
“What happened?” I ask, my heart in my throat. “What’s going on?”
“There’s an emergency. The police have been called and are here. Unfortunately, a man appeared with a gun and demanded Elsie. We refused, but he. . . there was a shooting and. . . Elsie is gone. We need you to come speak to the police and?—”
I drop my phone. “Oh my god,” I rasp, my chest splitting open. “He’s got Elsie. He’s got my baby.”
The doors burst open, making all four of us jump as Wylan appears. His face is darker than I’ve ever seen it.
“Otto called,” he says, looking at the three other people in the room and dismissing them. “We’re leaving. Now.”
“He’s got her,” I repeat, my eyes welling. “Wylan, my baby.”
“I know,” he says, his eyes hard as he grabs my arm and leads me out the door with no explanation to anyone else. “And I’m going to get her back.”
He directs me into the elevator and closes the doors. We start moving down immediately, impossibly fast. He pulls out a gun from his waistband and checks it before meeting my eyes.
“I’m going to get her back, crumpet.” He cocks the gun. “I promise.”
Forty-Three
Ava
You know that feeling you get when you’re on a rollercoaster, when you’ve travelled all the way to the top and you’re looking over the edge from the front row, but the coaster has to wait for the rest of the cars to overcome the hump to fall? That feeling when everything stands still for the briefest of moments before your stomach drops and you’re screaming and your chest hurts?
That’s what it’s like to realize that Elsie is gone. That’s what it’s like to understand that after everything we’d prepared for, it wasn’t enough.
He has her. That bastard has Elsie.
Suddenly, the thought of him living after this is too much. I was wrong before. I’d been realizing it, but the answer hits me hard now. As my eyes slowly rise to meet Wylan’s, I realize I’m no better than Ric. I’m not above murder. Not when it comes to protecting my child. Not when it comes to Elsie.
“Find her,” I croak. “Find her right now.”
The elevator opens and reveals both Dagen and Felix standing outside the building next to the black car. Felix has his laptop out, his fingers flying over the keys as Wylan rushes me through the lobby and out the doors.
