Striding back out to the main room, I sat on the couch, rearranging Calla on my lap so I could pull my phone out. Rubbing one hand in firm circles over her back, I pressed a kiss to her temple as I texted Moses.
Could you grab the dragon stuffy from front seat of my car for me? Found it today. Might be Calla’s.
In less than a minute his response came through.
Figured you’d rescued it when I saw how dirty it was. Brought it with me after putting your car away. Gave to Jayne to fix. I’ll check with her on progress.
Shaking my head with a smile, I typed out a reply.
Angels, the pair of you. If you could bring it ASAP, I have a lap full of devastated Little.
Jayne, or Nanny J as the Littles all called her, was a magician with stuffy first aid. I was extremely grateful Moses had thought to give her the dragon to mend. If it was Calla’s, and the reason she was so upset, she wouldn’t care what condition it was in, solong as she had it returned, but I felt better knowing she’d get a clean and fixed stuffy to cuddle.
Setting my phone aside, I pressed another kiss to the top of Calla’s head.
“Shhh, sweet girl. Everything is gonna work out. You’ll see.”
I kept rubbing firm circles on her back, my other hand resting on the outside of her thigh, keeping her safely on my lap. Closing my eyes, I rested my cheek against her hair, my heart aching with the despair that was radiating off her. Every moment with her weakened my resolve to keep things professional between us. Hell, I’d kissed her three times in the last few minutes alone. Not on the mouth, but still, it was a level of affection I wouldn’t ever give to a patient. Yet I couldn’t resist with Calla.
The quiet snick of the door being unlocked had me raising my head to look in that direction. Moses came in, his expression filling with sympathy when his gaze landed on Calla’s trembling form tucked in against me. He held his hand up to reveal a now spotlessly clean dragon stuffy. I gave him a thumbs up, mouthing “thank you” before I spoke out loud to Calla.
“Calla? Sweetheart, I want you to take a look at something. I think you may have lost it earlier today on your way here.”
She hiccupped and lifted her face, keeping one hand on my shoulder while she wiped at her face with the other. I reached over to the side table and tugged a few tissues from the box before using them to wipe her face clean. Then grabbed another one and got her to blow her nose.
“Sweet girl, did the picture of the dragon upset you because you lost your dragon stuffy?”
She hiccupped through a sob and gave me a jerky nod. Her eyes, red rimmed from crying, looked so heartbreakingly sad as she sat on my lap. She focused on my mouth, as she often did. I’dknown her for less than twenty-four hours and she already had me fully hooked.
“Let me see if I can guess what happened. Your stepfather drugged you this morning, so he could fly you from Denver to here without having to actually deal with you. Since it’s not the first time he’s drugged you like that, you’ve built up a bit of resistance to whatever he used and came out from under its influence earlier than expected. With how Jack’s been tormenting you with what he believed would happen to you here, I bet you threw a helluva fit when you realized where you were being taken. You tried to get free, didn’t you, sweet girl?”
Chapter Nine
Calla
Dashing the fresh wave of tears from my cheeks, I nodded. Somehow Eric had guessed exactly what had happened. When I’d woken up in the back of that SUV, I hadn’t been able to move. Panic had threatened to overwhelm me, send me spiraling. But I’d known I needed to fight it, needed to be focused in order to get myself out of whatever hell Jack had planned for me. By the time I could move my arms and legs, I’d been trembling, on the verge of imploding from the pent up emotions. While I’d been shoved in the very back row of seats, Jack was sitting directly in front of me. He was facing forward, looking out of the window while he yelled into his phone, mad about some vote that wasn’t going the way he wanted. His entire focus was on his call so he didn’t know I’d woken up. I used his distraction to search for a way to open the rear hatch. We were driving on twisty roads so while we were still going fast, we weren’t going highway speed. If I could get the door open, I’d risk jumping out. Whatever injuries I got would be worth it to be free.
While I hadn’t spotted any sort of button or handle that might open the door, I had seen the lever that would lower the seat beside mine. If I could get into the very back, surely then I’dbe able to find some way to get out. Keeping my gaze on Jack, I held my breath and reached for the clip, pressing the button to release my seatbelt. Any hope I had of remaining unnoticed vanished as a loud dinging filled the SUV.
As Jack ended his call, I knew my time was nearly up, so lunged for the lever, yanking it up then pulling the seat down beside me.
“What’s going on, Joe? Why is the car making that racket?”
“It’s the seatbelt alarm, Sir.”
By the time Jack turned to me I’d gotten nearly all the way into the cargo area.
“Dammit! Calla, get your ass back in the seat. What the hell do you think you’re doing? Joe, stop the car, quickly before the fool girl finds a way to open the door and kills herself when she falls out.”
“Sir, there’s no way for her to open it from inside. There’s a rest stop just ahead I’ll pull into. I’ll have us stopped in a few minutes.”
Hopelessness and defeat settled over me as I realized Joe was right. There was nothing back here that would open the door. All I’d done was get myself tangled up with my bags. Desperation had me grabbing Kimori, clutching her tightly to my chest as the car slowed.
After we’d stopped, Jack had gotten out and opened the hatch. I’d recoiled from the anger that had reddened his face but it hadn’t helped one bit. He’d roughly grabbed me and shoved me back into my seat. Tearing Kimori from my arms, he tossed her carelessly under the car before he got in. That and the fact my mother just sat there as if nothing was wrong had been what had pushed me past what I could handle and had set off my meltdown.
Misery over the reminder that Kimori was gone had me nearly missing Eric’s next words.
“Well, when Dr. Stringer rang me earlier, because she was worried about you, I’d been out driving. My car doesn’t have Bluetooth so I had to pull over to take the call.”
