“Mommy, I have to go to the bathroom,” Dylan came up and announced. The bathroom was down a wide hall that also held a small storage room. It led to the back door of Violet’s shop. I had previously told Dylan that he wasn’t allowed to go back there by himself. Call me overprotective, but I didn’t want him back there alone. I got up to walk him back and wait in the hall.
“Come on, bud,” I said, and he raced ahead of me to the hallway. I saw light from the back door shining into the hall, which was odd; Violet always kept it shut and locked. She didn’t want anyone sneaking in through the back.
“Dylan, wait!” I rushed into the mouth of the hall and saw the good-looking, ponytailed, Hawaiian-shirt bad guy named Derrick come out of the storage room. He lunged for Dylan and grabbed his arm, pulling him toward the open back door.
I ran forward to jump on his back. Reaching around his neck, I pulled at his nose, I kicked and I scratched. I hit him over and over until Dylan was able to break free. “Run, Dylan! Get Luke, get help,” I grunted.
Dylan stared at me for a second as tears filled his eyes, then he shot off down the hall.
I was glad he didn’t see me get thrown off. I was glad he didn’t see me get shoved into the wall and punched in the side of the head.
After that, I couldn’t see either. Everything had gone black.
Chapter 31
Luke
“Dad!” Dylan’s terrified scream echoed through Violet’s shop, sending us all into a shocked silence as he came barreling through the swinging doors that led out of the back room.
Liam clapped my shoulder as he ran around me to follow Dylan’s path through the doors. I darted toward Dylan.
“What happened? Where’s your mom?” I barked, kneeling to gather him into my arms. “Someone call for help!”
Violet handed Calla to her grandmother and fumbled in her apron pocket, removing her cell. “I’ll get dad on the phone. He’s with Cade.”
Liam reentered the room, stopping at my side. “The back door was wide open. No sign of Lily or anyone else.”
Rose joined me on the floor. “Dylan, honey, tell us exactly what happened.”
“That mean man Derrick was back there. He hit her and took her away. He tried to take me first, but Mommy wouldn’t let him.” Tears rolled down his face, wetting my shirt. His shoulders shook with sobs.
When I found them, it would take everything in me not to end that man. Rage, cold and prickly, wound through my body,coiling me tight, forcing my mind back to the time when most of my existence was fight or flight and required my entire focus to stay alive.
“Think really hard, Dylan. Did you see anyone else? Could you see out the back door?” Liam asked as he knelt next to us. “Did you see a car running out there? Or anything that could help?”
Dylan looked at Liam and his eyes lit up. “Yeah, I did. I saw a car. It was red but not shiny and it looked like Darrell Cartrip fromCars.”
“Oh, that’s a Monte Carlo,” Nick said. “Good job, Dylan.”
“Did you see the license plate?” Rose questioned. “Could you see any letters or numbers?”
“No. But it had one blue door with a big dent in it. And that other guy in the pictures at Grandma’s house was in the car,” he added.
The coil in my gut tightened as I waited for Violet to relay information from her father. I needed a starting point.
“You are such a good helper, Dylan,” Rose told him as she pushed his hair back from his face and dried his cheeks with a napkin.
“Really?”
“You sure are,” Liam answered. “This will help find your mom.”
“Take him, Rose.” She reached for Dylan. I stood. “We have to find her.”
“We will.” Liam’s tone launched me back into our past. “Nothing else is acceptable. Focus.”
“Focus,” I repeated. “Ready.”
“Ready,” he chanted back to me. “We’ll get her.”
