"She said if you was gonna take her kid away from her, then she was going to take me away from you."
I suck in a breath, aching for the pain I see on Kace's face and the fear in Dani's little-girl voice.
"No one is taking you away, you hear me? Where's Mads? Is Pam still there?"
"No. She left. She yelled and yelled, and after she said she'd take me away—Madi said she had to go with her and for me to lock the d-door and call you when they left."
I see Kace squeeze his eyes shut. I feel his pain. Madi left to protect Dani—but who's going to protect her?
I follow the guys to Kace's house, barely able to keep up as Sully races to get Kace home as quickly as possible. The house is dark and quiet, and the men have already entered by the time I pull in and get out to go inside.
Kace is sitting on the edge of the recliner, casted leg extended and a sobbing Dani cradled in his arms.
I look around, not sure what I'm looking for, but hoping against hope it's a bad prank and Madi is going to come strolling down the hallway like nothing's wrong.
"The guys are on the way," Sully says, holding his phone. "You calling the cops?"
I hold my breath, waiting for Kace to answer, but when he doesn't, I say, "She only left to protect Dani. That's coercion."
Sully wipes a hand over his face before focusing on Dani. "Call the cops," he says to Sully. "I'll call the attorney."
"Dani?" I wait for Dani to lift her face from her daddy's chest and look at me with her tear-swollen eyes. "How would you like a sleepover at my new apartment?"
Kace meets my gaze, and I nod at the unspoken thanks I see in his eyes. Caring for Dani is nothing in the grand scheme of things. But if loving them is this painful from the outside, I can't bear to think about what it will cost if I let myself want back in.
Chapter 38
Kace
Sully and I head back to the house around six a.m. the following morning. We searched the island from top to bottom but didn't see them.
The cops are on the lookout for them, but since Madi left on her own with her mother, they said there was little they could do.
"Hey, look. Is that her?" Sully asks in an incredulous tone.
Pam gets out the moment Sully's truck tires hit the gravel, and I stare at the stranger my sister's become. Always the wild child, the years of hard living are carved into her face. The drinking, smoking. The endless rotation of cheating men who never stick around long because, even if they do, she winds up cheating on them.
"Where is she?" Pam demands.
For a half second, I can't hear anything past the rush in my ears. Madi is missing, Dani is terrified, and now the woman who trained that fear into her is standing in my driveway acting as though she's the injured party. "I can't believe you have the nerve to show up here. You threatened to take Dani?"
"You're trying to take my kid!"
"I'm trying to give her a stable home—something you've never done! Don't you think Mads deserves that for once in her life?"
"Where is she?"
I pull back, blinking at the question. "She left with you. How about you tell me where she is?"
Pam crosses her arms over her chest and glares at me and Sully.
"She left."
"What do you mean?"
"I stopped for gas and cigarettes, and that ungrateful little brat took off!"
"Took off where?" I demand.
