Later, when they’d found her, Graham would be grateful for his crew and their quick thinking on their feet, but for now, he was trying to stem his own panic so he didn’t freak Blake out any more than she already was.
“I need to call the police,” Blake said, her voice devoid of emotion. “What if…what if it’s Chris’s parents? What if they took her because they don’t think they’ll win? That was my lawyer calling just now to tell me that he thinks the case is going to get dismissed. What if they panicked? Where is my baby, Graham? Where is my Rowan?”
His hands shook, but he pulled out his phone. “We’re calling the police now, just in case. We’re going to find her, Blake. If it’s the last goddamn thing we do. I’m not letting another little girl get hurt because of things out of my control. Do you understand? We’re going to find her, and everything is going to be fucking fine.”
He was starting to panic, but oddly enough, it seemed to be helping Blake. She kept nodding, but the overwhelming sense of confusion radiating from her dimmed. Now she looked like she was on a mission.
“Hey, Graham?” Owen called out, and Graham turned on his heel.
“Did you find her?” Graham asked.
“Where is she?” Blake said as she pushed past him.
Owen shook his head. “I haven’t, but call the police if you haven’t already.” His mouth was set in a grim line as he met Graham’s face. “The back window of the trailer is open, and the blocks she was playing with are on the ground beneath it.”
“Oh my God,” Blake whispered. Graham wrapped his arm around her shoulders to keep her steady. He ignored the way she stiffened at his touch.
“And we can’t find Sean, the new guy. He was here earlier when Rowan and Blake first showed up, but he’s gone now. Might be a coincidence, but we need to call the cops.”
The ground beneath Graham’s feet shifted, and he felt as if he were falling. Only he wasn’t, and it was only his mind.
Someone had kidnapped Rowan, and it had been on his site, on his watch. She’d been right there, and now he might have lost her.
He’d already lost one child.
He couldn’t do it again.
He dialed 911 and did something he hadn’t done since he’d buried his little girl.
He prayed.
15
When the first police cruiser pulled into the parking lot, Blake knew this hadn’t been a dream, hadn’t been a nightmare, it was all too real. The wind rushed through her hair, though she could only feel the absence of the strands on her neck as it blew across her shoulders, not the wind itself. Her fingertips went numb, yet the skin on the rest of her arms was so sensitive it felt like hot coals danced along the fine hairs. Why that was, she didn’t understand.
She could hear her heartbeat in her ears as it echoed around her brain, but because she wasn’t moving as quickly as she could, she knew it had to be beating faster than she heard.
There was a metal taste on her tongue she would always associate with sheer panic and fear.
Someone had taken her daughter, and there was nothing she could do about it. The years she’d spent doing what she could to keep Rowan safe had meant nothing. Her daughter was out there, in danger, and out of her hands.
And every time a Gallagher brother tried to help her or touched her arm to keep her sane, she wanted to scream. She couldn’t rely on them, couldn’t rely on anyone. She couldn’t even rely on herself.
Because no matter what she did, it was always the wrong decision.
“Mrs. Brennen?”
She turned at the sound of the officer’s voice and stared bleakly at him. “Someone took my child.” She didn’t sound panicked, but she knew he could see it in her eyes. There was no hiding that, no hiding the innate fear that would come if they couldn’t find Rowan within the next few hours.
More cops came, more investigators. They didn’t let anyone leave the site and didn’t reassure her like she needed. Instead, she felt their stares, their recriminations as to who she was and how she could have possibly let this happen to her daughter.
Her world had crumbled, but she didn’t show the break. She didn’t have the right to show weakness until Rowan was back and safe in her arms. She’d deal with whatever came next, and once her daughter was returned, then and only then would she find a place to let her fears win.
Now was not that time.
While people prowled around the site, asking their questions and looking for answers, Blake stood between the Gallagher brothers, Graham on one side, Murphy and Owen on the other, and did her best to be who she’d pretended to be all along.
Someone far stronger than she truly was.
And just when she thought she couldn’t take any more, Chris’s parents pulled up to the site in their fancy car, stepping out in their fancy shoes.
“You!” Chris’s mother stormed toward Blake, her small purse clutched in her hands. “What have you done with our granddaughter?”