Willow gave it some thought. "I guess so."
"Alright. Is his last name…" I pretended to think. "Taylor?"
She laughed. "No. That's my name."
Crap.
But of course, I should've realized there was no guarantee that she and her dad would have the same last name. Still, my sense of unease was growing.
Working hard to keep calm, I said, "Alright, I give up. Why don't you just tell us?"
Willow was frowning again. "But you only guessed once."
When I looked to Cami, she said to Willow, "If you tell me your dad's name, I'll tell you my dad's name. And it's a funny one, too."
Willow perked up. "Really?"
"Oh yeah," Cami said. "But you tell us first. What's your dad's name?"
Willow replied, "Mason."
I froze. Oh, no. It couldn’t be that Mason. Could it? Cami and I exchanged another long, worried look. Finally, it was Cami who asked the question I'd been dreading. "And what's his last name?"
And that's when Willow said it. "Blastoviak."
Shit.
I felt the blood drain from my face – and not only because I knew that name all too well. It was because just then, a big black sedan screeched to stop on the street beside us.
I recognized that sedan, just like I recognized the driver, who'd already bolted from the car. He slammed the driver's side door behind him and moved toward us with long, angry strides.
From the look on his face, he was about to accuse us of stealing his kid, which posed an unsettling question.
Had we?
Chapter 58
Arden
In stunned silence, Cami and I watched from the sidewalk as Mason – with a surprising degree of gentleness – escorted Willow straight to his car and got her settled in the back seat.
And then, after shutting the car door behind her, he strode back to where we stood. With murder in his eye, he demanded in a low voice, "What the hell were you doing?"
I resisted the urge to cringe in the face of his quiet wrath. "We were walking her home." My chin lifted as I considered who was truly at fault here. "And as long as we're all asking, what the hell were you doing?"
He glared down at me. "So you're gonna walk ten fucking miles? With a seven-year-old? That's what you want me to believe?"
I blinked. "Ten miles? Really?"
Well, that explained why we'd never found the house.
"Cut the crap," he said. "What do you want?"
Wasn't it obvious? "I wanted to take her home."
"Oh yeah?" he said. "And where the hell is that?"
Oh, for God's sake. "In case it wasn't clear," I said, "I meant her home, not mine." This should've been obvious. I mean for one thing, I didn't even have a home.
But apparently, Mason was too angry to think straight. With a low scoff, he said, "Is that so?"
I made a sound of frustration. "And I didn't know it was ten miles, okay?"
He gave me a hard look. "So what's your angle?"
"I don't have an angle," I said. "I already told you, I was trying to get her home."
"Nice story," he said. "So tell me. How the hell did you get her?"
Get her?
Okay, that made no sense whatsoever. I shook my head. "What?"
Speaking very clearly now, he repeated the gist of his question. "How did you get her?"
"I didn't 'get' her," I said. "She got me."
His jaw clenched. "Was Brody in on it?"
I felt my brow wrinkle in confusion. "In on what?"
"You tell me."
"I can't tell you," I said, "because I have no idea what you mean."
We were still arguing back and forth when Cami – facing Mason, not me – nudged her way between us. With a strained smile in her voice, she told him, "You need to stop, okay?"
Mason was tall – a lot taller than me and Cami, which meant that I could see his face all too clearly when he replied, "And who are you?"
With that same smile in her voice, she said, "I'm the one who's going slap you silly if you don't calm down."
From the look on his face, her words felt like a slap, even if she hadn't actually done it. In a tight voice, he replied, "What?'"
Cami craned her neck to stare at him. "The question isn't what," she said. "It's why. As in why you need to calm down." In a near whisper, she continued. "And the answer to that is, 'Because you're scaring your daughter.'"
Slowly, Mason turned to look.
So did I.
Sure enough, inside the car, Willow's face was pressed tight against the glass of the side window. She was staring at all of us with obvious concern.
I dug deep and summoned up what I hoped was a smile. I gave her a friendly wave, as if to say, "Everything's fine, really."
From the look on her face, she wasn't buying it.
Smart kid.
Still, I kept the smile plastered in place until finally, she waved back, looking sick to her stomach.
By now, I wasn't the only one waving. Mason gave her a single stiff wave while Cami put a lot more effort into it, giving Willow a big, friendly wave and a thumbs-up.
Cami was still waving at Willow when Mason turned back to face me. In a dangerously low voice, he said, "I'll deal with you later."
Yikes.
If that wasn't a threat, I didn't know what was.
But soon, he was gone, leaving me wondering, What on Earth had just happened?
Chapter 59
Brody
Chase and I made a deal. I'd tell Mason while he dealt with the nanny. Bracing myself, I called Mason's cell phone.
Sounding more pissed off than usual, he answered with a terse, "What?"
He was obviously in a shitty mood. But hey, what else was new?
Whether he realized it or not, his mood was about to take a serious turn, and not for the better.
I got straight to the point. "Listen, I've got some bad news."
"I bet."
I didn't know what he meant, but I'd called for a reason, and I wasn't about to be sidetracked. "Before I tell you," I continued, "I
