When his dad parked, Ryan jumped out of the car and headed inside to grab his laptop. At the same time, he was scanning his phone for good photos of Bay. He had taken several in Wisconsin. The first one that came up was the one he’d taken of her sleeping in his bed a few days before. She looked so peaceful, he couldn’t resist taking her picture. He stared at it and prayed—begged—God to bring her home. He didn’t want to know what life without her would be like. When he opened his eyes to look at the photo again, he zoomed in on her lips and remembered kissing her goodbye in the morning. Well, that was yesterday morning. He stopped midway up the stairs and sat, unable to climb the rest of the way. He leaned forward and laid his head in his hands.
A few moments later, his dad sat next to him. “Ryan, take a nap, then we’ll hit your list.”
Ryan shook his head. “No time. I gotta go make a flyer.”
He stood quickly and ran the rest of the way up the stairs and into his bedroom. He plopped down on the bed with his laptop, and while he waited for the computer to boot up, he started emailing the photos from his phone to his email address.
Once he finished sending the photos, he downloaded them to his desktop and got to work on the flyer.
Ryan woke with a start. He looked around the room, not sure what he was doing on his bed, fully dressed. The last dregs of sunlight were peeking through the open curtains—or were they the first?
“Fuck!” He sat up abruptly and grabbed the charging cord for his dead computer. After plugging it in, the damn thing booted up slowly. How the hell had he fallen asleep? Shit! Almost six-thirty in the morning.
He ran downstairs to throw on a pot of coffee and passed Mae asleep on the couch in the living room, with Lucas next to her on the floor. His dad was in the kitchen with Wade drinking coffee and watching the news on the small kitchen TV.
“Well, good morning, Sleeping Beauty,” Wade said.
“Hey, kid.” His dad pulled out a chair for Ryan. “Have a seat, and I’ll get you a cup of coffee.”
Ryan smacked Wade in the back of the head as he sat down. “What the fuck’s going on? Why are we just sitting around?”
Wade pointed to the TV. “We’re watching the shit show. Turns out Bailey has a dad living in Sacramento.”
“What?” He stared at the TV, not sure he understood what Wade was even talking about. “What the fuck?”
It was a recording of a news conference from the evening before. The main spokesperson was Agent Sharp, and standing next to him was a gentleman in his fifties. The headline read, “Missing Spatz baby found, but missing again.”
“That there is Bailey’s biological father, Alexander Spatz. He’s an economics professor from Sacramento,” Wade said.
Vince placed a cup of coffee in front of Ryan, who immediately picked it up and drank. Hot or not, he needed something to help clear his head. He looked at the TV again and stared at the man. He did see a slight resemblance. “Sharpe mentioned he had a match on Bailey’s DNA, but he wouldn’t tell me anything else.”
“Yep,” Wade said. “Turns out Bailey was stolen when she was only a few weeks old.
“Wow.” Ryan looked at his dad, and Vince nodded. “So they’re talking all kinds of shit at this news conference, but are they doing anything to find Bailey?”
Vince nodded again. “He’s already offered up a $50,000 reward for any news that leads to the safe return of his daughter. Also, the FBI has taken over the investigation into Bailey’s disappearance.”
“Anything else?” Ryan asked.
“They’re showing our flyer every few minutes.”
“Our flyer? We don’t have a flyer. I fell asleep before I got it done.”
Vince reached for the cabinet behind him and grabbed a stack of papers, and placed them in front of Ryan. “When you fell asleep last night, we decided to let you sleep. Wade made the flyer with a little help and some photos from Mae.”
Ryan looked from his dad to Wade. An overwhelming wave of thankfulness tore through him. He stood and grabbed Wade in a bear hug, fighting to keep his emotions in check. “Thank you,” he sputtered. “Thank you so much for saving my ass and getting that out there for me.”
“Come on, man,” Wade said, slapping Ryan’s back. “You’re thanking me as if I don’t have a vested interest. You think we don’t care about Bailey? You think this is you and only you out there for her?”
“No, no. Sorry. I just woke up feeling like shit for not getting it done. For sleeping when I have no idea where she is or what’s happening to her.” He pulled from Wade’s grasp and ran his hands over his face before collapsing into his chair. “I’ve let her down.”
“Ryan, you haven’t let anyone down,” Vince said.
“No, you haven’t,” Wade said. “We’re all here for each other. We all have each other’s backs. You’re not alone in this, and neither is Bailey. Stop acting like it’s the two of you against the world.”
Ryan nodded, fighting with everything he had to keep his tears at bay. “I’m sorry. I’m just so worried. I don’t know what to do. I don’t want a life without Bailey. I need her.”
Vince patted his back. “She’s coming home, Ryan. Don’t give up so easily.”
“You’re damn right she’s coming home,” Mae said, coming into the kitchen.
“It’s true,” Lucas said. “We’ve called in the troops. Get your ass showered so we can get to work.”
Ryan glanced over his shoulder. “Troops?”
“That’s right.” Lucas grabbed two coffee cups from the high cabinet. “We have over a hundred people meeting us at El Lago at eight am.”
* * *
Bailey didn’t know how long she’d lain there, but it had grown dark
