I remained completely still and just waited. It took a few minutes, but eventually I heard more scuffling coming toward me until I heard short shallow breaths right before me. A small, frozen hand landed on top of my own where I had it rested on my knee. Her breathing illustrated she was terrified, but also in pain. I knew the short breaths were likely the result of damage to her ribs and I had to fight the nausea that rose in me at the thought of the small smiling ten year old from the picture I had seen on the news, being beaten by that animal.
Flashbacks vied even harder for viewing time in my mind, but I pushed them away. There wasn’t time for me to fall apart. This little girl was hurt and beyond terrified. I needed to be brave and strong for her. I needed to find a way to get us both out of there.
I turned my hand over and clasped hers tightly, assuring her I was there; that she wasn’t alone anymore. I knew from personal experience that it would help.
In the long years I had spent alone in The Darkness, I had longed for someone to be there with me, to hold me and make me feel safe, even if just for a moment. The loneliness was one of the hardest things to deal with. The isolation and silence would often have me feeling as though I were losing my mind, and with each long lonely day, the hope that I would ever escape dwindled until hope became a very distant memory.
“It’s ok sweetie. I’m h-here. I’m going to get you out of here.” I pledged. I would never give up on hope, not this time. I would fight until my dying breath to get us out of there. It wasn’t just about me anymore. It was about an innocent child who I had to save from any further life shattering trauma. It was about my guys who needed me to get back home to them. I was determined I would do whatever it took to stay whole enough to remain the woman they had all fallen in love with. The Shadow would never break me again.
COLE
“I don’t give a shit how you do it! Just get the fucking footage and get me a lead on this sonofabitch, Mason!” Kyle raged at the poor IT whiz who ran the tech side of Shepard Security.
We had been at the office for less than an hour and Kyle had pissed everyone in his path off pretty badly, including his boss, Rob. I’d have tried to calm him down, but I couldn’t because I was just as scared and angry as Ky was too.
It was sixteen hours since Livy had disappeared and so far we had very little to go on, except for the fact this fucker was pretty damned good at slipping past cops. Kade had ensured there were units at every major exit out of the city, and every CPD cop, on or off duty, had the description of the van and the photo of The Shadow taken from surveillance footage outside the dance studio weeks before, and still there had not been one single sighting of him or the vehicle.
Ky and I had raced to Creal Springs and spent hours just watching the one and only highway in and out of there, but we hadn’t seen a damned thing either. Realising Ky would seriously lose his shit if we just sat there doing nothing for any longer, I had encouraged him to call Rob. As a result two of Kyle’s co-workers were now sitting on Creal Springs, and we were at the security company’s offices downtown.
A very tense call with Kade and my Dad, who had both sounded as stressed and pissed as us, had revealed that the surveillance footage outside the precinct hadn’t given them an image of the kidnapper who snatched Livy. The fucker knew exactly where the cameras were and kept his head right down and out of view. Not that it mattered because we knew who had taken her. Who else could it have been? Now Kyle was putting the pressure on Mason, the IT tech, to illegally hack into the city cameras to try and get an image of the van, praying it could give us a lead, not willing to wait for Kade to get the warrant needed to legally access the footage.
“Jesus man.” Mason winced. “I heard you. I’m on it, but I can’t do a damned thing with you breathing down my neck.”
“Come on Ky.” I stepped forward and put a hand on my brother’s shoulder, knowing I needed to try and take control somewhat. “Let him work. Let’s grab a coffee and regroup.” It killed me to walk away from the guy who may be our only hope at finding a lead, but Mason was right. He couldn’t relax enough to get on with what we needed him to, with a raging ball of fury seething at his back.
“We don’t have time to fucking regroup. She’s out there Cole, with him! We have to find her! We have to…..before….” He couldn’t say it, couldn’t admit what we all knew. She was likely being beaten and abused every moment we failed to get to her.
“I know bro. I know.” My stomach turned at the thought of my Livy beaten and in pain, alone in the dark once again, but I had to keep my head. She needed us to find her and we fucking would. Whatever it took, we were getting her back and ending the fucking monster who hurt her once and for all.
I slapped Kyle’s shoulder twice in support, then ushered him to the kitchen, to get him some coffee and hopefully calm him down a little, before he killed someone. We
