“Let me see that,” the Chief of Police said.
The phrase ran around in my mind as I stumbled backwards. It wasn’t working? Why wasn’t it working? I barreled out of the house and ran across the beach as officers called after me. This wasn’t the plan. This wasn't supposed to happen. I ran out to the spot where Brooke had been standing and I looked around.
“Brooke!” I roared. My heart was slamming against my chest as a hand came down on my shoulder.
“Mr. Spencer, we have to get back inside.”
“Brooke! Where the hell are you?”
“We have to figure out our next move.”
“Next move? I’ll tell you what your next fucking move is,” I said, as I shoved my finger in the officer’s face. “You have twenty-four hours to find my fucking family, or I’ll have your damn job. That’s your next move!”
I shoved the officer to the ground and stormed back inside, just as Daniel was coming down the stairs.
“Daddy? What’s going on? Is Sydney back?” he asked.
“No, son,” I said. “Sydney isn’t back yet.”
Our plan had failed. Now, that asshole had both of my girls and we had no idea where they were. I heard the Chief of Police talking into his radio, pulling everyone out for duty so they could patrol the island. The Coast Guard was called in to case the shoreline up to five miles in either direction. I wrapped Daniel in my arms, holding onto the last shred of sanity I had as my mind raced.
The morning was a blur. Police officers took up residence in my home and I tried to keep Daniel away from it all. But he knew something was wrong. He knew Brooke wasn’t there. He was crying, and I was doing my best to console him and bat off questions from the police. I was trying to keep myself from bashing their fucking skulls in for somehow botching this plan. A foolproof plan Brooke had willingly come up with to try and save Sydney.
Was she even with my daughter?
Were they even still alive?
“Mr. Spencer! Come quickly!”
I jumped up, raced down the hallway and found an officer standing at the front door. He was holding something in his hands.
“I found this on the side of the road just up from where the car was,” he said.
When he held the object up, I grabbed it from him and fell to my knees on the porch. Brooke’s shirt.
I gripped it tightly in my hands and brought it to my face. I sobbed profusely, drenching it in my tears as the officers tried to get me back into the house. How the hell had this vacation gone so wrong?
They pulled me into the house and shut the door as I leaned against the wall. I couldn’t breathe in her scent enough. I felt Daniel crawl into my lap and I cradled him close. I couldn't shield him from my sadness any longer. He wrapped his arms around my neck and pulled me to him, my four-year-old boy comforting me in my time of heartache. I could feel his tears dripping down the back of my neck as he kissed me.
“There’s also a note,” the officer said. “They want five hundred million dollars now.”
“Then we pay it,” I said.
“You can’t do that. There’s no guarantee that they’ll hand those girls over now.”
“It’s the only thing we’ve got and we’re doing it,” I said. “We tried it your way. We tried it Brooke’s way. Look where it got us!”
I held up the shirt I was fisting as I pulled Daniel into my chest.
“Look where we are now! Your plan failed. Her plan failed. And now they’re both gone. We tried it your way, now we’re going to try mine.”
“We still don’t recommend that, Mr. Spencer,” one officer said.
“I don’t give a good fuck what you recommend,” I snapped. “This is my decision.”
The air hung thick and tense in the room. “I’m calling my own damn security team and they’re coming to close this case up. I’m finding those girls alive, even if it means I have to pay out five hundred million dollars. Hell, I’ll liquidate everything if it gets them back. And none of you can stop me from doing it.”
“You’re angry, and rightfully so,” the Chief spoke up. “We all are. We’ll regroup in the morning and we can go from there.”