My childhood was off limits to him. At least until he was older.
I stepped into the goal, eying him when he laughed at me. “That’s not fair! You take up like the entire goal!” Glancing from side to side, I had to admit there was a decisive lack of space.
“I think we need a bigger goal,” I said.
Ines giggled at the sideline as I stepped out, accepting the ball when Axel kicked it over to me. It had been a long, long time since I’d done something as simple as kick a ball back and forth.
I loved it.
And I loved the fact that it made Axel smile as he chatted and told me all about his friends at school. I already knew about them, but somehow it meant so much more to have the information come from him.
Fourteen
Calla
Waking up happened slowly, the heat under the blankets feeling too comfortable for me to have any interest in getting out of bed. The pillow felt more comfortable than I remembered, tailor made for me in a way that seemed impossible to find.
When my eyes finally opened, I jolted up suddenly as memories of the day before crashed over me. With the chemise tangled up around my ribs, I shoved it down in a panic and looked around the room.
The empty room.
Light fought to shine in the gaps at the edges of the blinds on the massive window, and I threw the blankets off as terror filled me.
The kids.
Ryker was gone, and my kids were in the house. While I slept alone in his bed like an idiot.
Throwing open the bedroom door, I bolted for their rooms, clutching my chest when I found their beds empty.
They’d even made them up, leaving everything as pristine as when we arrived the night before. “Axel!” I yelled, turning and racing down the hallway. I rounded the corners of the loft, struggling with the gate at the top of the stairs in my hurry to get it open. I considered climbing over it, but it finally opened. I bounded down the stairs. I could see from the stairwell that the living room was empty, and the house was silent as I raced down and shoved my way through the gate at the bottom more efficiently.
“Axel!” I repeated, darting around the brick wall to glance into the kitchen and dining room. The kids’ and Ryker’s shoes were missing from the entryway where they’d deposited them last night when we sat down to eat pizza. “Ryker!” I screamed, turning and flying for the door that led to the garage.
My feet slapped against the tile floor, echoing along with the sound of my panicked breaths. I’d kill him. I would kill him slowly and make him suffer if he took my kids.
The garage was empty, but all three cars sat exactly where we left them. The sound of a peal of laughter came from a door further down the hall where someone left it cracked open, and I sprinted for it with my heart in my throat.
They had to be okay. I would never survive it if something happened to them.
As soon as I’d shoved the door open the rest of the way, I saw them outside the glass-enclosed pool. Ines’s little blond head nearly touched the glass as she swung one of her dolls up in the air happily. Ryker picked up Axel, swinging him over his head and using all the rippling muscles in his arms to hold him there like he could fly as he ran around the yard and Axel laughed hysterically.
Fuck.
My terror fled, fury instantly filling the void it left.
Not only should my son be in school, but Ryker had scared the fucking shit out of me needlessly. I couldn’t believe anyone could be so obtuse not to consider what it would do to me if I woke up to an empty house and my children gone with a self-professed criminal who made people disappear when they got in his way.
I stormed through the pool area, my feet stomping along the floor. As soon as I flung the door open, all three eyes came to me and Ines chirped happily at me. “Mommy princess,” she said, pointing at me, and I realized the chemise was still the only thing I wore.
It had been the least of my concerns when I thought my children were in danger, but the way Ryker’s eyes narrowed on mine as they bled to blue flames nearly made me rethink that urgency. He let Axel slide down his back until his feet touched the ground.
When my glare didn’t let up, Ryker seemed to realize something was very wrong. He patted Axel on the head briefly, nodding me into the pool room with his head, and I followed. Axel eyed me like I looked as if I might explode, and the only thing that prevented it was my inability to say much in front of the kids.
What could I say that wouldn’t scare them?
When Ryker pulled the door shut, he whispered with a hesitant tone. “Calla—”
“Do not ever do that to me again,” I growled. “Do you have any idea what that was like? Having to wonder if you’d taken my kids? You scared the shit out of me!” My eyes burned as my throat threatened to close on itself.