“You’ve done well, Katy,” a new voice that I recognized instantly told me, and I realized Jarrod and Mom weren’t the only two people in the room with me. “Did he say anything else to you?” Dave asked.
Closing my eyes, I replayed the look on his face as he punched me, how he’d called me a “fucking slut” as he did it, the rage he was feeling as he punched me.
Then I remembered, and my eyes shot open as I sucked in an agonizing breath. “He said if Effie didn’t bring it to him, he was going to kill Elodie.” On the last word, saying my niece’s name and thinking of her being in pain, I started sobbing, big chest wracking sobs that made me want to scream in pain.
I wasn’t sure what injuries Shane had caused me during the assault, but I knew for sure that each sob felt like someone was stabbing me with a spear in my abdomen and head.
I’d put up with that pain every day for the rest of my life if I got Elodie back, though.
Large hands gently held either side of my face, and I looked up and saw Jarrod looking down at me with tears in his eyes.
“Do you trust me?” he asked, his voice sounding rough and raw.
I didn’t even need to think about my response to this question, but I needed to calm my crying to answer it. When that proved impossible, I gasped out, “Absolutely,” my voice breaking in the middle of the word.
Closing the distance, he ran the tip of his nose down mine. “I’m going to get her back, Katy. I’m going to make him pay, but she’s coming home.”
And with that, he pulled his head back, and I saw how serious he was. The easy going light that his eyes always had was gone and in its place was a darkness I wouldn’t have thought he was capable of. He wasn’t just saying the words to make me feel better, he was actually going to make it happen.
I tried to raise my right arm to grab his hand, but the pain in my elbow was too much to be able to do it, so I had to use my left one instead. Wrapping my fingers around the wrist of his right hand, I clipped, “Make it happen and bring her home.”
With a nod, he lifted up and turned around to Dave, who was watching us. “Get her dad to call Leo. Tell him I want Effie’s number.”
“I’ve got it,” Mom offered, pulling her phone out of her purse and pressing the screen a couple of times. “Here,” she passed it to him.
Looking from the screen to me, he gave me one final nod before turning to Dave. “Let’s go.”
How could something like this happen? How was it even possible?
I didn’t understand why Shane would think I had whatever he wanted. I never saw Effie, none of us did, so why would he assume she’d given me something of his?
My little niece’s face, her mouth grinning, popped into my head and I took in a shuddering breath thinking about how scared she must be.
When he’d been attacking me, I’d seen Maude lying on the ground and knew she’d have done everything she could to protect her great granddaughter. I also knew she would no doubt be pissed and trying to get Jarrod to let her go with him to get Elodie right now, so I needed to speak to her and hold her hand until they brought her back to us.
Rolling my head to look at Mom, I asked shakily, “Where’s Maude?”
That’s when it got even worse – if that was even possible – because her eyes closed slowly as her lips trembled, and tears started trailing down her cheeks.
JarrodTaking in a steadying breath, I looked around all the friends and family that were sitting in the waiting room and stopped on Leo.
“Your daughter has something that belongs to the fucker who did this. He’s taken Elodie and if she doesn’t give it back to him, he’ll kill her,” I growled, watching as his face turned from shocked to horrified.
Normally, I would probably have felt sympathy for him, but right now I was disgusted. I knew I was directing my anger in the wrong direction, but it was his daughter who’d caused this.
“I’m going to call her, it will not be nice, but I want whatever the fuck it is he wants in my hand in the next hour, and all of this shit is because of her. Her daughter’s life is at risk because of her. Maude’s life is hanging by a thread. Because. Of. Her!” I roared the last word, watching as his head jerked and he got even paler.
“Jarrod, man,” DB muttered, coming up behind me to hold my shoulder.