“Okay. I’ll call him.”
“Thank you.”
I glance down at my phone, debating whether to call Chase or the police, when the side of my face explodes in pain. My body flies backward, hitting the hard ground, and the back of my head smacks against the wall, causing me to become momentarily disoriented.
Before I can get up, a sharp object connects with my ribs—Victoria’s heel. She kicks me over and over again. In the ribs. In the face. I’m trying to get up, to move away from her, but she doesn’t let up. And when she finally does, and I open my eyes, she’s hovering above me, her face inches from mine.
“I’m Hazel’s mom, not you, bitch!” She grips my hair and lifts my head then slams it against the hard wood. Pain, like I’ve never felt in my life, radiates through my body. My head goes fuzzy, my brain feeling like I’m being stabbed with a million knives.
When I finally pry my eyes open, the house is quiet. Too quiet. Hazel! Oh my God, she took my baby. I grab my phone, dialing nine-one-one, as I roll over and climb into a standing position. My entire body groans in pain, but I focus on getting to my daughter’s room, praying Victoria didn’t do what I think she did.
The operator answers as I step into her room. Her bed is empty. She’s gone.
“I need to report a kidnapping,” I choke out.
I go through the details with the operator, but it’s all a blur. My head is pounding, my side is in agony. I feel like I’ve been run over by a bus several times.
She tells me an officer will be over right away to get my statement and ask me more questions and that an Amber alert will be sent out immediately.
We’re hanging up just as Lexi is walking through the door.
“What the hell happened?” she asks, setting Abigail down in Hazel’s crib.
“Victoria,” I sob. “She stole Hazel.”
Lexi’s eyes go wide. “Did you call the police?”
“Yeah. They’ve put out an Amber alert and an officer is on his way here.” I clutch my phone in my hand. “I need to call Chase,” I cry out, my body racking with sobs.
“You need to sit. I’ll call him.” She pulls out her phone and dials him. A few seconds later, she says, “Chase, it’s Lexi. I need you to call me ASAP.”
She hangs up. “I think you’re going to need stitches.”
“Forget about me!” I cry out. “I need to find Hazel. She said her parents wanted to see her… But I don’t know where they live or what their names are. But Chase will know.”
“Let me try Alec. He stayed late with Chase.” She dials him on her phone and then says, “Alec, it’s Lexi. Call me.”
“What time is it?”
“Five o’clock.”
“Oh my God,” I gasp. “I was out for hours. Victoria can be anywhere with Hazel. I thought…” The room around me spins, and I have to close my eyes briefly to make it stop. “I must’ve been knocked out.”
There’s a knock on the door and I rush over to answer it, ignoring the dizziness and pain. Standing at the door are two police officers.
“Please, I need your help,” I tell them. “My baby was kidnapped.”
Chase
Today has been a day from hell. First, half of the guys on shift A caught the flu and are all out. Then, while helping an elderly woman put out a fire in her fireplace because she had no idea it was a real fireplace, I dropped my phone and shattered it. I should’ve called Georgia from one of the guys’ phones to tell her, but we got a call about a car on campus that caught fire, which took hours to deal with.
Now, as I’m about to finally leave to pick up food for dinner, hours late, the tone sounds through the station. Stein, the assistant chief, who works shift C should be here by now, but he’s stuck in traffic, so it looks like I’ll be commanding this one. Dispatch relays the details and the station becomes a whirlwind of activity.
On the way, Alec calls my name. When I glance at him, he looks like he’s seen a ghost.
“What’s wrong?”
“Lexi called… Fuck! I had my phone on silent, and we were so fucking busy.”
“What’s. Fucking. Wrong?”
“Victoria stole Hazel. They’re both missing.”
And just like that, my entire world implodes. “Where’s Georgia?”
“At the hospital. Victoria beat the shit out of her and she’s getting stitches.”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!
“They have an alert out for Victoria and Hazel. Lexi doesn’t know anything else.”
When we arrive on the scene, a clusterfuck of activity is swarming the front of the building. I want to leave to go look for my daughter, find out what the fuck is going on, but a portion of the building is fully engulfed in flames. I can’t just walk away.