Love Restored (Gallagher Brothers #1)(54)

Blake’s eyes narrowed then widened as she looked at her read out. “It’s my lawyer.” She answered. “Hello? Yes, can you wait one minute for me to get outside so we can talk? Thanks.” She hit mute on her phone. “Go get the hats or whatever and I’ll be right outside the door. Is she safe in here alone” She bit her lip, and Graham wanted to kiss her worries away.

“She’ll be fine,” he promised. “Right, Rowan?”

Rowan was currently playing with four pieces of wood samples, making building blocks for herself. “Yep! I won’t leave. Or look at anything I shouldn’t. Promise.”

Blake nodded, her phone in her hand, and they walked outside the trailer to stand on the tiny walkway that led to the ground below.

“Do you want me to stay?” he asked.

Blake shook her head. “Just come back quick. I’m sure it’s nothing.”

He kissed her hard, then ran off to get hard hats and make sure the crew was ready for visitors. He left her pacing in front of the trailer, one hand on her hip, the other keeping her phone to her ear.

Graham was as fast as he could be, grabbing the two smallest hard hats they owned and stopping by Owen’s side to make sure his brother knew what was up. He was on his way back to Blake when he heard the scream.

He dropped what he was holding and ran as fast as he could back to the trailer, Owen and the members of the crew that had been near, right on his tail.

“What is it?” he yelled as he got closer.

“Rowan!” Blake yelled. “Where are you? Rowan!”

His heart thudded, and he sped up until he was right by Blake’s side. He took her by her arms and tried to get her to calm down enough to talk to him. “What’s going on? Where’s Rowan?”

Her eyes were wide, her face pale. “I walked in after I’d hung up and she wasn’t there. She isn’t there, Graham. Where is my baby?”

Owen cursed and ran into the trailer, calling for Rowan. Graham turned on his heel to the men and women on his crew. “Rowan might have run off. Help us find her. Drop what you’re doing. Got me?”

“We’ll find her,” one of his crew said.

“You got it, Graham,” another said. “Don’t worry, Blake, she might have just gotten curious. We won’t let anything happen to her.”

Later, when they’d found her, Graham would be grateful for his crew and their quick thinking on their feet, but for now, he was trying to stem his own panic so he didn’t freak Blake out any more than she already was.

“I need to call the police,” Blake said, her voice devoid of emotion. “What if…what if it’s Chris’s parents? What if they took her because they don’t think they’ll win? That was my lawyer calling just now to tell me that he thinks the case is going to get dismissed. What if they panicked? Where is my baby, Graham? Where is my Rowan?”

His hands shook, but he pulled out his phone. “We’re calling the police now, just in case. We’re going to find her, Blake. If it’s the last goddamn thing we do. I’m not letting another little girl get hurt because of things out of my control. Do you understand? We’re going to find her, and everything is going to be f*cking fine.”

He was starting to panic, but oddly enough, it seemed to be helping Blake. She kept nodding, but the overwhelming sense of confusion radiating from her dimmed. Now she looked like she was on a mission.

“Hey, Graham?” Owen called out, and Graham turned on his heel.

“Did you find her?” Graham asked.

“Where is she?” Blake said as she pushed past him.

Owen shook his head. “I haven’t, but call the police if you haven’t already.” His mouth was set in a grim line as he met Graham’s face. “The back window of the trailer is open, and the blocks she was playing with are on the ground beneath it.”

“Oh my God,” Blake whispered. Graham wrapped his arm around her shoulders to keep her steady. He ignored the way she stiffened at his touch.

“And we can’t find Sean, the new guy. He was here earlier when Rowan and Blake first showed up, but he’s gone now. Might be a coincidence, but we need to call the cops.”

The ground beneath Graham’s feet shifted, and he felt as if he were falling. Only he wasn’t, and it was only his mind.

Someone had kidnapped Rowan, and it had been on his site, on his watch. She’d been right there, and now he might have lost her.

He’d already lost one child.

He couldn’t do it again.

He dialed 911 and did something he hadn’t done since he’d buried his little girl.

He prayed.





15


When the first police cruiser pulled into the parking lot, Blake knew this hadn’t been a dream, hadn’t been a nightmare, it was all too real. The wind rushed through her hair, though she could only feel the absence of the strands on her neck as it blew across her shoulders, not the wind itself. Her fingertips went numb, yet the skin on the rest of her arms was so sensitive it felt like hot coals danced along the fine hairs. Why that was, she didn’t understand.

She could hear her heartbeat in her ears as it echoed around her brain, but because she wasn’t moving as quickly as she could, she knew it had to be beating faster than she heard.