Love Restored (Gallagher Brothers #1)(55)

There was a metal taste on her tongue she would always associate with sheer panic and fear.

Someone had taken her daughter, and there was nothing she could do about it. The years she’d spent doing what she could to keep Rowan safe had meant nothing. Her daughter was out there, in danger, and out of her hands.

And every time a Gallagher brother tried to help her or touched her arm to keep her sane, she wanted to scream. She couldn’t rely on them, couldn’t rely on anyone. She couldn’t even rely on herself.

Because no matter what she did, it was always the wrong decision.

“Mrs. Brennen?”

She turned at the sound of the officer’s voice and stared bleakly at him. “Someone took my child.” She didn’t sound panicked, but she knew he could see it in her eyes. There was no hiding that, no hiding the innate fear that would come if they couldn’t find Rowan within the next few hours.

More cops came, more investigators. They didn’t let anyone leave the site and didn’t reassure her like she needed. Instead, she felt their stares, their recriminations as to who she was and how she could have possibly let this happen to her daughter.

Her world had crumbled, but she didn’t show the break. She didn’t have the right to show weakness until Rowan was back and safe in her arms. She’d deal with whatever came next, and once her daughter was returned, then and only then would she find a place to let her fears win.

Now was not that time.

While people prowled around the site, asking their questions and looking for answers, Blake stood between the Gallagher brothers, Graham on one side, Murphy and Owen on the other, and did her best to be who she’d pretended to be all along.

Someone far stronger than she truly was.

And just when she thought she couldn’t take any more, Chris’s parents pulled up to the site in their fancy car, stepping out in their fancy shoes.

“You!” Chris’s mother stormed toward Blake, her small purse clutched in her hands. “What have you done with our granddaughter?”

The police officer Blake had been talking to frowned at her before turning to the incoming drama. “Excuse me, ma’am, you can’t come here, this is an active scene. Who are you?”

Chris’s father raised his chin. “We are the Carmichaels, and your police chief personally called us when he heard the news of our granddaughter going missing. We have every right to be here.” He pointed at Blake, though he didn’t bother to look at her. “That, however, should be behind bars. How dare she let some lower class man near our granddaughter. That is how she was kidnapped. Have you arrested the lowlife? That one. The one with the beard and all the tattoos. It must have been him. They’re all alike, you know.”

Blake took one step forward to smack the look off the man’s face, but Graham gripped her wrist, holding her near him. She let out a breath, knowing he was probably saving her from jail time. Beating up the Carmichaels in front of witnesses, police officers at that, probably wasn’t the smartest move at the moment, but it was the only thing she could think of when she already felt so freaking hopeless and helpless.

“Why don’t you come over here with Officer Broderick,” the officer that had been speaking to Blake said, blocking her view of the Carmichaels. He motioned to another man in blue and nodded. “We’ll get all the information we can before we move on.”

“She was the one who did this!” Mrs. Carmichael spat. “She isn’t fit to be a mother. We want our granddaughter back.”

Officer Broderick led the Carmichaels to the other side of the site, leaving Blake with the Gallaghers surrounding her.

“I’m Officer Lansing, by the way,” the officer said softly. “I know you were a little stunned when I introduced myself earlier. I need you to tell me everything that happened.” He looked around at the Gallaghers and frowned, his gaze piercing. “I’m going to need to speak to you privately.”

“We’re her family,” Graham said as he squeezed her shoulder. “So if you’re separating us because you think we’re the ones that did this, you should know that little girl means more to us than anything. And her so-called grandparents over there just filed for custody, though they’ve never even met her. If you’re going to question anyone, question them.”

Officer Lansing narrowed his eyes. “Let’s get this all out in the open, shall we? Our goal is to find Rowan, Ms. Brennen. I need all the information I can get in order to protect her.”

Blake nodded and told him everything she could remember about how she’d ended up in this position. Without parts of the past, he wouldn’t be able to understand why the Carmichaels had been trying to gain custody in the first place. She wasn’t sure what to think regarding who had taken her daughter, but the thought of anyone touching one precious hair on her baby’s head made her want to scream and lash out.

“They have more than one house,” Blake blurted after over an hour of speaking to the officers and detectives that had shown up.

“Excuse me?” Lansing asked. “What do you mean by that?”

Blake ran a hand over her face, her body exhausted. She pulled away from Graham when he reached for her. She couldn’t think when he was around, and because she’d opened herself, she’d risked her daughter’s life. She didn’t blame Graham for what had happened, she blamed herself.