Juniper Hill (The Edens #2)(76)

All we knew was that Jill had left with him, promising to return soon. And then she’d disappeared.

With every word Knox spoke, the tremors in my limbs amplified until I was sure that if not for his arm around my back, I would have buckled to the icy sidewalk.

Winn soaked in his statement like a sponge, listening without comment until he was finished. Then she began issuing orders to her officers. “Get Jill’s information. Start with her car. Description. License plate. Make and model.

Push an AMBER Alert immediately. Then run her plates and get it out around town. Dig into her phone after that. See if we can track her to a cell tower.”

“You got it, Chief.” One of the men took off running for the center’s front doors.

“Search her house,” Winn ordered two other officers.

They rushed off and only seconds later, I flinched at the boom of a door being kicked in.

“Has this ever happened before?” Winn asked.

I nodded, swallowing the lump in my throat. “Once. She took Drake with her to run home. But she was only gone for a few minutes. I told her she couldn’t do that again.”

“What’s her relationship with Drake?” Winn asked.

“She loves him. She acts like she loves him.” Maybe she loved him too much. My head was spinning. My legs began to crumble.

“Breathe.” Knox held me tighter. “Breathe, Memphis.”

I filled my lungs, the sting in my nose bringing a new set of tears. “Do you think she might have taken him? That she wants to keep him?”

“This is most likely just a miscommunication,” Winn said.

“Maybe she had to run to the store or something. You were here early today, right?”

I nodded. “Yes. I usually don’t get here until after five.”

“Okay.” Winn squeezed my hand again and locked her gaze with Knox. The message passed wordlessly between them made my stomach knot tighter. There was dread there.

Fear. And sympathy.

He was holding it together for me, but I wasn’t the only one who stood shaking, numb from the cold and panic.

“Why don’t you both wait in the car?” she suggested. “I need to ask more questions and make some calls.”

“Come on, honey.” Knox escorted me to the car, our steps slow because he must have known I didn’t trust my feet. He helped me into the passenger seat, then rounded the hood for the driver’s side. The moment the door was closed, he pulled out his phone and put it on speaker.

Harrison answered on the first ring. “Hi, Knox.”

“Dad.”

One word and Harrison heard the tremble in Knox’s voice.

“What’s wrong?”

“We came to get Drake from daycare. He’s gone. Jill, the woman who watches him, took him.”

“Oh, God.” Harrison sucked in a sharp breath. “Call Winn.”

“Already did. They’re pushing an AMBER Alert.”

“I’ll make some calls too.” Without another word, Harrison ended the call.

Knox’s fingers flew across the screen, pulling up another contact. Again, he left it on speaker.

“Thank you for calling The Eloise Inn. How can I help you?” Eloise answered.

“Eloise. It’s Knox.” He repeated the same message and when Eloise gasped on the line, I had to squeeze my eyes shut to keep from crying.

“What can I do?” Eloise asked.

“Help us get the word out. The more people looking for them, the better.”

“On it.”

Knox sighed and stared at his phone, like he wanted to make more calls but couldn’t find the strength to repeat the truth again.

“Is this a bad dream?” I whispered.

He set the phone on his thigh and looked to me, his own eyes full of unshed tears. “It has to be.”

“What if we don’t find him?”

“Don’t go there.” He took my hand, gripping it so fiercely that it hurt my knuckles. But I clung to the pain, clung to him, so that I stayed here, in this car, and didn’t take a step down an unthinkable road. “We’ll find him.”

“We’ll find him.” There was no confidence in my voice.

Only fear.

The two of us sat together in the cold car, watching as Winn and her team rushed back and forth between the daycare center and Jill’s house. A crowd was gathering outside the daycare’s doors.

The two women from the office had come outside, both bundled in coats. They made sure to keep their heads down and not glance our direction as we sat motionless, our short breaths curling into white wisps in the car. Neither of us thought to turn on the engine, to crank the heat. We were both too stunned.

I sat and stared through the windshield, a prayer running through my mind on loop.

Find him. Find him. Please, let us find him.

“We left his stuff.” Knox’s words startled me as he burst out of the car, running to the sidewalk.

I’d grabbed Drake’s car seat and diaper bag from the nursery. When had I set them down? Before or after we’d gone to Jill’s? I couldn’t remember now. Every minute seemed fuzzy, every second like a lifetime.

A fresh wave of dizziness hit, swirling around the what-ifs that I refused to let myself think, let alone voice.