The Hookup (Moonlight and Motor Oil #1)(108)

“Deanna,” he said warningly.

“Okay, no way to say this easy so I’ll say it fast. Someone took Brooks from the daycare center.”

Johnny tore the shoulder on his coveralls down his arm, ripping the buttons at the front clean off.

“It was naptime,” she continued. “The lady minding them got called out of the baby room. When she got back, she didn’t notice at first. Then she did. They looked around for him, but the lady that runs the place right away called the cops because all the babies are in cribs so they shouldn’t be able to get out. They called Addie at the grocery store. She came straight away. He’s . . . he’s . . . Johnny.” Her voice dropped. “No one knows where he is.”

He heard Izzy’s sob in the background as he stepped out of his coveralls, kicking them away. “Where’s Addie now?”

“Fuck,” Toby hissed.

“That’s why we’re calling ’cause we’re trying to get there fast but you can get there faster and she’s lost it, Johnny. She’s a mess. You gotta get to the daycare.”

“On my way,” he said, sprinting toward the door of the bay, feeling Toby on his heels. “Tell Izzy I’m on my way. I’ll be there in five minutes. Yeah?”

“I’ll tell her, Johnny.”

“See you soon,” he said.

“Soon,” she said back, her voice cracking.

Fuck.

Deanna wasn’t hard but she was strong and she was one of the most together women he’d ever met. She wouldn’t break down in any situation.

Except this one.

He shoved the phone in his back pocket and dug his keys out of the front.

“Johnny!” Toby shouted from close at his back.

He stopped at his truck door and turned back to his brother. “Tell Ray we’re closing down the bay. The Meyers aren’t getting their car today. Then close down the bay, get in your truck and meet me at the daycare center.”

Toby’s face, already alert, blanked as he prepared to get shitty news.

“Brooks okay?” he asked.

“Brooks is missing.”

That was when he watched Toby’s face get hard.

Johnny didn’t hesitate longer.

He hauled open his door, knifed into his truck, started it up and took off.



Addie raced to him the minute she saw him enter the front doors of the daycare center, crying an agonized, “Johnny!”

When she made it to him, she hit him so hard he nearly went down and to stop it had to step back on a foot.

He put his arms around her, hers were around him, but she yanked them free and latched onto his neck so tight, her nails dug into the flesh. She snapped her head back and the first close look at her face cut through him like a blade.

“Someone took my baby,” she whispered.

“Okay, m?uschen,” he murmured. “I got ya. Hang tight.”

“I should have . . . I should have let Margot watch him,” she said.

“This is not your fault,” he returned firmly.

“I didn’t want to take advantage.”

“Addie, this is not your fault.”

“I didn’t . . . things were going so great with you and Iz, I didn’t want your family to think I was a freeloader.”’

Christ, the Forrester Girls.

“Adeline, listen to me,” he demanded. “It is not your fault.”

“They said, the staff said . . . they think he came in and hid. Waited for his chance.”

Shit.

“See, sweetheart, not your fault,” he told her. He lifted his eyes to the cops who came his way. “What’s happening?” he asked.

“This your girl, Johnny?” Cary, one of the cops and someone Johnny had known and liked since high school, asked with surprise in his voice, but also something deeper.

“Her sister,” he clipped. “Now what’s happening?”

Cary nodded. “Okay, just to assure you, we have men out looking.”

“Looking for what?” Johnny demanded.

“A man was seen entering the daycare. The way he did, the woman who saw him thought he was a dad. Though interviewing the staff, no one recognized his description. Also interviewing the staff, no one saw him. Not anywhere. But this woman, a lady that lives across the street, she hangs out on her porch. She saw him come in, and about twenty minutes later, she says he exited with a little boy. A baby. She thought it was peculiar because he didn’t have, well . . .” his gaze flicked to Addie, “a baby seat in his car.”

Addie’s nails dug in deeper and ice filled Johnny’s veins at the thought of Brooks unrestrained in a car.

“And this man? What’s he look like?” Johnny asked but didn’t wait for the answer. He looked down at Addie. “Did you tell them about Perry?”

She nodded.

“Kent?” he asked.

She blinked. “Kent?”

“Izzy’s ex.”

“Oh my God,” she breathed, brightened, took her hands from him and turned to the cops, babbling, “Kent. Kent’s crazy. Kent’s got a restraining order. Kent’s my sister’s ex. He’s tall. Not as tall as Johnny. Blond. Dark blond, not light. Like, almost red but not red. Blond. Mostly. And . . . and . . .”