How do you tell a man his prized possession is gone? How do you tell a father his loving daughter has been taken?
It’s an impossible task, and one I’m facing right now as I trudge back toward Deion’s house with the bike in my hand. I couldn’t ride the bike, even if I wanted to. My body refuses to listen to my commands, and I keep falling down when I try. The only way back home was on foot. A fitting punishment for the girl who should’ve known this was going to happen. Who could’ve stopped it in time but didn’t because she was foolish enough to believe they wouldn’t come for her. That girl who valued her freedom more than the safety of others.
That girl … me … learned the hard way.
I have to be the one to tell Deion. But how?
And what can I do to get her back?
When the door to his house looms in front of me, my heart sinks into my shoes. I park the bike in the shed and walk up to the door. It opens before I can even ring the bell or knock.
Deion’s distressed face creates a pit in my stomach.
“I saw you coming through the kitchen window. Where’s Ashanti? I thought you were going to pick her up? It took you so long to get here,” he says in one string.
“I …” My head drops between my shoulders. I don’t even know where to begin. “She’s not here.”
“Where is she? Is she still walking?” He steps out of the house and looks around for her as if she’ll be here any moment now and is just lagging behind. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.
“They took her,” I say.
“What?” He frowns and makes a face. “What are you talking about?”
“Someone pulled her into a van.” No words have ever been more difficult to say than these.
The pain cutting into him shows on his face as he stares at me in disbelief. “No.” He shakes his head and barges ahead of me, storming through the streets, calling her name.
“Ashanti? Ashanti!” he yells. “Kom tevoorschijn! Nu!”
He’s telling her to come out now, but it’s no use.
“She’s not here,” I say as I stay behind in his tiny front yard.
“No, she is. You’re just playing me now,” he says. “This isn’t something to joke about, Charlotte.”
“I’m not. I saw it with my own eyes,” I say, trying to keep the tears at bay. “They took her.”
He keeps shaking his head as he searches for her. “Ashanti!”
“I tried following the van, but I wasn’t fast enough.” I can’t bear to look him directly in the eyes. “I’m sorry.”
He brings his hands to his head and pulls his hair as he looks around for any sign of her, but it’s futile, and he knows it. I would never leave her out on the street by herself. I promised I’d pick her up, and I always keep my promises … which is why it hurts so much that I couldn’t this time. But the worst thing about all of this is knowing that little girl is in some bad man’s clutches without anyone there to tell her it’s okay.
“Ashanti!” Deion yells. Neighbors and people biking past us look at him as if he’s lost his mind. I don’t know what to do. He keeps yelling and yelling until his voice is hoarse, until he’s looked under every car, behind every dumpster, and literally anything else he can find until there’s nothing left to look under or behind.
Until he sinks to the ground in the middle of the street, crying out her name.
I trudge toward him and place a hand on his shoulder, but he swats me away.
He gets up from the ground, and growls, “This is your fault. You did this.”
I take his words without a reply. He’s right. It is my fault, and I deserve every ounce of his rage.
“She’s gone because of you!” he yells, tears welling up in his eyes. “My little girl … taken … because they wanted you.”
The pain in his eyes is too much to bear, but I bear it anyway because I must. The consequences of my actions are mine and mine alone. I wish I could relinquish him of the pain, take the burden of emotions upon me and carry them on my shoulders. But that’s impossible, and we both know it. I would rip out my own heart and hand it to him on a platter if I could, if it meant she’d come back. But I can’t, and he knows that too.
After a few seconds of silence, he barges past me and marches into his house, leaving the door wide open. I wait a few minutes before following him inside. I clutch the doorjamb and tilt my head when I spot him. He’s sitting bent over on a chair in the kitchen, clutching his face in his hands. Tiny droplets tumble from his cheeks onto the floor.
I amble toward him and go down to my knees in front of him. I carefully wrap my arms around him and pull him into my embrace. He sobs into my shoulders but doesn’t push me away. Instead, he lets me console him. He lets me take over the load he cannot carry.
I’m here, and I’m not going to let him go, no matter what. I’ll take this pain and more, anything and everything he throws my way. I can handle it because he needs me to. Because it’s all I can do right now as he comes to terms with the fact that his little girl is gone.
After a while, he leans away and looks at me, staring into the depths of my soul with his tear-filled eyes. They hurt to look at, but I refuse to look away. “She’s gone … isn’t she?”
I nod, crying too. “I’m sorry.”
He sucks on his lips and fiddles with a paper lying on the table. “I didn’t want to believe it was true when I saw you come back home on your own.”
I frown as he picks up the paper and shows it to me. “This was in the mailbox.”
There’s printed text on the paper.
The little girl is mine unless you surrender yourself, Charlotte.
Call the attached number. If you don’t … more will get hurt.
Your father.
My eyes widen, and my jaw drops.
All along, I thought Easton took her so he could get me back … and now I find out my father did this? He could kill that little girl just to get me because his life is at stake. This is even more dangerous than I thought.
“What do I do?” Deion mutters, his voice as broken as his heart.
“Nothing,” I say, grasping the piece of paper. I stare at the phone number at the bottom. “This is my fault … and I will fix this.”
I get up from the floor and go to the living room. Deion calls out from the kitchen, “What are you going to do?”
With the telephone in my hand, I sit down on the couch and sigh. “I’m going to give myself up.”
He doesn’t follow me back to the living room as I stare at the number on the paper. He knows as well as I do that I have to make this choice. Only I can fix this.
But if I call my father now, I doubt he’ll give Ashanti back.
In fact, I’m certain he’d have her and Deion killed while picking me up.
There’s only one thing I can do to prevent that from happening. Only one person who would ever do something if I begged for it.
I dial Easton’s number.
Easton
My phone rings, and I immediately pick it up, expecting to hear from Davis or one of my men. It’s been far too long since I heard news about Charlotte’s disappearance from any of them. It’s as though no one is looking anymore … or they’ve already found her and kept her hidden from me. Let’s fucking hope not because I’d rip out their throats if they did.
“Van Buren,” I growl.
“Easton?”
My eyes widen. “Charlotte?”
“Easton … I … I …” She’s sobbing out loud.
“What happened? Where are you?” I ask, grasping the desk.
“My father … He took a little girl …”
Her father? What the …?
I thought I told that son of a bitch to contact me if he found out anything. And here she is calling me to tell me he’s abducted a girl?
“What girl? You’re not making any sense,” I reply.
“I’ve been living with a family. Somewhere … close.” She swallows loudly. I can tell she’s trying her best not to tell me her location, but she knows as well as I do there’s no point in lying about it. I will find out where she is, one way or another.
“But my father has been tracking my location since I called him and my brother, and now he took this family’s little girl,” she says, sniffing. “I don’t think he’ll bring her back.”
So he went behind my back anyway … that fucking bastard. He knew where she was, and he didn’t care to fucking tell me.
“Tell me where you are right now,” I say, clenching the phone in my hand so hard it almost breaks.
“No,” she says.
“Then why did you call?” I say.
Even though it’s hard, I have to be patient with her. After all, this is the first time we’ve talked since she escaped my grasp, and I don’t want to scare her away. I can’t let this chance to find her slip away.
“Because … you’re the only one I could call,” she says.
“You want me to help you,” I answer for her.
“Yes. I want her back.”
I rub the stubble on my chin. “You know the price, right?”
She takes a deep breath, and there’s a pause. “Yes.”
A devilish smile forms on my lips. “You did good to call me.”
“Will you bring her back?” she asks. “Please?”
That final word undoes me, stripping me bare of all my defenses.
“If that’s what you wish,” I mutter. “I will honor your request on one condition.”
“Yes,” she says in one breath. Not a moment of hesitation on the answer because she knew all along where this road would take her.
“You already know your answer without knowing the question?” I say.
“There’s only one thing I know Easton Van Buren wants most of all,” she replies. “My answer is yes.”
She’d sacrifice that much for a single girl? Interesting.
“Deal.”
I hang up the phone. No need to find out any more details. Davis will give me exactly what I need …
