Page 103 of Surrender

A strangled gasp tears out of my throat. “He has my babies, Jack. I think Devon has my babies.”

“Where are you?” he barks, the sound of movement mingling with his roughened voice.

“I’m at the daycare,” I wheeze. Like an invisible fist crushes my windpipe, my next breath is ragged. “They aren’t here. He took them.”

“Stay there. I’m coming for you.”

The receptionist and I lock terrified eyes.

“I’ll call the cops.” She lifts the receiver of her phone.

Another ragged breath. “Jack.”

“I’m coming, Whitney. Hang on, baby, I’m on my way right now.”

“I can’t breathe,” I gasp. My body shudders so hard I feel like the taut muscles will snap my bones clean in half.

“Four minutes. I’m four minutes away.”

The receptionist leaps from her chair, and a moment later, the other daycare workers crowd around the front desk. The owner, Leslie, comes through the security partition to wrap her arm around me.

“Hang on.”

My chest spasms with the painful inhale. “I can’t breathe, Jack.”

“Almost there.”

“Hurry.”

Adrenaline zips through my veins. My mind reels with possibilities I fight against acknowledging.

“We’ll get them, you hear me? Lucy and Bennett will be okay.”

I squeeze my eyes shut and struggle to breathe.

“Okay, Whitney? I’m going to get them back.”

A keening cry tears up my throat as I fight to hold myself together. The arm around my shoulders tightens. “I can’t.”

Flashing red and blue lights illuminate the window. Someone rushes around us to shove open the door. The blast of cold air seems to knock some of the adrenaline out of me, and I suck in a lungful of freezing air just as Jack says in my ear, “I’m here.”

26

Jack

The last time I drove this fast, I was a dumbass reckless teenager. Snow skids beneath my tires as I slide to a stop in front of the daycare next to a police cruiser. The blue and red lights twist atop the car.

I fire off a text to the group chat.

Me

Whoever’s available get down to the daycare center on Main. Whitney’s ex took her kids.

Then I’m out the door.

Whitney’s pale, terrified face stares at me through the glass, and I lock down whatever emotion is working its way through my chest. I yank open the door. Not even two steps inside, she slams into me so hard we nearly fall back outside.

And I hear her gulp down a ragged breath for the first time in five solid minutes.

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