Page 46 of The Nanny Next Door

I shook my head. “Nothing. Let’s find Aaron.”

We bypassed the receptionist, and when we reached his office, we found Aaron emerging from a meeting with several suited men whose faces blurred into one. His expression shifted from confusion to concern as he saw us.

“What’s going on?” Aaron asked, stepping forward.

“Lila’s missing,” I said bluntly. “She’s over an hour late, not answering her phone, and we haven’t heard anything from her.”

Aaron’s face paled. “Let’s get to my office. We’ll figure this out.”

Once inside, we huddled around Aaron’s desk, the tension palpable. Felipe’s fingers drummed on the desk, Aaron’s brow furrowed as he pulled out his phone to make a few calls, and I clutched Olivia a little tighter, trying to keep my panic in check.

“Maybe she got caught up somewhere?” Felipe suggested, though his tone lacked conviction.

Aaron shook his head. “She’s never this late without letting someone know. It’s not like her.”

I checked my phone again, hoping for a missed call or message from Lila. Nothing there, but at least Mrs. Nguyen had come through and was happy to take Olivia for the afternoon. My heart sank further.

Then, Aaron turned on the TV mounted on the wall of his office, flipping to a news channel. We all froze as the news anchor reported a disturbance in the subway earlier that day.

“There was a commotion on the downtown line earlier today. Witnesses report seeing a young woman and a child being forcibly taken by a man and a woman. Authorities are investigating the incident, but the identities of the victims are not yet known.”

My blood ran cold. A woman and a child. It couldn’t be.

Aaron’s eyes were wide with fear. “Could that be…?”

I nodded, my throat tight. “We need to find her. Now.”

Olivia looked up at me, her little face mirroring my terror. “Daddy, what’s wrong?”

I kissed her forehead, trying to keep my voice steady. “Everything’s going to be okay, sweetheart. We’re just… um, going to help Lila with something.”

But inside, I was falling apart. Memories of losing Janessa flooded back, the helplessness and the pain. I couldn’t lose Lila too. Not now. Not when we’d just gotten her, had just learned how good this thing could be between the four of us.

I turned to Felipe and Aaron, my voice shaking. “We need to contact the authorities. We need to do something. I can’t lose her.”

Aaron was already on his phone. “I’m calling my contacts in the police department. They’ll help us.”

I held Olivia close, my mind racing. Lila had become more than just a nanny, more than just a beautiful woman who haunted my dreams. She was part of our family. And somewhere along the way, I had fallen in love with her. The thought of never getting to tell her how I felt was unbearable.

I couldn’t lose her. I wouldn’t.

With Felipe and Aaron by my side, a united front of men who cared for sweet, strong, incredible Lila Dawson, I vowed to do everything in my power to bring her and Jamie back safely. We had to find them. We had to bring them home.

33

LILA

The first thing I noticed was the cold. A biting, unforgiving chill seeped into my bones as I struggled to open my eyes, and I wasn’t sure if it was just me or if wherever I was had some really cranked-up AC going. My head throbbed with a dull ache, and the metallic taste of blood lingered on my tongue. I blinked, trying to make sense of my surroundings, but my vision was blurry and my thoughts were sluggish.

Where was I?

I tried to move, tried to get to my feet, but I found that one of my wrists was handcuffed to a pipe that came out of a dank concrete wall. Panic surged through me as I took it in—rusty, sure, but too substantial for me to even think about trying to break it myself. The cuff dug painfully into my skin when I tried a hard pull, sending a sharp jolt through my arm. The room was dimly lit, shadows dancing on the walls, and the air smelled of damp and decay.

Oh, my God. I was just at brunch, for Pete’s sake. What in the world happened after that to get me here? Think, Lila. Think.

Fragments of memory slowly pieced together. I had been waiting for the subway. Fiddling with the stroller. A shove, and Jamie had been taken from me, and then I must have been knocked out somehow. And now, here I was, terrified beyond belief and groggy from whatever they’d done to render me unconscious. There was something still missing, but my brain fog wasn’t able to latch onto it.

A muffled conversation reached my ears, growing louder as I strained to listen.

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