Page 15 of August 20

Manners forgotten, Skye ran down the hallway. How easily she forgot that dishes should be taken to the kitchen and the chair scooted under the table after a meal. A golden rule her grandma passed down to her, and she was determined to teach Skye.

Not that responsibilities and manners were important when being held hostage inside the house. Days were turning into weeks. She had no answers on what their future held.

Would they be dead? Would they be free? Would she get to fulfill her promise of taking Skye to watch fireworks on the Fourth of July? Would Skye return to school after Labor Day?

If they survived, would she have a job waiting for her, or would she have to start over again?

Feeling the heat of someone watching, she looked into the living room and found Maverick staring at her. She sniffed, realizing tears flowed down her cheeks.

Grabbing the dirty dishes, she took them into the kitchen and washed her face, drying her cheeks with a paper towel. It wouldn't help matters if Skye found her falling apart.

She needed to hold it together. If she fell apart now, she'd be giving up—and she couldn’t do that. She wouldn't fail Skye.

"I'm..." Maverick cleared his throat. "I'm not gonna hurt her."

The hoarse statement sent chills down Brooke's spine. She pivoted and faced him. The whole time he'd kept her prisoner in the house, she'd had time to think.

She was sure she had never made an enemy in her life, except fifteen years ago, a ten-year-old girl named Julia hated her in the fifth grade for some reason. She was also starting to believe that the job offer to work at the hotel and live in the same house Maverick held her hostage in wasn't a coincidence.

Maybe she was catfished. Maybe someone scammed her into coming to Seaglass Cove.

However, she couldn't figure out why Maverick targeted her. She had no money. She had no rich relative willing to pay for her return.

Looking at Maverick, hearing his gritty voice, and witnessing him with Skye gave her a bad feeling. Had she become blind to the obvious reason why he would kidnap them?

She grabbed onto the counter. Shaking in anger and fear, she faced her biggest worry.

Ever since the police had contacted her and asked if she would take custody of Skye to keep her out of the state's foster system, she'd wondered about her niece's father. Janelle had never told her or their grandmother that she was pregnant. She was never a part of Janelle's life.

Considering Janelle's drug history and who she hung out with, it was unimportant who fathered Skye. She'd assumed the baby-daddy was long gone and her niece was better off without some deadbeat, druggy loser in her life.

But the dark blue eyes looking at her were familiar. She looked into similar eyes a thousand times a day for the last four years. Skye's mix of brown hair and blue eyes was striking.

The same contrast on Maverick was horrifying.

"What do you want from her?" Brooke lifted her chin. "She's a child."

Maverick cocked his brow. "You figured it out."

The roughness of his voice held all the warning she needed. Brooke broke away from him, ran down the hallway, and shut herself in the bathroom with Skye.

Inside the room, she sank to her ass and leaned against the door, knowing her much smaller self couldn't keep him out if he were determined to get inside.

Skye sat on the bathroom counter, applying lipstick as if it was war paint and she was preparing for battle.

Brooke's thoughts overwhelmed her, and she stared in the mirror at Skye's reflection. What was she supposed to do? What could she do?

Skye's father was holding them hostage.

Chapter Eight

Jagger pulled the truck to a stop in the driveway. Maverick walked out of the house, knowing Brooke would stay inside. She and Skye came in an hour after spending most of the day playing on the swings and building a fort out of blankets in the yard.

He understood her desire to stay outside was her way of keeping Skye far away from him.

She tried alienating him, but eventually, she would have to return his daughter. She would have no choice.

Jagger stepped out of the truck and lifted his chin. "Everything okay?"

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