Page 5 of Time to Bounce

He squeezed me tight before saying, “Honey, let’s go. You know we can’t be out here.”

That was also something I’d learned not to argue about.

Dad was a US senator.

From the first moment I could remember, Dad had practically forced us to have security.

“Is it your job, Daddy?” I asked, scared.

He’d always told us, if we were taken, that we needed to know our names, phone numbers, and any other pertinent information that he deemed necessary.

We couldn’t go to school with the public because Daddy was apparently on a couple of foreign countries’ hit lists.

Dad was also a Navy SEAL.

He’d done some really bad stuff, he said, that put him at enemy number one to some people.

He’d said, since he was already on people’s ‘shit’ list, that he might as well continue the high-profile thing he had going on and advocate for the men willing to sacrifice their lives for our country.

Truthfully, I didn’t care what my daddy did.

I loved him no matter what.

He was my favorite of my parents.

Nothing against Mom, but she expected too much from us. Even at twelve, she expected me to be this perfect little doll for Daddy.

Mary Beth liked to say that Mom wanted the picture, not the family.

But the way she was holding onto my hand let me know that she cared.

Though, when I peeked out of Daddy’s neck, I saw the photographers at the front of the dock, right next to the ambulance.

“Daddy,” I whispered softly.

“Yeah, baby?” he rasped.

“Where’s Mary Beth?” I asked. “Where’s Gavrel?”

He swallowed. I felt his throat bob against my nose.

“Your brother is at the hotel, secure,” he rasped.

I waited for what felt like forever before I said, “And Mary Beth?”

“She’s gone,” Dad said. “Mary Beth’s gone.”

My stomach bottomed out. “Those boys, men. They were there to meet Mary Beth.”

“They what?” He stopped and looked at me, his eyes wide. “Tell me what happened.”

The order had my body trembling.

“The boys that Mary Beth met,” I whispered. “She was there to see them. I think she went with them.”

He was already shaking his head. “She didn’t go with them, baby. They took her.”

I opened my mouth but closed it just as fast. “No. That’s not what happened.”

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