Page 44 of Be My Traitor

There was a click and suddenly the room was filled with light. I turned around to see a window opposite me which looked out over another room. Amber was tied to a chair in the middle of the room, a large piece of duct tape over her mouth.

“Amber!” I screamed and ran over to the window, banging on it to smash the glass, but it was too thick. “Hold on, baby. I’m coming!” I looked to the side, trying to find another door that would let me be reunited with my daughter, but there was nothing. I couldn’t see any way out of the room aside from the door I’d come in and that wasn’t opening. The room was completely empty, so there wasn’t even anything I could use to smash the glass.

“So you’re Milly Knight. I have to say that you look even more unimpressive in person than you do in photos.”

A woman I’d never seen before stepped out from the side of the glass and went to stand next to Amber, lightly resting a hand on her shoulder. Amber jerked away from her, but the woman grabbed a handful of her hair and pulled her back into place. Amber’s face creased up in pain, but the duct tape muffled her cries.

“Don’t hurt her, you bitch!” I pounded on the glass, hating that I couldn’t protect my daughter.

“Now, now.” The woman tutted and waggled a finger at me. “We’ll have none of that kind of language here. Not when there’s a child present. What kind of mother are you?”

“One who’ll do anything to protect her child,” I yelled. “And if anything happens to Amber-”

“You’ll what?” the woman sneered. “What exactly are you going to do? You’re trapped in that room. You can’t get out unless I let you out and trust me, honey. I’m not letting you out any time soon.”

“I’m going to kill you!” I banged on the window again, desperate to break through.

“No, you won’t.” The woman laughed. “Instead, you’re going to call Lucas Donatello and tell him to get his arse over here. Because if he doesn’t get here within twenty minutes, I might just have to give him a little incentive…”

She grabbed Amber’s ear, twisting it painfully.

“Stop it!” I screamed banging on the glass. “I’ll call Lucas, okay? Just leave Amber alone.”

“And make sure you tell him to come alone and tell no one. I’ll know if he does.”

Hands shaking, I took out my phone and dialled his number.

Chapter 18

Lucas

Blue lights lit up the interior of the nursery from the flashing lights on top of the police cars parked outside. Everywhere I looked there were policemen. Over to one side, Kym was struggling to keep it together as she went over her story one more time, My fingers itched to throttle her. How could she have lost my baby girl? I’d only recently found out I had a daughter but already that child was my world. If anything happened to her, I’d burn this whole town to the ground if it meant getting revenge on the person who had her.

My phone rang. My heart dropped when I saw Milly’s name on the screen. How was I going to tell her that my staff had lost Amber?

“Milly? I’m so sorry but I’ve got some bad news.”

“It’ll have to wait. Are you somewhere no one will overhear you?”

“Milly, this can’t wait. It’s Amber. She-”

“I know. Lucas, get somewhere private.”

I looked around, wondering where on earth I could go in this chaos that would give me the privacy Milly was so insistent about. In the end, I went to the children’s toilets and pulled the door to.

“What’s this about, Milly? How do you know about Amber?”

“I can’t explain right now,” she said. “I need you to trust me. You have to come out to the Dauphin Trading Estate.”

“What – now? I can’t do that. The police are here. They said they weren’t done talking to me.”

“I don’t care. You have to find a way to get out of there without telling them where you’re going.”

“How am I going to do that, Mills? I’m the father of the child who’s gone missing and the head of the school which lost her. It’s going to look really suspicious if I suddenly leave.”

“I don’t care how it looks, Lucas. You need to leave. Now.”

I was taken aback by the violence in Milly’s tone. I’d never heard my mild-mannered girlfriend be so aggressive.

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