Page 58 of Wilde In His Arms

And Javier Lopez deserved life in a cage for making Nicole hesitate for those few seconds, for making her believe that maybe they didn’t want her back with every fiber of their being.

It sickened him.

But their reunion made him believe that good won over evil.

He wished Aria could be here to see this.

Emma’s dad didn’t hesitate to scoop her into his arms, hold her close, and cry, even as he smiled into her face and said, “Thank God,” over and over and over again as his wife buried her face in Emma’s side and Emma held a fistful of her mother’s hair.Emma had been taken from her brother’s baseball game nine months ago.Mom and Dad had been right there, waiting for her to return from the restroom.

The panic they must have felt when they realized she was gone.The guilt and second-guessing they must have done, thinking if only one of them had accompanied her, kept her safe.

But it wasn’t their fault.They thought their daughter would be safe in their town, with so many good people nearby to help if needed.They’d probably let her go to the restroom dozens of times before and everything turned out fine.

You couldn’t live your life expecting the worst.That was no way to live.

It would be harder for them to live carefree now.To not set boundaries that stifled Emma.

They’d find a balance.Someday.Right now, all they wanted was Emma close.

Toby shook like a leaf when his parents approached him.Tears cascaded down his face.“I’m sorry,” he whispered, his head bent, eyes on the ground.He’d been taken two years and one month ago, when someone walked off with him from the mall when his mother turned to pick out a new shirt for him and he wandered away from her.

His parents both kneeled on the floor in front of him.They both said the same thing.“You didn’t do anything wrong.We’re so happy to have you back.”Toby didn’t fall into their arms.He stayed three feet away.He was the youngest, taken when he was just six years old.So easy for someone so young to forget what life was like at home with his family.Especially when he’d been abused, mentally and physically, groomed by countless men.

Nick wished he could wash it all away for him.For all of them.

Toby’s mother took a step toward him and crouched low.

Toby took a step back.

The heartbreak in his mother’s eyes didn’t dim the smile on her face.

All the parents had been warned by a psychologist that the kids might not want to be touched.They would be overwhelmed, unsure, and scared.

Toby’s parents took it in stride and tried to coax him to talk more with them.“What do you have in your hand?”his father asked.

Toby held up the Pontiac Firebird Aria had given him.

The dad looked impressed.“That’s a really cool car.Where did you get it?”

Toby looked up at Nick, then back to his parents.“Aria gave it to me.”

Nick couldn’t kneel like the parents due to the crutch he was using to keep himself steady and upright while he kept his weight off his injured leg.“My girlfriend and her sister bought the kids the backpacks and clothes and toys, so they’d have something of their own to take home.”

“Agent Nick,” Stacy called out, backing away from her father and grandmother, panic in her voice.Apparently her mother wasn’t in the picture anymore, hadn’t been for years.Stacy had been reported missing twenty months ago by the grandmother, though the story didn’t quite add up, because Karl said he’d been at work since Stacy left for school that morning and had no idea when Stacy went missing.He thought maybe she’d stayed at a friend’s house for the night.

Who doesn’t know where their ten-year-old is?Especially when they aren’t home after school, or by dinner?

The grandmother, Donna, went to pick up Stacy at school the next day, like she always did on Tuesday, but Stacy never came out to the car in the pickup line.The grandmother went to the classroom and spoke to the teacher, only to discover Stacy hadn’t been to class in two days.

Nick excused himself from Toby and his parents, then turned to Stacy.

Karl took a quick step toward her when she called to Nick again.Karl grabbed her arm and yanked her toward him, whispering something in her ear.Stacy’s hands trembled at her sides and suddenly the lavender-colored leggings she was wearing turned a darker shade of purple between her thighs.It took Nick a second to realize she’d peed her pants.

Donna gasped.“Stacy.You should have said you needed to go.”

Karl glared at her and held her arm tighter.“You stupid girl.”

Nick fumed at the derogatory reprimand.“Let her go.”His order made everyone in the room stop and stare.He didn’t want to frighten the children, but he needed to get Stacy away from Karl.

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