Page 68 of Inked Craving

I fell to my knees, but I didn’t cry. I couldn’t. All I could do was try to suck in some deep breaths. And then Lee was on the ground next to me, pulling me up. He carried me into the living room. I looked up at him, trying to comprehend what was going on.

“Put me down. I can do this.” He did, and I pulled my hair back from my face, using the hairband on my wrist. I couldn’t break down right then. Emery needed me to be strong. That, and I needed to wake up from this godforsaken nightmare.

Lee held the phone in his hand like a lifeline, even as his skin turned gray. “Paige. I’m so sorry.”

I shook my head and held out my hand. “Stop. Just stop.”

He staggered back, but I couldn’t tell him that I didn’t blame him. Because part of me did, and yet this wasn’t his fault. Someone had taken my baby.

When the sirens rang out, my heart raced, and bile filled my mouth. Two cruisers pulled up as people came out of their homes to see what was going on. I ignored the others and focused on people who could help me find Emery.

“Talk to us,” one of the cops said, and we explained.

I tried to sound calm, but there wasn’t anything calm about my words. “We were cooking dinner. She was just on the screen, but now the screen is blank. Someone took my baby.”

“You’re Paige Montgomery?”

“Yes.”

“And this is the father?”

“No, the father isn’t here. He’s out of the picture.” The cops gave each other a look, and I shook my head. “He lives in New York. This wouldn’t be him.”

“This is my fault,” Lee put in, and the cops stared at him.

“Excuse me, sir?”

“I have a stalker. This was the same type of note. And that rose…” Lee explained what was going on, and I added what I could, though I didn’t know much. All I knew was that they thought it was Colton or the stalker, and yet nobody was doing anything. People were combing through my house, searching for clues, doing whatever they could. Yet I couldn’t find my baby.

Why couldn’t I find my child?

“I need to breathe.”

“Okay. Okay,” Lee said. “We’ll find her.”

I met his gaze and nodded. “We have to. We have to find Emery. She’ll be so scared. It’s getting dark soon. She’s going to be cold.”

“We’ll find her.”

I needed to find her.

They hadn’t found her.

It had been nearly eighteen hours, and we still hadn’t found her. The Amber Alert had gone out, and they hadn’t found my child. They didn’t tell me much, only that someone who knew what they were doing had blocked the security feeds and broke in. That was all they could tell us. Lee had explained everything he possibly could, and while I knew the cops didn’t suspect the two of us, it felt as though we’d been interrogated and wrung dry. Considering that we had been in the home, they felt that something was hinky, and so did I.

My home was full of Montgomerys now, at least those who could leave to be with me. Others were gathered in other places together with the kids.

Why couldn’t I find Emery?

“You need to sleep, Paige,” Annabelle whispered.

I looked at my sister, at the tears in her eyes, her swollen features, the teeth marks on her lip, and I shook my head. “I don’t think I’m ever going to be able to sleep again.”

My mother was in the kitchen, cleaning the lasagna roll pan from the day before. We had burned them, causing the alarms to go off. I had nearly shuddered at the sound. A detective had helped me take the rolls out of the oven so I wouldn’t burn down my home.

My baby’s home.

Someone had kidnapped my child, and I couldn’t do anything except stand there and wait. The authorities were searching, but thankfully, I didn’t have to deal with the media. I had been warned that they might come. That I might have to give a statement to the news stations. I did not want to become a statistic. I did not want to do any of that. I just wanted my child to come home.

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