Page 131 of Finders Keepers

“Hello?”

“Mommy?” Sophie’s little voice comes through, and I nearly collapse with relief, my whole body sagging towards the phone.

“Oh, baby! Are you okay? Are you hurt?” The words tumble out of me in a desperate rush.

“I’m okay.” Her voice sounds small, uncertain. “Daddy’s in the bathroom right now.”

My heart clenches.

“Daddy says I’m not s’posed to talk to you but I miss you.” Her little voice breaks and tears spring to my eyes.

Gavin squeezes my shoulder while Ms. Lucy stops her cooking, both of them listening intently.

“I miss you too, sweetheart,” I whisper, trying to keep my voice steady. “Can you tell me where you are? What do you see around you?”

“I dunno.” Sophie sniffles. “But that blinking red light is scaring me again.”

Blinking red light? I furrow my brow, trying to make sense of what she means.

“What blinking light, baby?”

There’s rustling on the other end of the line, movement, and my stomach drops. I hear Matt’s voice faint in the background.

“I love you, Mommy,” Sophie whispers quickly, her words rushed and frightened.

Then the line goes dead.

“Sophie? Sophie!” I cry into the phone, but there’s nothing. Just silence. My hands shake so badly I nearly drop my phone.

Gavin pulls me against him as a sob tears through my chest.

“That blinking red light,” I mutter between gasps for air.

My mind races. A red blinking light… like the sign at that run-down motel where Sophie and I stayed when we first left Oklahoma? The Paradise Inn, with its flickering neon sign? I remember how the light had cast an eerie crimson shadow across the parking lot, making everything look sinister and wrong.

“Oh my God,” I breathe, jumping up too quickly, my legs unsteady beneath me. “I think I know where they are!”

“What? Where?” Gavin stands too, steadying me as I sway slightly.

“When Sophie and I first left Matt, we stayed at this motel just outside the Oklahoma boarder. The Paradise Inn. It’s this awful place with a huge red neon sign that flashes all night. Sophie hated it, she made me close the curtains because the light scared her.

I grab my purse from the counter, and rush to the key ring at the front door where Gavin keeps his truck keys. My mind is racing with thoughts of her, of that dingy motel with its cigarette-burned carpets and water-stained ceilings, of Matt’s unpredictable temper that could flare like a match at any moment.

“Bailey, wait!” Gavin catches my arm as I head for the door. His eyes are intense with concern, amber depths pleading with me to stop and think. “You can’t just rush off like this. We need to call the police, let them handle it.”

“No!” I wrench my arm away, surprising both of us with my force. The desperation in my voice echoes off the walls. “You know how long that could take, Gavin? She’s my daughter!”

“Honey,” Ms. Lucy’s voice carries from the kitchen, thick with worry. “Gavin’s right. This isn’t safe.”

“I know exactly where she is!” I insist. “That motel, it’s where we stayed when we first escaped him. I know it’s a coincidence that they’re there, but Sophie said the same thing to me about the red light when we were there.” My words, coming out faster now, driven by my growing anxiety. I’m going. I have to go.”

Gavin runs a hand through his dark hair, clearly frustrated, his jaw clenching and unclenching. “Then I’m coming with you.”

“Gavin.”

“This isn’t a discussion,” he cuts me off, bypassing me and grabbing his keys from the hook. “You’re not facing him alone.”

I want to argue, want to tell him this isn’t his fight, but the determined set of his jaw tells me it would be pointless. My heart pounds against my ribs as I watch him check his phone. Deep down, I have to admit that knowing he’ll be beside me gives me a sense of security and courage I’ll know I need to face Matt.

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