Page 101 of Silver Sanctuary
“I’m sorry, Nash.”
“There’s nothing for you to be sorry for.”
“I’m not holding it together. You should go. Embrie needs you to be out with the team, trying to find her.”
“The guys are working with the sheriff’s department right now. This is where I need to be.”
“I want to be stronger. You deserve so much more than a wife who curls up on a sofa and loses her mind when the worst happens.”
“Hey.” Nash’s hands framed her face. “Stop that, right now. You think I’m not losing my mind? You think that I wouldn’t be curled up right here with you on this sofa if I didn’t have training that conditioned me to react calmly in the face of chaos? Even that went out the window a little bit ago because this isn’t someone else we’re trying to find. It’sourdaughter. I want to scream, Lace. I want to rip through every house in this town, in this county, in this state, to find her. You’re handling this exactly how any mother would, and the fact that you’re being so hard on yourself is proof that you are so much stronger than you give yourself credit for.”
“I just want her back. I just… I need her back.”
“We’re going to get her back.”
“The chances now… Someone could have?—”
“No.” Nash dropped his hands and wrapped them around Lacy, pulling her into his chest. That’s when she snapped, again. She’d lost count of how many times she’d fallen apart since that phone call from Embrie’s teacher. Five? Ten? A million? What mom would ever be able to keep their composure in the nightmare she was living through?
“I want to wake up, Nash,” she cried. “Please, tell me I can wake up from this nightmare now! I know how this is going to end—I feel it, and I won’t survive it. I won’t survive her being taken from us!”
He shifted his hold on her, so that one hand moved up to stroke her hair. The act should have been calming, but Lacy was teetering on a razor’s edge. “You have to hold on to hope. You have to.”
Her fists curled tighter around the fabric she’d grabbed up from his shirt. Lacy wanted to scream so loudly that her throat would rip to shreds. So loudly that her eardrums would burst. But all she could manage was to pound her fists into her husband’s chest while she fought to drag any air into herlungs.
“It’s okay, baby. It’s okay,” he cooed, over and over like he was placating a small child. And that’s truly how helpless she felt. The trembling was back, starting in her feet and hands, making its way through her body like wildfire.
“M-my body feels weird. I’m g-going to be sick,” she moaned, the edges of her vision going white while the room spun around her. But when her body fell slack against Nash’s, she knew something was wrong.
“Doc!” Nash roared, but it sounded distant, muffled. Static and choppy. Maybe she was finally waking up. Maybe the nightmare was almost over.
Lacy’s teeth chattered, the shaking now completely consuming her body as Nash’s warm hand pressed against her neck.
“Head between your legs, baby. Just breathe. Focus on your breathing, Lace. Slow, deep breaths.” Nash’s commands came with a warm hand pressing against her back, guiding her head down between her knees.
Someone else was there, by her other side, but the haziness in her vision hadn’t passed. She felt them reaching for her wrist. Stone. Monitoring her pulse. Like having a heartbeat meant she wasn’t dying a slow death on the inside. That a heartbeat meant her soul wasn’t being torn apart. That her heartbeat meant everything would be okay in the end.
Thirty
“How’s Lacy doing?” Hawk asked as he poured coffee into Gunner’s cup, and then his own. It might have only been early evening, but the team was gearing up for a long night. Nash already knew he wouldn’t be sleeping until Embrie was back in Lacy’s arms.
So, he shrugged in response to his friend’s question, because even though Lacy had come out of whatever fit her body had sent her into, she wasn’t okay. Not even fucking close.
“Doc said it was a panic attack. The girls are sitting with her.” He blew out all his breath. “How the fuck do we not haveanythingto go on, Phoenix? She’s just gone. And there’s not a single fucking lead for us to follow?”
“We’ll get something. Someone will have seen her riding in a car, or there will be a neighborhood tip that comes in. We won’t stop until we have her back,” Gunner promised.
“I need to go see Track. Maybe he’s found something—anything.”
The guys nodded, and Nash turned to walk from the kitchen. But something in the reception area caught his eye. Itwasn’t a person in uniform, but he recognized them right away.
“Rudy? What are you doing here?”
“Nash.” Rudy’s eyes bounced over Nash’s shoulder, and he nodded. “Hey, guys, I heard what happened. I think the whole town has by now. I’m sorry.”
“I appreciate that.” Nash looked the owner of Davney’s up and down. “I appreciate you stopping in. But if that’s all, I need to get back?—”
“I just… I think you need to have someone go to Ike Hawthorne’s house.”
