Page 104 of Silver Sanctuary
“Appreciate that, Phoenix. Now shut the fuck up and let me get to my daughter. On three. One. Two. Three?—”
The sound of wood splintering was the last thing he registered before his feet had him rushing into the house on auto pilot. His head swept back and forth, watching for additional threats they hadn’t accounted for, but there were none. And then, he made it to the dining room, where Hawk and Stone were standing, guns trained on two people while Embrie looked around the room in shock.
“Dad?”
Her whispered word, filled with so much relief, smacked Nash right in the heart. Embrie’s eyes filled with tears as she jumped up from the chair, her legs working overtime to get to him. Nash holstered his weapon, and took three steps forward before her little body slammed into his open arms.
“Dad! You’re here!”
“Shh, I’ve got you. I’ve always got you.” Nash lifted Embrie up, cradling her as he turned and rushed out of the house.
“We weren’t going to hurt her…”
“Don’t move! I said put your fucking hands on the table and DON’T. FUCKING. MOVE.”
“We just wanted Amber to pay…”
His team could deal with securing the Hawthorne’s before the sheriff’s department showed up. As soon as he stepped outside, he could hear sirens in the distance. Colt and Hank were going to be furious with him, but he didn’t fucking care. He’d gotten her back. That was all that mattered. She was safe.
Nash walked out onto the front porch just in time to seethe passenger door of the surveillance van fly open. Lacy jumped out and ran towards them, an exact copy of what happened with Embrie.
He tightened his hold on Embrie, but he didn’t stop walking. There, in a stranger’s front lawn, he reunited his family. Lacy tried to pull Embrie into her arms, but she kept a tight hold around Nash’s neck while still reaching out for her mom. They ended up in a heap on the grass, all tangled in varying degrees of hugs.
“Ladybug! Are you okay? Are you hurt? Did they hurt you?” Lacy held Embrie’s face as she looked her over from head to toe.
“I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry, Mama. I wasn’t going to go with him. I know better—I know I was only supposed to leave with you and Dad. But Mr. Ike said our password. He told me that you gave him the phrase so he could come get me from school because Dad had something big come up and he couldn’t leave work to get me for the trip. I’m so sorry.”
“He shouldn’t have known that password, honey. His wife worked in the office and she must have seen it. It’s not your fault. None of this is your fault, baby. I’m just so happy you’re safe.”
Embrie pressed her face harder into his chest.
“Dad came for me. I was so scared you wouldn’t find me before they got Amber. But Dad did, just like he promised.”
Dad.Fuck. The title had slammed so hard into his heart the first time she said it but he was afraid that it might just be a response to all that was going on. Sitting there, on the grass as officers swarmed the house, and a pissed off Colt headed in their direction, he held onto the hope that Embrie would continue to call him dad after all the dust settled.
Nash looked down at Embrie, his tears gently dropping onto the top of her head.
“That’s right, sweetheart. I’ll always find you. I’ll always come, even if you can’t call for help. I’ll find you.”
“Why did they have to do this?” Lacy cried.
“Mom, they wanted Amber. T-they kept talking about how she was in town. How they n-needed to get her now. Mr. Ike said they only took me to get her to come out of hiding. I didn’t know…”
“Shh… We don’t need to talk about all of that right now. The important thing is that we’ve got you back.”
Embrie buried her face in his neck, just as Lacy’s face turned towards his. “You did it. You brought her back to me. You kept your promise. Thank you.”
His wife collapsed into his arms, his whole world narrowing to the two most precious things in his life finally being back together.
Thirty-One
Nash pulled up on the reins of his horse, Honey, stopping short of the rocky shoreline. He’d spent days telling Embrie about all the times his dad had brought him to fish in that very spot. It had taken a little bit of begging from both of them to get Lacy to agree to them taking off without her, but in the end, she agreed.
“Right here, Brie. We can tie the horses up to the tree while I show you the lake.”
The last few weeks in Montana felt like a dream. The air was cold and crisp, and they’d had to bundle up in more layers than he remembered to stay warm, even as nothing but clear sunshine was in the sky, but it was just so damn peaceful.
And after the nightmare they’d walked through together, it was more than needed. It was a lifeline—a medicine injected directly into their hearts. Aside from a phone call from Jake when they first arrived to tell him the people responsible for leaving Lacy in terrible pain when she needed medical attention had been released from his practice and stripped of their nursing licenses by the Texas Board of Nursing, they’d barely heard about life back in Silver Springs.
