Page 93 of Silver Sanctuary
Nash slammed his laptop closed, eyes assessing everything about Lacy—the red-rimmed edges of her eyes, the tears, on their way to spilling over her lashes, and the protective way her arms were wrapped around her stomach. Her chest was rising and falling too quickly, her breathing on the edge of panic.
“What the fuck happened? Are you okay?” He stood so fast his chair tipped over, clanging into the wall as he made his way around his desk.
“She’s gone,” she whispered.
Nash’s hands went to Lacy’s face, his thumbs swiping away the tears that kept falling. “Lace? Talk to me. What’s going on?”
“Embrie’s teacher just called me.” Her breath hitched, but he couldn’t fit the puzzle pieces together around her panic.
“Okay.”
“Someone took her from school.”
His body froze. “What do you mean?”
“Someone signed Embrie out of schoolan hour ago. They don’t know who. We… we have to go. Someone took her from school.”
Oh, fuck.
“Tracker!” Nash yelled, slipping his hand over Lacy’s as he pulled her down the hallway.
“What’s going on?” Gage was halfway out of his office by the time they made it to him.
“Someone took Embrie from school. We’re headed there now but I need?—”
“On it. I’ll have her backpack location to you ASAP.” Gage turned back into his office.
“Her what?” Lacy asked, her voice so small and shaky next to him, he didn’t hesitate to wrap his arm around her back for support.
“I had Gage give me a tracking device to put in her backpack. School is the only time one of us isn’t with her, Lace, and they have that rule about kids not bringing their cell phones with them into the building. In case something happened with your mom, I wanted to be prepared.”
“Oh, god.” Nash heard the small gasp from behind him and his eyes landed on Lily and Mae standing with the rest of the team as Sloane disappeared into Gage’s office.
“I’ll call the sheriff’s department,” Gunner volunteered. “I’m sure the school already notified them as part of their procedure, but it won’t hurt to get a call from us. And when Gage has the location of her tracker, we’ll meet them wherever it is.”
“Okay.” Nash nodded. “Keep us in the loop. Let’s go, Lace.”
Twenty-Seven
Two minutes. That’s all it would take to get to Embrie’s school, and Nash was sure Lacy was going to try and run the whole way there, but he wanted his truck in the parking lot for the second Gage updated him on Embrie’s location.
Two minutes, and yet, it felt like an eternity. He’d tried to ignore every racing thought in his mind. Tried to give her comfort instead. Tried to tell her everything was going to be okay. But the voice of things he’d seen in his time as a SEAL was getting louder and louder as the minutes passed.
The second he pulled into the lot next to the school, Lacy had the door open, her seat belt whipping back off her body as she jumped out before he even had a chance to park.
“Wait, Lace!” he tried to call after her, but she took off like a rocket. Nash struggled to get out of his own fucking seat belt, finally throwing his door open and stalking after her. Just as she stepped onto the sidewalk, she froze and her body jerked, bending in half.
“Fuck.” He ran, catching up to her just in time to hold her hair back as she retched onto the grass.
“I’m sorry,” she groaned, wiping her hand across her mouth.
“Just take a deep breath.” His hand rubbed circles into her back as he caught a glimpse of the sheriff’s department vehicle already parked near the entrance of the school.
“I can’t. I can’t. We have to go in, but when we do it’s real. Nash, she’s really been taken. My mom… I just know. There’s no one else Embrie would go with. And if Adam is with her… she’s really in danger. And I didn’t protect her.”
“We’re going to go in there and get answers. We’re going to make sure that every law enforcement agency in Texas is looking for her, and we’re going to get her back. No matter who this is, no matter who took her, we are going to get her back.”
She stood, a determined look falling into place over her face.
