Page 81 of Secret Baby for Mr. Grump

“Sweetie,” I called out to him. “I’m going to take a shower and be right down, okay?”

He nodded, and I headed upstairs. The cold plus the encounter had sent a chill into my bones, and there was nothing like a warm shower to get rid of it.

After the shower, I came right back downstairs, and Caleb was gone.

“Caleb?” I called out, but there was no response. I didn’t hear the tell-tale pattering of feet either.

Plus, his coat wasn’t hanging on the hook.

I frowned, trying to figure out if he maybe went outside.

When I checked the door and found it unlocked, all my anxiety came back in full blast. Caleb knew he wasn’t supposed to go out without asking my permission first. Was there a reason he went? Was he acting up again? He’d been so good before.

Panic ratcheted through my chest, and I yanked open the door, going out into the snow without my coat.

“Caleb!” I screamed, but only my voice echoed out.

I rushed over to Mrs. Winchester’s house and banged on her door like a madwoman. She came down looking concerned and a little annoyed.

“Hey, have you seen Caleb?”

She shook her head. “No. I was upstairs watching Jeopardy.”

“Oh, God.” I frantically turned back around, heading to the other side of the house. And that was when I noticed it. In my haste, I hadn’t seen it before.

There were two sets of footprints on the ground.

One was smaller, obviously belonging to a child.

And the other was larger, digging deeper into the snow.

At the edge of the house, the smaller footsteps disappeared, like the child was being carried or snatched.

My entire world spun to a halt.

Someone had been here.

Someone had taken my little boy.

THIRTY

MARCUS

There was blood roaring in my ears as I zoomed down the highway, merging and speeding like a fucking psycho.

I felt like a psycho.

I could sense Sean’s concern from the passenger seat. He’d been eyeing me carefully ever since I received the panicked call from Allie. I knew he was worried I’d lost my grip and would get us both killed. And to be honest, he wasn’t entirely off.

It wasn’t an unreasonable fear to have because I certainly felt like I was skating on the edge of madness. The only thing that was keeping me somewhat grounded was the fact that I knew I couldn’t find Caleb if I were dead. I couldn’t trust the damned incompetent police who couldn’t even investigate a murder case right. If anything happened to me, Caleb would be lost to us forever, and that was simply unacceptable.

If we lost Caleb, I wasn’t sure Allie would ever recover.

“He’s gone!” Allie had screeched, sounding hysterical on the phone. “They’ve taken him!”

“What do you mean they’ve taken him?” At the time, I was having difficulty digesting the news because it was hard to wrap my head around it. My son. My little boy, who looked at me like I hung the moon and had hugged me tightly this morning before I left…taken?

“What the fuck do you mean, Allie? Who took him?”

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