Page 99 of Hurt for Me

She called Klo next to see if Lily had gone to their place, but Klo hadn’t seen her.

“Where the fuck are you?” Rae said under her breath, panic inching up her back. She called Lily’s cell again and left another message. “Lily, call me right now. I’m worried.”

She checked the Find My app and saw Lily’s phone was close to their neighborhood. She hopped in her car and drove to the location where it pinged, but it was only a side road with overgrown grass choking a drainage ditch. Rae parked and searched the area, and her ears began ringing when she saw the sparkly purple case of Lily’s phone. She picked it up, and the screen was cracked as if it had been thrown. It was password protected, and she didn’t know Lily’s code to open it.

She started hyperventilating, her head going cold when she imagined Lily hurt and crying out for her.No.She didn’t have time for a panic attack. She got out her phone and called Dayton.

“They have her. Bobby and those fuckers.” She barely got the words out through her rapid breathing. “They took Lily.”

“Okay, Rae,” he said. “I need you to take some deep breaths and tell me everything you know.”

She did her best to explain it to him, but she knew her instincts were right. They took her.

“Have you checked your doorbell camera footage? If she was dropped off, the camera should’ve caught something.”

Rae couldn’t believe she hadn’t thought of that. “I’m going to check it now.” She paused to take another deep breath. “I didn’t know who else to call.” She felt herself breaking down. “I don’t know who’s involved at the police station, if there are other officers, so I didn’t call 911. I don’t understand. If Bobby wants revenge, why not come for me?”

“Just go back to the house. I’m heading there now.”

When she got back to the house, she pulled up the doorbell camera footage. She didn’t see anyone, including Lily, except for a mail carrier earlier in the day. The camera didn’t show much beyond their frontporch. Someone could’ve taken her before she made it to the pathway leading to the front door, and the camera wouldn’t have caught it. Most people were still at work, and the younger kids who lived in the neighborhood hadn’t been released from school yet. She didn’t see anyone outside their homes. No witnesses.

She was a mess waiting for Dayton to arrive, her mind frantic with the possibilities. She couldn’t stay still, but pacing her living room only made her dizzier from hyperventilation. She went to the kitchen and downed one of her emergency Xanax. Slowly, her panic attack subsided.

Dayton arrived, and she told him about the camera footage.

“I’m so sorry, Rae.” He ran his hands over his face. “This has to be retribution for me going to the chief with the information we got and not following through with destroying the evidence. Maybe Benson caught wind of my meeting this afternoon, and he let Pearson and the Coulters know, but I was careful about keeping it all private. I don’t get it, though. Why target you and not me? Carli and my mom are okay; I already checked. I sent them to stay at a hotel last night to be safe.”

Rae didn’t know if this was Bobby’s way of paying her back for trying to kill him in Santa Monica, but he was about to find out how far she’d go to protect her child.

“I’m going to the mansion. I’m taking my gun, and I’m leaving now.” She hated owning a gun, something she’d bought years ago just in case, but she was glad she had it now.

Dayton’s eyes got wide. “No. You could be walking into a trap. Besides, we don’t know if they’re keeping her there.”

“What the fuck am I supposed to do then, huh?” She felt like pulling her hair out. She didn’t trust the police to do anything. They’d never come through for her in the past. “I can’t wait around until she shows up dead.”

Dayton’s jaw tensed, and he seemed to be in thought for a few moments. “Okay ... fuck.” He sucked in a breath. “I’m going with you then.”

“Are you sure? You know they could kill us, Dayton.”

“I know,” he said. “I’ll let my chief know where we’re going before we go inside the mansion. I trust him more than anyone else at my precinct, but doing this means I’ll probably get fired. It doesn’t matter now. He has everything he needs to formally charge Bobby Coulter and Pearson. If something happens to us or Lily, they’ll know who’s responsible and have no choice but to get off their asses.”

“You don’t have to do this.”

Dayton wrapped his arms around her. “Yes, I do. I won’t let them hurt you or Lily.”

Rae’s eyes hardened. “If they touch her in any way, they will hurt for me in ways they’ve never dreamed.”

CHAPTER 61

RAE

2024

Dayton wanted to wait until it was darker before they drove over to the Coulters’ mansion in his Subaru SUV, but Rae said she would leave without him if they didn’t go earlier. Besides, she didn’t want to walk through the woods surrounding the mansion in the dark, and they would have to enter the grounds from the back, hiking through about a half mile of heavy foliage to the garden and through the hedge maze. It was the only way they could try to stay undetected.

He parked his vehicle along a shoulder bordering the woods and turned to Rae. “You remember the plan?”

Rae nodded. Before they left, Dayton had found the old blueprints to the mansion online and pointed out the basement located at the southwest corner. They agreed the basement was the most likely place to start their search, in case Lily or Devon was being held there.

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