Total pages in book: 30
Estimated words: 29741 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 149(@200wpm)___ 119(@250wpm)___ 99(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 29741 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 149(@200wpm)___ 119(@250wpm)___ 99(@300wpm)
She yawned and snuggled in, waiting for him to come back.
A few minutes later, she heard him running down the passage. She sat up, alarm filling her as he ran into the bedroom to grab his phone off the nightstand.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Zippy’s gone.” Ink was looking at something on his phone.
“Is he here? Oh my God! Did he get to her?” How could he possibly have gotten to her?
“The alarm is down. Someone turned it off. Bandit must have heard something although I can’t understand why he didn’t bark.” He brought his phone to his ear and started speaking rapidly to someone as he got dressed.
Getting out of bed, she hastily got dressed as well. Panic made her clumsy and it took her three tries to pull her pants on.
Where could she be?
Oh God. Oh God.
Ink put down the phone and walked over to her. “I’ve got Brody working on hacking into any traffic cameras we have. I’m going to go look at our camera feeds. If he took her, we’ll figure out where he’s going with her.” Ink shook his head. “But I don’t understand how he got past the alarm, knew the code, and got up here to her without me hearing.”
Betsy didn’t know that either. She followed Ink to his home office. He settled in front of the monitor, moving through the camera feed.
“There!” she said. “The door is opening.”
And out walked Zippy.
By herself.
“What . . . what is she doing?” she whispered.
Zippy was carrying a backpack and she looked to be dressed in a bulky jacket.
“I don’t know,” Ink said, following the camera feed along the house. He switched to the next camera and they saw her move down the driveway to the road.
“Why did she leave?” Betsy whispered. “Is she running away from home? She doesn’t like it here?”
“Hey, listen to me. I need you to stay calm. Okay, Button?” Ink turned and grasped hold of her hands. “There’s an upside to this. At least it looks like Leon hasn’t found her. Yeah?”
“But he could,” she said, every bad scenario running through her head. “Or someone else could find her and hurt her. Ink, she’s just a little girl!”
And they’d so clearly failed her.
She’d hated it here so much that she’d run away. Betsy hadn’t seen any sign of it, but what other reason could there be for her running off in the middle of the night like this?
“Betsy, all we can focus on is what we know and getting her back, all right? Just keep breathing, baby.”
“I’m fine.” Other than feeling really guilty for wasting his time with her worries when he could be doing something else. “I really am. Go. Do what you need to do. Just keep me informed.”
“I’m going to call Brody again. And then I’m going to go out looking for her. I’ve got Matthieu and Butch on their way here. I need you to stay inside by the phone with the alarm on. Can you do that for me?”
“Y-yes, of course. Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.”
“You will stay inside with the alarm on,” he reiterated, grasping her face between his hands. “Keep Bandit close. I mean it.”
“I promise, Daddy.”
“Good girl.”
He rushed out of the room and she moved into the bedroom to grab her phone before heading back into the office. She could hear him on the phone as he moved around.
Betsy shifted through all of the camera feeds. She didn’t know whether it would do any good, but perhaps she might see something.
“I’ll re-arm the alarm, Brown eyes,” Ink told her as he came in.
She turned her head to look back at him. “Be careful.”
“I’ll find her, baby. Be good.”
Over an hour later, Betsy didn’t think she was getting anywhere. Sitting back, she squeezed the top of her nose.
Butch and Matthieu had arrived a while ago and were out looking with Ink along with a large group of their friends.
She was so grateful for all of their friends, she didn’t know what they would do without them. But right now she couldn’t feel anything but worry.
Where was Zippy? What was going on?
Her phone buzzed with a text message and she snatched it up, her heart racing. Disappointment filled her as she saw Sunny’s name. Which instantly made her feel bad since Sunny was one of her favorite people.
Sunny: How are you doing?
Betsy: I’m scared.
Sunny: I’m going to come and stay with you.
Betsy: Thanks, but there’s really nothing you can do. You should stay home. Duke won’t want you driving at night. Especially when you’ve been ill.
Sunny had had a chest infection. She was feeling a lot better now but Duke was still being careful with her.
Sunny: Screw that. He should have brought me with him. I’m coming. Worth any spanking he gives me to be with you.