Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 109783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 549(@200wpm)___ 439(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 549(@200wpm)___ 439(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
“I’ll be safe.”
“Eilidh!”
“It’s Millie, Fyfe. I’ll let you know what I find.”
“Eilidh—” She hung up on me.
Abject terror clashed with my fury and I just stopped myself from smashing my phone off the wall. “FUCK!”
Forty-Three
EILIDH
Trying to keep my wits about me, I parked on the street behind Fyfe’s old house and switched my phone on silent. All I needed was someone calling me when I was trying to be sneaky. I cut through the gardens at the back, hoping no one would peer out their window and start shouting at me for jumping through their rhododendrons. When I reached Fyfe’s old place, I nimbly climbed the white picket fence that bordered the back garden and snuck up to the kitchen window. The only sound in my ears was rushing blood. It deafened me and my knees trembled so badly as I eased slowly upward to peer inside the kitchen window. It was empty.
I was hoping for some kind of confirmation so I could just call Fyfe.
I’d have to go around front and that would alert her if she saw me.
Maybe I could lay a trap out back so if she tried to escape through here, she’d be stopped. But then she might trip with Millie if she had her in her arms.
Shit, shit, shit. My gaze scoured the ground as I attempted to come up with a plan.
That’s when I saw the fresh cigarette butt right outside the kitchen door.
So fresh, there was still a wee spark in among the ash.
Arm shaking as badly as my legs, I reached out and gently pushed down on the kitchen door.
My breath caught as it opened.
She was here. I just knew it.
Tiptoeing inside, I craned my neck to hear, willing my heart to slow so I could detect noise over the whooshing of my pulse. That’s when Millie’s cry rattled through me from somewhere in the cottage. It wasn’t a big house. Living room, small kitchen, a hallway off that led to two bedrooms and a bathroom.
Creeping as silently as possible through the kitchen, I poked my head out.
There was no sign of her in the living room.
“Oh, shut up, girl.” I heard a husky voice snap at Millie from my right. Toward the bedroom. “Here. Take this. Be quiet.”
Millie did not take whatever was offered to her.
My hands curled into fists and I took a step out, holding my breath as my weight bore down on the floorboards. I inhaled a sigh of relief when there was no creak and took another step toward the bedrooms.
A slight squeak had me holding my breath.
Millie’s cries must have covered it because there was no reaction from her captor.
A phone rang, startling me, and then I heard a belligerent, “What?”
I took another painfully slow step down the hallway.
“Don’t fucking yell at me. I’m doing this for us!”
Another step.
“He owes us this, Innes! We don’t have Jen anymore so we need this!” She broke on a sob. “No … I can’t … I’m sorry …”
Using her distraction against her, I rushed into the bedroom that was once Fyfe’s, spotted his mother’s wife at the window, back to me, one hand clenched in her hair, the other around the phone at her ear.
Millie was sprawled on her back on the bed. “Ae!” she sobbed at the sight of me. I grabbed Millie up in my arms just as Jay turned. I was already running out of the door as she yelled for me to stop.
With my baby girl screaming in my arms, I raced down the narrow hallway and into the living room.
A hard yank on my hair hauled me backward. “Stop! No!”
Terrified of getting into a tussle with Millie between us, I held her tight to my chest with one arm and blindly slammed my free elbow backward. It made contact with flesh and a howl of pain hit my ears as I was released.
I didn’t stick around.
Sprinting for the door, I threw it open and started screaming bloody murder as soon as my feet hit the path outside. Millie started wailing right along with me. I turned to face the cottage as sirens sounded in the distance, drawing nearer and nearer.
Jay didn’t appear, but several neighbors spilled out of their houses to see what the commotion was. One of them was Morag from the deli. My whole body shook with adrenaline and relief as I peppered wet kisses all over Millie’s face. Her scared cries were devastating and even though I knew rationally it wouldn’t help matters, I couldn’t stop my sobs from joining hers. Morag wrapped her arm around me, confused, but supportive as the police car turned onto the street and drove straight for us.
Fyfe launched himself out of it before it drew to a complete stop and my knees almost gave out as he reached us with tears in his eyes. Without a word, he drew us into his arms, hushing us both, pressing kisses to our cheeks and temples and murmuring over and over again how much he loved us.