by G. Bailey
“Come back?” she asks, but her eyes look up at me.
“I will come back, and I have some brothers that would like to meet you, if you want?” I ask her, kneeling down on her level. When I kneel, I see the large cut that goes from her forehead into her hairline. Her dark hair covers it further, but it looks bad, even knowing it’s age.
“Yes. Meet more people,” she nods her head excitedly, and it makes her seem more childlike than the adult she is. I smile tightly and take Tilly’s hand as I straighten up.
“Bye, Julia,” Tilly says.
“Bye, Tilly,” she says and then looks back out at the window. I turn with Tilly and walk out of the room.
“Watch my mother. It’s your new job, and I will pay you a fortune to make sure she is safe until she leaves here very soon,” I tell the security guard, whose eyes widen, and he quickly nods.
“I will protect her for you, Mr. King,” he says.
“Good man,” I reply, waiting for him to open the door. When we are both sitting back in my car, I rest my head against the steering wheel.
“Did she say anything to you?” I ask Tilly, who just silently waits for me to move. Just there supporting me, knowing I need a minute.
“Nothing much. She talked about a show on TV she liked but nothing else. She kind of acts a little like a–”
“Child.” I finish her sentence, looking up as she nods.
“They gave me this. But basically, it says she was found washed up on a beach, with complete memory loss and a bad head injury,” I say and hand her the folder.
“Harley . . . I don’t know what to say.”
“How am I going to tell my brothers this? The mother they hate for walking out on them, likely didn’t walk out at all. It’s more likely our dad got rid of her, and then Arthur kept her here to use against us at some point,” I say, leaning back in my seat.
“You tell them the truth and let them make their decisions. They are adults now, Harley,” she tells me, and I know she is right, but part of me still wants to protect them from this.
“I still see them as the boys I tried to protect from my father,” I tell her, and she gives me a sad smile, just as her phone starts ringing in her pocket.
“It’s Devon, I’m sure it can wait . . .,” she says.
“No, it’s okay, answer it,” I tell her, and she does.
“What?” she says, her face draining of all colour and then she drops the phone out of her hand as she stares at me.
“Tilly?” I ask her, wondering what the hell her brother just said.
“Daniel knocked my mother out and took my baby,” she says in a horrified whisper. I pick the phone up off her lap.
“Devon, it’s me, call everyone and get them to my house. We have a dead man to find,” I say.
Chapter 27
Tilly
“Tilly?” I hear someone saying my name, but I just keep staring at the empty, baby rocker in the living room, unaware of everyone moving around; the police who just came into the room or Izzy, who is shaking my shoulder. The word ‘kidnap’ just keeps repeating over and over in my mind. I never should have stayed here, I knew he could find me.
“Tilly?” Harley asks, kneeling in front of me. I try to focus on him; the stress that’s all over his face, but everything feels numb. I know I’m in shock, but I can’t process anything, other than that my baby is gone. My mother is in the hospital after being knocked out.
“The police need you to tell them everything about Daniel you can. Okay? It will help find him and find baby–”
“Hope. Her name is Hope Elizabeth King,” I tell him, and there’s silence around us as I speak the first words I’ve said since Devon called me.
“Tilly . . .” I hear Izzy gasp, knowing my baby’s middle name is after her.
“I will find our daughter, I promise you,” he tells me, and if anyone else would have said that to me, I wouldn’t have believed them, but Harley is different.
“Madam?” a female police officer asks, moving to sit on the other side of me, pulling out a pad and pen.
“Anything you can tell me, we can use. We have every available police officer looking for him and checking every car that leaves the village. But, we need to know some things,” she asks me.
“I’m going to find him. I will bring Hope back home, Tilly,” Harley says, and I can’t speak as I watch him walk out, with Devon and Luke at his side. Sebastian, Elliot, and everyone other than Izzy is out looking. Except for my mum who is in the hospital with my father at her side.
“We spoke to your mother, she gave us a photo of Daniel. She told me that you ran away from him because he attempted to rape you, is that right?” the police officer asks once the room is empty other than Izzy and me.
“Yes. I didn’t know he knew about the baby,” I say in a whisper, watching as she writes things down on a pad
“Tilly thought she saw him a few weeks ago, didn’t you?” Izzy says, and I nod. I should never have stayed here, not when my family came. I should have taken Hope and ran.
“Yes. Also, I’ve had someone cold call me several times a day, every day. I thought it was someone selling something with a bad connection,” I tell her and then burst into tears, “I’m so stupid, and Hope is gone because of me.”
“This is not your fault, Tilly,” Izzy says, pulling me into a hug. I let her rub my back as I haven’t been able to stop crying for a long time.
“It’s been hours, he could be hours away with her now,” I say, knowing we have no idea how long my mum was out, and how long he had Hope for.
“Harley won’t give up until he finds her, none of them will. Hope is a King, and we stick together,” Izzy tells me, as I keep sobbing.
“If it helps, miss, we believe he didn’t leave the village. Usually, men like this are obsessed with the mother as well. He might be waiting to lure you out,” the officer says gently, but I can’t hear her as I stand up.
“Then, we go and search the village, I can’t stay here,” I say, smoothing my top down and picking up a tissue off the side. I wipe my eyes as Izzy stands up.
“Miss, we recommend that you stay here in case there is any news. I have to stay with you for your own protection,” she tells me.
“Then, come with me, I’m not staying here. If Daniel wants me, he can find me. I don’t care, but I want to find my daughter,” I say, knowing that staying in that house, surrounded by her things isn’t going to help me find her. Daniel is playing a game, a game to mess with me.
“Okay,” the officer says, nodding. Izzy doesn’t say a word as we get into my car and drive into town.
Chapter 28
Harley
“You sure?” I ask Tilly’s oldest brother, Grayson, over the phone. I wasn’t surprised he had my number, as I checked the twentieth hotel we have been in today. They hadn’t seen any babies, and there is no news from the police. The police have started going door to door in the village, but I doubt he is stupid enough to stay there.
“Look, don’t ask how I found out, but he is at that hotel in Blackpool. Go and get my niece back. I’m trusting you, Harley King. With everything I know about you and your family’s past, I’m trusting you,” he tells me, making it clear he knows a lot about my family as well. What the hell does Grayson Fox do for a living?
“You can trust me. Call Devon as he’s with the others, and call Tilly to let her know what’s going on. I’m with Luke, my brother, and close to Blackpool,” I say, knowing we have been checking all the hotels all last night and all day today. It’s been over forty-eight hours since he took Hope. Thank God, we have some kind of lead. The police have been useless, and Tilly sounds more desperate every time I call her.
“I know who Luke is, and I will call the others. Bring Hope home,” he says, and then the line goes dead. I pull my car out of the carpark.
“Grayson says he is certain Daniel is at an old hotel near the beach in Blackpool,” I say, and Luke nods.
“Let’s find him then,
” he says, and neither of us say anything more as I drive the ten minutes it takes to get to Blackpool from where we were looking for him anyway. We were close. I pull up outside the little hotel that is on a range of old hotels on a tiny road. It’s an excellent place to hide, I’m sure the people who run it would take cash.
“I will get Hope, and you take her to the car. Daniel is mine to deal with,” I tell Luke.
“Dude, I’m not going to let you kill him. This isn’t the Cage, and Arthur isn’t here to hide the body. You just escaped, we all did. Let’s just get Hope and leave,” Luke says, pulling on my arm, and I shake him off.
“I won’t kill him, but he will wish I had,” I spit out and storm off up the steps of the hotel. The entrance hall is small, with a desk and a young woman sitting behind it. She stands up when we walk in.
“How can I help you? Do you have a booking?”
“No booking but a man is staying here with a small baby. Which room?” I ask her.
“We can’t give information out about customers staying here,” she says, and I reach into my pocket, pulling out my wallet. I pull out the ten fifty-pound notes in there and slap it down on the desk.
“You can tell me, and take the cash. Or, I can come around there and find the information I want,” I tell her, having had enough of this messing around.
“Harley, calm down,” Luke says, stepping in front of me.
“The baby has been kidnapped. Surely you have watched the news? The baby called Hope King that is missing?” he asks her, and she nods, pulling out the folder. She flips it open.
“Room eight, that’s on the top floor. I haven’t seen the baby as I only clocked in this morning, and they checked in last night. But, they’re the only ones staying here who asked for a travel cot,” she says, and I turn away to find the stairs. The hotel has four floors, which I run as fast as I can and find room eight at the top.
“We should knock, he wouldn’t expect that. You don’t want to scare Hope,” Luke says, putting a hand on my chest and stopping me. I nod, lifting my hand and knocking on the door three times. There’s a tense silence as I hear footsteps, and the door is opened. The man standing in front of me is Daniel. I know from the research I did on him when Tilly told me she ran away from him. He is shorter than me, with blonde hair, a scar near his eyebrow, and blue eyes. That’s all there is to him, he looks like a regular guy, a guy you would never expect to steal a baby.
“Daniel?” I ask him, stepping closer and lifting him off the ground by his shirt. He wrestles with me, but he isn’t strong enough as I slam him into the wall. I press my face close to his.
“If I didn’t have a family, girlfriend, and a baby to bring up. I would kill you for this,” I tell him, and he tries to pull my hands away from his shirt as it chokes him.
“She is mine, mine. You can’t take my girlfriend and my baby.”
“You don’t force yourself on your girlfriend. You lost her and Hope when you tried to do that,” I spit out.
“She wanted it. She always did,” Daniel laughs, and I bang his head into the wall as he keeps laughing. The sick fucker.
“Harley?” Luke says. I barely hear him through the haze of wanting to kill the man in my hands. Then I hear Hope crying, and everything slows down. The sound of her crying makes me step back a little, but I keep my hands on him.
“I’ve got him,” Luke tells me, and I drop Daniel to the floor. I know Luke will sort him. I walk into the bedroom, seeing the empty bottles on the sides, the car seat and then finally Hope in the travel cot. I lift her out, holding her close to me. She instantly stops crying like she always does. I jump when I hear a male scream and then a gunshot.
“Luke?” I cry out as I run around the bed and towards the hallway, where Luke is standing holding one hand to his side where a knife is sticking out of his stomach, and the other hand is holding a gun. On the floor, is Daniel, with blood pouring from his neck.
Luke shot him, and he won’t be surviving that. I turn Hope’s face away, so she can’t see as I pause not knowing what to do.
“Did you bring a gun?” I ask Luke, who nods, resting against the door.
“POLICE!” I hear shouted up the stairs, just before three police officers run up the stairs, take in the scene, and Luke falls to the ground.
Chapter 29
Tilly
“Hope is okay? You have her?” I repeat again to Harley who just told me he has Hope in his arms right now. I hear her cry a little and sink to the floor of the lounge, holding my hand over my mouth as I hold in my own cry. I feel Izzy wrap an arm around me, but everything is blurry. My baby is safe.
“She is safe and healthy. Tilly . . . you need to come to the local hospital and bring all my brothers, and Izzy. I will text you the postcode,” he tells me.
“What why? What’s wrong with Hope?” I ask quickly.
“Nothing, Tilly. But, I need you here,” he tells me, his voice cracking a little.
“On our way now,” I tell him.
“I love you,” Harley replies.
“I love you, too,” I respond before the line cuts off.
“They found Hope?” Izzy asks me.
“Yes. They are at the hospital, and Harley wanted me to get you and all your brothers there as quick as possible,” I say, and she frowns, wondering what is going on as well. The police officer who has stayed with us, comes running into the room.
“They have found the baby,” she says, and I nod, holding up my phone and standing up. I grab my changing bag off the side, which is packed with anything Hope will need and throw it over my shoulder.
“Harley just called. He said we need to get to the hospital, so excuse us,” I comment.
“Yes. Can I take you?” she asks.
“It’s a good idea, we have both been awake for a long time, now, and driving wouldn’t be safe. We can call around and tell everyone on the way,” Izzy replies before me, and I nod. She has a point. I haven’t slept since Daniel took Hope. I pick up her pink blanket that I know she loves, and my phone as we follow the officer to the car. Izzy gets through to Sebastian who is with Elliot, and I call my mum who tells all my family. It takes twenty minutes to get to the hospital, as we hit some traffic on the way. I jump out of the car when she parks and run towards the hospital, with Izzy calling me as she runs to follow me.
“Harley,” I say, my words only a whisper when I see him sitting in the waiting room, with Hope sleeping in his arms. I don’t see the officers in the room, or anyone, as I run over and fall to my knees in front of him. He instantly hands me Hope, and I hold her to my chest as I feel Harley wrap his arms around me and pull me onto his lap. I silently cry as I hold her close, knowing I’m never letting her out of my sight again. I wrap the pink blanket around her, and she snuggles into it.
“Thank you. Thank you. Thank you,” I mutter out in a whisper, and Harley kisses my forehead.
“We need to talk, Siren,” he tells me gently, and I look up at him, just as Sebastian and Elliot come into the room. Izzy is standing by the door, and I see the two police officers sitting on the other side of the room as well.
“Why are we here? Where is Luke?” Elliot asks Harley.
“Luke was stabbed by Daniel, and he shot Daniel in response,” Harley says, and there’s silence following his words.
“Is Luke alive?” Sebastian asks, his voice cracking.
“Yes. He is in surgery, now, but the police are pressing charges against him for carrying a firearm.”
“That’s bullshit,” Elliot spits out.
“Daniel is dead. This is serious, Elliot. I’ve called our lawyer, but Luke will face charges for this,” Harley tells them. I feel such a sense of relief that Daniel is dead, and some small part of me shouldn’t feel that way, but I do. I look down at Hope, knowing that she is better off without him in her life. He was an evil man, but I hate that Luke is going to pay the price for killing him.
“He’s alive, that’s all that matters,” Izzy tells them all.
“Alive, but going to jail,” Sebastian comments.
“There’s more we need to talk about,” Harley tells them and then turns to the police officers, “Can we have a moment?” he asks them.
“We cannot leave you alone until you give us a statement Mr. King.”
“I’m not giving you one until my lawyer is here, but this is personal, and none of them were there. I can’t see how a moment alone with my family is going to hurt anyone. You can wait outside the room,” Harley waves a hand at the door and gives them a look which would scare anyone. The police officers quickly nod and walk out of the room, with Elliot shutting the door behind them. I try to get off Harley’s lap, but he tightens his hands on my hips, telling me all I need to know . . . that he wants me here.
“What else could you tell us?” Elliot says with a groan and sits in one of the seats opposite. Sebastian doesn’t say a word as he sits next to Elliot and Izzy sits on his other side.
“When I finished the last fight, Arthur gave me a note. He said it was a gift for me,” Harley starts off.
“What was on the note?” Izzy asks.
“An address, a time, and a date. When Hope was taken, we were at the address. I know Arthur likely helped Daniel,” he tells them all and then looks up at me, “I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be. This wasn’t your fault. And, you got her back to me, to us. Our daughter is safe,” I tell him and gently kiss his cheek, before looking down at Hope who sleeps quietly, completely unaware of the world going on around her. I know she will never remember being stolen, her uncle being stabbed, or her biological father dying. I hate that he died before he could be arrested, before he could pay for everything he has done. Death was an easy escape for him.
“What was at the address?” Elliot asks Harley, who only tenses a little before he replies quickly.
“Our mother.”
