Page 77 of Marked

Sophia smoothed her hand down her daughter’s back. “I know, honey. But I need to make sure the bad people who took you are locked away. Right now, it’s still really dangerous and—”

“Why can’t I wait here while you’re at work?” She darted her gaze to Cole and then back. “Then I don’t have to leave you.”

Anxiety bunched inside Sophia’s gut. Bella needed her. She shouldn’t be separated from her mother at a time like this, but until Sophia could be certain no one would come after her daughter again, she had to keep her out of harm’s way.

Picking up a lock of Bella’s dark hair, she swept it behind her ear. “I don’t want to be away from you either. But it’s only for a few days, and Daddy really wants to be with you too.”

Bella nodded, her gaze lowered and her bottom lip still pouty. “Okay, but just two days.”

Sophia nodded. “We’ll see. But that should give me lots of time to make sure we have all the bad people caught.” And to get someone into their apartment to clean up the mess of the vandalism.

“Can I go home first? I want to see my bed and get my necklaces.”

Sophia rolled her lips together. Shit. “Why don’t we go see Daddy first, and then maybe tomorrow you can come home and do that?”

Bella nodded then leaned forward and scooped up the mostly untouched parfait. But her daughter forgot nothing. Though temporarily mollified, Bella would be on Sophia’s case first thing tomorrow to go to the apartment, which meant Sophia needed to get someone in there today.

“I’m going to make a couple of phone calls. Can you hang out here with Cole for a few minutes?”

Bella shrugged and ate another bite of the yogurt and granola, her gaze intent on Cole.

Sophia looked at Cole as she stood. Worry lined his face.

He rubbed his hands on his knees and gazed up at her. “We’ll be fine.” Despite his bravery, his tone was tight, and he glanced nervously at Bella.

Sophia patted his shoulder as she moved past him, phone in hand, for the master bedroom. A chuckle turned up her lips as she closed the bedroom door. He looked more angsty about being left with a four-year-old than he did being sent in on a rescue mission where he’d be shot at.

Men.

She brought her phone back to life and quickly looked up a cleaning company. After agreeing to pay a rush fee, she promised to drop a key off at the business before lunch. She’d do that on her way to Bart’s with Bella.

She hung up and then heaved a deep breath. At least the apartment would be started on soon. Maybe tomorrow morning she’d head over there and ensure things were where they should be in Bella’s room. Minus the animals and furnishings that’d been destroyed. She’d have to tell Bella a little bit about what had happened, but at least she could spare her the shock and devastation of seeing the disaster.

Bringing her thumb to Kenneth’s icon—he’d called early that morning while she was asleep—she tapped it before she could talk herself out of it.

The line rang once and Kenneth answered. “Sophia. Are you okay?”

Her boss’s immediate concern rather than disdain for her not being in contact brought tears to her eyes. She sank onto Cole’s mattress. “I’m okay... Actually, fantastic. I have Bella.”

Silence beat through the phone, and Kenneth stammered on the other end. “You—you what? Bella? How’s that possible?” Disbelief rang in his voice.

Sophia swallowed and balled her hand into a fist to stop it from shaking. “I don’t know what to tell you. I got a call from the kidnappers last night saying they’d dropped her off somewhere. I went to the location and sure enough, she was there. Alone.” The lie rolled off her tongue, and she steeled her spine for the barrage of questions.

But really, what else could she say? She couldn’t admit to being at the crime scene. Couldn’t say she’d tracked Bella and retrieved her without backup. As much as she hated to lie to the man and the organization that always had her back, she had to protect herself and the people who’d put their lives on the line to bring her daughter home.

“The kidnappers called you? You’ve gotta be shitting me.” A second passed. “Why didn’t you call me? Dammit, Sophia you know better than to enter these situations alone. It could have been a trap.”

“I know.” A heavy amount of guilt pulled down her words. “I can only say that I acted out as a terrified mother and not a detective. I haven’t been in the right frame of mind.”

“I understand.” He let out a breath. “Well, we should get some answers out of her. Any information on where she was being held would—”

“She said she was in the woods at what looked like a farm. The building she described sounded like a barn.”

“Where was she dropped off?”

Crap. She hadn’t had the forethought to come up with a location that wouldn’t have cameras to disprove her story. “On the beach,” she said, her voice small and uncertain.

“All right. That’s helpful. I’ll see if we can use that and get back to you.”

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