Page 14 of Vengeful Lies

“I don’t understand,” he snapped, the fear and anger inside him too big to contain. “How could you lose them? You already followed them to three other vehicles, there is no way they could have just disappeared.”

Even though she’d already been over this with him several times, Olivia’s voice was completely patient when she spoke. “They had this well planned. The first vehicle change was just around the corner from the abduction site. They didn't want tospend long in that SUV because they knew the cops would be looking for it almost immediately. They basically drove in circles around the city and changed two more times over the course of almost three hours before they went into an underground parking lot at a mall. They obviously did another vehicle change there, but it wasn't caught on camera. I’m so sorry, Cade, but my team and I can't track every single vehicle that entered and left the mall yesterday?—”

“You can and you will,” he bellowed into the phone.

“Enough,” a voice barked in his ear.

No longer was he speaking to Olivia, it seemed Eagle had taken over, and he wasn't going to stand by and let anyone talk to his wife disrespectfully.

“I’m cutting you some slack, Cade, because of what you're going through, but nobody talks to my wife like that. My wife who didn't come home last night and tuck her children into bed and kiss them goodnight because she stayed at the office working on finding your child,” Eagle said, making him feel bad. Olivia must have been aching to hold her children close, the reminder of how precarious life could be fresh in her mind. But she hadn't done that because she was determined to help Essie and Gabriella.

“It’s okay, Eagle,” he could hear Olivia’s faint voice in the background. “Give me back the phone.”

Eagle grumbled something but must have handed the phone back to his wife because her voice was louder and clearer when she spoke.

“If you’d let me finish, I was saying we can't track every single vehicle that entered and left the mall yesterday in only a few hours. I have everyone working overtime, and we will find which car they left in, and we’ll keep tracking it until we find where they took your daughter. No one is giving up on Essie or on Gabriella. I know I have no right to say this when my babiesare safe at home, but the best thing you can do for your daughter right now is do your best to hold it together. I can only imagine how hard that must be, but only clear heads are going to be able to figure this out.”

Somehow, her words seemed to penetrate the blanket of fear surrounding him and he drew in a deep breath.

Olivia was right.

If he didn't hold it together, he might lose his chance at getting his daughter and Gabriella back.

No way was he going to fail either of them.

“Thank you. I know you're doing everything you can,” he told Olivia because it was true. Losing faith in Prey now would be the same as throwing out his parachute right before jumping out of a plane. There was no way to guarantee he’d land safely even if he had the parachute, but without it, all he would be facing was certain death.

Somehow, he had to find a way to hold onto hope.

No matter how impossible it seemed.

“I promise I’ll call you the second I know anything, and if I can't then Raven will, or one of the others,” Olivia vowed.

“I appreciate that.”

“You're not in this alone, Cade. Prey is a family, and you have all of us at your back. Essie and Gabriella aren't alone either. We’re all fighting for them, and you know no one on this Earth besides yourself would fight harder for your little girl than Gabriella. She adores Essie.”

What Olivia didn't say, wouldn't under these circumstances, was that Gabriella didn't only adore Essie. For some reason, she seemed to see beneath his often-harsh exterior to the man underneath. The man he might have been if he hadn't been consumed by guilt over how he’d treated his mother in the months leading up to her death, if he hadn't lost his wife, if his world wasn't filled with darkness.

Cade had no idea why or how she did it, but Gabriella just saw him.

It was refreshing and he’d selfishly indulged in the way she made him feel when he knew he had nothing to offer her in return.

Now, because of him, she’d been kidnapped, and while he knew she would absolutely do exactly what Olivia had just said and fight as hard as she could to protect his daughter in any way she could, he wondered what exactly the cost to her would be.

Uneasiness settled inside him.

Selfish as it was, Essie was his daughter, and she was only four years old, barely anything more than a baby, he wanted Gabriella to do what she could to help his daughter. Wanted Essie to be safe and unharmed, to return to him as the same sweet, confident, caring, intelligent, sassy little girl she was.

But he didn't want Gabriella hurt.

Thinking about what she might put herself through to fulfill her role as Essie’s nanny made him nauseous.

“We’ll find them, Cade. Sooner or later, we will find the men who raped your mom, who sacrificed your dad and his team, who set up your mom and stepdad. Who hurt Cole and Susanna, and Connor and Becca. Who took Essie and Gabriella. We’ll find them, and when we do, they will face the entire weight and might of Prey Security. We’re going to make them wish they’d never been born. I’ll call when I know something,” Olivia said before disconnecting the call.

It was a long time before Cade could move, Olivia’s words echoing through his mind on a loop.

These men were going to pay.

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