Page 98 of The Girls in the Snow

“We just want Bailey safe.” Nikki moved closer to the front of the vehicle. “Let him go, and we’ll deal with this mess later.”

Would she really allow him to run? He had the money and resources to disappear, especially if he didn’t have a small child in tow. Trading a chance to escape over Bailey meant her parents’ killer may never be held accountable. Her parents hadn’t seen justice in twenty years. Bailey was just an innocent little boy with his whole life ahead of him. And Amy Banks didn’t deserve to lose both her children.

“John, I swear to you, let Bailey walk out of there, unharmed, we’ll take him somewhere safe. You can run. I’ll keep hunting you, but letting Bailey go will give you a fighting chance.”

The cabin’s door trembled. Nikki held up her left hand, signaling for Liam to get ready. The old door continued to rattle until the swollen wood finally broke loose and opened.

Nikki’s heart jammed in her throat and nearly swallowed her.

Bailey stood in the doorway, dressed in a snowsuit and boots. His blond hair stuck up in the back, as though he’d taken off his hat.

“Bailey, can you walk out to me?” Nikki asked. “Your daddy’s going to let you come home and see Mommy.”

Bailey shook his head. “Daddy’s not here.”

Was John playing some kind of trick?

“I’m going to take a look around,” Liam said quietly.

Nikki waited until he’d slipped around to the other side of the Tahoe. “Where’s your daddy?”

Bailey shuffled outside, his heavy snow pants slowing him down. “He said he had to leave. He messed up and was in trouble. That I should wait for you because you’d figure everything out and come to get me.”

“How long has he been gone?”

“He didn’t stay after we got here. He just said you’d come.”

Liam appeared on the other side of the small cabin, pink-cheeked. “Footprints leading away from the back door, men’s boots, single track. There’s a small storage shed, too, but the footprints go past it, and it’s locked tight.”

Bailey looked up at Nikki, increasingly nervous as they towered over him. “Agent Hunt, can I see Mommy now?”

Forty-Three

Bailey refused to leave Nikki’s side, so they walked back to the jeep to get her coat while Liam searched the cabin. She wanted to scoop him up in her arms and hold him tight, but she wasn’t sure she could contain her emotions if she did. Bailey gripped her hand as they picked their way down the icy road. His nose was pink from cold.

Nikki knelt in front of him and zipped his coat so the big collar covered the lower part of his face. “Try to keep your face tucked into this. The wind’s going to chap your face.”

His watchful blue eyes studied her. “Why did you have a gun?”

Lacey had asked her the same question after she’d discovered Nikki’s gun case in the back of the jeep. “I’m an FBI agent. Sometimes I have to deal with people who want to hurt me or others. I carry the gun in case I have to protect myself.”

Bailey looked up at her with serious eyes. “You were going to shoot my dad.”

“No,” she said. “But cops have scary jobs, so we have to be extra cautious and assume the person we’re looking for might try to hurt us.”

“Is Mommy okay?”

“She’ll be all right.”

“Daddy was so mad at her.” Bailey’s voice shook. “I never seen him that mad.”

Nikki tried not to shiver. “What happened?”

“Mommy kept yelling at him about Maddie and her friend. She said that he did it, and he was going to admit the truth.” Tears ran down his chubby cheeks. “Did he really hurt Maddie and Kaylee?”

Nikki wiped his tears with her gloves, unable to shake off the guilt. She shouldn’t have made Amy think that John had hurt the girls until the fingerprints came back. If she hadn’t let her need for personal justice get the better of her, this likely would have all been avoided. “No, I don’t think he hurt her. And he’s a good daddy, right?”

Bailey nodded vehemently. “The best.”

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