Page 43 of No Pucks Given
If only the GPS feature would work, but it couldn’t get a solid lock. It kept pinging all over the place, which meant relying on Coop, who was sniffing the air and the ground like he was some sort of tracking dog. It was weird as fuck, but if it worked, who was I to question it?
Coop hopped into the truck and put the truck into drive. I didn’t get how he could smell her, but he was so sure of himself.
I trusted Coop since we were driving through some of the GPS triangulation spots. It didn’t seem like a human skill, but I wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. I didn’t have to understand what Coop was doing to be grateful if he could help us find my daughter.
As I heard Stephanie’s cry, I heard a muffled voice. It was a female voice that was familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it. “You picked her up too soon. The plane won’t take off for another hour. Also, why is the brat crying?”
Then, there was a slap. If that monster hit Stephanie, I would kill them.
The woman cried, “What was that for?”
Then I heard the undeniably familiar male voice that chilled me to the bone. “She’s not a brat, and stop your hysterics.”
It was my ex. The one person I never thought would be trying to do something like this. He knew the terror the stalker caused and how much it shook both Stephanie’s life and mine.
Was he upset that I’ve moved on from him? Why would he take our daughter? What was his game?
“I’m going to kill him,” Carter said with a voice that sounded foreign with the amount of malice in it. I couldn’t blame him for being livid, and quite frankly, we were going to be on the same page.
Coop just shook his head. “You need to call the police. We will swoop in, but isn’t he some major movie star? If we don’t do this on the up and up, he’s going to sue our asses into the ground.”
As much as I hated to say it, Carter’s teammate was right. Russell was the type to sic his lawyers on a person, blogger, or tabloid. As much as we might want to kill Russell and his girlfriend, we needed to get law enforcement involved.
Carter grabbed the phone. Although, to my surprise, he didn’t call the police. Instead, he said, “Yo, Lou. We have a situation. Can you meet us over at the Boundary Bay airfield?”
I couldn’t quite make out what Lou was saying on the other side of the line, but I liked the idea of getting some backup.
Chapter 40
Carter
Getting to the airport was the number one priority. There was no way I could let Stephanie leave the city with Siobhan’s ex. If I had to kill the guy, then so be it.
Coop was right about needing to do things the right way, so we informed both the police and Lou. I really regretted going along with the plan to only use our security team for big events rather than for everyday situations. We were just wasting money by having them trail us around doing mundane stuff like dropping Stephanie off as school, going to set or the rink.
Siobhan was just utterly broken in my arms. Who could blame her for crying, especially after finding out that the person who had put both of us through hell was her ex?
The worst part was that the asshole knew the effect he was having on both Stephanie and Siobhan. Who did that? A psychopath, that’s who.
Coop pulled the truck into my usual spot at the airfield. We both hopped out of the car. I had hoped Siobhan would stay in the car, but she was getting out too. Thankfully, Coop flanked her.
If anything happened to her, I would die.
Coop looked down at his watch and said, “We’re running out of time.”
Instead of running straight into the airport to get to the waiting lounge or even attempting to get onto any of the charter planes, I looked for Lou or the police. Thankfully, I noticed a black SUV pulling into the lot.
Coop tensed and made a fist. I turned toward him. “That’s gotta be Lou. They will at least keep us out of trouble.”
Sure enough, Lou and Daniel, another security guard, hopped out of the SUV.
A moment later, the police cars pulled into the lot. Well, that was going to stop a lot of things. Thankfully, the police hopped out of the vehicles. One of the officers came straight toward us. “Did you call the police?”
I turned to face Siobhan and pulled her tight against me. I wanted to give her all the comfort she needed. “Yes. Our daughter was picked up by her dad to go to school, and about twenty minutes ago, we both received SOS texts from her. Using the Guardian app, we overheard her father and his current girlfriend say they were here. We drove here as fast as we could and called you on the way.”
“What does your daughter look like, and do you have any proof that you’re the rightful guardian of the child?”
Shit. I didn’t even think about having to have proof that Stephanie was supposed to be in Siobhan’s custody. I rubbedher shoulders with one hand and pulled out my phone with the other.
