“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.