CHAPTER 27
KEVIN

“Mr. Spencer! Open up!”

A furious banging on my door caused me to drop my son and rush to the front of the house.

“Mr. Spencer! We found them!”

I yanked open the door and felt Daniel hot on my heels.

“What did you just say?” I asked.

“We found them,” the officer said. “We have them in our custody. Brooke and Sydney.”

I felt my stomach drop to my toes as tears welled in my eyes.

“You found them?” I asked.

“You two need to come with me. They’re at the station,” the officer said.

I couldn’t pick Daniel up quick enough before we rushed out of the house.

We loaded into the officer’s car and sped to the police station. I jumped out of the car and gathered Daniel in my arms. We ran through the doors, not bothering to wait for the officer to escort us in.

“Sydney! Brooke!”

“Daddy!”

Sydney came running at me as tears spilled over onto my cheeks. I crouched down and held out my arms for her, bracing myself for the impact. She hugged me close and I wrapped both of my children in my arms, taking in their scent. Sydney’s hair was muddled with sweat and her bathing suit was dirty, but she was there.

And she seemed unharmed.

“Where’s Brooke?” I asked.

I looked up at the officer before he spoke into his radio.

“She’s still answering questions. She’ll be out of interrogation in a second,” the officer said.

“Interrogation? I want to see her right now,” I said.

“And you will, Mr. Spencer. Once she’s done telling us what happened.”

I gathered my kids in my arms and went to sit on a bench. Daniel was hugging his sister tightly as I wrapped them both up. I pulled them into my chest and cried into Sydney’s hair, thinking about all the terrible things she’d been subjected to. I was shaking, holding my kids so tightly they told me I had to loosen my grip. I kissed them over and over, whispering how much I loved them and how they were never getting out of my sight again. I told them we were going to go home, and I was going to take off work and we were going to have the time of our lives.

Then I heard footfalls in front of me.

I whipped my head up and my face immediately fell. Brooke was standing in front of me, wrapped in a blanket. Both of her cheeks were severely bruised, and I could tell by the look in her eyes that she had a terrible headache.

“Brooke,” I said, breathlessly.

I felt an anger encompass me that I’d never felt before in my life.

“Brooke!” Daniel said.

He jumped off my lap and went running to her. He barreled into her legs with a fiery passion. Brooke stumbled back, and I could see the pain wash over her face. They had hurt her.

I vowed that they weren’t going to get away with it.

I stood up and set Sydney down onto the bench. I peeled Daniel away from Brooke’s grasp and could see her shaking with the effort it took to keep herself upright. I set him down on the bench where he promptly wrapped his arms around his sister. Then, I gently gathered Brooke in my arms.

Brooke, the woman who had single-handedly saved my daughter.

“Thank you,” I said, breathlessly.

I pressed a kiss to her forehead as she buried herself into my body.

“You saved my little girl. I’ll never be able to repay you.”

Brooke wrapped her arms around me, her entire body trembling as tears poured from her eyes.

I scooped her up into my arms and backed myself over to the bench. I sat down with her in my lap and felt her relax into me. I turned my face and kissed her cheek, settling my lips on the swollen bruises on the side of her face.

“I’ll never be able to repay you,” I said again.

It was a long day of questions, and with each question the picture was painted for me. The basement of the house they were stowed away in. The general area where it was. How they had stripped Brooke of her clothes to find that tracking device, and how cold they had been at night. How Brooke didn’t let my daughter eat their food in case it had been poisoned or drugged, and how she had fought her way out of there.

To save herself. To save my daughter.

I was in awe of her. Of her strength, her resilience, and her unwavering dedication to my children.

The police tracked down the house they’d been held captive in, but everyone seemed to be gone. They had one man in custody, but he wasn’t talking at all. There were signs of Brooke and Sydney being held captive in the basement, but there weren’t any signs of any other men being there.

Gianni included.

Finally, I intervened on behalf of my family and forced the police to relinquish us. I took the girls to the local hospital to be checked over for any other injuries. I needed to make sure they were both alright. Satisfied with clean bills of health and instructions for Brooke to take it easy, I took us all home. Now that I had them both back in my care, I knew how to protect them. I armed my home the second we got inside and moved all of us upstairs. I was going to be within earshot of everyone until we could wrap this shit up and get off this fucking island.

The police promised regular patrols by my home while Gianni was on the loose, but I was going to do everything in my power to protect my family, Brooke included.

Sydney and Daniel took a long bath together while Brooke took a hot bath. I saw her wince as she touched one of her cheeks and I seethed inside with anger. That anyone would hit a woman was beyond me. I wanted nothing more than to wrap my hands around that motherfucker’s throat and squeeze the life out of him.

She stayed in the tub for an hour before she emerged—clean, clothed, and ready to sleep.

I tried ushering her into her bedroom, but she wanted to go see the kids first. Specifically, she wanted to see Sydney. She sat down on the edge of Sydney’s bed and stroked her wet hair back as tears fell from her cheeks. I stood in the doorframe and tried to keep ahold of my own emotions so Brooke could freely express hers.

She bent over and kissed my daughter’s cheek as she cried.

Without a word spoken, she slipped into bed next to my daughter. She cradled her closely as her shoulders shook with her sobs. I felt my jaw quivering as I leaned against the doorway, watching this woman I’d come to care for so much crying over my child’s sleeping body. She wrapped her arm around Sydney and my daughter turned into her, pressing deeply until the two of them seemed to appear as one.

Looking down at Daniel, I thought about crawling into bed with him before my phone vibrated in my pocket.

“Hello?” I asked as I slipped down the hallway.

“Kevin, it’s me.”

I sighed as Sarah’s voice assaulted my ear.

“I was going to call you in the morning,” I said.

“I got a call from the police. They found her?” she asked.

“They did. Sydney’s back home.”

“Oh my gosh.”

I furrowed my brow as muffled cries came from Sarah’s end of the phone.

“I’m just so glad she’s alive. And safe.”

“Me too,” I said. “She’s sleeping right now after taking a bath with Daniel.”

“Do they do that a lot?”

I clenched my jaw as I leaned against the wall.

“They did,” I said. “Haven’t done it in a while, though.”

“Are they close?” Sarah asked.

“They are. Very.”

There were more muffled sobs on her end of the line before a phrase fell from her mouth I never thought I’d hear.

“I’m so sorry, Kevin.”

“For what?” I asked.

“For everything. For leaving. For divorcing you. For never coming to see our kids.”

“We’ve been fine,” I said. “They’ve been fine.”

“When I found out that Sydney was taken, it made me sick. I fell to my knees, Kevin. I felt a part of me breaking.”

“Me too,” I said.

“I haven’t been able to sleep or eat. I know my boyfriend thought I was insane,” she said. “But I couldn't stop wondering if she was all right. If she was going to make it home.”

I closed my eyes and drew in a deep breath through my nose.

“Well, she’s home and she’s safe,” I said.

“I want to be back in my children’s lives.”

I snickered and shook my head.

“Now’s not the time to discuss this,” I said.

“Please, Kevin. When I found out what happened to Sydney, it broke me. Knowing I had grown so distant from my own family that the father of my children didn’t even think to call me—”

“I’m sorry to hear that. But you did that to yourself.”

“I’m not debating the past. What I did to you and the kids was wrong. And selfish. I get that now.”

“It just took your daughter being kidnapped to see it,” I said bitterly.

“I want to be a part of your lives, Kevin. Of your life.”

“Your boyfriend like that idea?”

“With all due respect to him, that isn’t his call. Those are my kids.”

“No, Sarah. They’re mine. And I’m not in the right frame of mind to have this conversation with you right now.”

“Please, Kevin. Let me try. Let me try to be the mother I should be for them,” she said.

I peeked around the corner of the room and saw Brooke sleeping next to Sydney, curled up around her and protecting her the only way she knew she could. That was what a mother was supposed to do with her children. And that was what Sarah had given up when I woke up and found her gone.

“I’ll think about it,” I said.

Then I hung up the phone, tossed it into my room, and went to slide in bed next to Daniel.