True to his word the P.I. showed up just as we were heading back downstairs. She jumped when the doorbell rang and I wanted to put my fist through the wall. My baby never used to be afraid of shit.

I didn’t have to tell him to tread carefully once I opened the door to let him in. He knew pretty much the whole story and was relatively good at his job, not to mention an upstanding guy, so he knew what to do.

Right away his easy manner put her at ease, but she still drew closer to my side. He understood and kept a safe distance between them as I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and squeezed reassuringly.

“So this is your lady, pleased to meet you ma’am. It’s great to have you back home.” He treated her with kid gloves as I led him into the library with her attached to my side.

I wanted to jump right in but he put me off with a look and a slight shake of his head. I bit my tongue and let him take the lead and it wasn’t long before it was obvious that he had a better handle on things as he gently eased into his questioning.

She was more open and relaxed, I noticed, than she had been with the cops, and it was all due to this. He didn’t push, didn’t prod, but let her lead the conversation, giving her time each time she stopped to think.

“I found the family who picked you up on the side of the road. That was five days ago. From the general location they gave me I figure that’s a good starting point to start looking for the place where you were being held.”

I’d given him all the information she’d given me. One of the things she’d remembered after the cops had left was that she’d flagged down a car when she first made it out of the woods.

She’d hidden in the brush on the side of the roadway until she saw a vehicle with a family before coming into view and asking for help.

All she remembered were the first few numbers of the license plate and the color and make of the car. I hadn’t expected much when I gave him the information but apparently it had been enough. I’d passed the information onto the cops as well but hadn’t heard shit back from them as yet.

“Did you share this with the cops?” He nodded before I was through asking. We’d agreed that it was best if he worked in tangent with the law this time around, with the hope that things might go faster.

“Now the area where Mr. Collins said he picked you up is surrounded by forest land so it’s a good bet that you were being held not far from there. Do you remember anything else, any signs that may be of help?”

She closed her eyes in deep thought before shaking her head. “My memory keeps coming back in bits and pieces. I was drugged for so long that some things are still a bit hazy.”

I clenched my fists at her words and the rage that was never too far reared its head again. I didn’t give anything away though since she was sitting so close I was sure she could feel my every move.

“You take your time ma’am and just tell me any little thing you remember when it comes to you no matter how small.” He turned his attention to the notes he’d jotted down on his pad while she sat in contemplation.

“Just one last thing. Do you think you were a long way from where you started when the Collins picked you up?” She shook her head and looked back and forth between us.

“I remember running until I got a stitch in my side and I didn’t really look around that much. I only stopped when I heard the rush of wheels up ahead but I was too afraid that my captors would be close behind, so I hid for a while before coming out.”

“I do know that I didn’t run for more than twenty minutes, maybe half an hour though, before I got too tired to go any farther. I didn’t even know where I was at first. Then Mr. Collins said he was only going as far as the next town over.”

“When he said the name of the town, that’s when I realized that I hadn’t been held far from home all this time. That I’d been so close…” I hope she wasn’t back to thinking that I hadn’t done all I could to find her.

Sure it was fucked that she’d been held captive that close to home and once this shit was over and done with I’m gonna tear a new one in those asshole detectives for not doing their job.

But the land around there was nothing but dense forest and hard to reach places. Even I, and the man I’d hired had done no better. How must she feel knowing that she was right there and yet not saved?

“What did you do after he dropped you off? Why didn’t he try to contact the police when you got into his car? From our conversation I kinda got the idea that he didn’t really know what was going on, but he must’ve surmised something from the way you were dressed and your condition.”

“I didn’t tell him the truth. I just said I’d been hiking and got lost. I’m not sure he believed me, but he didn’t press me for more information. As to what I did once he dropped me off…”

She trembled next to me and I drew her in closer. “I hid in the woods behind the old gas station in Casper until it grew dark, then I walked the rest of the way taking the back roads and staying low.”

That was about a three-hour walk. In her condition it couldn’t have been easy. The P.I. took more notes as she spoke, once again letting her go at her own pace.

As she recalled little bits and pieces of her escape he’d ask her leading questions and in that way she was able to add more as her memory unlocked under his gentle guidance.

It was at least a couple hours later before he was satisfied. The smile on his face helped ease some of the knots in my guts. For the first time since she fell into my arms I felt like we were getting somewhere.

“Okay, this is good, this is very good. The cops already said they’d get the search started today in the general location after I told them what Collins had to say.”

“It’s a good bet your captors are already long gone by now unless they’re stupid, but maybe they left something around the place that would give us some clues.” He turned his attention to me now.

“Has anything strange happened since her return? Any strange phone calls, anyone hanging around?” I shook my head in frustration. I hadn’t been idle while she was asleep in the hospital.

Between Mike and I, we’d come up with some ideas that he was even now working on. I already had security cameras set up around the property since she was taken, but now am in the process of hiring some guys to keep watch around the clock.

The cops had a trace on the phone and had promised to have their own team watching the house around the clock. They were looking into everyone we knew, even though I couldn’t imagine anyone close to me doing such a thing.

It had been on the tip of my tongue to tell them they were wasting their time, that they should look elsewhere. But in the end I held my peace. Let them find that shit out on their own.

In the meantime I had Mac the P.I. and the team I had my brother putting together to handle the real work. This time around I was even more anxious than when she disappeared.

There’s no telling what whoever was behind this would do now that she’d escaped. Would they harm my children? Why had they taken them in the first place? That question still plagued my mind more than any other.

As the pieces fell into place bit by bit, the story only grew more confusing. She’d been taken before anyone presumably knew that she was pregnant, but the place she’d been held had already been set up with stuff needed for a pregnant woman.

Then she’d been kept alive until the children were weaned to be executed now that they were no longer in need of their mother’s milk. None of it made any sense. Why the elaborate setup? And who could’ve known that she was pregnant that soon after she learned the news herself?

The cops were supposed to look into the people at the doctor’s office and Mac was working that angle as well, but I couldn’t imagine anyone there having such a grudge against us to pull something like this.

Thinking about it only made my mind go around in circles, but there was one thing I was certain of. No woman who just wanted to snatch a kid would go through all that trouble I’m sure, so there had to be something else going on here. Something that we were all missing, but what?

After Mac left we got into the Ranger and headed out. She sat close to me with my hand clasped tightly in hers as if she was afraid to be outside. “It’s okay baby, the windows are tinted and I’m here. No one can get to you.”

I kissed her temple and she settled some but that grip on my hand didn’t ease up. My phone rang and I got a jolt when I saw that it was Mindy calling.

I must’ve given something away in my expression because she looked at me almost suspiciously when I let the call go to voicemail without answering.

“Aren’t you going to get that?”

“It’s not important, I’ll call back later.” I cleared my throat and tried to dispel the bad taste from my mouth. Why did it feel like I was lying to her?

I was tempted to tell her the truth, but thought better of it. Now is not the right time. She was already full of doubts, if I tell her that I almost married someone else, what the hell would that do to her head?

But the way she looked at me now, the way she pulled away and sat back in her seat reminded me that she knew me all too well. How could I have forgotten?

“Give me back your hand.” She didn’t comply so I grabbed her hand from her lap and held on. “Stop imagining bullshit in your head Zandi.” I’d forgotten that jealous suspicious streak of hers as well.

Her stubborn ass didn’t say a word to me all the way on the ride to the next town and her hand stayed stiff for the half an hour it took us to get there. We only stopped at the gas station for a few minutes after she pointed out the place where she’d hidden herself that day.

“Are you ready?” She nodded her head in answer and I drove on to the spot where she’d flagged down a ride that day. Though it was a good forty minutes or so by car, it wasn’t that far from our home.

I started to get out of the Ranger and she freaked. “Okay-okay, it’s okay.” I had to pull her over the center console onto my lap and hold her until she calmed down.

I was afraid of this, afraid that coming back here would only bring back all the fear and torment. I should’ve come alone, but how could I leave her?

“I won’t get out, you don’t have to be afraid. Mac and the cops are already searching the area anyway.” That was true but I couldn’t just sit and twiddle my thumbs waiting, not when I wanted to be out there searching myself.

Still, she wasn’t ready to go back in there and I wasn’t ready to leave her side. At least I knew where she’d left the forest for the roadway so that was a start.

The area was thick with overgrowth and there were a million different directions to go in. Even with helicopters flying overhead, who knows how long it would take before they found anything?

Although it had only been a few days it felt like a lifetime had passed and my worry for our children only grew. I couldn’t let her see that though, so I have to keep the shit bottled up inside.