Page 99 of Ruthless Protector

I tore it back out of my pocket. Trent.

Call the cops and you’ll never see her again.

Jude cursed.

I grabbed onto his shirt, gripping tight. “Please, Jude. Please, find her. Please, bring her home.”

24

Willa

Fourteen hours had passed since Trent took Tilly from me.

The sun was starting to rise.

Where was she? Was she cold, scared? Alone?

I hadn’t slept, and my eyes were gritty and sore. I was pretty sure I was slowly going out of my mind. Jude came and went. He hugged me, tried to reassure me, but we both knew every hour that passed, meant finding her got more difficult; trails grew cold, witnesses would be harder to find.

It also meant Trent may have taken her for reasons other than money, though I couldn’t think what those reasons could be.

People came and went, tried to talk to me. But unless it was about Tilly, about bringing her home safe, I didn’t care. I didn’t care about anything else.

Jude had come in and sat beside me earlier, his hand touching mine. I could feel him watching me. I knew he was trying to find the words to comfort me, but there weren’t any, they didn’t exist.

He’d leave again soon. He’d stopped in to check on me after searching for Tilly all night, with a determination that made me believe if anyone could find her and bring her home, it was him.

I turned away from the window and leaned into his side. He wrapped a strong arm around me, holding me so tight it hurt. I needed that. I was so numb, so damn numb.

He kissed the top of my head, his breath shaking from him on a rough exhale. “Beautiful…”

My phone started ringing.

We both froze for a second, as the shrill sound echoed through the living room. I pounced on my phone sitting on the coffee table.

Unknown number.

“It has to be him,” I said to Jude, who was now standing in front of me.

He dipped his chin, silently telling me to go ahead and answer. Neco had something set up, something that would trace Trent’s whereabouts if he called me, no matter where he was or what phone he was calling me from. I just had to keep him talking long enough.

I pressed the talk button and put it on speakerphone. “Hello.”

“How you doing, whore? You lonely yet?” Trent said, his voice filling the space between Jude and I.

“Let me talk to her, let me talk to Tilly,” I said, gripping the phone so tight my knuckles turned white.

He made a tutting sound. “She’s asleep right now.”

I stared up at Jude, his jaw was doing that clenching thing he did, and I knew if he got his hands on Trent, he’d make him hurt. Right then, I wanted that, I wanted him to hurt, to bleed. Jude nodded his encouragement.

“What do you want? I’ll give you anything, just give her back to me.”

He chuckled. “Oh, I know you will. Maybe you shouldn’t have kept ten grand of my money and we wouldn’t be in this situation. Blackmailing me to sign over my daughter to you, that’s not very nice, Willa, not at all.”

“I…I’m sorry for doing that. Just…just tell me what you want,” I said again, voice shaky.

“I want the money you owe me, and you can throw in another ten for the inconvenience you’ve put me through.”