Page 108 of High Water

“No. No text. Just you not showing up, and Bishop being determined to find you.”

“Is that how you got me released?” She looks around.

“Not quite.” I squeeze her tighter, kissing her temple and refusing to let go. “You’re sure you’re okay? They didn’t hurt you?”

“No. I’m fine. My wrists hurt a little, but that’s it. They told me I was annoying and had a mouth on me.”

I laugh, tears streaming down my cheeks.

“Let’s fucking go, lady.” The one security guard motions for me, his hand extended in impatience.

“You go with your great-uncle Jay. He’s the sheriff, and he’s going to call your father and your uncles for you. He’ll make sure you’re taken care of, okay?”

“What do you mean? Won’t you be there?” Fallon looks at me, bewildered, when the men grab me and pull me away from her.

“I love you, Fallon. Always. You remember that, okay? I love you to bits and pieces, and you’re my girl no matter what.”

“Mom!” she screams and runs toward me, stopping dead in her tracks when one of the security guards points a gun at her. “Don’t go with them! Mom! Please! They’ll kill you. They threatened to kill me!”

“Don’t you fucking point a gun at her!” I scream, struggling to get out of the other guard’s grip so I can tackle him.

“Tell your brat of a child to calm the fuck down,” the guard growls at me.

“Fallon, this was the deal. I have to go with them so you can go with your great-uncle. Please. Go.” I try to rip my arms free again, cursing the man for holding me so tight, and tell him quietly to go fuck himself.

“Settle down.” The guard holding me seems unenthused and unimpressed by my threat.

“Fallon! Go with Jay. Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine!” I call after her. It’s a lie. Not least of which, because I don’t know if I can truly trust Uncle Jay. But he’s the best option I have. The only option.

“Mom! I love you!” she calls, tears coming hard and heavy as I look back at her one last time.

“I love you too, baby girl!” I yell back, and then they shove me into the car.

It slams shut behind them, and I practically crawl over the security man’s lap to watch her out the window. Jay takes her and wraps his arms around her shoulders, comforting her as I watch them both disappear from view.

I’m faced with the real possibility that the last time I see my daughter will be with her screaming for me not to leave her.

FORTY-FIVE

Bishop

Whatever elation I felt at seeing my daughter in the kitchen of the Stockton household for the first time, it’s rivaled by the feeling I have right now of having her in my arms and knowing she’s alive and safe again.

“Bishop,” she sobs into my chest and wraps her arms around me for the first time. I hate it’s under these circumstances that we’re getting our first hug, but having her blow past her uncles and seek me out right now makes my heart swell until it feels like it might break. And it does with the next words out of her mouth. “They took her. They took Mom. You have to get her. Please.” She pulls back and looks at me; my own eyes are staring back at me with her mother’s bright green in them, rimmed with an even brighter red. It shatters me.

“Who took her, sweetheart?” I search her face.

“The same men who took me. They traded us to Jay.”

I whip my attention in his direction, where he still stands outside his sheriff’s car. Grant, Levi, and Ramsey are all laser focused on him, and his eyes scan all four of us before he shakes his head.

“It’s the governor and his sons. They took her to Fool’s Gold to have her show them the relic.” Jay answers the unspoken question in our silent threat. “I’m going to fix it. For good this time.” He doesn’t wait for our answer, probably half afraid we’ll kill him right here and now for his involvement in this. The door slams behind him, and he tears out of the parking lot, lights and sirens blazing.

I turn my attention back to Fallon.

“Are you okay? Did they hurt you?” I ask her.

“I’m okay. Just some little bruises on my wrists. They didn’t hurt me. They just held me and wouldn’t let me go home.” She speaks through stuttered breaths, her choked sobs making it hard to hear each distinct word, but I’m confident that whoever did this is gonna pay with their life. “But Mom. Mom needs you.”