“It was the wrong decision.”
The anguish on his face only made my tears fall faster. “I know.”
“What do we do? Where is he?”
“We’ll find him.” Knox pulled me to his chest, holding tight as he spoke to Winn. “What do we do?”
“I know you don’t want to hear this, but I need you both to wait.”
I growled into Knox’s chest, the terror morphing to frustration and despair. “I can’t sit in that car and do nothing. I can’t watch mothers walk into the center and pick up their children. I can’t.”
“Walk to town if you want,” Winn said. “But we’ve got a lot of people looking for Jill. I’ll check in with the team and be back with an update shortly.”
“Then let’s go.” He let me go and grabbed my hand, pulling me down the sidewalk as we set off toward Main.
My legs were stiff and wobbly over the first two blocks, but then they began to warm and my strides lengthened. We walked in silence but the dull scream in my head grew louder with each step.
If my father had no idea who the woman was who’d tried to blackmail him, there was one person who would.
I stopped so abruptly that my hand slipped from Knox’s firm grasp.
“What’s wrong?”
“We have to know who this woman was. Even if it’s not her, we have to know.” The time for burying my head in the sand was over. I’d made the mistake thinking that in Montana I was unreachable. Maybe this had nothing to do with the blackmail but I wasn’t going to take that chance.
“You’re going to call Oliver,” Knox guessed.
I nodded and dug out my phone, finding the number I’d hidden under a fake name.
“Yes,” he answered, his voice as cold as the winter air.
“Who knows about us?”
“No one.”
“Someone,” I corrected. “Because someone is trying to blackmail my family for money to keep my son’s paternity a secret. Who?”
“Shit,” he hissed.
“Who is it, Oliver?”
“I don’t know.”
My fury spiked. “Don’t you dare lie to me. This involves my son. I promised you I’d be quiet, I walked away, but you will tell me. Or my next phone call will be to your wife.”
“Do that and I will take your child.”
“You will never touch my son. I will use every dollar of my millions to ruin your life.” Whatever it took to keep Drake safe. If that meant doing my father’s bidding, so be it. “Who?”
The other end of the line went silent. So quiet I wasn’t sure if he was still there. But then he breathed and I knew he’d chosen self-preservation over his secrets. “No one knew about us.”
“Then why did the FBI stop by my house before I left the city? Someone has to know, Oliver. Who?”
There was a rustling noise in the background, then the closing of a door. “When did the FBI approach you? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“We weren’t exactly on speaking terms. And I told them nothing.”
“What, exactly, did the FBI agent say?” There was an edge to his voice. Fear. Good. I was fucking terrified. He could be scared too.
“Nothing. The agent asked if I knew you. I told her I didn’t.” A half-truth. By that point, Oliver had been dead to me. “I didn’t realize you were being investigated.”
“I’m not.”
Liar. “If the FBI knows, then someone else does.”
“Maybe a friend of yours. Someone who’d know you had money and thought they could con you out of some.”
“No. I told you before I left, I didn’t tell anyone we were together.” Because he’d asked me not to. And I was a goddamn idiot.
“It certainly wasn’t me,” he said.
My free hand balled into a fist. “Other than your wife, who would care that I had your child?”
“It is not my wife.”
“Then who? Please?” I hated begging this man, but for Drake, I’d drop to my knees if that meant getting him home safe.
“It might be this woman I was seeing. We weren’t together long. Six months. My time with her began shortly after my time with you. She was . . . demanding.”
“You mean she knew you were married.”
“Yes,” he muttered.
“How would this woman know about me?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “Unless she had me followed. I wouldn’t put it past her.”
He’d come to my townhouse twice after our breakup. Once, the night he’d asked me to forget his name. The night he’d offered me money. The night I’d told him about the baby. Then, just days later, he’d come to sign his parental rights away.
If she’d been following him, maybe she’d kept following me too. Out of jealousy? Spite? Curiosity? When I’d had Drake, she must have guessed that Oliver was the father.
“A name. Give me her name.”
“Averie Flannagan.”
“Averie Flannagan,” I repeated and Knox immediately took out his own phone, moving two steps away to call Winn.
“Goodbye, Oliver.”
“Memphis.” He stopped me before I could end the call. “This changes nothing.”
“Nothing,” I agreed and the line went dead.
Don’t give up.
We’d find Drake. We had to find Drake.
“Winn’s going to run her name,” Knox said. “See what she can find.”
“If she came to Montana, I doubt she would have stayed in Quincy. Maybe we should call some other hotels in the area.”
“There aren’t many. The closest is fifty miles away.” He held up a finger and scrolled through his phone. Then he dialed a number and pressed it to his ear. “Yeah, hi. My name is Knox Eden. I’m the owner of The Eloise Inn in Quincy. I had a guest who bailed on a room charge this week. I’ve been calling around because I guess she’s done it to a few hotels in the area. Any chance you’ve got an Averie Flannagan staying at your place?”
There was a pause, then Knox clasped my hand and began marching down the sidewalk, retreating the way we’d come.
“No problem. Do me a favor, I’m going to call the local sheriff. Don’t let her know I called. Appreciate it.” He shoved his phone in his pocket and began to run.
Any other day and I’d have a hard time keeping pace, but adrenaline and fear had me matching his pace, stride for stride, as we sprinted for the daycare center.
We ran right for my car, Knox hollering to Winn as he opened the door. “There’s an Averie Flannagan staying at the Mountain Motel on the way to Missoula.”
Winn snapped her fingers at an officer and took off for her own SUV. “Follow us. Stay close.”
Knox whipped us out of the parking lot and when one of the cruisers tore away, with Winn right behind, he drove with white knuckles toward the highway.
The miles passed in a blur, but no matter how fast we drove, it wasn’t fast enough. My knees bounced. My stomach churned.
“This is my fault. I should have called Oliver sooner. At Thanksgiving.”
“No,” Knox said. “This woman is crazy. If she really took Drake, she’s crazy. You couldn’t have stopped this.”