Single Dad’s Spring Break

by Rye Hart

  Even if it meant going to jail myself.

  A sack of money was dropped at my side and I turned my head. I was met with Kevin’s bold stare, his eyes darting up and down my body. I set my mug of coffee down and stood so the tech officer could wire me. They were weaving beads that contained a small tracking device into a lock of my hair. It would look like I’d simply gotten my hair beaded like a lot of tourists did on the island, and wouldn’t cause any unwanted suspicion.

  “You can still back out of this, you know,” he said. “You don’t have to do it.”

  “They won’t take you if you go,” I said. “You know that. Plus, you’ve already told them I’m coming. If you take my place, there’s no telling what they’ll do.”

  “Okay, the device is planted,” the officer said.

  “I put the money in two separate bags,” Kevin said. “One for each hand. See if you can carry them.”

  “It doesn’t matter. I’ll make it work. If I struggle with them, it will look more real,” I said.

  I looked up into his eyes one last time before the sun slowly began to rise. It was time, and I was late. I picked up the bags and the police hunkered down in the house with their gear ready to track me. Their cars were out of sight and the shades in the house were pulled. Thankfully Daniel was still asleep.

  He didn’t need to witness what was about to happen.

  I reached down for the bags and heaved them up, one on each side. Holy hell. One hundred million dollars was heavy. I took one last look at Kevin and I could see the battle raging behind his eyes. He was torn between letting me go get his daughter and demanding I not leave. But I knew I had to do this. I knew this was our only chance. We had to find a way to track Sydney, and fast.

  Which meant that bait was our only option.

  I started out the front door and closed it behind me. The bags were heavy and sweat was already dripping down my back. I walked out toward the edge of the beach where I’d seen the man before. My eyes scanned the horizon one last time, taking in the beauty and the relaxation before darkness settled over me again.

  Suddenly, tires squealed on the pavement to my left and a car door was thrown open.

  I saw a familiar face coming at me with something I couldn’t make out in his hand. I tried to dodge him, telling him I had the money and that I wanted Sydney back. I was screaming. My heart was slamming against my chest and I was clawing at the man’s face. I felt someone rip the bags from my arms as something heavy came down on my back, taking me to my knees.

  I couldn't breathe. I couldn't see through my tears.

  And then, my world was black.

  The smell of dampness was the first thing to hit my nose when I came to. I was scared to death, but the plan had worked. They had taken me somewhere, which meant the police knew where I was.

  I was shivering, cold, and wet. And my head was throbbing.

  I sat back on my ass and leaned against a wall. My vision was still focusing, but I could feel someone looming over me. Goosebumps were percolating over my body and dust was flying around my head.

  I coughed to try and right myself as I felt a small hand slip into mine.

  “Miss Brooke?”

  Tears rose to my eyes as I turned. Sydney.

  “Why are you naked?” she asked.

  I looked down and my eyes widened in horror. No wonder I was so fucking cold. I was wearing nothing but my bra and panties. I pulled Sydney into my body and cradled her close. I reached up to my throbbing head and realized with horror that the beaded lock of hair was gone, pulled from my head by the roots.

  “And you thought you were so clever.”

  “Make him go away,” Sydney said, with a whisper.

  “It’s okay. I’ve got you. I’m right here,” I said.

  “Did you really think you would get away with it?” the man asked.

  I looked up into the eyes of the man looming over us. My vision slowly began to focus, and a familiar face came into view.

  “You’ll never get away with this,” I said. “I won’t let you.”

  “And what are you going to do?” he asked. “Run naked through the streets with the kid?”

  I pulled Sydney close to my body as I tried to give a fierce look to our captor that didn’t show him just how terrified I was. I turned my gaze to Sydney, looking for any signs that she’d been mistreated.

  Thankfully, she appeared to be unhurt.

  “Don’t worry, I’m not in the business of hurting kids. But you, on the other hand. You, I wouldn’t bat an eyelash about,” he snarled.

  Sydney was whimpering and crying. Shaking against me and trying to wrap herself around me. I pulled her into my lap and curled my legs up. I cradled Sydney’s face in the crook of my neck and shushed her, telling her it was going to be okay and that I was going to find us a way out of there.

  But the man looming over us simply grinned.

  “Are you done playing with your toys?”

  I whipped my head up as a pair of footsteps moved toward us. I scooted us closer to the wall. I gripped Sydney as hard as I could and tried to shield her from all of them.

  The other man came into view and I recognized him immediately. Gianni Russo. The asshole behind all this. He grinned down at me and I felt a wave of murderous rage fly up my spine. I wanted to wrap my hands around his neck and wring him dry until he begged for mercy. He was the most disgusting creature I’d ever seen.

  “What do you want?” I asked.

  “Simple. We want more money,” Gianni said.

  “And how much is the billionaire’s girlfriend worth?” I asked.

  “Four hundred million more than we were asking for,” he said.

  “You want five hundred million dollars?”

  “Oh, yes. And if I can get my hands on that little boy, I’ll want a hell of a lot more.”

  “You’ll never touch Daniel,” I said. “I’ll kill you before that happens.”

  “Did you hear that?” he asked with a chuckle. “This woman thinks she can kill me.”

  “I will, don’t you worry.”

  “How about this? We make a phone call and you tell your precious billionaire boyfriend that if we get our five hundred million dollars, we’ll go away and never bother anyone again.”

  “After you threatened his son? Not a chance,” I said.

  “That’s fine. If you don’t make the call, I’m sure Sydney would love a room of her own.”

  “Don’t leave me,” Sydney said.

  “You’re not putting your hands on this girl.”

  “Then this is how it’s going to go,” the man said with a growl. “You’re going to make the fucking call or I’m going to start with your toes. My friend here will break them one by one while Sydney listens to you scream. And when you pass out from pain, we’ll put her in another room to wonder what’s happening to you.”

  Bile was rising in my throat as Sydney sobbed into the crook of my neck.

  “If you don’t want to get hurt, then you’ll comply. Simple as that,” Gianni said.

  “You’re a sick, disgusting, twisted excuse for a human,” I said. “You were Kevin’s friend for twenty years.”

  “And then he crossed me. People pay the price when they cross me,” he said.

  “Your company deserves to go under,” I said. “And I can’t wait to see them haul you away in handcuffs.”

  Gianni nodded to the man standing beside him and he reached for Sydney. I turned my body against him and cradled her toward the wall. I felt him wrap his hands in my hair and wrench me backwards, dragging me away from the crying girl. Gianni stepped in front of her as she tried to scramble towards me and I screamed out for her.

  “Sydney! No! What are you doing? Let me go!”

  “Shut up, you stupid bitch.”

  The man cracked his hand against my cheek so hard he knocked me back to the floor. I was panting, my palms pressed into the moldy carpet. It hurt to move. To breathe. To think. I dragged myself over to Sydney as Gian
ni stepped to the side, laughing at us maniacally as I wrapped my body around the terrified little girl.

  I listened as their footsteps fell back to the other side of the room. I shielded Sydney with my body, even though it hissed with pain. My vision blurred with tears as I pressed myself back into the wall, heaving the trembling girl onto my lap.

  “It’s going to be okay,” I said. “They’re coming after us, okay?”

  “I want my Daddy.”

  “I know you do. And you’ll see him soon.”

  “Please don’t leave again.”

  “I won’t,” I said.

  The door slammed shut, leaving us alone in the dark, dank, desolate basement no bigger than the half bathroom on the main level of Kevin’s home. Sydney was shaking violently, and I could feel the pain in my head trying to take me under. But I couldn't allow myself to succumb to the darkness. I couldn't allow myself to be swallowed up by it. No matter how bad things seemed and no matter how hopeless the situation was, I had to stay alert.

  I had to make sure they didn’t hurt Sydney.

  No matter what it meant for me.

  CHAPTER 25

  KEVIN

  “What the fuck just happened?” I asked. “Why the hell didn’t you intervene?” Horrified, I paced around. “You knew they were going to take her.”

  “We couldn't compromise the mission, Mr. Spencer. Brooke knew what she was getting herself into.”

  “Chase down that damn car and get her and my daughter back!”

  “Sir, we’ve got a problem.”

  “What?” I asked as I whipped around. “What problem?”

  “The tracking device. It’s not registering.”

  “Let me see that,” the Chief of Police said.

  The phrase ran around in my mind as I stumbled backwards. It wasn’t working? Why wasn’t it working? I barreled out of the house and ran across the beach as officers called after me. This wasn’t the plan. This wasn't supposed to happen. I ran out to the spot where Brooke had been standing and I looked around.

  “Brooke!” I roared. My heart was slamming against my chest as a hand came down on my shoulder.

  “Mr. Spencer, we have to get back inside.”

  “Brooke! Where the hell are you?”

  “We have to figure out our next move.”

  “Next move? I’ll tell you what your next fucking move is,” I said, as I shoved my finger in the officer’s face. “You have twenty-four hours to find my fucking family, or I’ll have your damn job. That’s your next move!”

  I shoved the officer to the ground and stormed back inside, just as Daniel was coming down the stairs.

  “Daddy? What’s going on? Is Sydney back?” he asked.

  “No, son,” I said. “Sydney isn’t back yet.”

  Our plan had failed. Now, that asshole had both of my girls and we had no idea where they were. I heard the Chief of Police talking into his radio, pulling everyone out for duty so they could patrol the island. The Coast Guard was called in to case the shoreline up to five miles in either direction. I wrapped Daniel in my arms, holding onto the last shred of sanity I had as my mind raced.

  The morning was a blur. Police officers took up residence in my home and I tried to keep Daniel away from it all. But he knew something was wrong. He knew Brooke wasn’t there. He was crying, and I was doing my best to console him and bat off questions from the police. I was trying to keep myself from bashing their fucking skulls in for somehow botching this plan. A foolproof plan Brooke had willingly come up with to try and save Sydney.

  Was she even with my daughter?

  Were they even still alive?

  “Mr. Spencer! Come quickly!”

  I jumped up, raced down the hallway and found an officer standing at the front door. He was holding something in his hands.

  “I found this on the side of the road just up from where the car was,” he said.

  When he held the object up, I grabbed it from him and fell to my knees on the porch. Brooke’s shirt.

  I gripped it tightly in my hands and brought it to my face. I sobbed profusely, drenching it in my tears as the officers tried to get me back into the house. How the hell had this vacation gone so wrong?

  They pulled me into the house and shut the door as I leaned against the wall. I couldn’t breathe in her scent enough. I felt Daniel crawl into my lap and I cradled him close. I couldn't shield him from my sadness any longer. He wrapped his arms around my neck and pulled me to him, my four-year-old boy comforting me in my time of heartache. I could feel his tears dripping down the back of my neck as he kissed me.

  “There’s also a note,” the officer said. “They want five hundred million dollars now.”

  “Then we pay it,” I said.

  “You can’t do that. There’s no guarantee that they’ll hand those girls over now.”

  “It’s the only thing we’ve got and we’re doing it,” I said. “We tried it your way. We tried it Brooke’s way. Look where it got us!”

  I held up the shirt I was fisting as I pulled Daniel into my chest.

  “Look where we are now! Your plan failed. Her plan failed. And now they’re both gone. We tried it your way, now we’re going to try mine.”

  “We still don’t recommend that, Mr. Spencer,” one officer said.

  “I don’t give a good fuck what you recommend,” I snapped. “This is my decision.”

  The air hung thick and tense in the room. “I’m calling my own damn security team and they’re coming to close this case up. I’m finding those girls alive, even if it means I have to pay out five hundred million dollars. Hell, I’ll liquidate everything if it gets them back. And none of you can stop me from doing it.”

  “You’re angry, and rightfully so,” the Chief spoke up. “We all are. We’ll regroup in the morning and we can go from there.”

  “You can regroup with my fucking security team.”

  “We’ll see you in the morning, Mr. Spencer.”

  The officers packed up their things and left. Regroup. As in they were going to go home and take a fucking break while Sydney and Brooke were missing. I threw Brooke’s shirt against the wall and held my son close, rocking us side to side in the hallway.

  “Is Brooke coming back?” Daniel asked.

  My heart shattered into a million pieces and fell to the floor.

  It was sweet, how attached he had gotten to her. But there was no way we could be together. Not after something like this. She would never stay, and that was assuming she got out of this alive. I couldn’t ask her to stick around after this nightmare was resolved.

  My phone rang and I moved so I could pick it up.

  “Hello?” I asked, breathlessly.

  “What the hell is going on, Kevin?”

  “Sarah?” I asked.

  “I’ve got police on my fucking porch asking me if I’ve seen a little girl that looks exactly like my daughter! Why didn’t you tell me she was missing?”

  I furrowed my brow as I got to my feet.

  “Why would I?” I asked.

  “What do you mean, why? Because I’m their damn mother!”

  “No, you’re their egg donor, Sarah. You left without a trace, remember?” I asked. “They are strangers to you, and you to them. I don’t owe you shit!”

  “Don’t you dare split hairs with me. My daughter’s missing in your custody and you didn’t even bother telling me.”

  “How did you get this number?” I asked.

  “The officer gave it to me when I asked!”

  “I’ll have to have a talk with that officer for giving out my personal info like that. What was his name?”

  “The hell does that matter? You lost our child!”

  “I’m not going to even break down how idiotic that sentence is coming from you. You never gave a shit about these kids, why start now?”

  “She’s still my daughter, Kevin,” Sarah said, surprising me with the fear that trembled through her voice.

  For some reason, it jus
t made me angrier.

  “No, Sarah, she’s my daughter. I’ve raised her, I’ve comforted her, I’ve put her to bed every goddamn night since you left. Now let me go find her.”

  I hung up the phone and promptly picked up my son. I held him closer than I ever had before. The guilt was too much, but the anger was even worse. Who the fuck did that woman think she was? She left us. Abandoned us. She had no right to be upset with me.

  I bounced Daniel in my arms as I looked out over the beach. I hated the sight of it now. I couldn't stomach it. When this was all over, I was selling this property for whatever bargain-basement price unloaded it from my docket of real estate. I’d find us a cabin in the mountains. Somewhere else in this whole wide world.

  Either way, I was never coming back here.

  “I want Brooke back,” Daniel said.

  “I know,” I said, as I kissed the side of his head. “I know you do. So do I, kiddo. So do I.”

  CHAPTER 26

  BROOKE

  My head was pounding, and my cheek was sore. It felt like my entire body was falling to pieces. I felt Sydney shivering next to me and I wrapped her in my arms, thankful she was still at my side. I pulled her sleeping form into my lap and cradled her next to me, feeling her cheek burrow into my chest. I ran my fingers through her hair, trying to untangle the beautiful tresses that were dirty and matted with sweat.

  I had no idea how long I’d been asleep. I didn’t know how long I’d been in this basement. Dungeon more like it. I wasn't sure when Sydney had eaten last, or if the food they would give us was safe to eat. All I knew was that the plan had failed. They had taken the money and found the damn tracking device.

  I tried my level best not to panic. I had to believe that Kevin and the police would find us before Gianni could do something awful. I knew Kevin would pay whatever amount Gianni demanded, but that didn’t guarantee our safety. We needed to be found.

  Rocking from side to side, I tried to keep Sydney asleep as long as possible. I kissed the top of her head and prayed she would sleep as long as she could. The longer she was asleep, the less of this she would have to experience. There was nothing in the small room we were in. Just four walls, a door on the opposite end of the room, scratchy carpet underneath our legs, and walls that felt as if they would cave at the slightest pressure. Insulation was peeking through the faded pink wooden slats and there were no windows.