Chapter 6

Chapter

Six

February 15th

5:22 P.M.

"Why do I keep landing on the chutes?" Elle asked with what could only be described as a frustrated huff.

Damn, she was adorable when she huffed like that.

Panther almost couldn't take his eyes off her.

It had been like that all day. The more time they spent together, the deeper his attachment to her grew.

She was so vulnerable yet so strong.

Even though her entire world had been ripped out from under her, she was still going, still fighting for her daughter, still loving and caring for others. The way she was with his son was everything he had always wished for in a mother for Andy. Everything he had been too scared didn"t exist.

Now that he was staring in the face a future that he could actually have—provided he could find this woman's daughter and bring her home—he realized why he'd avoided relationships these last seven years. When Marcia had left, skipped out on her life leaving him quite literally holding the baby, it had hurt.

Hurt him. Because Andy didn"t remember his mother.

But if Panther let someone else into their lives. Allowed his son to become attached, and she wound up leaving them, it would be his son who got hurt.

His child's pain was the one thing he couldn't bear.

Elle would never walk away. It might have been only forty-eight hours since he met her, but he already knew that with absolute certainty.

"You landed on one ladder," Andy said with an encouraging smile. Panther wasn't the only one smitten with their guest, Andy already adored Elle. Earlier after he'd comforted Elle in the kitchen, he'd gone back to play Ninjago with Andy. Aware of the clock ticking on Ruthie's life, after thirty minutes or so he'd told his son he had to go back to work. While he'd been expecting disappointment from Andy, the usual reaction when he had to stop playtime for worktime, Andy merely nodded and bounced off to Elle asking her to race him in Mario Kart.

"Yeah, about fifty rolls of the dice ago." Panther snorted in amusement.

Turning narrowed eyes on him, Elle planted her hands on her hips. "It was only ten rolls ago, but that's the only ladder I got, I keep getting those chutes."

"I think someone is a bad loser," he teased. While he definitely enjoyed winning, neither he nor his son were ultra-competitive. Maybe it was because so much of his life revolved around working as part of a team where every person played an important role that he never worried himself with winning and losing.

"I am not." She huffed again, making him laugh. "Chutes and Ladders is a terrible game anyway. It's all chance, no skill."

This time both he and Andy laughed at her irritated frown.

"Does Ruthie like Chutes and Ladders?" Andy asked. His son had been peppering Elle with questions about the little girl all day. At first, Panther had hurried to shush his son, not wanting to upset Elle by making her talk about her daughter, but she had assured him it was okay, that she thought of Ruthie every second of every day and that it helped a little to talk about her.

"She does, but her favorite game is Jenga. She's really good at it, too. She has these nimble, little fingers that seem to slide blocks out without causing a single ripple even with the most precarious of towers." Elle laughed, the sound simultaneously both warm and sad. "She always giggles when we play, she's happy whether she wins or loses. I guess I'm the only bad loser in the bunch." She gave another laugh, this one self-deprecating.

"Dad, I"m hungry," Andy said as he rolled the dice for his turn and landed on another ladder, moving up two spaces away from the end.

"Oh, look at the time," Elle exclaimed, glancing at the clock hanging on the wall. "I"m sorry, I didn"t realize it was dinner time. I"ve taken up your whole day." She stood so quickly her chair wobbled. "I didn"t mean to stay all day. I'll get out of your hair. Let you two hang out together for a while. You have my number. You'll call if you find anything, right? Even if it's small I want to know. I don't care about getting my hopes up if it turns out to be nothing. If you find something I want to know. I need to know."

The woman who had spent the day playing with his son evaporated, and he could sense Elle's growing panic. The last thing she wanted was to go home alone where all she would do was obsess over Ruthie. Despite them knowing one another only a couple of days, she was drawing strength from him and his son, security, and comfort, and Panther found he liked knowing that.

All these years of being adamant he and his son didn"t need anyone else, and then one woman whose love for her child equaled his own had changed everything he thought he knew.

It would be so easy to slip into a life with this woman.

Scarily easy.

And what was even scarier was that he wanted it.

Wanted to take this woman out on dates and learn everything about her. Wanted to get to know her daughter and be the father figure the little girl's father wouldn't be. Wanted the four of them to hang out and do family stuff together.

Crazy, but Elle and Ruthie had kicked his protective instincts into overdrive, and he couldn't stomach the idea of her going home alone where no one would be watching out for her.

"Stay, please." He'd said those words to her before and they were easier to say this time. He was worried about her being alone, and he wanted to be the one to take care of her, make sure she was eating, and be there if she had more nightmares.

There was a brief hesitation as her gaze flew to meet his. "Are you sure? I don't want to intrude. I know how precious time is with them."

"You"re not intruding." Absolutely the truth.

"Then I would love to have dinner with you two handsome men," she said with a shy smile.

That smile gave him an idea, and he snapped his laptop closed and stood. "You two go play for a bit, I'm cooking dinner." Something special, and he was going to get out the good china. It was something Marcia had insisted on buying even though, at the time, they'd been struggling just to pay the bills let alone buy an expensive dinner set. After she'd left, he'd kept it, and for some reason, it had gotten packed up along with everything else and brought there. He hadn"t used it, not even once, but tonight he wanted to do something nice for Elle. Not that he could take her mind completely off her kidnapped daughter, but he could do something that would distract her at least a little.

"I can help cook," Elle offered immediately.

"Nope. I got it handled. You two go relax, I'll call you when dinner's ready." He shooed them both out of their chairs and began to pack away the board game.

"We can watch the Mario Bros movie," Andy said as the two disappeared into the living room. "I"ve seen it almost twenty times already," his son boasted.

"Twenty times?" Elle sounded shocked. "Then you don't need to see it again. How about we read? Ruthie and I love to curl up and read to one another in the evenings, especially on winter nights like this when it's cold and snowy outdoors. If you want I could read to you, or you could read to me, or we could take turns."

"Let's take turns," Andy exclaimed in delight, making Panther smile. His son loved being read to, but with such a busy schedule he rarely had the time. Mrs. Pfeffer would read to him sometimes, and he always raved about the voices she put on for him.

That smile remained on his face as he got the oven on and began preparing vegetables. He'd do roast potatoes, carrots, and pumpkin. There were some chicken breasts in the fridge, he could season them and throw those in the oven, too. Then he'd set the table, pick some flowers from the yard, and go and put something nice on. Panther was sure there had to be some candles around here somewhere, too.

How long had it been since he had this energy buzzing through him?

Between his job and being a single dad, there was barely a spare second to think about the future, but even when he did, he hadn"t been willing to risk his son's happiness on a woman who could so very easily break Andy's tender little heart. His heart, too.

It wasn't like he was ready to offer Elle forever, even if she didn"t have too much going on to think more than a couple of seconds into the future, but he wanted to see if there could be something amazing between them.

For the first time since his wife announced she wanted a divorce and no part in raising their son, Panther felt hopeful about the future.

A future that could far too easily slip through his fingers.

Because it all rested on one thing.

His ability to find Ruthie and bring her home. If he couldn't, he was afraid the brave, strong, vibrant woman who could fill the hole in his and Andy's lives would fall apart and become but a shell of who she was.

February 16th

3:02 A.M.

Yesterday, the couch had been comfortable enough that Elle had slipped right off to sleep without even realizing it.

Tonight—this morning really—it felt like the most uncomfortable surface on the planet.

What had changed?

Maybe it was knowing she was a coward.

While Rafe tucked his son into bed last night, she had pretended to fall asleep on the couch. Why, she wasn't altogether sure.

A myriad of reasons probably. Partly, she was afraid that if he saw her awake, he'd tell her she'd finally outstayed her welcome and it was time for her to go home to her own house, and that he'd call when he had news.

There was no way to adequately explain it but here was where Elle felt the safest. She didn"t want to leave. It was stupid because she was only there because Rafe was looking for Ruthie and he felt sorry for her, and sympathized with her as a fellow single parent. And while she didn"t want his pity, she couldn't deny that even if it looked like pity to her eyes, it felt different to her heart.

That dinner … Rafe had gone all out. No other way to describe it. If his son hadn"t been sitting at the table along with them, and she wasn't wearing jeans and a sweater, it would have felt like a date.

Only it wasn't a date.

The more time she spent with Rafe and Andy, the more the lines felt like they were getting blurred. She wasn't there to meet a prospective boyfriend, she was there for help finding her kidnapped child. Yet, she couldn't deny that if she was going to start looking for a partner, Rafe pretty much ticked every box she could have. Most importantly, he was also a father so he understood that her priority was her child and not herself and her own needs, wants, and desires.

If she was honest with herself, Elle knew why she couldn't sleep, and while some of it was the same as always—fear for her daughter—some of it was that tonight she wasn't wrapped up in Rafe's comforting scent. After putting her own clothes back on after they finished in the drier yesterday morning, she realized she missed being wrapped in Rafe's clothes. Missed his big bed and its woodsy male scent. Part of her pretending to be asleep was hoping he might pick her up and take her up to his bed again, where she could find some molecule of security that had been missing from her life since this whole mess started.

He hadn"t taken her up to his bed, though. When he'd come into the room and seen her "sleeping", he'd switched off the lights and the TV, gathered his laptop up, and disappeared. She assumed into his office since it was too early for bed.

Leaving her alone.

Always alone.

If she didn"t have Ruthie she didn"t have anyone.

No siblings, her parents hadn"t wanted her, her husband left, and now her daughter was gone. If Rafe couldn't find Ruthie, then honestly, Elle couldn't find another reason to keep going. As much as she adored writing, it was her passion, the language of her soul, above all else, she wrote for herself to tell the stories that cried out to her to be told. But was writing enough to sustain her without her child?

Elle feared it wasn't.

She feared that without her daughter, she might do something she didn"t really want to do because it seemed like the only option left.

So long as she had proof Ruthie was alive, she had a reason to fight. When that reason was gone she'd have nothing. No hope and no support system. When you were an introvert with a job you could do from home, you didn"t make many friends. Most of the people she'd even call her friends were just the moms of Ruthie's friends, not anyone she'd say she was all that close to.

What would be the point of going on without her daughter?

None.

Not a single reason that Elle could come up with.

Bright light suddenly flooded the room, and she let out a shriek, scrambling up so quickly she misjudged the amount of space beside her on the couch and tumbled off it, landing hard on the floor and banging her elbow into the coffee table.

"Sorry, thought you were asleep and you'd panic less if the lights were on when I woke you up," Rafe said as he hurried toward hers.

He wasn't the only person in the room. Five big men gathered around, obviously having filed in from the kitchen. How could she not have heard them enter the cabin? She hadn"t gotten even a wink of sleep. Had she been that lost in thought? Wallowing so deep in her misery that the rest of the world had faded away?

That's how it felt living with your child snatched away from you. Bit by bit the rest of the world moved further away until it felt like you were living alone on an island with so much sea surrounding it, there was no hope of anyone ever reaching you.

When Rafe knelt in front of her and held out a hand, it felt like a lifeline, and she hurriedly reached out to grab it in case he took it away.

Pulling her to her feet, he guided her back onto the couch, frowning when he caught her rubbing at her aching elbow. "Did you hurt yourself?"

More embarrassed than in pain, she shook her head, then realized that was a silly response since it was obvious from her rubbing that she had hurt herself. "Just hit my funny bone. Sorry, the sudden light just startled me. I forgot where I was for a moment." A small lie, there was no way she could forget where she was when every inch of this place was bathed in Rafe's comforting scent. While she would have preferred one of his hoodies and his bed, the couch smelled enough like him that she hadn"t mistaken this for her house.

"Totally understandable," Rafe assured her with a squeeze of her hand. Realizing he still held her hand and had taken the seat beside her had reality slamming into her like a train.

Something was wrong.

Bad news.

Why else would these men, who had to be the rest of Bravo Team, be there?

Panic tensed every muscle in her body, throwing her immediately into flight or fight mode. Part of her wanted to run and hide because if she didn"t know the bad news, maybe it wouldn't be true. The other part of her wanted to drag every drop of information out of Rafe no matter how awful the information was.

"What happened? What's wrong?" she demanded, aware she was squeezing Rafe's hand far too tightly when his thumb began to sweep across her knuckles.

"It's not bad news, Elle," he quickly assured her. "It might be good news."

For a moment, it felt like the entire world had stopped spinning.

Did Rafe really just say what she thought he said?

Was she dreaming?

Imagining this?

"G-good n-news?" Excitement had her voice trembling. Heck, it had all of her trembling.

"Don't get your hopes up yet," Rafe cautioned. "These are the guys. Let me quickly introduce you and then I'll tell you what I found. This is Tank," he said, pointing to a huge man who dropped onto the other couch with a wave. "That's Trick. Don't get too close to him or he'll pull something out from behind your ear."

"Oh, you"re the guy who loves the magic tricks," she said. "Andy couldn't have been more excited to tell me the things you've taught him."

"See, everybody loves magic tricks," Trick said with a grin as he took the spot on the couch on her other side.

"Sure they do," another man muttered as he sat beside Tank.

"That was Scorpion," Rafe told her. "And that's Rock. Ignore his goofy look, he just got engaged. And that's Axe." When he pointed to the man who had remained by the door, and she followed his gaze, her heart broke when she felt the sadness emanating from him.

Loss.

As great as her own.

Even though she wanted to know what was wrong and if she could help, her need to know about her daughter overrode everything else. If that made her selfish then so be it. "It's nice to meet you all. I"m so very grateful for your help finding my daughter. What did you find, Rafe?"

"Rafe?" Tank straightened in his chair.

"Doesn't mean what you think it does, man," Panther said quickly before focusing on her.

Elle had no idea what that was about, and right now, she didn"t care. She was going to lose her mind if he didn"t tell her what he had found out in the next half a second.

"The cops and the FBI were so focused on your security company because he had been able to get in and out of your house without setting off your alarm no matter how many times you changed the code that they didn"t look into anything else. I did. There are other people with the skills to hack systems, and I just started with the most obvious. The guy who runs your website."

"Jimmy?" There was no way. He wouldn't do this to her.

The pressure on her knuckles increased as Rafe drew her attention back to him. "No guarantees, honey. Could be nothing. But a few things in his background threw up red flags. We're going to go and check them out."

"Now?" she squeaked.

"Unless you'd rather we wait."

Her head about broke off her neck she shook it so hard to refute Rafe's statement. "Now. Right now." She didn"t want to wait a single second longer than she had to to get her baby back, and if Rafe was right, that could be in just a couple of hours at the most.