After Us (Next Generation #6) - J.M. Walker Page 0,90
a gash on her head.
“Fuck,” I bit out. I leaned over her, checking her pulse. When I felt the beating of her heart beneath my finger, I kissed her cheek. “I’m so sorry, baby. I’m so fucking sorry.”
Satisfied that she was okay, I turned around to check on Brynlee. They say that when you’re on the verge of death, you see a white light and your life plays out before you, but they never tell you what happens when your daughter disappears.
So many different emotions traveled through me, they were damn near suffocating.
How could I tell Piper that her daughter was missing?
Bile rose to my throat at the thought we would never see her again. Anger tore through my soul that Price had taken it this far.
The car seat was empty with the belt unbuckled, and the back door was open. The SUV who forced us off the road, was nowhere to be found and neither was our daughter.
Opening the driver’s side door, I left the vehicle and searched around it for Brynn, but I couldn’t find her. I kept thinking over the past few weeks. Did I make the right choice in being with Piper? If I would have stayed away, maybe Price would have left them alone. The things he wanted to do to Brynlee as she got older, forced the air from my very lungs. This was going to kill Piper. She would never forgive me.
“Jaron,” I heard Piper call out from the car.
Fuck, what was I going to tell her?
“Jaron, where’s Brynn?” she cried. “Where is she? God, my baby. Where is she, Jaron? Tell me!”
I rushed to her before she left the car. As I ran around to the passenger side door, she left the vehicle and fell to her knees.
A scent hit me. It smelled like…
“Gas.” Shit. I grabbed Piper and all but dragged her to the road away from the car just as it went up in flames.
“Brynlee!” she screamed, trying to push away from me and run toward the car. Her cries of anguish ripped through my very soul.
“She wasn’t in there, baby.” I wrapped myself around her. “I promise she wasn’t.”
“Where is she?” Piper sobbed, gripping my hoodie tight.
“Whoever was in the SUV must have…they…” My throat closed, my tongue thick.
“No!” She shoved away from me and took a step back toward the car.
“Stop.” I grabbed her hand, pulling her back against me. Just when I was about to ask her if she had her cell phone, a vehicle started coming down the road toward us. My heart jumped to my throat.
“Is that them?” Piper asked between sniffles and soft cries.
“I don’t know who that is.” I stepped in front of her, shielding her from whoever was driving down the road.
“Jaron, I need my baby back.”
“I know. I’ll get her.” If it was the last thing I did, I would find Brynlee. I would find our daughter and make the bastards pay for taking her in the first place. If Price thought me killing his son was bad, just wait until I got ahold of him for taking my baby girl.
***
(Piper)
I was stuck in my head as the vehicle rolled up toward us. I didn’t know who it was or if it was the same vehicle as before. The one who ran us off the road and took our daughter.
My baby.
The pain etching through me was nothing I had ever felt before. It was like these bastards had taken a piece of my soul. No. They took my whole entire being. If we didn’t get her back, there was no point. I couldn’t move on or get over it. Jaron and I were talking, we didn’t fight as much anymore, we loved each other, and now this. This would destroy the progress we’d made.
“Who are they?” I heard myself ask.
“I don’t know.” Jaron kept his hand in mine.
The SUV came to a stop a few feet away. Three men filed out of the vehicle. Two were large and reminded me of the bikers I had spent some time hanging around while Jaron was gone. The third man was smaller. Much smaller in fact. He was still tall but had more of a swimmer’s build. He reminded me of Spencer Reid from Criminal Minds. His hair was longer, the ends hitting just above his ears.
“Who are you?” Jaron asked when the Spencer Reid lookalike came toward us followed by one of the bigger guys.