“What do you want from me?”

“Right now, I just want you to bathe and then I want you to sleep.”

“I can sleep at home.”

“Why? What’s waiting for you there but an empty apartment?”

“It’s not empty.” The temperature in the room seemed to drop a hundred degrees when he froze from picking up my clothes. “My daughter is everywhere in that apartment,” I clarified. “It’s where she took her first steps and learned to talk. Every smell and surface belonged to her. We have so many memories there, and I just want to be there with her.”

I was begging, and I didn’t even care. For her, I’d beg. For her, I’d give up anything. But it wasn’t the Keenan who came back to me that I was pleading to—I pleaded to the Keenan who was still running away. I knew he could hear me. The evidence was in the emotion hidden behind the anger. It was right there in his eyes for the world to see. You just had to know what to look for.

His gaze was locked with mine for the longest time, and for a minute, I thought I’d gotten through. He made a quick turn on his heel and tossed over his shoulder, “You have ten minutes to be done.”

* * * * *

Keenan had taken off but not before cuffing my hands together and locking me in his bedroom, only saying that he would be back before retreating. It was more of a warning than the reassurance it should have been.

I wondered when he’d changed the locks on the door because he had never been able to lock the door with a key in the past.

He planned this.

I drifted off to sleep before I could figure out why he would go to the trouble of keeping me against my will.

I awoke sometime later to the feeling of his long fingers circling my wrist. He unlocked one cuff and then the other before silently turning away. I ignored the dull ache in my wrists as I sat up and fought away the remains of sleep.

“Anything?”

His face remained impassive as he spoke. “We went back to the house in Camden, but there was no one there. I don’t think anyone has lived there for years.”

“How did you get in?” Instead of answering, he sent me a look that said I needed to use my head.

“You broke in.”

“Yes.”

I silently sat back and tried not to let the slump in my shoulders be visible. Our leads were dropping like dead flies, and each day, it seemed less possible that I would ever see Kennedy’s face again or hear her voice.

“Are you ready to tell me who you’ve been seeing?”

“You are unbelievable. How could my dating life possibly help us find her?”

“Use your fucking head, Shelly. It could have been anyone. We need to explore every option.”

“Isn’t that what the FBI is for?”

“We haven’t heard anything from them in days. They know less than we do. How long before this case goes cold for them?”

I didn’t want to think about that. “There is no one. I told you that.”

His eyes narrowed as his jaw hardened. “If I find out you are lying to me, I will make you pay, and you will never see her again.”

“You can’t keep my daughter from me.”

His hand flashed out to grip my ponytail, pulling my head back until my neck felt as if it would snap. “I can if you’re dead so think hard about who you really need to protect.”

With that, he released my hair and stormed from the room.

There was no reason to put Eric in that kind of danger. The consequences of revealing his name were far too deadly. Eric had never even met Kennedy. I never talked about her to him. I’d always been careful. A part of me never wanted her to mistake anyone as her father and the biggest part was the maternal instinct to protect her. What kind of mother would I be if I brought someone in her life at such a tender age? I wasn’t in love with Eric, and deep down, I knew I never would be.

I had no reason to feel guilty.

I wanted to find her more than I wanted to breathe, but finding her shouldn’t mean the innocent life of another, should it?

I cried myself to sleep thinking about everything I had lost and everything I would still have to sacrifice.

Sometime during the night, my restless sleep turned into an erotic dream. It started with my lips followed by a light touch on my neck. My breasts were begging for attention by the time every inch of my neck was blessed with sensual kisses.

“I want you to open your legs.” Dream me obeyed happily. My legs spread under the command. “Now open your eyes.” The familiar voice floated into my dream, corrupting the bliss and turning it into something real.