The moment I turned my keys in the ignition and laid eyes on Mrs. Sanches standing outside the preschool with only two children, neither of which being my own, I knew something was wrong.

I'd been picking up Danielle at this time everyday for the last two months. She'd always been standing at the beautiful Columbian teacher's left, patiently awaiting my arrival.

My heart jumped into my throat as I yanked the keys out and all but threw myself on to the pavement. I didn't bother to shut my door behind me as I sprinted across the lot and too my daughter's teacher.

"Where's Danielle?" I asked, "Is she in the restroom?"

My suspicions were confirmed when fear and uncertainty entered her eyes and she breathed, hardly audible, "Her father picked her up thirty minutes ago."

"Danielle's father is in prison." I said through a gasp, falling back a step as the entire building started to blur and shift. I grasped the flagpole to my right keep knees from buckling beneath me. "I thought you were supposed to ID anyone who picks her up!"

Mrs. Sanches shook her head, eyes frantically raking my face. "I did, Ms. Mason. He shared Danielle's last name. I was in a rush, I—"

"I don't care if you were in a rush!" I snapped, the two kids still beside her flinched hearing the yell. "You did not call me! It is protocol to call when someone that isn't on the list comes to pick up!"

"I apologize, Ms. Mason. I—"

I buried my hands in my hair, "You'll be hearing from my lawyer."

I stalked away before another word could be said, my trembling fingers finding my phone in my jacket pocket on my way back to my car. I slid back in, connecting my Bluetooth.

I knew better than to try James or Chris, as they were in the middle of their playoff game, and Ash and Linds were both working. My parents phones both went to voicemail. After kicking and slamming my closed fists against the wheel, I hit the only contact that I hadn't tried yet.

"Hello?"

I never thought I'd be so relieved to hear Scott's voice.

"Scott." I breathed, "Scott, Dylan has Danielle."

There was a loud crashing sound before his voice filled my car again. "Wait, hold on. Breathe, Harley, I can barely understand you. Did you say someone has Danielle?"

"Dylan has Danielle." I repeated, hopeful James had filled the guys in on what had went down in the bar a couple months ago. "He has my baby."

"Okay, Harley, breathe." Keys jingled against the receiver. "Have you called the police?"

I shook my head despite him not being able to see me. "Not yet. I can't breathe, Scott. What if he hurts her? What if he hurts my baby?"

"He won't." Scott sounded so confident about it I almost relaxed. "He is toying with you. This is a game for him. Send me your location, I'll swing by and pick you up and take you to the police station, you're in no state to drive right now."

*

By the time everyone had convened in Lindsey's house, it'd been close to six hours since the prick had taken Danielle without a word from the police or the culprit himself.

James leaned over the recliner, his hands pushing against it, shoulders squared and tensed, entire face flushed. Chris was pacing the room, hand over his head and down his face every few seconds. Linds sat with Ash on the couch, both watching everyone with worried expressions. It was Jess who finally broke the monotony.

"I vote we do this shit our way." she said. "We can't just stand around and wait for something to happen. We know how dangerous his brother was, look what he did to Danielle and Harley, why are we going to leave a defenseless four year old in his clutches for more than absolutely necessary."

"Jess." James warned with a pointed look.

She shrugged a shoulder. "I will spare you all the details of what was done to me because nobody was there to protect me or safe me. And the police surely didn't save me."

"Har—"

My phone cut off whatever it was that Ashley had been about to say. I didn't check the caller ID, I brought the phone to my ear, "Hello?"

"Long time no hear, hmm?"

My phone nearly slipped from my grip. "Where is Danielle?"

"She's fine. She's safe." Dylan answered in a bored tone. "How lowly you think of me, Harley. I'd never hurt my niece."

"What do you want?" I snapped. "Please just give me back my daughter."

He laughed, "Okay, alright. Meet me at that fancy little park a few blocks from her school. Alone."

The demand sent a cold chill down my spine. God only knew what sick, warped thoughts were running through his head.

"Okay." I agreed.

"I'll see you in twenty minutes, beautiful."

Before I could ask to talk to her, the line went dead.

"You need to go to the police and—" Lindsey started, but I shook my head.

"No, I. . . I can't risk him hurting her if he sees the lights or hears the sirens."

James lifted his head and snapped, "You think we're actually going to let you go to that park alone?"

"You have to."

"I absolutely will not let you walk out of this house and go meet with him alone." James said through his teeth. There was a dangerous glint in his eyes I'd never seen before. "I saw how he looked at you. The bastard kidnapped Danielle."

Scott lifted his hand up slowly and said, "I'm going to have to agree with James on this one, Harley. It's not safe."

"Scott stays with the girls." James didn't even look as he ordered everyone around. "Chris and I are going to tail Harley to the park and watch from the lot."

There was no argument, but Ash made sure to shout, "Get our girl back, Har!" after us.

The trip to the park was the longest, most nerve wracking drive I'd ever taken. As soon as I put the car in park, I hopped out and threw a quick look over my shoulder until my eyes found Chris' Black BMW a few spaces down. I straightened, then moved quickly toward the playground.

Danielle sat on the stairs of the toddler playground, her little head whipping up the minute she heard my keys. "Mommy!"

I fell to the ground as she rushed down and threw herself into my arms. I clutched her to my chest, then pulled away long enough to check her for any marks, before I scooped her off the ground and cradled her to me as I had a year and a half ago when I'd forced myself out the front door after her father had nearly beat me to death.

"Are you okay?" I asked her, kissing her temple. "Does anything hurt, baby girl?"

"No, Mommy." she nuzzled her face against my neck, the warmth of her tears soaking my bare skin. "I wanna go home."

I kissed her again, but when I turned to leave, I found Dylan a few feet away, grinning. "I told you she was fine, babe."

"Danni." I whispered in her ear, she sniffled in response. "James is in the parking lot in a black car, I need you to run as fast as you can to that car, do you understand me? Do not look back at Mommy, do not cry or scream. You run."

She nodded against me, and I kissed her before crouching and releasing her. Dylan tried to catch her arm but she dodged him and was one with the dark night within seconds. I breathed out a breath of relief.

"I'll say, I'm surprised your boyfriend didn't want to play hero tonight." Dylan edged closer, I fell back a step. "I'm honestly shocked you didn't call the police either."

I wasn't sure what it was that I'd thought Dylan may do to me, but I surely hadn't expected him to corner me against the slide of the playground and backhand me so hard my head slammed against the hard plastic. I cried out, throwing one hand against my throbbing nose and the other against the back of my head.

"My brother has to spend the next five years in prison because of you, you stupid bitch. He will forever have a mark on his name because of your pathetic little victim story."

I was trying so hard to stop the blood flooding out of my nose at an alarming rate that I didn't even bother to respond to the ridiculous statement.

"He gave you a life when you were nothing but a nice piece of ass and you repay him for all he did by putting him behind bars?"

I lifted my head just in time to find his hand moving for my throat, but it never made contact. In fact, another hand caught his chubby wrist and bent his entire arm until a crack and Dylan's cry in agony echoed through the park.

"You are going to listen to me." James wrapped his own hand around Dylan's throat and stepped so close they were breathing the same air. "You are lucky that the police are on their way, because given one more second with you, I'd break your neck. I don't know what they will do with you. But you and your sick fucking brother will never come anywhere near either of my girls or I will not spare you even a millisecond of hesitation before you meet your maker. Are we clear?"

Dylan nodded against James' hand, his face bright red as he struggled to breathe. As sirens neared, James dropped his hand from his throat, but brought his other back and punched him three times, mutilating the lower half of his face. Dylan sunk to the ground, and being that James wasn't done, he lowered himself down to eye level and growled, "Do not ever touch my girl again. Do not ever think of her again."

Dylan nodded, coughed up blood, then looked over James' shoulder with hope bright in his eyes as the lot filled with police cars.

James rubbed his knuckles as he stood, then crossed the small space to me and pulled me away as the officers rushed Dylan, kissed my forehead, and whispered, "We need to leave before I reconsider and get myself thrown in prison for manslaughter."