Page 93 of Knotted their Beauty

“Who are you looking for?” a mom asks me. “What is she wearing?”

I always memorize what Cali walks out the door with and begin to rattle it off. “Blue shorts, pink shirt with bows, and purple shoes. She was playing and I lost sight of her.”

“Hey! Kids. Help me out, okay?” The mom is so much better at organizing the kids and she has them start looking.

I pull out my phone as I continue walking through the park, thinking she’s going to jump out from behind a tree or something. I call Ves, feeling as if I’m going to pass out. I need to catch my breath and speak normally.

I need him to understand me.

“Ves,” I rasp as he answers the phone. “I can’t find Cali. She was playing and now a lady is organizing a gang of kids to help me find her. Can you come? Now?”

There’s silence for a full beat before I hear the door slam open and footsteps running.

“We’re on the way, honey. Help the kids. Keep looking. We’ll find her. I swear it,” he promises.

I drop to my knees as he says the words I need to hear, feeling lightheaded. I was expecting him to yell at me for some reason. It’s what I’d deserve. How did I lose her?!

Sucking in a breath, I stand up again, ignoring my bruised knees. The rubber mulch still hurts when you fall on it, and my shorts can’t do much to protect me. Mindlessly, I keep walking around, looking for Cali until Ves wraps me in a hug.

“I’m calling the police. She’s not here, Arlo. Someone took her.”

He holds me tighter as my eyes roll back in agony, and I pass out.

Chapter

Thirty-One

VES

Racing through the station, I head straight for my office. “I need you to brief the department. I want everyone to have all of Calista’s stats, I want them to have Tiffany’s description, photo, and a copy of her record. I want them to know every fucking detail and be on the lookout for that stupid bitch.”

“Got it,” Walker says as he speed-walks beside me. “Flyers are being printed now, state troopers are organizing volunteers for a search and rescue. We have the state and national news stations, as well as a few podcasters and social media influencers repeating the amber alert with both photos. It’s been blasting cellphone service providers, and we’re playing it on the radio along with a few streaming services who agreed to run it instead of their ads.”

“The flyers will have the make and model of the car?” The car that stopped next to Baron when he was on the side of the road, the one driven by the woman both he and Arlo saw who matches my ex’s description.

“Make, model, estimated year. It’s all been added to everything and should be circulating soon if it isn't already.”

After we searched the park, Arlo tried backtracking, retracing their steps to see if he could remember anyone who might have stuck out and when he did, he made a casual comment about how there hasn’t been anyone who jumped out at him since he was at the grocery store but since that was before Cali came home, he didn’t think anything of it.

Not until Baron said he saw the same woman.

I had managed to keep my cool with my pack until that point and while I didn’t necessarily lose my shit on them—this isn’t anyone’s fault except that piece of shit I knocked up six years ago and the last thing I want is for my pack to blame themselves—I did proceed to lose my shit. I went right into FBI mode and started interrogating my alphas and omega, pumping them for info on that woman and once it was established that she resembled Tiffany, all bets were off.

I called my team, the local PD and sheriff, and I had the amber alert broadcasting before we left the park. I even attempted to get a hold of Butler to see if maybe he’d send more men or some shit but that fucker couldn’t be bothered to answer his phone. Not that I expect anything different, but still. I’ve been down this road before, I’m not fucking around. As a matter of fact, I’m seconds away from calling the goddamn president myself to see what he can do to help find my daughter. I will stop at nothing to bring her home, and no one is safe until I have her back in my arms.

“You’re sure it’s Tiffany?” Walker asks as I round my desk and immediately start trying to find her cell information. “Not that I don’t agree with you, I don’t put a damn thing past that crazy bitch, but you don’t think⁠—”

“It’s her,” I snap, then take a deep breath as I continue to type. “I did my research before we rented the airbnb. I made sure there wasn’t anyone within a seventy five mile radius on the sex offender’s registry or had any kind of related criminal record. I made sure she was going to be as safe as possible when she came back and…” I shake my head because I fucking failed my little girl, again, and I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to forgive myself for it. “She was with my pack, in the safest place I could find. There isn’t anyone else who would have done this.”

Cali hasn’t been sheltered, she hasn’t been hidden away from the world, and while I’m several levels past overly cautious when it comes to her, I’ve made sure her life is just like any other six year old’s. Despite having one horrible reason to do the exact opposite.

I’ve done everything in my power, everything humanly possible to protect her while making sure she’s healthy, happy, and well adjusted. She’s not spoiled but she wants for nothing. My little girl is compassionate and caring, she’s smart and guarded but wild and carefree at the same time. I’ve nurtured every bit of who she is, taught her to embrace it wholly, and made sure she has a comfortable, secure and normal childhood while still being able to discover herself as well as how big and beautiful the world is. And up until very recently, I’ve managed to do that on my own and successfully.

I’m not on my own anymore, and that’s something both of us have welcomed with open arms, even if it took me a little longer to get there than it did Cali. I’m so grateful for the three men in our life and how deeply they care for us. They’re in town right now, showing Cali’s face to everyone, waiting for the search and rescue to get under way so I can be here doing this without feeling like I’m not out there helping.

Knowing they’re out there doing what they can helps ease the sting of failing my daughter.

That’s the other thing that changed.