Too late for that. This was the eye of the storm, a parent’s worst fucking nightmare. Travis’s chest was heaving, his panic a living, breathing thing. Kate was missing.
Knowing it would do no good to lose his shit, he tried to focus on what they did know while forming a plan to get his daughter back.
According to the details they’d received from the frantic teachers at Kate’s school, all the kids had been accounted for after their brief lunch break during the field trip to Austin’s capitol building. It was a trip the kindergarten class at Coyote Ridge Elementary took every single year without incident. And, according to the teachers, another head count had been done before they’d left the capitol grounds, but somewhere there was a mix-up. It wasn’t until they returned to the school that they realized they were down one child.
A mix-up, they said. Like they grabbed the red marker instead of the blue one.
For. Fuck’s. Sake.
And his daughter was the one to go missing.
Not that he wished this on anyone. He didn’t. God knew he would move heaven and earth to help anyone locate their child, but for this nightmare to make it to their doorstep…
He took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, stared out at the trees lining the property.
Travis knew better than to think Kate had simply wandered off. His daughter knew the dangers of the world because they’d had those discussions. Stranger danger was a topic they covered frequently and their five-year-old knew it well. She was a curious child, but she was also smart. No, Kate didn’t simply wander off.
A tortured wail sounded behind him, drawing him to his full height.
He marched inside the house, making a beeline for his wife. Gage was holding Kylie against him while she sobbed uncontrollably. When Travis met Gage’s eyes, he could see the terror there, knew his husband was doing his best to hold himself together.
Placing a hand on Kylie’s back, Travis simply wanted her to know he was there. She immediately pulled away from Gage and spun around, slamming into Travis’s chest. He wrapped a hand around her head, held her steadily while he fought to breathe through the panic that had threatened to suffocate him from the moment he’d gotten the call. He’d been at the resort with Gage when the school had contacted him. Within minutes, he and Gage had been in his truck heading to the school. Not long after that, the sheriff, who had come to meet them, decided it would be in everyone’s best interest if they took it back to the house. Probably had something to do with the fact that Travis threatened to obliterate the principal for allowing this shit to happen.
A hothead, they called him.
Yeah. So?
“What’s bein’ done to find her?” Gage demanded, his words directed at the sheriff.
Jeff Endsley wasn’t only the sheriff of Coyote Ridge. He was also family, related because Jeff’s daughter Kennedy had married Travis’s brother Sawyer. On top of that, Jeff was the husband to the Walker family’s longtime friend Mack Schwartz. No, Jeff wasn’t only here in an official capacity, but Travis knew as well as anyone that they needed him to be. Right now, emotion didn’t need to be a factor in locating Kate.
“We’ve issued an Amber Alert,” Jeff noted, his tone calm and cool, a professional to his core. “I’ve sent her picture out to every law enforcement agency in the vicinity. I’ve also contacted Austin PD and the Department of Public Safety since it appears she was taken while at the capitol building, requested they do a room-by-room search. It’s being set up.”
A knock sounded on the front door. Travis kept his hands on Kylie, keeping her shielded against his chest as he glanced over to see his father walking into the house. Although he knew Curtis had no answers for him, Travis couldn’t deny that seeing his father was a relief. He’d grown up worshipping the man, still did. And he knew there was nothing Curtis Walker wouldn’t do for his family.
“Where’s Mom?” he asked.
“She’s with Kennedy and Beau. They’re picking up all the kids, taking them back to her place. Zoey’s on her way over there, too.”
Travis nodded, grateful his mother had thought to do so.
“You have to find her,” Gage demanded, his voice trembling as he spoke to Jeff. “You’ve got to find our baby.”
Travis’s stomach clenched at the pain he heard. As was always the case, Travis wanted to fix this. For Kylie, for Gage. But most of all, for Kate. He wanted to march out that fucking door, find his daughter, and bring her home safely. He wanted to ease everyone’s pain because there was so much of it, and in an effort to maintain his sanity, Travis wasn’t even considering how terrified Kate must be. They had no idea where she was, who had her, or why.
