My eyes refused to leave their bags sitting there on the floor. I blinked, hoping that they would disappear the moment I opened them. I was disappointed.

"No, no, no..." I mumbled. I gripped onto Maggie's teddy bear, so tight that my fingers started to hurt. "Damn it!"

I fought the tears back and instantly reached for my phone as I started for the door. I dialed Jasper's number and held the phone up to my ear.

"Answer," I commanded as it rang. "Answer it!"

A thud from Maggie's room stopped me dead in my tracks.

"Edward?" Jasper answered. I quietly hung up the phone and slipped it back into my pocket as I reached for my gun.

I slowly crept back towards Maggie's room, my breath steady and calm. It was the complete opposite of my heart, beating against my chest so hard that I could have sworn it was going to fucking break my bones.

I let out a deep breath and quickly stepped over the threshold into Maggie's room, my gun raised in defense. I checked one corner and then another. There was another thump, over by the window. Then the top of the window seat rose, and Maggie poked her little head out.

My arm immediately fell and I put my gun back into my holster as I rushed towards her.

"Maggie," I breathed. I picked her up and held her tight against my chest, rocking back and forth. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

"You not good at dis game, Daddy," she said.

I turned around and sat her down on her bed, looking for any scrapes or bruises. "What game?"

"Hide and seek. Bella said to play hide and seek and not come out until you came to find me. It took you a long time."

"What else did she say? What did Bella say?" I kneeled down and took her face in my hands.

"She said to be vewy quiet no matter what. And that I would get TEN cookies if I was good." She held up ten fingers.

"And then what happened?"

"I hid in da secret place. And den I heard somefing. And dey said dat dey were going to take me and Bewa away."

"Where is Bella? Do you know where they took her?"

"I don't know, Daddy. Probabwy to another good hiding spot. Did you find her yet?" She smiled.

I shook my head and tried to steady my voice. "No, baby. I didn't find her yet." I grabbed her teddy and picked her up again. We had to get out of here.

"Where are we going?" Maggie asked as I carried her through the apartment. "Goodness, Daddy. You made a mess looking for us. You're gonna have to clean this up, Mister."

"I'll clean it up," I said.

I tried to sound normal. I didn't want to scare her. But it was close to impossible. Despite how much relief I felt finding Maggie, Bella was still out there. And that fucking amazing woman saved my kid. She would die for my kid. I couldn't let that happen. I was holding one half of my world in my arms. I wouldn't be okay without the other.

I bypassed my car and carried Maggie to the subway. We needed to get lost in the crowd. I wasn't going to lead them right to her by driving. We jumped on the blue line and started towards Jasper's place. He was the only one I could trust right now.

Once I got there, we did a full sweep of the place, just in case Turner's people were already there. I used his neighbor's phone to call the Chief and asked for extra patrols in his neighborhood and undercover surveillance officers stationed outside.

"What's your next move, Edward?" Jasper asked.

"Heading to the station," I said. "I've got to do some more research on this guy. Nobody can cover their tracks that well. There's got to be something, somewhere. Some kind of lead, some body that knows something. I'll find it. And if I don't it'll find me. It's got to."

He lowered his voice. "Do you think she's still alive?"

I pursed my lips. I appreciated his honesty. It was a question to consider, not something completely off the wall. He was a cop. He looked at all the possibilities. And unless I hear from Turner soon, odds are that question will become more and more important. But right now? Right this moment? I refused to even consider the possibility of that answer being no.

"I will find her," I said. "Don't call me unless it's an emergency. I don't know what he's got on my phone or yours."

"I'll keep her safe, Edward." He nodded and I slipped down the hallway to check on her. She was sleeping in Jasper's guest room, snuggled up on the bed with her teddy clutched tightly to her chest.

I stood in the doorway for a few moments, watching her sleep. She was my family. And now, Bella was a part of that family. I would do everything I could to get her back, to make our family whole again. There was no other option.

I left, catching the subway down to the station. Most people were just leaving, making room for the night timers. My desk was piled high with files and paperwork. A paper bag from my dinner a few nights ago sat in the corner.

They all watched me as I went to my desk and sat down, but no one said a word. I noticed the Chief had looked up from his desk before going back to his own work.

I had nothing to look at. Turner didn't have a file with us; we didn't have a case against him. I only had two files. Kate and Tanya's. And from what I've seen so far, neither lend themselves to helping me at all.

I clicked on my computer and typed Turner's name in the search bar. It came up with thousands of links. I thought maybe one, just one, might give me what I'm looking for.

The hours ticked by, people left and came and left again. The sun began to dip down in the windows behind me, but I barely noticed. One of the rookies brought me a cup of coffee, setting it down next to me before leaving in silence.

I checked link after link after link. Read every comment. Looked at every picture. Printed most of everything off so I could make my own file on him.

My eyes grew tired, exhausted from staring at the damn screen for so long. I took a short break, burying my head in my hands as I closed my eyes. I needed Bella. She was the good researcher. I didn't even know what I was looking for.

"How's it goin, kid?" Chief said, sitting down next to me. I glanced at the clock. It was just after midnight.

"I don't know. I don't know where to go from here. There's nothing. Only bullshit about how amazing he is."

"Take a minute and go back through what you have. You may have missed the connections browsing through all of those sites. Take what you have and look at it as a collective group of evidence, Edward. Not just one after the other. If something's there, you'll see it." He patted my shoulder, set a sandwich down next to me, and went back to his office.

I took a deep breath and shuffled through the stack of papers I'd found. Most of the websites were about Family First, its opening, mission statement, all of the great things it's done for the community. Family first had been around since I was a kid, before Kate was killed. It was an organization built on providing resources to strengthen family units, anything from community centers to food banks to after school programs. It infiltrated almost every part of the city in some way. And it was the key to Turner's career.

"That has to be it," I said. Family First was his platform, the major reason he'd kept his job...kept his power for so long. It's something he would fight for. And something he would kill for.

I pulled out all of the pages and pictures associated with Family First, which was almost all of them. I flipped through the pictures again and again and again, looking for something that looked off in my head. I needed the bingo moment.

Almost every picture had Turner in the middle at some playground or some shelter or park. He stood tall, always smiling, proud of the work he had accomplished. Most of the time, he was surrounded by the volunteers or the benefactors of his project. A few of his staff stood in the background, cheering on their leader. And that was where I saw her. A woman.

She was the only one not looking at the camera. Instead, she was looking at Turner. Her smile was no more than a smirk as she watched him, her hands clasped peacefully at her middle. Something looked off to me. She was different.

I flipped to the other pictures and found her every time. Never looking at the camera. Always looking at him.

"That's strange," I said, gathering all of the pictures and heading to Chief's office. "Do you know this woman?" I asked, pointing to her.

He grabbed the picture and studied it. "Yeah, yeah. Carmen Thomas. She was the director of something or other in Family First."

"I haven't seen her in any of the news lately."

"She left the project suddenly, no one really knew why. Assumed it was some type of creative differences or whatever bullshit people say when they don't agree on something."

"How long ago did she leave?"

"Ah...let's see." He turned on his computer screen and typed in her name. "Fifteen years ago."

"Fifteen?" I asked, cocking my eyebrow. "That was when Kate died."

"Damn," Chief breathed.

I allowed myself to smile. "Bingo."

A/N: Hi guys! Thank you for reading. This story will be wrapping up fairly soon, as will my short story I Dream of Africa. Thank you for continuing with me on this journey.

I'd love to invite you to follow my website for my novel and my RL author things as well. I've had some exciting developments going on and while I have not been offered any representation yet, I'm feeling very positive about it. Head to amandaleighbooks . wordpress . com to check it out!

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