Warning for violence and profanity!
Chapter Two: For the Children
Tossing the bottle aside, Bradley waited for the loud crack of the glass breaking, before he grabbed for his bag, attempting to make his escape, so his step father wouldn't be mad about him being home late. "You headin' home already?" His friend, Deacon stopped him from leaving.
"He's runnin' home to his Mama." Calvin teased him, tossing his bottle in the same direction, making Bradley jump from the crack of the glass. "Pussy." He muttered, forcing Bradley to shove him. "Back off, midget." He threatened, raising his fist to him. "Or I'll give you a good whoopin', just like your Daddy."
"He's not my father." Bradley reminded him, for the hundredth time, giving him another shove. This time Calvin retaliated, forcing the younger boy away from him. Bradley tripped over his own foot from the force, landing on his back, beside the broken glass. "What the fucks your problem?"
"Punk." Calvin retorted, taking his seat beside Deacon again. "Maybe you should try and get along with Gary. He's better than your own father. With him out of the picture, you could actually try datin' girls." He chuckled to himself, lighting up a cigarette in his hands.
"What?" Bradley looked at him confused, climbing to his feet off the floor.
"He doesn't even know!" Calvin burst out laughing, nudging Deacon beside him, as the younger boy was completely out of the loop on the goings on in his own family. "Dude, your father's a freakin' homo. Everybody knows it."
"It's not true!" The boy shook his head, in refusal of the allegation.
"Yes it is, he's Charlie Jacks' uncle." Calvin pointed out to him, chilling Bradley's spine, as that was his cousin from his father's side. "He told me so. He overheard it from his mother."
"What?" was all Bradley could say.
"Well, when a guy and a girl are together, its straight love, but when a guy and a guy are together, they're both faggots." Calvin explained it to him, as if the boy was stupid.
"What the fuck are you tryin' to say?"
Calvin rolled his eyes, simply explaining, "Your Dad's a fag. My Dad likes skirt, yours eats dick."
"No he fuckin' doesn't." He angrily threw down his bag, giving Calvin another hard shove, sending him toppling off the low wall he was sat on.
This time he was super pissed, as he had dropped his cigarette.
Calvin sprang to his feet, jumping the wall in one clean sweep, sending his fist flying into Bradley's face. Bradley tried to hit back, but took another punch to the eye. He tried again, but Calvin forced him to the ground.
"Might as well stay down." Calvin laughed, stopping Deacon from helping the boy to his feet. "Don't touch him, you might catch somethin'. What's wrong kiddo? Not used to the punches of a real man? I s'pose that Gary's a bit on the grey side to give you a real whoopin'."
"Shut up! You don't know anythin'!" Struggling to his feet, Bradley grabbed the older boy around the waist, trying to bring him to the ground. Due his much smaller size though, the task was very difficult.
Appointing himself referee, Deacon tried to pull them apart, getting himself caught in the crossfire, taking a hit to the cheek. "Stop! Jesus fuckin' Christ, what the hell!" He yelled at Bradley, holding the side of his face. "Get the fuck outta here. We don't want some queer spawn hangin' around with us anyway."
"Fuck you guys!" Bradley spat back at them, grabbing his bag off the floor. He straightened his crumpled t-shirt, before hurrying down the street towards his house.
As soon as he arrived, he used his key to get in, kicking the door shut behind him. He spotted his mother and step father in the front room, talking to his step sister about her new promotion. His older step sister, Natalie, was the favourite child. She went to Harvard, married her college boyfriend, got a successful job and had already given them their first grandchild.
Bradley hated her, as she acted like a stuck up snob all the time, thinking she was more superior then anything and anyone around her.
He decided to hurry up the stairs to his room before they spotted him, where he immediately threw himself onto his bed, feeling a bruise beginning to form by his eye already. His nerves were just starting to settle, when his bedroom door suddenly opened, and his step father walked in.
"You're too busy to say hello anymore?" The man made his way over to Bradley on the bed, noticing the redness of his face already. "What the hell happened? You haven't been startin' fights at school again, have you? I told you what would happen last time."
"You don't care." The boy muttered, draping his arm over his eyes, despite the pain in his face.
"I do care." Gary took a seat on the edge of his bed, looking at the cuts on one of Bradley's arms, before he turned his attention towards the bruises. "Does it hurt?"
"No, leave me alone." Bradley pushed his step father's hands away from him. "Don't touch me."
"I just wonna know if it hurts."
"No, I'm fine." He muttered, wishing he would just leave him alone. Gary eventually gave up his attempts to comfort him, leaving him in peace to spend some more time with Natalie.
"Hey, Brady!" His step brother, Nathan suddenly stepped into the room, completely uninvited, as always. "Get up." He slapped the younger boy's leg. "Amberleigh's downstairs. Go talk to her."
"I don't like her." Bradley complained, for the hundredth time.
Nathan had been trying to set him up with one of his friend's younger sister's for the past year. Amberleigh was pretty good looking, for a fourteen year old, but she talked too much, always played with her hair and never wanted to do anything but ride horses.
"Dude, stop bein' such a fag and just go talk to her. I'm not askin' you to marry her, just talk to her."
"You're a fag." Bradley retorted, reluctantly climbing off the bed. He ducked as Nathan tried to punch him, quickly making his way down the stairs, where his mother was talking to Amberleigh about her mother's new car.
"Hey, Bradley." The brunette sweetly waved to him, holding up her helmet from her hands. "You wonna go ridin'?" She indicated over her shoulder, where her father was holding the reins of Demi, Amberleigh's thoroughbred mare, her pride and joy, along with a second horse he had never seen before. "You can ride Demi today, since Tango doesn't know you."
"Tango?" Bradley gave her a confused look.
"Yeah, she's Midnights baby. Me and my sister decided to call her Tango, because her mane is orange." Amberleigh giggled, pointing it out to him. "C'mon, your Mom said its okay."
"Go on, sweetheart. Have fun." His mother continued to treat him like a child, pressing a kiss to his cheek in front of the girl, before she gave him a gentle push out the door. Bradley wanted to protest, but found himself being too nice to her again, reluctantly following after her to ride yet another horse.
Emergency vehicles covered the front yard of Miranda's house. The press and curious members of the public trampled the flowers, huddled close together against the yellow tape, wanting to know what was going on, while the officers and crime scene investigators tried to get on with their jobs.
After pulling his truck up behind one of the squad cars, Nick hurried through the crowd of neighbours gathered outside, pushing his way through to the officer in front. He flashed him his badge, allowing him entry into the house. He knew it wasn't going to be good, but he never expected to see coroners and police officers at her house, when he received the call.
"You can't go in." Detective O'Riley blocked his path at the door, knowing full well that this was the house of his ex-wife. "Conflict of interest, you'll have to clear this with the boss."
"Grissom's away." Nick reminded him, anxious to get inside. "They said I was needed. Ecklie was the one who freakin' called me, so he must want me here. Go talk to him." He commanded, wanting to get inside.
"I'm sorry, I can't let you in." He shook his head.
"My kid's in there!" He shouted at him, trying to push past him. "Just tell me what happened. Let me in!"
"Let him through." Catherine made her way towards the front door, after hearing the desperate shouting of her colleague. "Nicky, you're not allowed to touch anything, but Ecklie wants you here." She warned him, ushering him into the house.
"Does he want me here to question me as a suspect, or does he think I can help?" Nick asked her, looking at the suspicious looks from the other officers.
"Apparently, you already have an alibi." Catherine pointed through to the kitchen, where Greg was bagging an empty beer bottle off the side. "He said you spent the night at his place, or morning, whatever. You slept off your hangover on his couch, huh?"
"Somethin' like that." He gave her a slight nod, following her through to the front room, where Ecklie and Warrick were knelt either side of a body.
Catherine quickly grabbed the sleeve of his jacket to hold him back, watching the look on his face as he realised who it was. "I know this is hard, but don't touch her or anything else." She warned him again, knowing it was easy to forget, when family was involved.
Nick gave her another nod, treading carefully on the carpet, towards the body of his ex-wife. Just by looking at her, he could immediately tell that she had been beaten to death, making him feel as though he was about to throw up.
Ecklie looked round at the younger man, quickly warning him, "Don't touch anything, Stokes. I'll have you fired so fast, you won't k..."
Catherine quickly elbowed Ecklie in the side to shut him up, giving him a glare as he gave her a confused look. "Nicky, do you want me to take you outside?" She suggested. Nick shook his head, keeping his eyes fixated on the blood pool around Miranda's head.
"No sign of the kids, we checked their rooms, the cribs... nothing." Warrick pointed out to them, glancing up at Nick. "Were they with you?"
"No."
"What about a sitter or school?" He asked him.
"No, Miranda doesn't work. She lives off her father, and child support." Nick explained to them, trying not to look directly into her eyes, as her once beautiful face was a bloody and bruised mess, reminding him of when Greg was almost beaten to death, just a few months ago. He clenched his teeth into his lower lip to keep it from quivering, watching the three CSI's around him doing their jobs, while he was forced to watch.
"There was definitely a man here last night." Warrick pointed out the second beer bottle, along with the muddy boot print in the hallway. "I don't think another woman could have done that to her face either." He glanced up at Nick in front of him, catching the man rolling his eyes at him.
"You think that I'd really do this, then come here to put on a show?"
"I don't know, you tell me. It's like I barely know you anymore, Nick!" Warrick spat at him.
"Guys, enough!" Ecklie stopped them from shouting at one another. "I already warned you about your professional attitude in the workplace. If you can't work together without squabbling like little girls, I'm gonna have to get rid of one of you, with or without Grissom's approval."
"Did you try her sister... Angela?" Nick remembered her name, thinking about the whereabouts of the children again. "She lives a couple of blocks away. She sometimes leaves the kids with her after school, just so she can have a few moments of peace."
"We'll try." Catherine assured him, turning him away from the body, so she could ask him a few questions. "Was Miranda dating anyone?" Nick shook his head, trying to think where Miranda would take the children. "What about her last ex, after you, she got a restraining order on him, right?"
"Yeah, Bryan... somethin'. He's the father of the baby." He pointed to one of the photos on the wall. "I've never met him before. She told me she met him in a bar or somethin', after the divorce went through. He was a one night stand; she didn't see him again, until about three months ago." He vaguely remembered the details, noticing Tayla's school bag sat at the bottom of the stairs, with Goober, her favourite stuffed kitten sticking out of it. He quickly turned his attention towards the front door, realising her sneakers were still at the door too. The only sneakers she would ever wear, so she couldn't have left the house. "Did you check the whole house?" He turned back to Catherine.
"Yeah, why? Nicky!" She shouted after him, trying to stop him from reaching the stairs, but he was a lot bigger and faster than her. "Nick!" Hurrying after him up the stairs, Catherine followed him through to Tayla's pretty pink princess bedroom, watching him searching the closet, before he checked under the bed. "Nick, you can't be in here. You're contaminating the scene."
"If she's not here, then someone took her. Tayla and Willa haven't spent a day away from their mother; she wouldn't just leave them with some stranger." Nick informed her, checking everywhere that he could think of in her room, before he made his way across the hall to Willa's room.
Catherine turned away from the panicked man, hearing footsteps coming up the stairs. She spotted Greg coming into the light of the hallway, pointing him through to the baby's bedroom, where Nick was frantically searching the room.
"Nick." Greg spoke softly, stopping him from tearing apart the cupboard full of baby clothes. "If they're here, we'll find them. You can't touch anything though..."
"I don't really give a shit about my career right now, Greg!" Nick snapped back, pushing Greg's arms away from him.
"Okay, we'll look." Greg backed off. "But you should be wearing gloves." He handed him the spare set from his vest. "You want a conviction for Miranda's murder, right?"
Nick reluctantly took the gloves off the younger man's hands, not really caring whether he contaminated anything; he just wanted to find his daughter. He pushed Greg aside to get to the other side of the room, searching all the hiding places that he could think of.
"Maybe she's just out with a sitter." Greg tried to comfort him.
"She's not with a sitter or her aunt, because her sneakers and Goober are still here. She wouldn't leave the house without Goober. She won't even go to bed without it."
"What's... who's Goober?" A confused Catherine, asked from the door.
"Her stuffed kitty." Greg remembered, quickly following Nick, as the man made his way into the master bedroom down the hall. "Wait, don't touch anything." He stopped Nick from tearing up the room, spotting the bathroom door that had been pounded in. "Catherine, did you see this?" He called back to her.
Catherine shook her head, pulling on a fresh pair of gloves from her vest. "Boot print." She pointed out the damage on the door. "The locks been broken clean off the wall. Have to be somebody pretty strong to do that." She guessed, before stepping inside the bathroom. Kneeling down beside the bath, she gasped as she noticed the blood on the edge. "Greg, take Nick out of here."
"What is it?" Nick demanded to know, being held back by Greg, so he couldn't see inside.
"C'mon, Nicky," The younger man gently pushed him back towards the bedroom door, wishing there was something else that he could do for him. "Do you want me to take you home or drive you somewhere?"
"No, I have to be here." He shook his head, sliding down the wall in the hallway, sitting himself on the floor. "I have to find her."
"You will, we will." Greg assured him, kneeling down in front of him. "You couldn't ask for a better team on this case, Nicky. And Tayla's a smart kid. If something was wrong, you'd know about it."
"I feel like somethin's wrong already. Here I was obsessing about this stupid... gay crap, and my daughter's freakin' missin'. She could be dead." He feared, anxiously running his fingers across the short stubble on his head.
"You can't think like that." Removing his gloves, Greg slid his hands into Nick's, looking into his teary eyes, as he whispered, "She's gonna be okay. She's your daughter, Nicky. She may only be seven, but the kid managed to escape from her babysitter, just to see you in the hospital."
Nick nodded at the memory, remembering how worried he was about her.
Greg reached for his phone as it started vibrating, reading a message from Sara. "Looks like Sara's found something out back."
"What?" Nick immediately climbed to his feet, racing Greg down the stairs, to see what it was. As they reached Sara in the garden though, all he saw was a blood covered bat, ditched in the trash. "Tayla's DNA is on file."
Sara glanced up at Nick, fearing that it really might have been Tayla's blood on it. "Why's her..."
"Safety kit." Nick explained, knowing what she was going to ask, before she even asked it. "I got it done after I was kidnapped, just in case."
"C'mon, Nicky," The younger man gently pulled him away, not wanting him to see anything else that could hurt him. "I'm gonna drive you home."
Nick stared at the baseball bat a moment longer, before reluctantly following Greg to his car. He didn't want to leave the crime scene, as it held the answers to where his daughter was, but he knew it was for the best, if they were going to catch whoever murdered Miranda, and find where his daughter was.
Unlocking the front door with his key, Bradley stepped into the house, listening out for voices. The house appeared to be silent this time, no sign of his step sister or his mother. Bradley turned for the stairs, being stopped by a loud throat clearing sound, coming from the doorway behind him. "Have fun with Amberleigh?" His step father asked him, taking a sip from the beer bottle in his hands. "She's a little old for you, isn't she?"
Bradley shook his head, wondering why his step father was always so jealous of the girls he hung out with. "She only just turned fourteen, and besides, I'm not interested in her." He assured him.
"More of a boy's boy? Or maybe you're a man's boy." He grinned at him, staring into the boy's eyes. "Maybe your mother shoulda sent you to military school, like I suggested when I first met yah." Setting his beer bottle down, Gary took a few steps closer towards Bradley, curiously studying the young boy's features, as if he was seeing him for the first time.
Bradley was relieved to hear the front door opening, watching his step father instantly backing off at the sight of his wife. "Hi." She casually greeted the two of them, carrying the groceries in her hands through to the kitchen. Bradley followed her in, knowing Gary wouldn't look at him twice with his mother around. "Oh sweetie, what happened to your face?" She noticed his bruises. "You been fightin' again?"
"No." He shook his head, pulling away from her. "Hey Mom, when can I go stay with Dad again? My Dad." He asked her, leaning against the counter, while she unpacked the groceries into the fridge. "I haven't seen him since thanksgivin'."
"That was two months ago, honey." She chuckled, gently pushing him aside, so she could get to the cupboards behind him. "You're gonna spend your whole summer next year with him. Do you really wonna just fly over there to spend time with babysitters, rather than your father?" She pushed him aside again, selecting the vegetables she needed from the fridge to prepare dinner. "If you really want to stay with another babysitter in your father's house, then by all means, give him a call and see if he wants you over there."
"Why wouldn't he want me there?" He tried to get some more information out of her.
"Work, honey." After turning the television on to her usual talk show station, his mother started chopping the vegetables, glancing up occasionally to look at the TV.
"Mom, I wonna stay with Dad. I don't like it here." He started to complain.
"Is this about the fightin'? You can't run away from your problems, honey. You've gotta stay here and deal with them, but don't fight out your differences. You know that's wrong, and your father would agree with me on that one." She pointed out to him, pecking a kiss to his sore forehead. "Do you want me to get you some ice or anythin', sweetheart?"
"No." Rolling his eyes, Bradley pulled himself up onto the counter, watching Gary through the open door of the kitchen.
His step father was sorting through things in the closet beside the front door, looking for his toolbox to fix the wobbly shelf in the front room, as he had promised his wife two weeks ago.
Bradley looked back towards his mother through his bruised eyes, before asking, "Mom, if someone promises you somethin', they have to keep that promise, right?"
"Uh huh." She answered, completely oblivious to his question, as she was so focused on the television.
"Dad promised that he'd always be there for me, and I could go round there whenever I needed him. Do you think he meant it?"
After a moment, she answered, "Maybe."
Bradley watched Gary disappearing out the front door, then turned to watch his mother, neatly slicing the carrots into sticks, keeping her eyes fixated on the young woman, talking about her strained relationship with her mother, because of the sexual abuse she suffered from her step father. "Mom, why'd you break up with Dad in the first place?"
"We didn't break up, you have to be together to break up." She pointed out to him.
"How old were you when you had me?"
"Twenty two, you heard the story before." Reaching for the remote, she turned the volume up, feeling her heart breaking for the young woman on the television. "Can you believe that? Sexually abused by her step father, since she was seven years old. Some people in this world are just... damn right cruel. It's ridiculous; he was supposed to be her stand in father, and the mother's just as stupid for not realisin' it was goin' on."
Feeling uncomfortable from the subject, Bradley jumped off the counter, making his way over to the fridge. He grabbed himself one of the soda can's from the door, before he started his whining again, "Can I please go and stay with Dad?"
"Oh Bradley, for goodness sake, I just told you to call him. Now would you hush, I'm tryin' to..." So focused on what was going on in the virtual world in front of her, she ignored her son, not even bothering to finish her sentence.
Bradley gave her a scowl as he left the room, grabbing the phone from the front room to dial his father's number. Just as he suspected, the call went straight through to his voicemail, making him realise that people didn't keep their promises.
Not even his own father.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, love." Bryan lifted the crying child onto the counter by the sink, using the wash cloth next to it to clean the blood from her angelic little face.
During the struggle to get the bathroom door open, he knocked Tayla down, causing her little head to clash with the edge of the tiled bath tub. He was going to leave her at the house to be found, while he took his own daughter with him, but he couldn't leave her there while she was injured.
"Hold still, pumpkin." He whispered softly, combing back her light brown hair with his fingers, so he could see how deep the gash was. "It's not as bad as it looks. Shh, sweetheart," After brushing away her tears, he grabbed for the first aid kit, finding some plasters and bandages, perfect for her injury. "I'll have you back with your Daddy before you know it." He promised her.
Once he bandaged her cut, he lifted her down from the sink, binning the blood covered wash cloth, before leading her back into the main room of the motel, where her baby sister was sprawled out on the bed.
"Okay Tayla, I need you to stay here with your sister for a moment, I've gotta get us a car, some food and gas." He grabbed the remote from the television, handing it over to the small child. "Just stay with your sister, okay? I need the car to drive you to your Daddy."
Tayla held the remote in her hands, watching Bryan grabbing his jacket and the keys to the motel, before he disappeared out the door. She made her way over to the window, watching him walking across the catwalk towards the staircase, then started looking around for a phone, wanting to call her father to come and get her, as she didn't trust anyone who would hurt her.
As she lifted the motel phone to her ear though, she couldn't hear the usual dial tone in the background. She tried pressing random numbers, but nothing happened, so she couldn't use it to ring him after all. She looked around the room helplessly, before making her way over to her little sister, as she started to cry.
"Shh, baby Willa." She cooed, just like her mother did. "My Daddy will come get us, you'll see."
Setting a coffee down in front of Nick, Greg gave him a small smile, before he took a seat opposite him at the table. "Don't worry about breakin' it to me gently, G. I can take it." Nick assured him, resting against his elbow on the break room table. "What'd she say?"
"The blood on the bathtub was Tayla's." The younger man confirmed his worst fears. "But it coulda just been her elbow or her knee. We don't know what happened." He tried to assure him, even though it wasn't looking good. "You not answering your phone?" He watched Nick looking at his phone, as it started to ring again.
"It's just Samantha, she probably heard the news about the custody case, and wants to have a word. She's still friends with my sister, Kayla, so she probably heard it from her. You know how she likes to gossip, that's why I told her last about us." He explained, circling his hands around the warm coffee mug. "Any luck findin' Bryan?"
"Brass is over his place with some guys. We're tracking his credit cards; looking for family members... we'll find her, Nicky." Reaching for Nick's hands with his own, he weaved their fingers together, looking into the older man's eyes. "I know we'll find her."
"How do you know?"
"Because, I can feel it in my heart, just like I know that she's gonna be okay. Everyone in my family thinks that I take after my Nana Olaf, which means I'm psychic." He reminded him, earning a small smile from Nick. He looked at Nick as his phone started to ring again, watching him giving it a curious look. "What?"
Nick gave him a shrug, before snapping his phone open, answering the mysterious number, "Stokes."
"D-Daddy." The shaky voice of his seven year old answered.
Nick immediately widened his eyes, holding the phone closer. "Tayla! Are you okay baby?"
Greg quickly jumped to his feet at the sound of her name, hurrying across the hall to Archie's lab, getting him to put a trace on the call coming through to Nick's cell.
"Daddy, I'm scared."
"I know, baby. I'm gonna help you, I promise." He whispered softly, relieved to hear her voice again. "Who took you, baby? Do you know who they are?"
"Bryan. Daddy, can you come get me?"
Nick anxiously bit his lower lip, wishing he could be the all powerful father that she thought he was. "I will, baby. Do you know where you are?"
Anxiously looking around, the scared child replied, "A phone box."
"A street sign or somethin', honey." He glanced up towards the door as Greg returned, watching the younger man giving him the signal to keep talking. "Are you near a road, a buildin' or somethin'?"
"A hotel. There's cars. Daddy, can you come get me?" She pleaded, more desperate this time.
"I will, baby." He assured her. "So you're in a hotel parkin' lot, in a phone box? Is there a sign or anythin'. There's usually a big flashin' sign outside the parkin' lot, can you read the letters off it?"
Tayla looked around for one, spotting a large flashing sign over the main office. She tried to read the letters off it, but the sign was facing the other way from her, making it impossible to read the backwards flashing letters. "Daddy, I can't. Please Daddy, I'm scared."
"Don't be scared honey, I'm gonna find you." He spoke softly, before dropping his head into his hands, wishing there was something else he could do for her. "Okay baby, in a sec, I need you to hang up on me and dial 911. Tell them you've been kidnapped. Do exactly as they tell you and I'll be there to pick you up, once they find you. Hang on, baby... once you've called them, ring me back, okay?" He changed his mind, wanting to know that she had got through to them.
"Daddy, I..." Tayla looked up as someone reached their hand over her head, shivering as she saw Bryan. He disconnected her call to her father, before prying the phone from her hands, putting it back on the hook.
"Tayla!" Nick shouted into his phone. "Tayla! Shit! Please tell me you got a location on that." He glanced up at Greg, watching him running back to check with Archie. He knew from the look on his face when he returned, that it wasn't long enough, making him feel like an even bigger failure as a father.
"But we might be able to get a trace on the number." Greg tried to assure him. "Once Archie finds the number she was calling from, he'll be able to track the location of the phone box and..."
"Okay, do that." Nick interrupted him, before resting his head against the table, trying to think of something he could do to help her, rather than waiting around for her call. As soon as his phone started ringing again, he quickly picked it up, immediately answering, "Tayla?"
"No, it's the mother of your other child." Samantha answered him, watching Bradley storming off up the stairs, as Nick actually answered her. "Are you too busy to answer your phone these days? I swear Nicky..."
"Not now, Samantha, I'm busy." He cut her off.
"Too busy to talk to your own son? I agreed not to have the abortion because you wanted to be a father, Nick. You can't just ditch him now." The woman scolded him, making sure her son wasn't listening, as she regretted her choice of even thinking about aborting her beautiful baby boy, every day since. "He wants to see you, Nick. Surely you can find some time out of your busy schedule to talk to your own son."
"I can't, not now. Tayla's missin'. I'll call him later." He informed her, before snapping his phone shut. As he spotted Catherine making her way towards her office, he struggled to his feet, catching up to her at the door. "Did you find anythin'?"
"Nick." She almost looked surprised to see him. "I thought you went home?"
"Catherine, don't avoid the question. I'm a grown man, I can handle it."
Sighing softly, Catherine perched herself on the edge of her desk, before delivering the bad news, "Miranda had a restraining order out on her ex, Bryan. He has a violent past. An abusive father himself, criminal record of assault... you really don't need to hear all of this, Nicky. We're not even sure that it's him who took her."
"We're sure." Nick spoke softly. "Tayla... she called me. She's at a hotel, a parkin' lot with a phone box. But she couldn't tell me where. Greg and Archie are tryin' to find the location."
"She called you?"
He nodded, "She memorised my cell phone number. She can't even remember her address or home number with her mother, but she knows my cell number off by heart." He explained to her. "We were cut off though. Bryan must have found her."
"He's never hurt his own child, there's no reason to suggest that he would..."
"You and I both know that if a child isn't found within a couple of hours, we're gonna be fillin' another grave." He decided to remind her, feeling his heart pounding heavily inside of his chest, as he didn't want to admit it to himself.
"Got a location!" Greg suddenly shouted across the hall, ushering Nick and Catherine into the AV lab. "Hunters Inn. It's just on the edge of town. The phone box is right on the edge of the parking lot, like she said." He reported, then turned to give the older man a reassuring smile. "See, I told you we'll find her."
Lifting baby Willa onto the back seat, Bryan wrapped her blanket around her, before ushering Tayla into the car. He looked into the little girl's tearful eyes, feeling a chill running down his spine. He never had any intention to take her, but he couldn't leave her here, for fear of what someone might do to her if they found her, from his own experience as a child.
He climbed into the car and started driving, hoping to get out of the city, before someone could track the call that Tayla had made. They drove all night, leaving the CSI's with nothing but the motel bill at the office, so they couldn't be tracked so easily.
"When's Mommy coming?" Tayla asked him, trying to stay awake on the back seat.
"Well eh... we're gonna have lots of fun. I'm gonna drive you girls over to my mother's. You've never met her before, but I'm sure you'll like her, she loves kids." He tried to sell her on the idea, the same way his father used to. "Then we'll find a house somewhere, you and your sister can have your own rooms..."
"When's Mommy coming?" She asked again.
"Tayla, Mommy isn't... well, she isn't coming with us." He struggled to explain, pulling over to the side of the road at the gas station, as he didn't have time to get any earlier. "Just stay in the car with your sister a sec. You want some sweets? I can get you some chocolate or something. No nuts though, right?" He remembered that she was allergic, as he searched his pockets for some money.
"Why isn't Mommy coming?"
"Um, well... she just... she didn't want to." Grabbing his jacket off the passenger seat, he searched the pockets, finding some spare change in the pocket. He suddenly looked down at his t-shirt, realising that Miranda's blood had splattered against him, when he fought her off to get his daughter. "Eh... stay in the car with your sister, I'll bring you back something." He quickly pulled his jacket on, zipping it all the way up, to conceal the blood, before climbing out the car.
"I want my Mommy." She whimpered.
"You don't have a Mommy anymore!" He shouted at her, sick of her whinging. "Just shut up and stay in the damn car!" Slamming his door shut, he turned to look at the curious eyes watching him, glaring right back at them. "What? Ain't nothing to see here!"
The young mother of two rolled her eyes at the man, climbing back into her own car to leave, wondering when parents stopped caring about the little people they created.
Bryan got the tank of his car filled up, bought some refrigerated sandwiches and a bar of chocolate, before he climbed back into the car, checking both children were still on the back seat. He handed Tayla one of the sandwiches from his hands, before he started driving, eager to get to his mother's house in California.
Halfway there, Willa started crying, as she awoke from her nap, needing her mother for the food she had been deprived of, since she was ripped from her arms. "Can you keep her quiet?" Bryan looked round at Tayla, watching her crawling across the seat to hold her little sister. "Shut her up!"
"I can't." The child complained, searching for the dropped pacifier between the seats. She brushed it off on her dress, before sticking it into the crying baby's mouth, drowning her cries out to soft whimpers, as she sucked the pacifier for comfort. "She's hungry. She needs milk."
"And where am I supposed to get that Tayla? I don't know if you noticed, but I don't exactly have a cow on me." He remarked, turning his head back to the road, where a large truck suddenly honked its loud horn, causing him to swerve in panic. He tried to control the car, while pounding his foot into the shoddy breaks, wishing he had spent a little more for a decent car.
The truck just slid past them without a scratch, but Bryan's car broke through the guard rail, sending them toppling down the steep hill.
Thanks so much for all of your feedback on the first chapter. I'm really glad you enjoyed it. In case there's any confusion with the characters, Miranda is the mother of Tayla and Willa. She lives in Vegas, and she used to be married to Nick. Samantha is the mother of Bradley and lives in Texas, and she dated Nick once, a while back.
I hope you liked the introduction of Nick's son, Bradley. More of his story will be revealed along the way, I should have probably warned you at the beginning that this story will have some violence, swearing, and in case you didn't already guess from the scenes with Bradley, sexual and physical abuse.
If you don't want to read any more, I understand, not everyone can handle it.
Thanks so much for reading, please review!
~ Holly