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“ S chool going okay, kid?” Ink asked.

Zippy sighed. “Yeah, it’s okay.”

“Your teacher all right?”

“She’s okay.”

“The other kids? Are they being nice? Did you make any friends?” he asked.

“Ink?”

“Yeah?”

“You’ve got to chill,” she advised him. “Or you’re gonna give yourself a heart attack with all this worry.”

“Right. Sorry. Just making sure that no one is being mean to you.”

“If they are, I know what to do.” She thumped her fist into her hand.

He winced. “Yeah, Betsy isn’t such a fan of that method of solving problems. She’s worried that you’ll end up in trouble.”

“I’m used to getting in trouble.”

Ink pulled up in front of the school, then turned to her. “If you do, you know to tell the principal to call me, right?”

“Right.” Zippy frowned. “Ink?”

“Yeah, kid?”

“Why’re you driving me to school every day and not Betsy? And how come when she picks me up, she’s got someone with her?”

Shit.

Zippy was a smart kid, of course she’d figured out something was going on.

Should he tell her the truth?

But they didn’t know what was going on for sure.

“You’re not gonna tell me, are you?” Zippy asked.

“I don’t want you to worry,” he told her. “Neither Betsy nor I do. We’ve got everything under control.”

Zippy frowned. “So what is it?”

“Your old foster father has gone missing.”

Zippy’s face closed up instantly. “Leon is missing?”

“Well, sort of. He hasn’t been seen at his house for a while.”

“How do you know?”

“I’ve had someone keep an eye on him,” Ink admitted.

“Why?” she asked.

“Because I figure that he must have done something terrible for you to threaten to stab him.”

Surprise filled her face. “You do?”

“Yeah, Zippy. I do. You don’t have to tell me what it is, but I think there was something. And I think it was bad. So I wanted to keep an eye on him.”

“What about Amber?” she asked about Leon’s wife.

“She left in her car and hasn’t been seen since, either.”

Zippy was silent for a long moment.

“You don’t have to worry about this,” he told her.

“Do you think he’s coming to find me?” she asked.

Shit. She was so smart.

“I hope not, Zippy. I don’t see how he could know where you are. However, I like to be cautious. Which is why I’ve got some added security with Betsy and I’ve warned the school.”

Zippy nodded. “Is Betsy worried?”

“She knows that I can take care of you both.”

There was more silence as she seemed to digest that.

“Have you got anything else to ask me?” he asked quietly.

“No. I’ve gotta go to class.”

“Have a good day,” he told her after helping her out of the truck.

She nodded, then took off. Shit. She was so small. Worry filled him.

God, he hoped that was the right thing to do.

“I don’t think it was a good idea to tell her,” Betsy said as she paced back and forth across the living room floor. Bandit followed her back and forth.

“Brown eyes.”

“What if she starts worrying? What if she has nightmares and can’t sleep? We don’t even know what he’s doing. He might not be looking for her.”

“Button.”

“She’s just a little girl. It’s not good for her to worry about these sorts of things.”

“Betsy.” He reached out and grabbed her by the hips, lifting her onto his lap. “You need to calm down, baby.”

“I can’t calm down. What if we’ve upset her? What if she’s upstairs in her bedroom, worrying about all of this?”

“She’s not. I checked on her before I told you all of this and she was fast asleep. She’s fine. You’re the one who’s stressed. Take a deep breath. Now, let it out slowly. Zippy is fine.”

“Really?” she whispered, chewing at her lower lip.

“Really.”

“She’s not scared that he’s coming for her?”

He pulled her lip free from her teeth. “She doesn’t seem to be. I explained that we don’t know where he is or what he’s doing. I’m sorry if it was the wrong thing to do. But she’s a smart girl and she knew something was going on. I was worried that if I lied to her that I’d eradicate any sort of trust I’d built up.”

“I can understand that. I think I would have done the same.” She slumped forward and buried her face in his neck.

He rubbed her back. “Everything will be good, baby. I promise.”

Bandit’s whines woke her up later that night.

She’d been dreaming about Santa and a talking reindeer when a cold chill went through her.

Ink sat up. “Bandit?”

Getting up, she pulled a nightgown on. “I’ll let him out, he must have to pee.”

He barked and she took that as his agreement.

“I’m just going to go check on Zippy as well.” She had this weird feeling. A sense of urgency.

“No, you’re not. Get back into bed. I’ll let Bandit out and check on Zippy.”

“But, Ink,” she protested as he started to get up. “I was already up.”

“And now you can get back into bed where it’s nice and warm and let me take the dog out.” He walked around and gently settled her back into bed. Then he kissed her forehead. “And go check on Zippy. It’s my job.”

The man certainly had a lot of ideas on what was his job. But she’d give this to him if it meant she got to keep her feet warm.

She yawned and snuggled in, waiting for him to come back.

A few minutes later, she heard him running down the passage. She sat up, alarm filling her as he ran into the bedroom to grab his phone off the nightstand.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” she asked.

“Zippy’s gone.” Ink was looking at something on his phone.

“Is he here? Oh my God! Did he get to her?” How could he possibly have gotten to her?

“The alarm is down. Someone turned it off. Bandit must have heard something although I can’t understand why he didn’t bark.” He brought his phone to his ear and started speaking rapidly to someone as he got dressed.

Getting out of bed, she hastily got dressed as well. Panic made her clumsy and it took her three tries to pull her pants on.

Where could she be?

Oh God. Oh God.

Ink put down the phone and walked over to her. “I’ve got Brody working on hacking into any traffic cameras we have. I’m going to go look at our camera feeds. If he took her, we’ll figure out where he’s going with her.” Ink shook his head. “But I don’t understand how he got past the alarm, knew the code, and got up here to her without me hearing.”

Betsy didn’t know that either. She followed Ink to his home office. He settled in front of the monitor, moving through the camera feed.

“There!” she said. “The door is opening.”

And out walked Zippy.

By herself.

“What . . . what is she doing?” she whispered.

Zippy was carrying a backpack and she looked to be dressed in a bulky jacket.

“I don’t know,” Ink said, following the camera feed along the house. He switched to the next camera and they saw her move down the driveway to the road.

“Why did she leave?” Betsy whispered. “Is she running away from home? She doesn’t like it here?”

“Hey, listen to me. I need you to stay calm. Okay, Button?” Ink turned and grasped hold of her hands. “There’s an upside to this. At least it looks like Leon hasn’t found her. Yeah?”

“But he could,” she said, every bad scenario running through her head. “Or someone else could find her and hurt her. Ink, she’s just a little girl!”

And they’d so clearly failed her.

She’d hated it here so much that she’d run away. Betsy hadn’t seen any sign of it, but what other reason could there be for her running off in the middle of the night like this?

“Betsy, all we can focus on is what we know and getting her back, all right? Just keep breathing, baby.”

“I’m fine.” Other than feeling really guilty for wasting his time with her worries when he could be doing something else. “I really am. Go. Do what you need to do. Just keep me informed.”

“I’m going to call Brody again. And then I’m going to go out looking for her. I’ve got Matthieu and Butch on their way here. I need you to stay inside by the phone with the alarm on. Can you do that for me?”

“Y-yes, of course. Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.”

“You will stay inside with the alarm on,” he reiterated, grasping her face between his hands. “Keep Bandit close. I mean it.”

“I promise, Daddy.”

“Good girl.”

He rushed out of the room and she moved into the bedroom to grab her phone before heading back into the office. She could hear him on the phone as he moved around.

Betsy shifted through all of the camera feeds. She didn’t know whether it would do any good, but perhaps she might see something.

“I’ll re-arm the alarm, Brown eyes,” Ink told her as he came in.

She turned her head to look back at him. “Be careful.”

“I’ll find her, baby. Be good.”

Over an hour later, Betsy didn’t think she was getting anywhere. Sitting back, she squeezed the top of her nose.

Butch and Matthieu had arrived a while ago and were out looking with Ink along with a large group of their friends.

She was so grateful for all of their friends, she didn’t know what they would do without them. But right now she couldn’t feel anything but worry.

Where was Zippy? What was going on?

Her phone buzzed with a text message and she snatched it up, her heart racing. Disappointment filled her as she saw Sunny’s name. Which instantly made her feel bad since Sunny was one of her favorite people.

Sunny: How are you doing?

Betsy: I’m scared.

Sunny: I’m going to come and stay with you.

Betsy: Thanks, but there’s really nothing you can do. You should stay home. Duke won’t want you driving at night. Especially when you’ve been ill.

Sunny had had a chest infection. She was feeling a lot better now but Duke was still being careful with her.

Sunny: Screw that. He should have brought me with him. I’m coming. Worth any spanking he gives me to be with you.

Betsy: I appreciate it. But there’s nothing that can be done here. Stay there and rest.

She put her phone down and started to pace. Where had Zippy gone?

A phone call made her jump. She grasped for her phone, dropping it on the floor. When she picked it up, she saw the name on the screen.

Baron.

“Ma! Have they found her?” Baron asked as she answered.

Had Ink called them? He must have.

“No. Not yet,” she said. “Ink called you?”

“No, Zippy did.”

“What?” she said. “She called you guys?”

“She used her tablet to send us a message. It must have been before she left. We just saw it twenty minutes ago so we called Ink and he told us what was happening. We’re on our way.”

“What did she say?” Had she told them why she’d left?

“All it said was that she had to leave. She really wished she didn’t have to, but that we needed to take care of you for her.”

“Take care of me? Why would she say that?”

“Because she loves you, Ma,” Royal said, his voice quieter. He was likely driving. Of the two of them, he was the control freak.

Loved her?

She didn’t know about that. If Zippy loved her, why would she have run away?

“You guys shouldn’t be driving in the middle of the night,” she told them.

“Like we could stay at college while Zippy is out there on her own,” Baron told her.

“No sign of that asshole, Leon?” Royal asked.

“No, so far nothing,” she said. “Ink’s got everyone he can out looking. The Iron Shadows are looking as well as his guys. They’ll find her.”

“No, we’re going to find her,” Royal said.

“You just stay in the house and keep calm, Ma,” Baron added. “We have this.”

Right.

Sit at home. Do nothing. It should be easy, right?

But it really, really wasn’t.

What could she do? She felt like she needed to do something to help but had no idea what.

You could pray.

Moving out of the office, she walked downstairs to where the Christmas tree was. She thought she might hedge her bets.

If God couldn’t hear her prayers, then maybe Santa would.

If she could make only one Christmas wish, this would be it.

Please let Zippy come home safely.