Page 22 of Her Big Bad Wolf

Three

Four

Five

“What are you doing?” Emma asked.

“Just making sure everyone’s accounted for,” I told her as I continued to count.

Twelve

Thirteen

Fourteen

Fifteen

I froze.

Wait. Fifteen? I only had fourteen.

Quickly I recounted. Sure enough there were fifteen kids present. One had ventured off away from the group all the way on the other side of the pond.

“Shit.” I took off running after him. “Watch the others,” I yelled back to Emma.

As I rounded the edge of the pond, the boy startled and looked up.

My heart nearly flipped over in my chest.

“Cameron!” I yelled out.

His eyes met mine and then he turned and ran back into the woods.

Silas, the team lead for Bravo team, who’s twins were in my two-year-old class, jogged over to me.

“What is it?”

I pointed into the woods. “That was Cameron Baylor.”

“The youngest of the missing boys?” he asked.

I nodded feeling a little breathless and trying to wrap my head around what I’d seen.

“He was right here. I swear. When I called out to him, he took off running into the woods.”

“Okay. I’ll get a few of my guys to start tracking. Maybe we can pick up his scent.”

I nodded my thanks.

“Go on, Vanessa. Take care of your kids. We’ll find him.”

I nodded, fighting back tears in my eyes. I knew he was right. The afternoon was passing by quickly and I had to get everyone back to the school before parents arrived for pickup.

What I wanted to do was help Bravo find the boys. Instead, I rounded up the children and ushered them onto the bus. Once everyone was accounted for, those parents present were given the option to pick up their child there. Only four chose to do so. Ben was going to take the triplets, but instead heleft them with me and went to help Bravo track down Cameron and with any luck his brothers, too.

I couldn’t wait to get the kids back. As soon as parent pickup was complete, I was going to head out and join the search once more.

Isaac