Page 96 of Nanny for the Bodyguard

The curtain is blowing in the wind, revealing that the sliding glass is pulled over. Jade knows better than to leave her window open all night.

My heart is pounding in my chest when I rush up to her bed, yanking back the covers to find them empty. She's not here.

Jade isn't here.

Everything drops out from under me, and I nearly stumble to the floor. Reeling back, I land against the door jam and call out down the hallway for Hazel.

“Hazel! Hazel, get down here right now!”

It's not long before the pounding of her feet is heard in the hallway, and I turn to see her heading towards me with one of my T-shirts pulled over her head.

“What? What's going on?”

“Jade…Jade's not. She'snotin there.”

I can barely think, I can barely breathe, and Hazel rushes into Jade's bedroom, finding the same thing I did.

There's no sign of my niece, and all I can think is that this has to have been him.

This has to have been Neil.

“Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. Maybe she's asleep on the couch or something.”

We tear from the room and rush back downstairs, but after combing through every inch of the house, there is still no sign of her. Jade isn't here.

There's little else to do, so I run back to her bedroom, Hazel hot on my trail.

“I'm so sorry, this is my fault. This is because I'm here. Oh my God.”

“Hazel…it's not…just…we're going to figure this out.”

I run to Jade's bed again and notice something I missed before. On her pillow is a small scrap of paper.

It's been torn from something larger, and in messy handwriting, it says ‘an eye for an eye,’ with the signature of one Neil James beneath it.

If possible, I'm even more of a wreck now, and I slam my fist against the wall.

I have tried for weeks to keep Hazel and Jade safe. It's all I've been doing, and now I'm caught in the middle of wanting to keep Hazel safe and stay here or run off to go find Jade wherever he's taken her.

I have no doubt that with Neil's history, he's going to do something to my niece. He's going to put her through the trafficking ring just like he was going to do to Hazel.

“We need to move quickly. I don't know how fast Neil can pull off stuff like this, but I'm sure time is of the essence. We need to call the authorities now.”

Hazel looks up, her face stained with tears, and then notices the note I’m clutching in my hand, her eyes going even wider.

“What is that?”

Hazel nods at the note in my hand. I haven't shown it to her. I don't know if Iwantto, but she snatches it from my grip and reads it.

Immediately, she bursts into tears, and I can see that she feels horrible for what’s happened. I don't blame her, I don't, but I'm also terrified, and I'm not sure what to do right now.

Walking over to her, I wrap her in my arms. “It's okay. It's okay. We're…gonna figure this out. I need you to breathe for me.”

She’s trembling in my hold, the sobs choking her as she slowly begins to crumble to the floor.

“I did this, I did this.Igot her taken. This is all my fault. If I wasn't here, he wouldn't have done this. Inevershould have gotten you two involved. If something happens to her…

“Nothing is going to happen to her,” I say. But I'm not sure I believe it.