Page 48 of Snowed Inn For Christmas

I nodded, trying to force a smile at her parents as they waited bundled up by the door while Patrick grabbed Daisy’s shirt.He tucked it into the pocket of his hoodie, so Julie didn’t have to see it.Once they left, I took a deep breath and looked at her.

“We need to eat,” I said again, knowing that I also needed to take care of myself.“There are leftovers in the fridge.Why don’t I heat some up?”

Julie nodded, climbing off my lap and wiping her eyes.

I went to the fridge and looked through the options when we heard a ding.I closed the fridge and looked at Julie, who stood at the island, staring at her phone.

Half a second passed before she grabbed it and swiped her fingers along the screen to unlock it.She gasped as her hand covered her mouth, and she stared at the picture.

Joel smiled proudly next to Daisy, who appeared to be sleeping.Her eyes were closed, so it was hard to tell whether she was okay or not.The text came in a few seconds later.

Unknown: Daddy and Daisy’s day of fun!

“You fucking psychopath!”she screamed, slamming the phone down onto the counter before she crumbled to the floor, crying harder as I bent down and held her.

“He has my daughter,” she cried, clutching my t-shirt in her fists.

“I know, baby.We’re going to get her back.I promise.Why don’t you call him and see if you can figure out where he is?”

“Should I do that without asking the police first?”

“I don’t think they’re really going to be able to help with this.They’re already searching the town for her.If we tell them that you got another text message from an unknown number, they probably won’t be able to track it right away.If you call him, he might be so anxious to talk to you that he tells you where they’re at.”

“Do you really think that will work?”

“There’s only one way to find out.”

Thirty-Two

Julie

Istared at the phoneas I sat at the kitchen table, trying to get the courage to speak to Joel.It wasn’t that I wanted to delay finding my daughter.It was that I had so much anger and hatred toward the man that I wanted to rip his fucking throat out.But if I approached him like that, I knew he wouldn’t tell me where Daisy was.Even worse—I worried he would hurt her, just to get back at me.

“Are you ready?”Gage asked, sitting beside me with the phone between us.

I took a deep breath in and exhaled slowly as I nodded.It was now or never.I had to be strong enough to do this because Daisy’s life was on the line.I was hoping he would answer the call, since this was the last phone number he had texted from.The other messages had come from a different phone number, so it was clear he was using burner phones.