Page 208 of Wicked Proposal

Fear grips my heart. For a moment, I’m terrified this will be Kallie all over again. That he’s too hurt, that it’s too late.

But then Reese’s good eye cracks open. “Mia…?”

Relief rushes through me. “I’m here,” I whisper.

Abruptly, Reese sits up. “Eli,” he stammers. “Where—where’s Eli?”

My breathing stops. “What?”

“Tamara,” he says. “She—she wasn’t who we thought she was. She grabbed him. I tried to stop her, I?—”

The fear in my heart grows into dread. “What did she do, Reese? Where’s my son?”

“She took him,” he murmurs. “She must’ve.”

I spring to my feet and rush to Eli’s bedroom. “Eli?!” I call, desperate. “Eli, are you?—?”

But he’s not there.

The bed is empty. The room is empty. I trip on his Garfield plushie on the way back to the living room, abandoned on the cold hard floor. The sight makes my heart sink faster.

I search the rest of the apartment, but he’s nowhere.

Panic grips me. My breaths start coming in short, my vision tunneling.

He’s gone.

He’s gone, gone, GONE?—

“Mia.”

Reese’s voice snaps me out of it. “What?”

“Look at this.”

He’s dragged himself to the counter. His leg is a little wobbly, but aside from that, it looks like his face took the brunt of the injuries. A bad beating—nothing more.

Relief bursts in my heart, but it’s a short reprieve.

He holds something out to me. A piece of paper—a note. The handwriting is girly, curated. Perfect the way Tamara always seemed. But the words…

The words, I recognize.

And they’re not Tamara’s at all.

Did you really thing you could hide him from me forever, sweet thing?

Come to our love nest, or you’ll never see him again.

The world spins.

He’s got him. He’s got my son.

He found him because of me.

“It’s him, isn’t it?” Reese hisses through gritted teeth. “She was working for him. For Brad.”

Brad.