After the door closed behind her, Skye walked down the alley until she reached the Baptist church. All she had to do was get to the other side of the church without being seen, and she’d be at the firehouse. She and Fuzz crossed the alley and skirted around the church. They walked into the firehouse as Parker, driving his fire chief’s vehicle, pulled into a bay.
“Miss Skylar,” Everly yelled after Parker unbuckled her seatbelt. “My daddy picked me up in his fire car and it didn’t have a booster seat, so I got a seatbelt like a big person.”
“Well, aren’t you special?”
“I am.” She beamed. “And I got to leave school before the bell, and I get to come to work with my daddy.” She noticed Fuzz. “Fuzz!” She wrapped her arms around his neck, giggling when he licked her chin. “Is Uncle Tris here, too?”
“Not right now, sweetie,” Skye said. She had to save Tristan. She would not be the reason this little girl got her heart broken.
Parker put his hands on his daughter’s shoulders. “What’s going on, Skylar?”
“Is there someone here who can watch her while we talk?” Everly didn’t need to know her uncle was in trouble.
“Yeah. Wait for me in my office.”
“Make sure you tell your people not to let her out of their sight.”
His lips thinned and his eyes turned cold. “Someone messes with my daughter and it will be the last thing on this earth they do.”
“Who messed with me, Daddy?”
He kneeled in front of her, and those eyes that were ice-cold a second ago turned soft. “No one, baby girl. I’m going to let you play with the guys for a little while.”
“Yay! Can we cook something?”
“I think you can probably talk them into that.”
While Parker took Everly to the back, Skye took Fuzz with her to his office. What if she couldn’t rescue Tristan? She’d had a higher-than-a-kite druggie point a gun at her once. She hadn’t been as scared then as she was now. If she failed to save the man she was in love with, she didn’t know how she’d live with herself. That was if she did manage to live through this.
She’d been so stupid to worry that people would gossip about her. Who cared? She would either keep her job or she wouldn’t, but losing Tristan would devastate her. She wanted to find a bed, climb in, pull the covers over her head, and have a good cry, but she didn’t have the luxury of doing that. Somehow, she had to save her man.
Please, God, don’t let it be too late.
Parker came in, closing the door behind him. “Start talking. Why is my daughter in danger?”
“They have Tristan.”
“Who has him?”
“The drug dealer who thinks I took his money.” She brought up the texts, then handed him her phone.
He grimaced at the picture of Tristan. “The hell? They beat him.”
“Scroll down.”
“I’ll kill them.” He handed her phone back. “No one threatens my daughter. Let’s go.”
“No. You can’t. If they see you, they’ll kill him. I have to do it. You need to stay with Everly. Make sure they don’t get to her.” She blew out a breath. “I don’t know how, but I’ll get him away from them.”
“How much did you supposedly take?”
“I have no idea how much Thomas Grant thinks I stole.”
“Take a guess.”
She shrugged. “It had to be enough for Grant to come looking for it. But we’re wasting time. I need to make a plan.”
“Pay them.”