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The Protector’s Daughter

Page 50

by Susie McIver

Sage Baxter.

Sean Campbell.

Greg Maddox.

At the bottom, Hayley typed one final line.

If anything happens to me, Greg is taking the girls to the Silver Crown Mine.

Sage stops breathing.

Sheriff Vega reaches for her radio.

I look at Taylor, Will, and Arthur.

They’re already moving.

Hayley spent eighteen years searching for our daughter.

Now we know where the men may be taking her.

And this time, I’m bringing her home.

6

HAYLEY

The first thing I feel is pain.

It pulses behind my left eye and spreads across my cheek. My wrists burn. My shoulder throbs from being twisted behind my back.

The second thing I feel is movement.

I’m lying on the floor of a vehicle with my hands bound behind me and my ankles tied together. Every bump throws me against the seat.

Men speak above me.

I keep my eyes closed.

“Navarro wants to know if you found the girl.”

Greg.

I recognize his voice from the recordings my investigator uncovered. Greg Maddox used a different name when he approached girls, but he was careless when he believed no one was looking.

I found three missing girls connected to him.

Sage made four.

“She’s at Campbell’s place,” another man answers. “Mateo’s brother confirmed it before the sheriff took him.”

My heart stops.

Sage is with Sean.

My daughter found him.

Relief crashes through me so powerfully that tears push against my closed eyelids.