Page 17 of Thorne's Rose

“Isn’t that what we want?” she asked. “To let the world know that my asshole ex took my daughter. Isn’t that how we’re going to get her back?”

“This many cops on the case will only hold things up. I’ll need to find whoever is in charge and cut through the rest of the red tape.” Thorne knew that time was of the essence if they were going to get an Amber Alert out. “They’ll want to talk to you. Do you think that you can handle that?” he asked.

“I’ll be fine,” she said. “I just want my baby back.”

“We’ll get her back,” Thorne promised. “While you’re answering questions, I’m going to find the right guy to help me get an Amber Alert up. It will help us to find her quickly.”

“Okay,” she said. “I’m sorry that I lashed out at you earlier. I was the one who demanded that I meet with Joe. I should have seen this coming, but I was so focused on getting us back home, that I never imagined that he’d double-cross me and take Sadie. I guess I’m just mad at myself. I shouldn’t have shouted at you.”

“Honey, you can shout at me all you want to. I’m the one who should have seen this coming. I failed you, but I promise that I’ll find Sadie and bring her home to you. Do you trust me?” he asked. Thorne felt as though he was holding his breath waiting for her to give her answer.

Rose nodded, “I do trust you, Thorne,” she assured.

“Thanks for that, honey,” he breathed. “Ready?” he asked.

“As I can be,” she said. He helped Rose out of his truck and disappeared into the hotel room to find Savage after one of the officers started questioning her. He felt awful leaving her alone to face their questions, but he needed Savage’s help to find whoever was in charge of the investigation.

“Hey,” he said, walking into the hotel room. Bowie was sitting on the edge of the bed with Savage next to him, and an EMT was looking over the bloody lump on Bowie’s forehead. “You okay, man?” Thorne asked.

“I will be,” Bowie assured. “I just need a few stitches and then, I’m going to find the asshole who did this to me. I’m so sorry that he got Sadie,” he said.

“This isn’t your fault,” Savage insisted. “We should have seen this coming. I mean, the guy wanted his daughter. It was the perfect way for him to get to her and hurt Rose in the process. We just need to make sure that we get Sadie back from the asshole. Then, we’ll fucking kill him,” Savage added.

“Yeah, that was my idea too, but Rose is against us killing the fucker. I think she believes that justice will be served, but I’m just not sure. First, we have to find him though. Do either of you guys know who’s in charge here?” he asked.

Savage pointed out the door to some guy smoking a cigarette, standing by a police cruiser. “He seems to be the one that they all answer to,” Savage said.

“Good, I’ll be back in a few,” Thorne said. He walked out of the hotel room to find the guy stomping out his cigarette butt on the pavement. “I hear that you’re the one in charge here,” Thorne said.

“Depends on who’s asking and what you want,” the guy said.

“The name is Victor Thorne,” he said, pulling out his wallet to show the guy his CIA credentials.

“I see,” the guy breathed, “what can I do for you Mr. Thorne?” he asked.

“You can help me get an Amber Alert up for Sadie Savage,” he insisted.

“You want to do that?” the guy asked. “She was taken by her father.”

“Right—her father who’s an abusive asshole who has threatened to kill his own daughter and her mother.” He nodded over to where Rose stood, still answering questions.

“I saw the two of you show up here together. Are you with Ms. Savage?” the detective asked.

“I am, and she has evidence to prove that her ex abused her. She’s been living on the run since leaving her ex and she’s ready to press charges against him.” He watched as the detective seemed to think over his options. “You and I both know that once he leaves the state, he’s going to be damn near impossible to track. He attacked a friend of mine to get to his kid. I think that you’d want to find and keep him here in your prison system, since it happened in your state, under your watch.” Yeah, he was hoping that pissing the detective off and playing to his ego might actually help get him moving in the right direction. It was a dangerous game to play, but he really had no other options. The police around there seemed to have one speed—slow motion, and that wasn’t going to help him out at all.

“Fuck off,” the detective grumbled. “I’ll put out a damn Amber Alert, but I’m telling you to steer clear of this investigation.” That wasn’t going to happen, but Thorne would agree to just about anything to get the detective moving.

“I’ll sit this one out,” Thorne lied. “Besides, I won’t put Ms. Savage in danger, and going after her ex would do just that. Thanks for your help, detective,” Thorne said. He turned to head back into the hotel room as the guy pulled his radio from his belt buckle. He called in the Amber Alert and Thorne smiled to himself. They were going to catch the fucker who took Sadie. This gave them a fighting chance and once he could convince Savage to put one of his guys on Rose, to sit on her while he went after Joe, he’d be on his way. There was no fucking way that he’d be sitting this one out—not when his future with Rose was on the line. And it was.

Rose

Rose pacedthe new hotel room that Thorne had lured her into. She had no idea that he planned on dumping her off with a babysitter and going after Joe and Sadie himself. She should have seen the signs. When they got to the hotel, he said that he had forgotten something in his truck and when he was gone for way too long, she opened the door to find one of Savage’s buddies guarding the door to the hotel room.

Of course, she demanded that he let her out of the fucking room so that she could go find her daughter, and he handed her a phone, pushing the button to call Savage. She took the phone and pretended that she was surprised to hear her cousin on the other end of the call, but she wasn’t. He, Thorne, and Bowie had gone after Joe, chasing down leads from the Amber Alert that had been placed for her daughter. Thorne had called in some favors and was being fed all the information by one of his informants. Stomping her foot and shouting at them to circle back to get her, wasn’t her finest moment, but she just didn’t care. She told Savage that it wasn’t fair that she wasn’t involved in looking for her daughter and even threatened to never talk to him again, but she didn’t mean it. Her cousin seemed to know that too because he stood his ground, refusing to let her in on the search for her daughter. And there was no way that she was going to sit around and wait for news about Sadie.

Rose walked over to the room’s only door and opened it, finding Savage’s guy still standing guard. “Um, I need to get some fresh air,” she said. “I’m feeling a bit claustrophobic in here.”

“Savage said that you need to stay put,” the guys said. She could tell that she was going to have to lay on the charm if she was going to win this guy over.