“I never knew my father, and I was always a distant third in my mother’s life, right behind her drugs and her newest boyfriend.” She couldn’t hide the touch of bitterness that crept into her voice.

“Doesn’t sound like the makings of a great childhood,” he said softly.

“It wasn’t.” She stared back out the window, tossed back into painful memories she tried never to access. “It was nothing but fear and uncertainty and one cheap, filthy motel room after another.” She looked back at him. “I promised myself then that if I survived eventually I’d have a place of my own that would never be dirty, a place where nobody could kick me out onto the streets.”

He took another bite of his sandwich and looked around. “Looks like you’ve succeeded.”

She nodded. “It’s taken a long time to get here, but I’m happy where I’m at,” she replied. “But now that somebody has taken my Lilly—”

Emotion clawed up the back of her throat, and she felt as if the darkness outside the window were seeping into her blood, taking over her heart. Just as she thought she’d be swallowed whole, Tom reached across the table and grabbed her hand tight in his.

“We’re doing everything that can be done to find them,” he said. “You have to stay strong. You said you didn’t think Kathy would hurt Lilly. You have to believe that, hang on to that.”

She squeezed his hand and nodded. “I do believe that. She was good with Lilly.” She released a sigh. “Maybe she can’t have children of her own. Maybe she only befriended me because she wanted Lilly.”

He released her hand and leaned back in his chair. “If that’s the case, then somebody in her life will realize she suddenly has a baby. She can’t stay underground forever. Somewhere somebody is going to see her and Lilly and make a phone call.”

“You sound so optimistic,” she said.

He smiled then. It was the first real smile she’d seen on his face, and it was a nice one. It softened the sternness and deepened the warmth of his eyes. “I’m generally an optimist. I’d rather think on the positive side unless I have a reason to think otherwise.”

“What’s positive about all this?” she asked, needing something, anything to hang on to.

“It’s encouraging to me that she didn’t kill you. According to you, you blacked out and you aren’t sure how long you were out. She would have had a perfect opportunity to kill you then, but she didn’t. I’d rather be chasing a kidnapper than a killer.”

He got up from the table and walked over to the coffeemaker. For a big man he moved with an innate grace, as if perfectly comfortable in his own skin. He picked up the coffee carafe and carried it to the table.

“No more for me,” she said. He filled his cup, then returned the pot to the machine and once again sat down across from her.

“Your brother doesn’t believe my story about Kathy, about anything I said,” she said. “He thinks I did something to Lilly.” The very idea threatened to squeeze the breath from her lungs.

Once again a small smile raced across his features. “Caleb is the cynic in the family. Half the time he doesn’t believe anything I tell him.”

“Tell me about the rest of your family.” She needed something to take her mind off the ticking of the clock, off the deepening of the night and the fact that her baby girl wasn’t in her crib where she belonged.

“I’m the eldest. I’m thirty-six. Jacob is next. He’s thirty-four. He’s the only one of us who didn’t hang around Black Rock. Instead of joining the sheriff’s department like all of us did, he became an FBI agent, working out of the Kansas City field office. A little over a month ago he quit his job and came back to Black Rock. He’s been staying in a little cottage we have on the ranch property.” A deep frown furrowed his forehead and he glanced out the window as if in deep thought.

“You’re worried about him,” Peyton said softly.

His gaze shot back to her. “Yeah, I guess I am. He hasn’t told any of us what brought him home. He refuses to leave the cottage and has become a recluse.” He shrugged. “I guess he’ll tell us what’s going on when the time is right.”

“And what about the others? Benjamin seemed very kind.”

“Benjamin is the softie of the family. Even when he was a kid he was trying to save the whales, adopt a pet, sponsor a starving child or whatever to help. Besides being a terrific deputy he also runs the family ranch on the northern edge of town.”

“And you mentioned a sister?”

This time his smile was full of fond indulgence. “Brittany, she’s twenty-four and the baby of the family. She’s also a deputy.”

“What about your parents? You haven’t mentioned them.”

“They died six years ago in a private plane crash. They were adventure junkies. The minute we were all old enough to take care of ourselves, they disappeared to one exotic location or another. The end result was that it made us kids closer than most big broods. What about your mother? Where is she now?”

“She died in prison when I was eighteen. I was thirteen when she was arrested for manufacturing meth. She went to prison and I went into the foster care system. Unfortunately, I wasn’t one of their success stories, and when I turned sixteen I ran away.”

She couldn’t believe she was telling him all this. Usually she was reticent to share the details of her ugly past with anyone. She hadn’t even told Rick much about her childhood.

Maybe it was because it was dark and the middle of the night and she was feeling especially vulnerable. Or perhaps it was because his eyes were soft and without judgment and there was a solidness about him that made her think she could tell him anything.

“Sounds like things haven’t been easy for you,” he said.

She shrugged. “They say what doesn’t kill you makes you strong.” The darkness that she’d tried to push away all night suddenly slammed into her. An unexpected sob caught in the back of her throat.

“If anything happens to Lilly, it won’t make me strong,” she exclaimed. “It will kill me, Tom. It will honestly kill me.”

As she began to cry once again he stood and pulled her back into his arms. This time his embrace not only felt welcomed, but familiar. She leaned into him, absorbing the strength she instinctively knew he possessed.

If she could just get through this night, then surely Lilly would come home. All she had to do was get through the agonizing long, dark night.

It was four in the morning when Peyton finally fell into an exhausted sleep in a chair in the living room. Tom considered moving her to her bedroom but was afraid in rousing her she would never go back to sleep, and she needed to sleep.

So did he.

When he was sure she was down for the count, he called Benjamin to come and sit with her so Tom could head home for a couple hours of sleep.

As he waited for Benjamin to arrive, he thought of everything that had been done so far in an effort to find Kathy Simon and the missing baby. Throughout the evening there had been a steady influx of deputies checking in to tell him what had been accomplished.

The sketch and picture of Lilly had gone over the wire services, the AMBER Alert was in effect and everything that could be done was being done. Now it was just a matter of time.

He met Benjamin at the front door and motioned him into the kitchen. “Hopefully she’ll sleep for a couple of hours.”

Benjamin nodded. “And hopefully in the next couple of hours we’ll start getting some phone calls that will lead us to the baby.”

“I’m going to catch an hour or two of sleep then head into the office and coordinate things. I’ll try to be back here by noon.”

“You okay?” Benjamin asked, his brow furrowed with concern. “I know this one must be tough for you.”

“No tougher than any other,” Tom replied curtly. There was no way he’d admit to his brother that for just a moment, as he’d looked at the photograph of Lilly, he’d remembered another little girl and an unexpected knife had pierced through his heart.