Dangerous Abduction (O'Connor Brothers Book 2) by Rhonda Brewer Page B

ago Aaron, Nick and Mike were habitual flirts.
    “I can’t take Danny in there.” She didn’t know what she had to face and if it was as bad as she was expecting, it would probably scare her son.
    “I’ll stay with the boys, and James can take you through the house.” Aaron opened the door to the truck and had the boys laughing in seconds. James wrapped his arm around her and guided her towards the house. She had a feeling if he wasn’t supporting her, she would be flat on her face.
    Her heart raced as she peered through the front door. The house looked like a tornado had blown through it. Things were thrown everywhere and all she wanted to do was break down in tears. She glanced up at James and he tightened his arm around her.
    “Marina, I know this is hard but you’ve got to see if anything is missing. Just try not to touch anything.”
    She nodded because she couldn’t do anything else.
    In the living room, all her ornaments and trinkets littered the floor with most of them smashed to pieces. Her couch and loveseat were sliced open with the stuffing pulled out and thrown all over the floor. Her television lay on the floor with the screen shattered. Tears filled her eyes and she blinked them back before they spilled over. James must have sensed her distress because he wrapped both arms around her and it gave her the strength she needed to continue through the house.
    She stepped over the mess on the way to her bedroom. Her dressers smashed to pieces and her clothes were everywhere. The picture of Danny she had on her nightstand was face down on the floor and her lamp was in pieces. She didn’t know when the tears started to fall, but they were streaming down her cheeks.
    “I... I... d... don’t think anything is missing but everything is destroyed.” She sobbed as she turned into James’ strong embrace and buried her face into his chest. “W...Why would someone do this?”
    “People are cruel, honey.” James soft voice vibrated into her ear. “Are you sure nothing’s missing?”
    “I can’t be sure, but I don’t think so.” She turned out of his arms and picked up the picture frame that held Danny’s picture. The pieces of glass hit the floor when she turned it over but the picture was not in it. She scanned the floor but it was impossible to tell where it was especially with the mess.
    “Marina, grab some of your things.” She nodded. “I’ll bring you back to John’s.” She picked up some of her clothes from the floor and threw them in an overnight bag. She was afraid to touch anything but took another minute to find Danny’s picture.
    “What are you looking for?” James asked.
    “The picture of Danny that was in this frame. It’s gone.” Marina held up the broken frame.
    “Honey, it’s probably under this mess. We’ll find it when we can get back here and clean everything up.” James took the bag from her hand and wrapped his arm around her shoulder.
    “I know it was there this morning because I knocked it over when I turned off the alarm.” For some reason it gave her an uneasy feeling that she couldn’t find it. It was just a picture but she couldn’t let it go.
    “We’ll find it, but we just can’t touch too much right now.” James guided her out of the room and the tears formed in her eyes again.
    James led her into Danny’s bedroom to grab some things for him as well. His room was not touched. Everything looked the same as it did when she left that morning. She assumed the person that broke in figured they wouldn’t find anything of value in a child’s room. Although nothing seemed to be missing.
    “Shit!” James groaned and Marina’s head snapped up from where she was putting Danny’s things into a bag.
    “What’s wrong?” She glanced around for what had caused his outburst.
    “I just remembered John and Stephanie are gone to the airport.” James picked up a teddy bear that was laying on Danny’s bed and held it up to her. Marina nodded because they