title: Emergency!
author:  Gail Gibbons 
description: Gail Gibbons "has taught more preschoolers and early readers about the world than any other children's writer-illustrator," according to the Washington Post. Winner of the 2010 Regina Award, she has written and illustrated more than fifty books for Holiday House. She lives in Corinth, Vermont.
zlib_text: ![](Images/image00130.jpeg)
  
  _**Aubrey leaned into Matt.**_
  
  “Is there anything else we can do right now? An abandoned building we can
  stake out? A contact we can lean on for information?”
  
  Matt chuckled. “You don’t give up, do you?”
  
  “Not when a little girl’s life is at risk.”
  
  “I’m not giving up, either.” He brushed his thumb over her cheek. “But after
  what happened this morning and now at the gas station, I’m afraid to take you
  with me. I’d feel much better if you stayed at the ranch.”
  
  Aubrey was shaking her head. “I can’t. I don’t want to leave any stone
  unturned. Everyone working on this has a different perspective. We see
  different possibilities. If I’m not there, what I might have seen in a
  situation could be the one thing that leads us to the kidnappers.”
  
  “You have a point,” Matt sighed. “I don’t like that you aren’t safely tucked
  away at the ranch, but you have a point.”
  
  He lowered his head and captured her mouth with his in a brief kiss.
  
   **HIDEOUT AT WHISKEY GULCH**
  
   _ 