“Let her stay with us.” Kyle stepped in. “I’m sure your grandparents are awesome, but I know Sam would love a sleepover.” He looked up at my sister. “Right, babe?”
“Absolutely.” She came in right on cue. “You can stay with us and tomorrow I can take you shopping for your own makeup set—just for playdates, that is. What do you say?”
Piper bounced up, like a loose spring, clapping her hands. “Ohmigodthisisgoingtobesomuchfun!” She took a breath and clasped her dad’s hands as he and Kyle got back on their feet. “Is that okay?”
“Sounds good. Go get your stuff together and we’ll pack a bag back home.”
Squealing, she tore down the hall, completely unaware of the tension in the room. As soon as we all heard her in the other side of the house, the vibe was definitely “game on”.
“What the hell did that note say?”
I was amazed how Kyle went from seemingly carefree uncle to revved-up and pissed-off friend, looking about ready to tear someone in half.
“It was a message from the dirtbags linked to Schiller, threatening to ‘off’ me and everyone I care about if the Order doesn’t back off. The fuckers said they’d spare Pipe though, ’cause she’d be perfect for their sick pedophilia ring,” Max bit out, his frame already vibrating with a contained fury, looking like his mind was already going a million miles a minute. “We knew he liked rough trade and, in order to get that fix without consequences, he migrated toward foreign prostitutes. We also learned he had elevated his role and became a minor player in the one of the larger human trafficking rings here in the DC area. The Order’s been hell-bent on dismantling the entire ring, and I’m thinking this message is blowback from that.”
I grabbed onto one of the chairs because I felt like my legs were being kicked out from under me. I was already piecing together information that he didn’t say: if his own daughter was being threatened, that meant his role in the Order was a lot more active than he had led me to believe. My sister’s worried gaze met mine, and without a word, I knew what she was thinking: we were all in danger.
He took out his cell and hit a button. “Tex? Yeah, they made a move through my daughter… Sent a message in her fuckin’ trick-or-treat bag… Yeah, already being handled. Right.” He hit the button again and shoved the phone into his back pocket.
“I’m going to take Pipe back home to pack a bag for a couple of days. I’m also going to arrange for an extra man to be there.”
Kyle noticeably bristled. “Is that really necessary? We live in a high-rise with twenty-four-hour security and a floor all to ourselves.”
“That doll wasn’t in the bag from the neighborhood trick-or-treating,” Max informed him. “It came from the bag from that kid’s party, which means those fuckers somehow got in and out of a houseful of kids with adults present—including you two—without being detected. That’s not on you, but you need to realize what we’re dealing with.”
“Okay, I think I got everything!” Piper yelled while skipping down the hall.
“Right.” Max tussled her hair. Then he turned his attention to me, putting his hand on the curve of my neck, rubbing the pad of his thumb back and forth under my jaw.
“I want you packing a bag too, babe,” he directed. “This place isn’t secure enough either.”
I had expected that, so I gave him a nod. “Where are you going to be?”
His eyes flickered over to Piper and back, the green turning darker right in front of me. “Hunting.”
Chapter Ten
He was gone for five days.
Five days and nights, without any communication with me.
He made sure we settled into Kyle’s condo, left word with his family and Piper’s school, saying they were going “out of town”, stationed Tex from the Order at the door, and then vanished.
Tex told us “no word means he’s underground”. Kyle and Samantha seemed to take the news in stride, going about their business, while Piper and I remained in limbo. No routine and no access to any other information.
Piper was in vacation mode for the first couple of days, but that wore off as the days dragged on. She was a bright girl and she was able to figure out quickly enough that something was up, that we weren’t really on “vacation”, especially since we weren’t allowed out of the condo. And even though she was calling them Aunt Samantha and Uncle Kyle, day in and day out, it was me she turned to for comfort, for assurances I shouldn’t have given, but I did.
It wasn’t a hardship. I loved her. But that didn’t mean I wasn’t furious with her dad.
“Are you good with figuring out numbers?” she asked while curling into me on the pullout sofa bed. It was the fourth night away from home. My arms cradled her head as I absentmindedly stroked her hair.
“Pretty good,” I answered. “It depends on what kind of math you mean. Why?”
Her breath rhythmically warmed my forearm. “I was just curious about the probability of a kid losing both her parents in less than two years, from two different situations.”
Damn, I thought. I had hoped I was doing a good enough job of keeping her calm, but I was blowing it. I was out of my depth here.
She rushed the rest of her words. “I’m so sorry, Ms. Jessica. I forgot that you lost your parents in that car accident. I didn’t mean to bring up—”
“Shh.” I rubbed her back, trying to soothe her while at the same time silently cursing Max’s name for putting Piper in this position. “I understand. It’s okay to bring up my folks, sweetie. It’s good to talk about people we have loved and lost. But your dad’s just away for work. He’s fine.”
Her little body tensed next to me. “I know you’re trying to make me feel better, but don’t…don’t be like all the other adults I know who lie.”
I swallowed. “You’re right, Piper. I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not,” I said, letting her words soak in. “What tipped you off?”
“Huh?”
“What gave it away, that your dad wasn’t just doing something for the shop?”
“When it’s for the shop, he’s only gone for two days, tops, and he usually takes me with him,” she explained. “He saw that messed-up doll in my candy bag and he got the same look on his face he gets when he goes off with Tex and others from his ‘riding club’. But I know they don’t just ride. They’re always whispering or going outside to the backyard to talk—and it’s never about anything happy. I don’t know what they do, but I do know sometimes he comes back with bad bruises or some scrapes. They’re never too bad and he tells me they’re nothing, but I’m not dumb and I may still be a kid, but I know he’s doing something dangerous.”
“Sometimes I wish you weren’t so smart.”
“Really?”
“No, I just wish…” I sighed. “I don’t know what I wish, Piper. You’re right, though. Your dad sometimes is in some not-so-safe situations. But he does it for good reasons. He’s trying to make things right, give a small piece of justice to those who haven’t seen any in a long time, if ever.”
She nodded as she took in a shaky inhale of breath. “I miss my mom,” she choked out. “I miss her so much.”
I hugged her tight, wishing I could squeeze out all her hurt and fears. “Of course you do, honey. And I bet your dad will be coming back real soon.”
Piper sat up and stared at me, tears right on the edges of her long blonde lashes. “But you can’t know for sure. You can’t promise me he’s going to be okay.”
Damn him! “No, I can’t, but I’m here and I’m not going anywhere. I love you and that’s a promise and that’s forever.”
Her eyes widened. “You do?”
“Of course I do, Piper. You and me are like broccoli and cheese, different but going together perfectly.”
She let out a snort and rubbed the unshed tears from her eyes.
“That’s funny. And it’s true too.”
“You bet it is,” I reassured her while studying her expression. “Feel a little better?”
“Yeah, I do,” she said and then yawned wide.
“Let’s get some sleep, okay?”
She nodded and plopped her head on the pillow next to me. She was asleep in less than five minutes. I watched her breathing even out, her chest rising and falling, and, after a while, the eyes behind her lids darted back and forth, busy with dreams I prayed soothed her. Because I found little sleep, no solace, nothing but the wrenching pull between scalding fury and an icy, gripping fear.
Chapter Eleven
“Didn’t think you’d be up this early, Gingersnap.”
The sun was just starting to rise and I was out on the condo balcony, my forearms leaning on the railing, slowly nursing a cup of coffee that I couldn’t even taste. I had heard the door behind me slide open and I knew, without even turning around, it was Max.
But of course I did turn around. I had missed him and not just the way you miss someone you care about. I missed him deep, my longing crawling under my skin and burrowing into the pliant marrow of my bones. I was in love with Max. I was also ready to rip him a new one, I was that angry, but once I saw him, my fury had to compete with my need to touch him again.
My body had a mission that completely ignored the rage inside my brain, because without even fully realizing it, my coffee mug dropped out of my hand onto the balcony’s concrete floor, and I flung myself into his open arms. Max wrapped himself around me, like a vise, with one of his hands cradling the back of my head while he planted his face into the curve of my neck.
“Goddamn, it’s good to see you,” he groaned into my skin. “Five days felt like five fuckin’ years.”
An unexpected sob rose in my throat, and I felt the tears prick my eyes. “I know. For me too.”
He breathed a sigh of relief and squeezed me even tighter, if that were possible, while lifting me off the ground. Still in my pajamas, a robe, and slippers, I curled my legs around his waist, unable to get close enough.
“I got you, Jess. I’ve got you.” His lips kissed and scraped my skin. They were badly chapped. I grabbed him by the back of his hair and pulled so I could see his face. Then I ran my fingertips across his bottom lip.
“You’re dehydrated, Max,” I told him as my eyes scanned the rest of him. There wasn’t a scratch on him, but he had dark circles, the color of bruises, under his eyes and the lines had deepened. He had aged in only five days, still beautiful, but I could tell whatever happened during his time away had been really something.
“Did you get them, at least?”
His jaw locked and the muscles ticked and pulsed. “I got ’em.”
All the tension left my body, and I rested my forehead on his. “Oh thank God. Now maybe we can—”
“This shit’s not over though,” he interrupted, now putting me down on my feet and holding my face in the palms of his warm hands. “We’ve got to talk. Can you give me one more day from work? I’d like to get Pipe off to school and us back home to regroup.”
Because Halloween had fallen on a weekend this year, coupled with the end of the second quarter, I had lucked out and only needed to call in “sick” for one day out of the five he’d been gone. But that’s not what had gotten me angry before. Hearing this whole thing wasn’t done brought it back up from simmering to full boil. I opened my mouth to say something, but then I heard the sliding glass door open, and Piper barreling toward us.
“Daddy!” Piper yelled, making Max’s whole being melt into a big smile and my shoulders tense, because I could tell he couldn’t hear the underlying panic in her boisterous greeting or see the slight tremble in her bottom lip as her eyes went wide over the sight of him. He just turned around and scooped her up.
“There’s my girl.” He seemed to exhale in relief. “I think you grew some while I was gone.”
She rolled her eyes and let out one of her classic snort-laughs. “Daaaad,” she dragged out. “You weren’t gone that long! I haven’t changed at all.”
“Well, you’re still a sight for sore eyes.”
She furrowed her brows. “You’re the one with the sore eyes. You look like you haven’t slept in days!”
Max eyeballed me for a second, his expression turning somber. Piper visibly shivered in his arms. “It’s too cold out here for you.” He turned his head in my direction. “For both of you. Let’s go in.” With her sitting on his hip, like she was a toddler, he walked back inside and I followed.
The next couple of hours were a blur as we said our goodbyes, thanked my sister and Kyle, then piled into Max’s truck and headed home. As I expected, Piper protested having to go to school, especially when she realized I wasn’t going. But she finally relented when he promised her a father-daughter date that night.
As I sat in his living room, watching him walking back up the steps to his house after dropping her off, I was still wrestling with myself on what to say. Parts of me wanted to be the loving, supportive girlfriend I knew he needed, to absorb all that happened and prove I could take the heat of his life and remain unscathed. My stubborn streak had also flared up upon seeing Samantha’s “I told you so” expression before leaving and even though I knew he meant well, I wanted to smack the concerned look off of Kyle’s face too. They both still believed I was too “delicate” to be with a man like Max, and I wanted to prove to them how wrong they were about me.
The problem was, this wasn’t just about me.
He shrugged off his leather jacket and threw it on one of the chairs as he strode across the room to me. He sank down into the couch, rubbing his hands vigorously up and down his face, then scratching his scalp with the same force before leaning his elbows to his knees, letting his head hang down.
“You’re beyond exhausted, aren’t you?” I leaned over and scratched his back.
“That feels good.” He groaned as he lifted up his shirt, exposing the broad expanse of his back. I scored his skin with my nails, drawing circles and lines; trails of dark pink were left behind.
“You want to take a nap before we talk?”
He shook his head and straightened, only to then lean his bulk into my lap as he snaked his arms around my waist. Without thinking I was already playing with his hair as he rested his head on my thighs.
“All right, so talk to me. Tell me what’s happening.”
“It’s bad, Jess. This shit goes so deep…the minute I saw that goddamn doll, I knew exactly who had done it and why, but I didn’t think their organization had grown that fast. They’re entrenched in this area.”
I felt my blood race and grow cold all at once. “What does this all mean?”
He sat up, no longer looking as if he was going to fall asleep midsentence. No, my man was getting keyed up. But what was worse was, just under the surface of his determination and anger, I saw the anguish in his eyes.
“Tell me. I can take it.”
His gaze met mine, as if he was seeing me for the first time since he had walked into the house. “I know you can. You’re the strongest woman I’ve ever met.”
Anything scared or frozen inside melted because he saw me. All of me.
A darkness of some kind shadowed his face, though. “The doll is the calling card of the Blood Alliance, a smaller human trafficking outfit part of a larger heroin cartel called the Golden Triangle, based in Southeast Asia, with a stronghold here in the DC area. They give out dolls to little girls they’re grooming or to the remaining family members when they’ve sold a daughter into what they think is domestic service but is actually prostitution. At first, I thought the message related to the Order’s involvement in Derek Schiller’s ‘disappearance’, but while losing him was an annoyance, he wasn’t enough of a player to affect their operation.”
“So then…why? I don’t understand.”
/> “The Order has made it priority number one to get the Blood Alliance out of DC. So much so, we’ve partnered with several branches of state and federal law enforcement to make this happen. Even though I haven’t been as involved as I used to be, it doesn’t matter. They’ve targeted every member of the Order that they know of, and they’re doing it through our kids.
“I hunted down the pieces of shit responsible for placing that doll in my girl’s bag and they’re breathing through tubes right now. So yeah, I got ’em, but I didn’t, because in their place will be another couple of roaches tomorrow. We’ve got to cut this shit off at the heart of the beast and that’s going to take everything we’ve got in order to get it done.”
“And what about me? Even more important, what about Piper?”
I could see his throat contract as he swallowed, but he didn’t answer and, for some reason, that just pissed me off even further than I had been before. I shoved my fingers through my hair and pulled at the roots, needing a bite of the pain to ground me.
“What would you have me do?” he bit out while bouncing out of his seat, pacing back and forth. “Ignore what I’ve seen and let other women and children continue to be victimized? If you love me at all, you won’t ask that of me. You’d know the kind of man I am and know I can’t do that.”
“I do love you, Max.” I was trying, with everything I had, to keep myself from crying. “I’m so in love with you that I wonder how I’m going to be able to keep my heart beating if something ever happens to you.” I wrapped my arms around myself and cast my head down, afraid to see his face as I talked. “I love you so much that I fought the only family I have in order to stand by your side. The way I feel for you? It scares me, Max.”
He stalked across the room and knelt down in front of me, cradling my head in his hands, making me look right at him. “Don’t be afraid to love me, Jess,” he growled. “I’m here and I’m not going anywhere.”
Girl Breaker Page 13
