“I’m sorry. Listen, I shouldn’t have said that.”
“No, you’re right. You did get me out of my funk, and I appreciate it. I’m sorry I got all weird in the car. Memories, or the lack thereof, sometimes get to me.”
“If you ever want to talk about them, I’m a good listener.”
“I know. But for now, how about we look at the pictures?”
With a single nod, he walked over and sat next to her on the couch, purposely sitting closer than he needed to, because he just wanted to be close to her without being obvious about it. It was like she was a magnet, and he was being drawn to her. Not for the first time, he wanted to know what was going through her head, and if she felt even an iota about him of what he felt about her. Trying to play it cool, he set the album on his knees and opened it up at the beginning and started flipping to find the page with the apartment pictures on it but stopped when her hand came to rest on his, effectively stopping him from moving or breathing.
“What?” he managed to ask.
“I know you need to get back, and I would like to look at them all. These are from the renovations, too?”
“Yeah.” And damn if he wasn’t embarrassed. “Technically, I don’t have to go back to work. It’s my day off. I just need to get moving on a case that I picked up this morning. A thirteen-year-old went missing. Her mother came in this morning, and I overheard her explaining to a cop about her daughter. She was on her way to work at the hospital.”
“Oh, no! What’s her name?” Quinn’s eyes searched his, worry filling them. Ethan realized that Quinn knew so many people in the neighborhood that the Washingtons lived in.
“Kimora Washington.” Her hand flew to her mouth, and she started shaking her head back and forth.
“No, not Kimora. I know their whole family. Her mom, Keisha, helps at the free clinic one weekend a month. Kara knows her, too. Kimora wants to be a doctor, so sometimes she helps her mom at the clinic, as well.”
Shit and double shit. It was bad enough that the young girl was missing, but this made it even more personal. The urge to get going and try to find her was strong. Ever since Kara had gone missing, he had this drive to find every missing girl or boy out there and bring them home. It was so strong that sometimes it consumed him and that was when he put on the cocky swagger as a defense mechanism to protect himself from other people figuring out how much it affected him.
“Go. You need to go; I can see it in your eyes. I can look at these pictures later. There’s no rush, and I’m tired anyway.”
Glancing down at his watch, he was surprised to see it was almost 3 p.m. He still wanted to try to locate the friend that had last seen Kimora. If he found her in time, he might find Kimora, or at least a lead to her. But if she was involved and had gone underground, it would be almost impossible to bring the young girl home to her mom and brother. That scenario was simply unacceptable to Ethan.
“Are you sure? I hate to just drop you off and run out the door.”
“I’m certain. In fact, I would be disappointed in you if you didn’t go and look for her.”
That was all the answer he needed from her. She got it. She understood the maddening drive in him more than just about any person could. Still, he sat and stared in her eyes longer than necessary, before he leaned forward and brushed a hair from her face.
“I have an APB out for her. But, I need to track down her friend. Today, before she disappears on me.”
“Disappears?” Quinn paused a moment, her eyes widening, too smart for her own good. “She’s connected to Becky, isn’t she?”
“I honestly don’t know. What I do know is there are similarities.”
“Then you need to go now. Don’t waste any time with me. I’ll be fine. I can figure out where the bathroom is. Just go, find the friend.”
“I’ll be back with supper. Okay? Any requests?”
“I just really want a cheeseburger and fries. But don’t worry about me. If you get a good lead, run with it, I can find something in your cupboards.”
“Good luck with that. I haven’t had time to shop in about a week. You might find cereal.”
“Good enough for me.”
“But you won’t find any milk.” She just laughed and swatted at his arm.
“Go. I’ll be fine. Like I said, I want to take a nap anyway.”
Even though he hated to leave her, he knew he had to. It was his job to help find Kimora Washington, before she got sucked into the underbelly of a bad world. With a nod of his head, he stood up and walked to the door. He was almost out the door when he looked over his shoulder at her. She looked so tiny and fragile sitting on his huge couch, but he knew better.
“I’m going to dead bolt the door. Other than Kara, I’m the only one who has a key. Get some rest. Hopefully, I’ll be back in a few hours with good news.”
Paulie’s phone ringing startled him out of his thoughts. His single-minded concentration on the task at hand had him distracted and he wasn’t expecting the phone call. But he knew who was on the other end. It was the only person who used that phone as was his rule. Swallowing once, twice, Paulie grimaced as he placed the phone to his ear.
“Hey, boss, what’s up?”
“How’s the assignment going?”
“Not as far on the homework as I wanted to be.”
Paulie chose his words carefully for two reasons. Reason one being, you never knew who was listening, and reason two, he didn’t want to piss off the man on the other end of the phone. No one who pissed off the boss lived to tell about it. Paulie didn’t want to be one of the many that made it into the landfill or buried in some one-thousand-acre forest where some hunter might stumble on his remains one hundred years from now. He liked life too much, even the current horror show he got himself tangled up in.
“What, exactly, does that mean?”
Shit. He sounded mad. Paulie started to shake. Not for the first time, he considered running and never looking back, but he knew that the psycho on the other end of the line would find him. It didn’t matter how long or how far he ran, he would never get out from under him.
“Just that we still only have the one. I need more time.”
“You don’t have more time. The order is for ten, not one, and we need them tonight. The customer will not accept another delay.”
“I can’t fulfill the order tonight. There are too many obstacles in the way to finish the assignment tonight. Not if you want the product willing to go.” It was getting harder to choose the right words. Hopefully no one was listening.
“I could give a shit if the product is willing. I need nine more tonight. No excuses.”
“Sir, with all due respect, I can’t get nine, not from here and not in one night. They’re already watching our operation closely.” The young girl at the warehouse was already all over the news.
“Then branch out. Go to Milwaukee. There’s enough product there to fill the order and then some. Go, now, and get me the rest of my order, and be damn careful. I know things are already hot around here. Make sure to pick what won’t be missed.”
No, shit. Paulie knew all too well how hot things were around here, and he also knew that if they got caught, he would take the blame while the boss walked around scot-free, because he couldn’t rat him out and expect to live past the first day in prison if he told the police who the head of this operation was. If they got caught and he stayed quiet, what could he look forward to? Being someone’s bitch in lock up, that’s what. Unless he turned state’s evidence and demanded witness protection? It seemed like the best option. He didn’t have any family or friends he needed to keep in touch with, and they didn’t take kindly to pedophiles in prison. Even if he wasn’t a pedophile, he was party to selling girls and boys to plenty of people that were.
“Are you listening?”
“Yes, sir. You can count on me. I’ll fill the order tonight.”
Without another word, the bastard hung up, and the line went dead. Maybe witness protection wa
s the way to go. If he took the fall and didn’t say a word, he would be out of the game and have a roof over his head but being semi-free to do what he wanted was better. But, most importantly, he wouldn’t have the sociopath controlling him any longer. He wouldn’t have to run and hide. He would be in plain sight and not have to do the dirty work anymore. Even if he became some guy’s girlfriend, that wouldn’t be so bad. Anything would be better than the mess he got himself into. One mistake, one freaking error in judgment, one moment of weakness with a girl who was just south of sixteen, and he was beholden to one of the evilest people he had ever met in his whole life.
15
Ethan was exhausted. Three hours and he couldn’t find Kimora Washington’s friend. Bridget was a ghost in the wind; she was nowhere to be found, and Ethan was frustrated. As he sat at a red light, he hit his steering wheel with his fist. If there was one thing his job had taught him, it was that time was running out for Kimora. If they didn’t find her soon, they either would never find her, find her dead, or find her with only a semblance of herself remaining. He just couldn’t let that happen. He couldn’t let her be lost or have her life ruined.
The light turned green. When he didn’t notice, a car honked behind him, and he inched forward into the intersection. The car flew around him. He switched on his lights to warn the jerk and then turned them off. In that moment, Ethan wanted nothing more than to be a beat cop again and pull over the arrogant jerk who had just torn by him and give him a ticket, to take out his irritation on the impatient ass. In the next instant, he was grateful that he wasn’t that beat cop, because his anger was not controlled right now. Ethan prided himself on being calm, cool, and collected; while he knew he would never harm a person for merely speeding, he wasn’t sure if given the opportunity he wouldn’t smash in the head of the person who took Kimora, the person who had hurt Quinn, or the one who had hurt Taylor. He’d never gotten the chance at Kara’s abductors. That was probably a good thing. It was disgusting how long the list was of people he wanted to hurt for all the atrocities they had caused. In the end, he knew that wasn’t him, that he would never hurt someone if it wasn’t self-defense. He knew it, didn’t he?
About a block from his house, he realized that he’d forgotten supper for Quinn, so he circled around and headed to his favorite burger place. When he walked in, the bartender, Jonny, nodded at him, and before Ethan was even seated, he had a cold bottle of beer in front of him. He gladly drew a long pull of the beer. On a day like today, he would allow himself a beer. Normally, he didn’t drink much at all. With his job, he never knew if he would get called in, and he had seen too many friends fall victim to the bottle. In their line of work, it wasn’t that hard.
“Rough day?” Jonny asked.
“Could have been better. I need to order a couple cheeseburgers and some fries to go.”
“Hungry?” Jonny’s eyebrow was raised.
“I have a friend convalescing at my place. She’s craving a cheeseburger and fries, just make sure no avocado comes close to it. She has an allergy.”
Jonny laughed and walked away. Knowing the bartender well, Ethan wasn’t sure if he was laughing about the avocado comment or that he was bringing supper home for a woman, but he didn’t give a rat’s ass what Jonny or anyone else thought was going on. Of course, he would also set them straight if they even thought to say something about the integrity of the woman, who was hopefully sleeping on his couch. Which reminded him, when he got home he was going to correct that little error. No way should she be sleeping on his couch when she was still healing. He slammed the last of his beer and stared at the label thinking how good that beer tasted and how badly he wanted another, but before he could act on it, Jonny was back setting a bag on the bar in front of him.
“How much?”
“On the house.”
“Bullshit, how much?”
“Listen, I want to buy the meal for the woman who finally tamed the heart of Casanova. You do know that’s what people call you behind your back, right? Casanova or Cas. Anyway, it’s about damn time someone got your attention.” Before Ethan could muster a response, the gossipy bartender had walked away to help another patron. Was he really that transparent?
Ten minutes later, he was unlocking the door as quietly as possible, hoping not to wake up Quinn if she was sleeping, but when he walked through the door, he saw that she was sitting up and looking through the album of pictures he had left on the table. Her skin still had remnants of the allergic reaction from earlier, but she looked better already.
“Hey, I thought you’d be sleeping.”
“I did for a bit, then some noise woke me up.”
“What noise?” he asked, his teeth on edge.
“Relax, it was just a cat outside. Pretty insistent one, too. I think she wanted in here.”
“Ah, yeah, that would be Cat.” He ran his hand through his hair, embarrassed.
“I realize it was a cat; I just said a cat wanted inside.” She rolled her eyes at him, and he couldn’t stop himself from thinking that she looked adorable.
“No, I mean, her name is Cat.”
“You named the cat Cat? Are you kidding me?”
“No, I mean, yes, I named the cat Cat, and no, I’m not kidding you. Kara dropped the stupid thing off one day. She thought I needed a friend. She gets this big manly dog to bring everywhere and gets me a freaking kitten.” Her answering smile left him conflicted. He felt turned on and embarrassed at the same time. “What are you smiling about?”
“Your sister gave you a kitten, and you named it Cat. That has got to be a first for me. I mean, you could have named her Black Widow or Pepper or something manlier.”
“Are you listing off comic book names?” Now she was blushing, which he liked just as much as the smile.
“You’re missing the point.”
“And what’s your point?” he asked, leaning a hip on the counter while crossing his arms across his chest.
“I don’t know, just that you could have picked any name, and you picked that. Even Socks would have worked. I mean, she has white feet. I find it funny, that’s all. Anyway, I’m glad to know that Cat is your cat.”
“Why is that?”
“Because she wouldn’t shut up, so I let her in. I mean, I saw the litter box when I went to the bathroom, so I assumed she was yours.”
It was then that he noticed that there was a gray ball of fur blending into the blanket that she had wrapped around her. The traitorous beast was curled up, no doubt purring like crazy, next to the woman that he wanted like none other, and all he could do was smile that they were getting along. How lame was that? Then he realized that to let in Cat, she would have had to open the door and go into the hallway to open the front door. That thought made his blood run cold.
“She’s a sweetheart, by the way.”
“You unlocked the door and went into the hallway to let her in? In the shape you’re in?”
“Whoa, easy, Mr. Overprotective. First, I can take care of myself. Even in this shape, I’m not helpless. Second, she was sitting on your porch, so I just opened the window to tell her to quiet down, and she hopped in.”
“Oh, because that makes it so much better, you opened the window and let her in. Did you lock the window when you were done?”
“Yes, I let the cat in through the window. What’s the big deal? Listen, I live in a pretty crappy part of town. Like I said, I can take care of myself just fine.”
“The big deal is that someone tried to run you over yesterday. As in one day ago, as in twenty-four mere hours ago. Self-preservation isn’t a bad thing. I’m just asking you be more cautious.”
“I’m being cautious. I let the cat in, locked the window, which wasn’t locked by the way, and closed the blinds.”
“What do you mean it wasn’t locked?”
“It wasn’t locked. Not hard to interpret that statement. Now that I think about it, why don’t you have a screen on the window? If I wasn’t on drugs, that would have see
med strange earlier. What? Why are you looking like that?”
“Like what?”
“All freaked out and in cop mode.”
“Why? Because I wouldn’t leave my window unlocked. Come to think of it, I don’t remember letting the cat out. Stay here.”
Without a glance back at her, he left the apartment and locked the dead bolt behind him. He wouldn’t put it past her to try to follow him, but he hoped that she was smarter than that. Walking around the front of his porch, he took out the pocket flashlight he carried with him. It was small, but it would do the job. It didn’t take him long to examine the porch and see exactly nothing. The windowsill looked fine; it didn’t look jimmied, but then he didn’t expect it to look out of place. The question was, had he been stupid enough to leave his window unlocked? He had let her in through the window before. With a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach, he went inside.
“Find anything?”
“No, and to answer your question, I removed the screen a week ago. It was warped and needs to be replaced. I haven’t gotten around to doing it. Too busy, and to be honest, I was being lazy. It’s easier to let Cat in through the window when she cries in the middle of the night. She likes to come and go.”
“That is a silly habit to let her get into with winter not so far away.”
“You let her in through the window, too.”
“Well, she was driving me crazy with the meowing at the window, and I didn’t have it in me to walk to the front door.”
Ethan had stupidly forgotten that her body had been put through an ordeal. Looking at her, he obviously couldn’t forget she had been injured, but he forgot that it might be taxing on her to walk that far. Which was dumb on his part. After all, that was the reason he’d brought her to his apartment, wasn’t it? Nope, not entirely. He’d also brought her there so he could keep her safe. So far, he was doing a terrible job of it.
Breaking Shadows (Darkness Falls Book 2) Page 14
