by Hadley Quinn
She kind of scoffed. “Scarlett told me not to trust anyone. She said the exact same thing that you just did.”
He groaned to himself.
“Are you really an MMA fighter?” she asked.
He looked at her carefully. “What do you mean? That’s pretty random.”
“Well it’s just weird ‘cause you work out at the gym and everything, but apparently you don’t actually do any real fights. Why not?”
He shrugged. “Personal reasons. It’s not a good idea.”
“Tell me why.” She came across the room and sat on the couch, tucking her legs underneath her. “Tell me why and I’ll tell you about Scarlett. If you want me to trust you, you need to prove to me it’s a good idea.”
“Your brother telling you it’s a good idea isn’t enough?”
“No,” she shook her head adamantly. “I need to feel these things for myself.”
Well he could respect that. For some reason it was the only thing she probably could have said to him at that moment that would convince him to meet in the middle. He depended a lot on gut feelings these days.
He sat on the opposite couch. “I’m not sure what I have to say is interesting to hear,” he told her honestly. “I just don’t talk about it.”
“Well I’ve never told anyone about my daughter,” she countered. “Makes me feel pretty awful because I barely know you and now you know the most heartbreaking part of my life. I can handle Van knowing because he’s my brother, but you… I’m not so sure.”
“Fair enough.”
Because she only responded by raising her eyebrows like she was waiting for him to continue, he took a moment to choose his words. He thought back to the time when he was younger, still trying to find his way.
“Both my parents died when I was fifteen,” he began. “I don’t remember much about my childhood before that for some reason. I was sent to live with my aunt, but she pretty much disregarded any questions I had about them. She didn’t seem to know my mom that well, either. It frustrated me…pissed me off…angered me. I took my emotions out in the octagon, even participating in fights that held no rules.”
He examined Leah’s reaction so far. She seemed intent on listening, but there were questions already brewing.
“Illegal fighting?” she asked. “Like the underground kind?”
He slowly nodded. “Yeah.”
“How long were you in it?”
“Just a few months.”
She paused for several seconds. “So how bad was it?”
He studied her for a moment before he answered. She seemed to genuinely want to know.
“Some of them were pretty brutal. I actually don’t remember much of it. My mind went to dark places and it was like I just blacked out sometimes as I beat the shit out of my opponents. It was the only place I felt it was okay to let that happen. Totally against everything I’d been taught, but it was my only outlet at the time.”
This wasn’t something Cole wasn’t used to talking about. He never shared this part of his life and never thought he would. It was forced, though. Maybe he was supposed to get this shit off his chest at some point, but this time he was doing it to get information out of someone.
“I’m sorry,” she finally said. “I can’t imagine what that was like. Did you… Well, how did you get out of it? I’m picturing them locking you up in a cage and releasing you now and then for a fight. Is that seriously what it was like?”
“No, nothing like that,” he answered, amused by the look on her face. “It was my choice; I made money that way.”
She shook her head in thought. “So how did you get out of all that?”
“I finally walked away,” he answered casually. “I already had a job in construction and found an actual gym to train in again. I was seventeen, almost eighteen.”
She barely nodded, remaining silent for half a minute. Cole was seriously hoping she was getting ready to tell him something, anything, so he gave her the time to think. He was done talking about his own life with her.
“My mom was murdered,” she finally said. “But you already know that, I’m sure. My dad claimed it was self-defense but he was an abusive piece of shit, so why would anyone believe that? I went to visit him once at the prison—after I turned eighteen, before I left town. It didn’t even seem like he wanted me there. He seemed cold and…bitter. I guess prison can do that, but it wasn’t anything different than how he’d always been with us. It seemed like he was trying to get rid of me, agreeing that I should leave with Alex and start over. And before I left that day, he swore to me that my mom’s death was an accident. I guess I still don’t know the truth. It’s something that’s always confused me.”
Cole nodded. “And you really haven’t heard anything from Alex since he left Virginia?” he asked carefully. He had to. Hopefully if she’d been lying to him to protect Alex, maybe now she would come clean. Maybe their little get-to-know-you session had done some good.
The look on her face was of agitation. “No, I have not seen or heard from him,” she answered firmly. “I swear to you. The last I knew, he went to his father’s funeral. Now he’s missing. I can only imagine the worst.”
“So…you think he’s dead,” he stated more than asked.
Leah swallowed but she didn’t answer him. There was one thing he couldn’t be sure of and that was how she really felt about that thought.
“Were you two still close?” he asked.
For some reason, it took her a long time to answer. After almost a minute, she nodded slightly. “I guess at one point we were. We talked about getting married. He wanted to close up some things with his dad and then we were going to move somewhere. We hadn’t decided where, and I was still thinking about it.”
“You guess you were close?” he asked.
She sighed and rubbed her face with frustration. “It’s hard to explain. Alex was—is—an important part of my life. I basically had nowhere to go when I left foster care and he promised he would help me start a new life. He even paid for me to go to cosmetology school like I’d always wanted to do. I was very grateful. Then he wanted to get married, but I said we should wait. I barely knew who I even was at that point.
“He seemed a bit put off at the time, and sort of pushy, but I just took it as meaning he loved me and wanted a life with me. He eventually said he would wait as long as it took. I don’t really feel the same way about him, but I do care about what happens to him. And to answer your question, yes, I think he’s either laying low or something happened to him. He wouldn’t have disappeared like that.”
“Are you sure?”
She narrowed her eyes at him but didn’t answer. She looked away like she was done dealing with the topic for now, but Cole wasn’t ready to dismiss it entirely.
“Now…tell me about Scarlett.”
Leah made eye contact again. The worry on her face returned which meant only one thing: she still didn’t trust him.
“She’s just a friend. I swear. I don’t know much more about her.”
“You’re my only priority in this entire thing,” he reminded her. “I’m not using you to work my own agenda. There is nothing in this for me.”
“I know that.”
“Do you?” he asked firmly.
She stared at the floor for a few seconds before looking up again. “I want to believe that.”
All he could do was nod. This was becoming way more than just gaining someone’s trust for information. He didn’t want it to come to it, but if Leah didn’t open up to him, he would have to drop the friendly courtesy.
And she wasn’t going to like him when he did.
She stood from the couch. “I think I really am gonna hang out with Cody for a bit,” she announced.
Cole watched her walk out the door and shut it without glancing back.
Chapter Fourteen
By the time Leah returned to Cole’s apartment, he’d finally got the radiator working again. He’d also made a few decisions about her ca
se and the most pressing matter had been to contact his friend at the police department. Little Emilia Denton’s wellbeing had been weighing on his mind and he felt making the authorities aware of the situation was the right thing to do.
He was no longer going to let Leah influence him on what he knew to be a reasonable choice professionally.
Before he could take a different approach with Leah, Van showed up at his apartment. He had a bag of groceries in each arm and Dani was right behind him with baby Violet in her arms, half asleep.
“I know how you are with food in your apartment,” Dani told him with a smile. “Or lack of, rather.”
“Oh my God, you’re a saint,” Leah exclaimed, hopping off the couch to rifle through the bags Van was setting on the kitchen counter.
“Aren’t you eating?” Van asked her, looking at Cole for good measure.
“Oh sure,” she answered with a smile. “I had half a bag of Doritos at Cody’s an hour ago.” She, too, gave Cole a murky stare.
Being a domestic god was not Cole’s strong point, but instead of defending himself with the shit ton of worry on his mind, he only shrugged.
Dani and Leah seemed to go straight into chef mode in the kitchen after Van took the baby, so the two men sat down in the living room together.
Cole shut off the television that had been on. “So what brings you to the Block?” He knew Van was there to check on Leah, but it was more of a conversation starter.
“The more I think about it, the more I worry about the little girl,” Van said in a quiet voice.
“I know, which is why I did something about it,” Cole nodded. “I don’t want anything to happen to that family so I made a phone call.”
Van seemed relieved when he exhaled. “Okay, good. Whatever the fuck is going on, even though it’s in Leah’s past and she insists it stays there, I don’t want another family ripped apart.”
“Me neither. My buddy at the department is making a call to Somerville PD. Maybe whatever’s going on can get figured out that way and we won’t have anything to worry about.”
He’d said the words, but he didn’t truly believe them. He never completely disregarded his motto—expect the unexpected—and he could feel there was something dark in the works.
He was definitely expecting the worst.
Thirty minutes later his apartment was filled with the smell of spaghetti sauce and garlic bread. He sat down with the Kemps to enjoy a home cooked meal just as his phone rang with a call from his connection at the police department.
“I don’t know how you knew or what you know, but I’m getting questioned out the ass right now,” Barry complained to him.
Cole took the call to his bedroom and shut the door. “What do you mean? Why would anyone care that you were given a head’s up to be cautious?”
“She’s already gone, Cole. The kid. Was taken right from the mom’s mini van on their way home from preschool.”
Cole’s guts turned to ice. “You’re serious? Today?”
“Yeah, about two hours ago.”
Cole glanced at his watch. It was now after five.
“I’ve been on the phone for the past hour dealing with this shit. What the hell is going on?” Barry demanded
“I don’t really know, to be honest. I’m still trying to figure out what’s—”
“You get your ass down here and fill me in. You owe me. I did you a favor and now you’re gonna do me a favor.”
“Yeah, okay,” Cole nodded. He finished up the call as he got himself ready to leave, his mind spinning a thousand miles a second. He dreaded this particular step. It wasn’t that he hated working with cops—he’d done so plenty of times in the past—but he was extremely disheartened that it had come to this.
“What’s going on, Cole? Is everything okay?” Dani’s concern was genuine but he didn’t have time to dwell on it. He’d just come from the bedroom and was grabbing his keys from the end table.
“Just work stuff. I’ll be back in a bit.”
He swung the door open to leave, only to face Scarlett with her arm raised to knock. Really fucking great. He had a feeling she was going to piss him off again.
She glanced past him at the guests in his apartment, focusing on Leah in particular. Leah returned the same look as she stood from the table, and faced with the decision to head out at that moment or throw everything he had into the fire at once, Cole decided on the latter.
He grabbed Scarlett’s arm and pulled her into the apartment.
“Hey—”
“Shut the fuck up,” he told her, slamming the door behind them. “I want answers and I want them now. I’m already piecing this together but you’d better give me what I need before things get really ugly.”
“What is going on?” Leah asked, coming across the room to step between them.
“This doesn’t involve you,” Cole told her.
“Why the hell not? You’re manhandling my friend! What gives you the right?”
“Leah, back off,” Van warned her as he joined them. He tugged on her arm and she took a few steps away, but she still looked furious.
Cole stared Scarlett straight in the eyes and said, “Tell me now.”
“I don’t owe you jack shit,” she smirked back at him.
He wasted no time pressing redial on his phone, and when Barry answered after the first ring, Cole said, “I have a suspect you need to take into custody.”
“Where? Who?”
“My apartment. Just come get her out of my life.” He hung up and dropped his phone into his pocket, not caring that Scarlett’s smug smile was still plastered on her face. He didn’t care if she was a goddamn undercover cop or not. This shit had gone way too far.
“What in the hell do you think you’re doing?” Leah yelled at him, coming to Scarlett’s side. “A suspect? Are you fucking kidding me? A suspect in what? What the hell is going on? Why are you being such a fucking prick,” she growled at him.
“Leah,” Van tried to intercede.
“You want to know why I’m being a prick?” Cole retorted. “Because it’s my job to be a prick right now. I don’t care if I’m being a ‘meanie pants’ and I don’t give a fuck if anyone likes me right now, but she can’t be trusted,” he pointed to Scarlett. “You don’t have to believe me right now because I don’t care. It’d make things a whole lot easier if you did, but I don’t have that luxury right now. Pull your head out of your ass and realize you’ve been played, Leah.”
Well if she wasn’t already pissed off before, that nearly sent her through the roof. “How dare you!” she screamed at him.
“How dare I what? How dare I be honest with you? How dare I cut through the bullshit and speak my mind? I told you from the beginning, I have absolutely nothing at stake here. This is your life I’ve been trying to help, Leah. I could just walk away and go back to sunny California for all I fucking care. But this shit was thrown in my face first. I didn’t ask to be involved in this.”
“Then I’m telling you to get the hell out of my life,” she snapped at him. “Seriously, just leave me the fuck alone!”
A knock pounded on the door and without even checking, Cole hollered, “It’s okay, Cody.”
“You sure, man?” his voice came from the other side of the door. “I can hear a buncha yelling.”
“Yeah, it’s okay.” Cole paused for several seconds until he was sure Cody had left. He looked at Leah and said, “Whatever mess you’re in, you don’t have to be ashamed of it. And you don’t have to feel bad that there are people trying to help you out of it. But I am not the enemy here. I understand you’re having a hell of a time trusting people right now, but I wish I could make you see that I’m not the bad guy here.”
She finally remained silent, but Cole didn’t feel like he’d accomplished much. Scarlett was still standing there, silent as well, and she wasn’t volunteering any information. She didn’t so much as speak a word to Leah, either.
It was Van that addressed Leah in a calm voice a
nd asked, “Who is she, sis? Just clear this up right now. Who is she and why is she here in Jersey?”
Leah only looked at Scarlett, who was still as a statue and now expressionless.
“Tell. Me.” Van was getting impatient and Cole was almost hoping the guy’s temper would surface so they could finally cut through the rest of this bullshit. But Van sighed and shook his head. “I only want you safe, Leah. Just talk to me. Tell me what’s going on.”
“There is nothing to tell,” she sighed, looking at Scarlett again.
“Then tell me something I can work with,” Cole demanded. “Because you know what? We’re wasting valuable time right now. She’s already gone, Leah. Someone already got her.”
Leah’s eyes flashed with alarm. “What are you talking about?”
With a sigh, Cole said, “I made a call to get the local authorities involved, just to make them aware of a potential kidnapping. Leah…it already happened.”
“No,” she shook her head in denial.
“Yes,” he answered sternly, but she was already searching for a seat to sit down. “And the quicker you tell me what you know, the quicker I can do something about it.”
Leah sat on the couch in silence. It was obvious that Dani had no clue what was going on, but Van seemed to catch on. He sat with her on the couch and put his arm around his sister. “I’m begging you to tell him what you know, Leah. Please.”
Leah suddenly stood and faced Scarlett from across the room. “I don’t understand. I thought you didn’t know. Is that why you’re here? You knew about Emilia and you acted like you didn’t?”
Scarlett’s eyebrows came together in confusion but she didn’t answer right away. But something must have clicked because she scoffed and shook her head at whatever seemed to be making sense to her.
Cole was torn at this point, understanding a new piece of information, but all he could do was watch whatever was about to unfold.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Scarlett answered her calmly.
“Don’t fucking lie to me,” Leah pointed at her. “You told me I could trust you; you said everything would be okay if I just trusted you. You said you could handle Damien for me…” She paused and shook her head. “And you promised you would help me find Alex, so why are you here?”
