Текст книги "Tequila & Lace"

Автор книги: Kimberly Knight

сообщить о нарушении

Текущая страница: 3 (всего у книги 13 страниц)

“Yes, I’m sure.”

Chapter Four

Paul

Twelve years later …

Present Day

Helping my best friend plan his proposal felt as though someone had a death grip on my heart and wouldn’t let go.

For the last ten or so years, I hadn’t been able to think about spending the rest of my life with only one woman. After Vanessa, I didn’t want to be tied down. I wanted as much pussy as I could get. And I was getting it. Now helping Gabe pick out the ring for Autumn and coming up with the proposal brought back memories of her and how you’re supposed to marry your first love. At least that’s what I’d thought.

They say things happen for a reason …

Cochran, Gabe’s first love, had died in his arms while we were in Afghanistan on a MEDEVAC call. Autumn was perfect for him, though—maybe more so than Cochran. But, of course, I’d never tell him that.

The house was silent as I woke and made my way to the kitchen for my morning cup of coffee and breakfast. I looked into Gabe and Autumn’s bare room as I passed. It was weird being without roommates after so long. Gabe and I had started rooming together when we moved to Vegas from Malibu. Autumn moved in not long after, but I wouldn’t have had it any other way. Her husband, who was our Major from the Army, hadn’t taken it too well when he’d learned that Autumn was leaving him, but Gabe and I hadn’t taken it too well when we’d learned that he was putting his hands on her. Major Dick got what was coming to him when he was poisoned by a business associate.

Even in the Army I’d had someone to harass in the morning. Okay not harass, but I liked making breakfast for more than just me even if it were for grouchy ass Gabe. But now Gabe and Autumn were engaged and had their own house, and I had a house all to myself.

I didn’t like it.

I needed a dog or something.

Turning from the empty room, I walked to the kitchen and made my coffee. I ate breakfast quickly, then dressed and headed for Club 24 where the three of us worked out. We also taught self-defense classes there until we could save enough money to open our own location. Gabe and I naturally wanted to protect people since our time in the Army, and after everything that had happened in Autumn’s past with her husband, it was only fitting to get certified to teach self-defense classes and to teach people how to shoot. Our company taught both types of classes. One was at Club 24 and the other was out on the range.

Before heading out the door, I grabbed a bottle of champagne and a few plastic cups. We had celebrating to do. Two of my favorite people were getting married—as long as Gabe didn’t fuck up the proposal.

Club 24 had everything you needed to meet your fitness goals. Aside from your standard treadmills, elliptical machines, stationary bikes and weightlifting equipment you’d find at any gym, they offered yoga, Zumba, kickboxing, Kenpo, self-defense classes (with yours truly), cycling, aerobics, indoor volleyball, beach volleyball, racquetball … Basically, people spent all day there.

“Should we pop this now or after class?” I held the bottle of champagne up with my left hand and walked through the steel door where our class was being held in a half an hour. Autumn unwrapped her arms from around Gabe’s neck and turned toward me.

“You want to drink before class?”

“It’s only champagne. Like a mimosa without the OJ, Auttie.” I winked. “I see you said yes, by the way.” I motioned with my head at her left hand and greeted Gabe with a head nod.

Gabe shook his head and walked over to the sound system. “No one’s drinking before class.”

“Cap—” He was my captain for so long that it still slipped, especially when he ordered me around. “Fine. After class, but then we’re drinking more than this cheap ass champagne I found at home.” Gabe liked his whiskey. I liked tequila, especially a shot of it after I’d licked salt off the skin of a chick, followed by a slurp of lime juice from her navel.

They both shared an odd look without saying anything. “What?” I asked. They shared another look. “Jesus. What?” I asked again.

Autumn turned to me. “I haven’t been to the doctor yet, but …” She paused and they shared another silent look. “I’m pregnant,” she finally blurted.

I blinked. Then tore my gaze from Autumn to Gabe to check for his reaction. I wasn’t sure if I should be happy for him. I knew he was in love with Autumn, but I also knew this was a new relationship and I knew how much he’d loved Cochran. What I saw when I looked into Gabe’s eyes made me smile.

It wasn’t what I saw when we were in Afghanistan and he’d snuck around with Cochran.

It wasn’t what I saw when we’d first moved to Vegas and he wanted to find out who Autumn was.

It wasn’t what I saw when we were at Autumn’s house and had to fight off her husband to protect her.

It wasn’t what I saw when he thought she left him when she learned what he did for a living and it wasn’t what I saw when he was nervous because he thought she might say no when he was going to propose.

What I saw was a man’s life finally going the way it was meant to go. The look on his face was pure adoration and he was smiling with a twinkle in his eye.

“Holy fucking shit, dude!” I reached for both of them and engulfed them the best I could in a group hug. “All that fucking I heard you guys doing—no wonder you got knocked up.”

Autumn tried to push off of me, but I kept her from budging. “I’m going to pretend you didn’t just say that,” she mumbled into my side.

Gabe broke free from my grasp. “What did I tell you about letting her know you could hear?”

“You knew?” she asked.

I laughed and set my gym bag and the champagne down in the cabinet while they spoke. Gabe whispered mumbled, but I could still hear him. “Do you really think he couldn’t hear you when you came, angel?”

She whispered back, stepping closer. I pretended to get items to set up for class, but really I was enjoying the show. I was going to miss living with them. “Every time?” she asked.

He chuckled. “Every time, but especially when you’d squirt.”

The throwing dummy I was carrying in my hands slipped from my grasp and they both turned and looked at me. I smiled and Autumn groaned, shoving Gabe a little before turning toward the door to leave. “I … I’ll be back,” she muttered, throwing her hands in the air before she left.

“Really, dude?” Gabe asked.

“You’re mad at me?”

“You’re buying all my drinks.”

“Whatever.” I laughed. “You know you’re not mad. You used to fuck for a living.”

“Yeah, but remember that Autumn’s still sensitive about the situation even if it is my fucking skills.”

“All right, enough about your fucking skills. Let’s go get a drink. I’ll buy since you insist.” I slugged him on the arm and then turned and grabbed the rest of the dummies for class.

Autumn couldn’t look me in the eye the entire class.

It wasn’t as though I had walked in on her butt ass naked. And really, she knew what I did for a living aside from our business. If a chick wasn’t screaming, we weren’t doin’ it right.

“Blue Martini or what?” I asked as we cleaned up the mats.

“I’m gonna go to Brandi’s,” Autumn stated. She kissed Gabe.

“Have fun, angel.”

I watched as she left, still not looking at me. “Bye, Auttie!” I shouted and laughed. “Nice of her to help us put this shit away.”

“Bro code, dude. Bro code.”

“Fuck. I got it. Let’s drop it. This isn’t my fault.”

“Let’s go get that drink then.”

I groaned. “Actually, let’s go back to the house and have some beers. Help me move my shit into your old room. I have a feeling Mark’s gonna find me a new roommate soon and that fucker’s not getting the master.”

“You’re lucky you’re my best friend.”

“Yeah, yeah. Let’s do this shit. I have work tonight.”

I worked as a male escort for a company called Saddles & Racks, but I didn’t get paid for sex. I got paid for my time and companionship. I get paid to make ladies feel wanted; to feel as though they were the only woman in the room.

My date for the evening was the typical drinks followed by whatever we wanted to do for the two hours she was paying for. I’d been on quite a few dates in the past five years, so it was almost second nature. I didn’t hook up with a chick on every date; some didn’t want that. Some wanted a date for an event. Some wanted to make someone jealous. Some wanted a date for an entire weekend. Hell, some wanted a date for an entire month. I hadn’t found that client yet, but my buddy Nick had. And, of course, there were those dates who wanted a good fucking. I needed to be attracted to them, though. I had to be able to get it up if you know what I mean.

When I arrived at Gold Spike in downtown Vegas, I scanned the dimly lit room. I’d never heard of Gold Spike before and when I entered, I immediately couldn’t wait to return with Gabe. They had pool, cornhole, shuffleboard, and lounge areas to sit and chat. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t heard about this place before. Granted, I hadn’t been in Vegas for very long, but damn, this was right up my alley. Drinks plus competitive gaming? Sold!

The instructions for my date were that Nancy wanted me to notice her from across the room. She was going to be with a group of her friends for drinks. She told Mark (my boss) that it was because she was the heaviest one of her friends and usually the guys always bought drinks for them and not her. She always felt like the ugly one.

What most guys didn’t realize was that a smile was the most beautiful thing on a woman’s body. If they made a woman smile, her eyes would light up and then everything would start to glow.

I spotted Nancy instantly. I hadn’t seen a picture, but her lack of confidence wasn’t hard to spot. She wasn’t smiling as wide as the others, and she wasn’t laughing as loud either. She sat at the far end of the room, sipping her drink, and her leg bouncing up and down under the table.

As I made my way to the bar, I briefly made eye contact with her. Her eyes grew big as her gaze met mine and then she quickly looked down at the table. I chuckled and continued to the bar. It was normal for these types of dates to be nervous. My regulars, on the other hand, knew what they wanted.

I sat on a stool, ordered a beer, and frequently made eye contact with Nancy through the mirror that ran along a side wall. A few times I caught her gaze and the more it happened, the longer she kept hers on mine. For this to work, I needed her to be comfortable. I knew this was out of the ordinary for her, but when I walked up to her after she accepted my drink from the bartender, I needed her to actually talk to me. After motioning for the bartender, I instructed him to send her whatever she was drinking. He nodded and turned.

Then, I waited.

This was the moment Nancy was waiting for and one of the reasons I loved my job. I was dying to see the look on her friend’s faces when she was the one who got the drink. All eyes would be on me in … three … two … one …

Women were conspicuous even when they thought they weren’t. I heard a few “Oh my God.” “Who?” “Where?” “Him?” “Holy shit!” “Fuck me!” “He’s hot” and then “Shhh, you’re being too loud!”

I laughed around a pull of my beer as I looked into the reflection of the mirror at Nancy. She wasn’t looking back, but she did look like maybe she was trying to explain to her friends how someone like me could want someone like her. She needs better friends.

I finished my beer in two gulps, set it down and stood. Time was ticking on the two hours she’d paid for and her friends needed to be out of the picture. As I walked the good fifteen feet to where they were sitting at a long, counter-high table, I heard hushed whispers and then silence as I stopped by Nancy’s side.

She was sitting on the far end and looked up at me through the curtain of her light brown bangs, her hand playing with the straw of her drink nervously. I could feel all five sets of eyes on me, waiting for me to speak. If I were any Joe Schmo, I’d probably be nervous walking into the lion’s den, but instead I smiled and nodded hello.

“Ladies,” I greeted.

“Hi,” they said in unison.

I turned my attention to Nancy. “I’ve had a pretty shitty day, but I saw you from across the bar and the way you were smiling and laughing caught my eye. I was wondering if you’d like to finish your drink with me?”

Nancy’s eyes became huge again. I wasn’t sure why. She knew this was coming. Her face was a little flush too. Maybe she’d thought that Saddles & Racks was too good to be true. You’d get what you paid for; especially when it came to me.

“Don’t leave the man hanging, Nance,” one of the friends remarked.

“I’d … I’d love to,” she finally agreed and began to stand, but I reached out my hand and helped her up. She reached down and took her glass while she smiled at her friends. It was the first real smile I’d seen from her since I’d been at Gold Spike. After I’d stopped at the bar to order myself another beer, I led her to a corner table on the opposite side of the bar where I was before so we could have privacy to talk.

“That was perfect,” she breathed, her smile still as wide as it was when we’d left her friends.

“Those are three words I don’t get tired of hearing,” I joked. She let out a loud laugh and I looked toward the table where her friends were sitting. Sure enough, they were all looking at us. “Do you ever get the feeling you’re being watched?”

She stopped laughing. “Not usually.”

I reached up and grabbed the end of her shoulder-length, curly brown hair. “Why do you think your friends get more attention?”

“Just look at them.” She waved a hand in their direction.

“Are you referring to their looks?”

“Well … yeah.”

“Sugar, I’ve known some beautiful women with shitty personalities that make them the ugliest bitches around. It’s not what’s on the outside that matters.”

“But you wouldn’t have bought me this drink if I wasn’t paying you.”

“Well, I wouldn’t have been here tonight to buy you the drink, so that’s true. But when I walked in here looking for you, I knew who you were because you lacked what the others had. You need to have that spark. You’re beautiful. Who cares if you’re not a size zero. Really, my dick would break you if you were a size zero.”

Her eyes widened and I chuckled. It had been awhile since I’d had a date who was this shy. Usually, my dates wanted a good, hard fucking—if it got to that stage. It had to be natural as if we really felt the attraction between the two of us.

She swallowed hard, then took a sip of her drink. “So … um, how did you become an escort anyway?”

Well, we had another hour to spare. I could kill it by telling her the story. “I’d just gotten out of the Army and moved back to Malibu. I had no idea what I wanted to do, and the last time I’d been home was when I graduated high school.”

“Wow, you’ve been an escort for a long time then.”

I smiled. “Not that long. When we had leave, I never went home because there was someone I never wanted to see and I always thought I’d run into her.”

“Oh, an ex-girlfriend.”

“Right.” I nodded.

“But the Los Angeles area is huge.”

“L.A. is huge, but Malibu is small and so was the group of people we hung out with.”

“So she stuck around after high school.”

“Exactly. She thought she was going to get discovered by some top modeling agency and make it big, but she never did.”

“Is she still there?”

“Actually, no. She moved to New York to try her luck out there.” I took a pull of my beer. “After my last deployment I moved back home for good. The night I heard she moved to New York was the night I knew we were officially never going to get back together. I was at a bar drowning my sorrows and I met a lady …”

“Hey, handsome.”

I turned at the sound of the female’s voice and watched as she ran her fake red acrylic nails along my forearm. I knew what it looked like. I was in a bar, drowning my sorrows with shots of tequila, but I wasn’t looking to get laid tonight. Even though it had been almost nine years since I’d seen Vanessa, I couldn’t be in this town and not think of her. I only wanted to spend my last few bucks on as much alcohol as I could.

When Cochran died, Gabe had to fight his own demons, but Vanessa was living. She didn’t want me, yet I was the idiot who couldn’t stop wanting her. So in front of Gabe—in front of everyone, I pretended I didn’t want anyone, that I was sowing my oats. Maybe I was, but being back home was a reminder of what I’d once had. The bottle of Patrón would be my friend for the night, not this chick.

“Do you know the best way to drink a shot of tequila?” she continued. I finally looked over at her as she sat next to me. I did know the best way—everyone knew. I cracked a smile because I couldn’t help it.

“Off a woman.”

She shook her head no. “Not off any woman. Off of me.”

I laughed. “Off of you?”

“Yep.”

“Is that so?”

“Yep, but first—”

“Get out of here, Candy.”

Her eyes became huge. Without a word, she huffed and left. I turned and stood. “What the fuck?” I didn’t want Candy, but seriously, what if I’d wanted to fuck her brains out until I couldn’t remember my own name? It wasn’t as if I was coming back to this dump again. I wasn’t even in Malibu. I’d driven down the Pacific Coast until I knew I wouldn’t see anyone familiar before I stopped to get my drink on.

“Listen, kid. If you want the herp, then you can fuck Candy, but I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that’s not your thing.” His gaze flicked down to the dog tags on my chest. “And at fifty bucks, she’s a cheap hooker too.”

I blinked.

He laughed. “Do you have fifty bucks?”

I shook my head. I didn’t. I was spending my last few bucks on my drinks. Sure the Army was giving me money, but it wasn’t enough.

“Would you like a job?”

I finally found my voice. “You’re offering me a job?”

“I’m not sure yet. We should talk. My name’s Bobby.” He reached out his hand for me to shake.

The next day I’d met Bobby at his office in Malibu and he talked to me about Saddles & Racks and what they had to offer. He was the LA head person and Mark was the Vegas person.

“Why was he at a shit bar?” Nancy asked.

I laughed. “I asked him the same thing. He said it was where he found all his recruits. Like diamonds in the rough or some shit.”

“But not Candy.”

We both laughed. “No, not Candy. Thank God for Bobby or I might have the herp.” I was half-joking. I might have had enough money for her to blow me that night.

“Things happen for a reason.”

“Yeah, they do.”

We ordered another round of drinks, talked some more, and then I convinced Nancy to leave with me so her friends would think we were hooking up and I walked her to her car.

When I got home to my empty house, my phone buzzed with a text from Mark.

Mark: You okay with a new roommate?

Well, shit, that was fast.

Me: Yeah sure, whatever.

Mark: Cool. Andy will be there next week sometime.

Chapter Five

Joselyn

It had been twelve years since I’d been back to Miami. Since the night I fled, I hadn’t returned. When the taxi dropped me off at the bus station, I bought a one-way ticket to Washington D.C.

I’d barely made the last bus for the night, and when I asked how long it would take for me to get there, I wasn’t expecting to be told twenty-seven hours. I had no clothes other than what I was wearing. No toothbrush, no brush to comb my hair, no food—nothing. Luckily, I had the wad of cash I’d stolen from Marco and I had over thirteen hundred dollars left after my bus ticket. Who the hell carried that much cash on them? Maybe it was to pay for our date. I had a feeling it wasn’t, though. I didn’t know Tony, but the way he was dressed, the way he spoke to me, the limo he picked me up in, and his bodyguard Jose all indicated that one’s virginity was worth more than a few hundred dollars, especially if he were splitting it with my mother. The hotel room probably cost more for one night than the cash in Marco’s wallet.

The bus pulled to a stop, jolting and squeaking, causing me to wake.

“We’re here.”

I looked to my left toward Alison. She had become my friend in the short amount of time we’d traveled from Miami to D.C. She hadn’t asked why I was crying when she’d first met me. Instead, she’d started talking to me at our first rest stop about poutine fries she’d had in Canada, and she made me laugh. Gravy and cheese curds on French fries? What had the world come to? She swore up and down that it was the best thing ever and that I needed to try it. I was a chili and cheese girl myself. Granted that was only in the summer when Seth treated me.

“What time is it?” I yawned.

“Almost two in the morning.”

Where the hell was I supposed to go at two in the morning? I had no way of contacting Seth. I didn’t know what precinct he was at. Didn’t know his phone number, where he lived, or if he was even on duty.

I nodded and stood, ready to get off the bus and wander around a city I didn’t know.

“Do you need my mom to take you somewhere?” Alison asked.

“My friend should be here to pick me up,” I lied. How would I explain to her mother why I was dressed like a hooker? How would I tell her I needed to go to every police station until I found Seth? I felt as if I had a big sign above my head and it was flashing that I was just sold to the highest bidder.

“Want us to wait until they show up?”

We began walking down the aisle toward the front of the bus in a single file. “No, no, it’s late. I’m sure he’s here.”

“Give me your cell number and I’ll program mine. We should hang out sometime.”

I almost began to cry again. I wanted so badly to be normal. I was seventeen and I should have a cell phone. This day and age practically everyone had a cell phone. “I—”

Her gaze met mine. “Silly me. You probably left it with your stuff in Miami. Let me find some paper and a pen and I’ll write mine down for you.” I knew I would never call her. The less people knew who I was and knew I was in D.C., the better.

I didn’t know if she did it on purpose, but I was grateful she was quick not to question why I didn’t have a phone or any belongings. I was sure she saw it written on my imaginary neon sign that I was a hot mess. I felt as if I were one. I was broken and still sore as fuck between my legs. My feet hurt like a bitch in those god awful heels too. I couldn’t wait until I got to take a nice long bath followed by a long cry in a bed before I slept for a week.

After Alison and her mother left, I grabbed a waiting taxi and asked to be taken to the closest police station. The driver eyed me through the rearview mirror. It didn’t faze me. The last forty-eight hours had been the worst of my life and having another taxi driver wonder what was going on with me wasn’t bothering me one bit. I was finally in the same city as my best friend. Granted it was a huge city and I had no idea where he was.

I stared out the window watching the orange streetlights as the driver took me to the precinct. Theoretically, I didn’t know if it was the closest one to the bus station, but it didn’t matter. What were the odds that I’d walk in and it’d be Seth’s station? What were the odds that he’d be on duty at this hour or even at the station?

The taxi pulled up to the front of the station and I asked him to wait a few minutes while I ran inside. I took a deep breath and then walked up the concrete stairs. My heart was racing. Even though I’d had over a day to plan out what I was going to tell Seth, I hadn’t really thought about what I was going to say to him. “I ran away, you’re taking me in. The end.”

Before I reached my hand out for the door, I turned slightly to make sure the taxi was still there. He was. Of course he was. He wanted his cab fare. But I wanted this police station to be the station where my best friend was so I could cry in his arms and feel safe. Seth always made me feel safe and I really needed him. I wasn’t the adult I thought I was. I didn’t care that I had less than a year until I was legally an adult. I needed … I needed to know everything was going to be okay.

Taking another deep breath, I reached up and tugged on the door, but it didn’t budge. “What the fuck?” I murmured. I tugged on the other door, but it too didn’t open. My heart instantly dropped. I knew it was a long shot to show up, but I hadn’t expected the police station to be closed. I peered through the glass window trying to find anyone who could help me. I didn’t see anyone.

My eyes started to sting, my chest began to tighten and my head started to feel fuzzy. This wasn’t happening. How could I travel over a day and then show up at a police station only to find it closed? Weren’t they supposed to be there to help you?

The sound of honking brought me out of my daze and I jumped. “Miss!” I turned and saw that the cabbie had yelled through the rolled down window. “You need to pay me.”

I hurried down the steps, needing to decide what to do next. “Sorry,” I breathed as I slid into the car.

“Where to now?”

I closed my eyes briefly, fighting back the tears. It wasn’t the time for them.

“Well?” he asked.

“Just … Just give me a minute.”

“Meter’s running,” he reminded me.

I opened my eyes to find he was looking at me through the rearview mirror. “Is there like a Walmart or something?” I asked. I needed clothes before I walked around in the daylight or for the third day in a row.

“You want me to take you shopping?” he asked.

“Look …” I looked at his name that was on his licenses stuck to the glass divider, but I couldn’t pronounce it. “I had a long bus ride from Miami. I left all my stuff there. Please take me to a Walmart that’s open to buy some clothes and toiletries, then take me to a motel, okay? I’ll tip you good, I promise.” Teenage hormones, lack of sleep, the last few days—everything all rolled into one was creeping up on me and I really didn’t know how much more I could take before I broke down and stayed in the back of the taxi forever. He nodded and pulled onto the street without another word. When we arrived at the store, he turned slightly and told me he was stopping the meter while I ran inside. I didn’t question him. Maybe he felt bad because I was crying. I thanked him and hurried in. I grabbed a few shirts, a pair of jeans, flip-flops, panties, a bra (damn, I’d been dying for a bra), pajamas and the toiletries I’d need to get me through the next few days in case I couldn’t find Seth.

Afterward, the cab driver drove me to the nearest motel. At first they were hesitant to rent me a room without a driver’s license or any I.D. Right away the tears started to flow, but I explained the situation; it was almost four in the morning and I only wanted it for a few hours. When I said those words, I cringed. I was still dressed in my short, strapless dress, heels and I had no doubt my makeup was long gone. I knew that damn neon sign was still flashing above my head.

Finally, they agreed to rent me a room. Once I locked myself in, I took a long shower where I cried on the base of the tub with the water spraying down on me. I didn’t cry for long, though. I was too tired.

The moment my head hit the pillow, I fell asleep.

I woke to the sound of knocking and a lady announcing she was housekeeping. Glancing at the clock, I realized that it was after noon and I was supposed to have checked out of the room by now.

“Coming!” I replied. I hurried to the door. “Sorry,” I apologized, unlocking it after I’d made sure it was housekeeping through the peephole. “I overslept. Can you give me ten minutes? I need to get dressed.”

She nodded and pushed her cart to the next room. I hurried to change. Everything was happening too fast and I still didn’t know what I was going to say to Seth when I saw him, but I knew I needed to find him. I needed to find him before nightfall because I didn’t want to be homeless. Being homeless wasn’t part of the plan. Actually none of this was. Why did my mother do this? Why did I do this?

As I gathered all my stuff, it hit me that at least back in Miami I’d have a roof over my head. Granted, I’d have to spread my legs after doing homework. A tear fell and I wiped it before I grabbed the two plastic bags that held the only belongings to my name and left the room in search of my best friend.

The police station the cab driver had taken me to only a few hours before was a few blocks away. I walked there after grabbing a bagel and coffee. It was lunch time, but to me it was breakfast time and I was starving. Everything was so fucked up and I had no idea when or if things would turn around.

When I made it to the precinct, the door opened on the first try. I wasn’t nervous until I’d taken my first step inside. Part of me had thought the station would still be closed. I expected all eyes to be on me, my neon sign flashing, but no one looked at me as I walked up to the desk that was closed off by what I assumed was a bullet proof glass. The clerk looked up after I stood there for what seemed like a full minute.

“Can I help you?”

“I’m looking for Officer McKenna,” I stated nervously, not meeting her gaze.

“We don’t have an officer by that name.”

My heart fell through the pit of my stomach and onto the white tiled floor. Of course, the first precinct wouldn’t be where he worked. I sighed.

“Do you have a crime to report?”

I did. A crime that they couldn’t help with. A crime that I couldn’t tell anyone about—ever. I shook my head. “No.”

“Then we can’t help you.”

I sighed again and swallowed back the disappointment. “Can you at least give me the address or addresses of the other stations?” She groaned, but she grabbed a piece of paper and wrote a few addresses down for me. “Would you mind calling me a cab?” I asked and gave a tight smile. I had a feeling I was walking a fine line by asking for so much help that wasn’t crime related.

“You can go outside and flag one down,” she responded sarcastically.

I had no idea and felt stupid for asking. I nodded and turned to leave. When I went outside, cars whizzed by, but I saw a yellow cab, so I raised my arm and waved for it to stop. It pulled over and I slid in.

On the way to the next station, I thought about what I would say to Seth in case I did get lucky and it was his precinct. He knew how much I hated my mother. He saw firsthand how mean she was to me on numerous occasions. I could blame one of those times and the fact that I was a teenager, but how could I explain how I got the bus money to make the trip?