Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 77422 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77422 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Jensen returned moments later with a chained redhead woman who looked like she wanted to be anywhere but where she was.
The moment Jensen let go of her, she turned and whacked him in the face with her metal cuffed hands.
Knowing that it had to hurt her just as badly as it hurt Jensen, I winced in sympathy before my breath caught in my throat.
“No!” I cried. “Don’t!”
Jensen didn’t listen as he reared back his fist and slammed it into the face of the redhead.
“Don’t do it again,” Jensen spat on the girl who was lying face down on the concrete. “When you’re done being a bitch, help this woman get cleaned up. Don’t do anything stupid, you know where that’ll get you.”
The redhead’s eyes met mine, and I made an instant friend in her.
One that would help me through the next three and a half months of hell.
***
Dean
“Your sister’s missing,” I told Wolf.
Wolf’s face went blank.
“What’d you do to her?” he snarled.
I shook my head.
“Nothing,” I whispered. “I’ve done nothing. She was seen getting shakily into a black van at Target about four hours ago, and she hasn’t been seen since.”
“She’s been kidnapped,” he looked utterly blank. “You’re sure?”
Some weird tension started to fill the air, and my belly fisted into a tighter knot.
“Yes,” I confirmed. “I think so. That’s all I have. We left things on good terms when I was called in. She was happy. I know she didn’t leave with anyone else on purpose.”
“Show me the video,” he ordered.
I handed him my phone.
I’d had the security people at Target email the video to me, and then promptly vomited after watching it for the first time on my phone, which made it all the more real.
Overall, the video itself wasn’t very bad.
If you didn’t know July better, you wouldn’t think anything of the way she got into that van.
“Her legs are going out from under her as she gets into that front seat,” I point out.
Wolf nodded but didn’t reply, his eyes intent on the video on my phone.
His fingers tightened on the metal, and the plastic case I had covering it, started to creak in protest.
“Something’s wrong with her,” he says almost immediately.
My eyes closed as the confirmation of a trained professional confirmed my fears.
“You report this?” he asked.
I nodded.
“They wouldn’t take it?” he guessed.
I shook my head. That was why I’d had to travel to Uncertain, TX to tell Wolf in person.
“I don’t have the connections in Longview that I do in the smaller towns surrounding it, but I’ll start it on my end. In twenty-four hours, you report her missing in Kilgore. I’ll confirm your story,” he said.
“You think she’s not okay?” I wanted to hear something other than what I knew, but Wolf didn’t appease my fears.
He shook his head.
“This is the case I’ve been working on,” he said. “Fuck, it’s my fault for bringing her into this. I should’ve fucking known better.”
Irrational anger that would not help the situation surged through me, and I reached my hands up to thread my fingers through my hair.
“Tell me what I need to know,” I barked, no longer able to hold onto my temper.
He looked at me, then away.
“Sex trafficking,” he said. “Buyers from all over the world purchase ‘Southern Ladies’ for personal pleasure. They are young, pretty and a lot of the time they are pregnant. They’re held somewhere in my jurisdiction, but in the four months I’ve been working this case, I haven’t found it.”
“What do you have? Maybe I can help,” I offered.
Anything. I’d offer anything to make this not be true.
Maybe all this was, was a misunderstanding.
In my heart, though, I knew it wasn’t.
Chapter 19
If you’re going to rattle my cage, you best be sure that I’m locked in it and can’t get out.
-Dean’s secret thoughts
Dean
One month later
I was a man possessed.
There was no other reason for how I was acting.
“You’re not going to be able to continue with the SWAT team,” Luke said.
I could tell it pained him to say it to me.
I could see the sympathy in his eyes. I could almost sympathize with him.
Almost.
I agreed with him, though.
I was a loose cannon, and I’d devoted every day of the last month to finding July.
And I’d had zero success.
Wolf and I were like two peas in a pod now, and it’d gotten so bad that I’d taken an extended leave of absence from my job as a firefighter.
Apparently, I was now no longer working for the SWAT team, either.
“Okay,” I said without arguing.
My voice was devoid of emotion, and I knew I was looking crazier and crazier as the days passed. But did I care? Hell no.
Without another word, I got up and walked out of his office, not stopping when he asked me to wait.
I knew I looked rough and sinister as I walked through the bull pen, drawing the attention of every man in the room.