Page 69 of Exile and Embrace

I sigh and rake my hand through my hair, knowing where this is leading. Though I may have only been in Tennessee for a few years, I recognize the men in the pictures.

If her father was associated with them, the trouble goes deeper than she thinks.

Although, I doubt that it gets much worse than trying to sell his own daughter to sex traffickers. Did he try to do the same with Ava? What if he had? What if he had succeeded?

If he was still alive today, I would kill him myself.

Ava stands up, dark bags under her distant gaze. “I need something to drink. There’s still another few yearbooks to go through from his time in university, and I have no clue what I’m going to find in there.”

She wanders into the kitchen while Brooklyn looks over her shoulder at me.

I lean closer to her, making sure Ava can’t hear me. “This is insane. I’m going to take her out and try to snap her out of this. At least for a couple hours. She’s going to get hurt if this keeps going on.”

Brooklyn nods. “It’s sweet that you want to protect her from hurting her heart. I’ll make an excuse to get out of here in a few minutes. She’s been going like this all day. She told me last night that she was up in the middle of the night to sort through them before I got here.”

I feel sick thinking about Ava sitting up all night and trying to find clues about her father’s past.

Ava comes back as I lean into the cushions and stretch my legs out. She sits on the ground and leans back against the couch, her shoulder pressing into my knee.

Ava sets her drink on the table and pulls one of the yearbooks into her lap. “If he has ties to a bookie, do you think that there could be a tie to the sex traffickers there?”

I tap out a beat in the air with my foot, trying to figure out what to say to her. The last thing I want to do is send her down another spiral. Not when she’s barely sleeping.

Brooklyn clears her throat and gets up, grabbing her purse. “I’ve got to get going. My ride is supposed to be here in a minute or two.”

Ava’s eyebrows pull together, a thin line appearing. “I thought you were going to stay for dinner tonight?”

Brooklyn shakes her head. “No. I got a message from my mother, and she needs some help at home with my uncle. He’s not doing so well these days.”

Ava’s frown fades. “Okay. Let me know if you need anything. I can come over and help.”

“Will do. See you later.” Brooklyn races for the door, shutting it softly behind her.

Ava buries her nose back in the yearbook as I glance at the stack.

There is no way that this is healthy. She’s going to make herself sick if she keeps trying to figure out the connections her father has.

It’s too much for one day, and it’s time she took a break.

I stand up and take the stack of yearbooks, moving them to the dining table.

Ava gives me a dirty look. “Why are you moving those? I wasn’t done with them yet. It’s going to take a couple hours to finish going through all the information there.”

Shaking my head, I go over and take the yearbook she has in her hands. “Nope. We’re done with this for tonight. You need to take a break.”

Ava gets to her feet and plants her hands on her hips. “I don’t need to take a break, Finn, and quite frankly, it’s none of your business.”

I scoff and stride over to her. “It is my damn business, Ava. I told you that I was going to protect you.”

“And what are you protecting me from right now?”

“Yourself.” I take her chin between my fingers and tilt her head until she’s looking at me. “Ava, you’ve barely slept, and I know for a fact you aren’t sleeping much any other night.”

“Are you asking me to stop after you said that you would help me?”

“No. I’m telling you that tonight, and probably tomorrow, we are going to be taking a break. I have a couple days where I don’t have to work, and we’re not going to talk about what’s going on with your search at all.”

She jerks back. “I don’t have time to take a break, Finn.”

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