Page 10 of Draven

“Feeling’s mutual, sweetcheeks.” Lies. I hate what she did to me, but I’ve never hated her. I might have thought I did once, but I’ve matured in the last eight years, though Ciaran would probably disagree.

She shoulder-barges me as she marches past, muttering under her breath, and almost takes the door off its hinges when she spills onto the street.

I watch through hooded eyes until she disappears. Once again, a spat with Louise has given me a dick hard enough to hit a baseball for a home run. I take out my phone and drop a text to Mom, telling her to pack a suitcase for the three of them, and that I’ll be there in a couple hours to explain everything.

Resisting the urge to rearrange myself and risk further questions from my best friend, I toss some bills on the bar and fire a warning glare at him. “Think carefully before you say a goddamn word.”

Ciaran offers up a shit-eating grin. “If you’ve got any sense, you’ll marry that girl.”

Chapter 5

Draven

Incessant banging on my door forces me from the shower. I sling a towel around my waist and march across my apartment, dripping water all over the floor. Wrenching open the door, I find myself glowering at Louise.

“You’re early,” I bark, standing back to allow her to pass.

She pinches the bridge of her nose. Dark shadows sit beneath her eyes, and there’s a line of tension around her mouth. “Draven, please. Can we just stop bitching at each other for five seconds? I haven’t slept properly in ages, and I’m exhausted. Save your shit for another day.”

She isn’t the only one exhausted. By the time I’d gotten to Camden, explained to Mom why I was dragging them from their home in the middle of the night, and settled them in a three bedroomed apartment over in Brooklyn owned by a billionaire client of mine, it was five in the morning before I fell into bed. Not that I have any intention of sharing any of that with Louise. The less she knows about how worried I am, the better. Let her think I’m a jerk. She has as long as I’ve known her.

I cross over to my bedroom, open my dresser, and remove a pair of boxers. When I drop the towel, a hiss of air whistles through Louise’s teeth. With my back to her, I risk a grin. If we’re going to work together on this case, I may as well have some fun at her expense. Even though there’s contempt on both sides, there’s also attraction.

Once I’ve stepped into my underwear, I turn around before I’ve fully covered my cock. She glances away, but not quickly enough, and a cherry-red flush spreads over her neck.

I lean against the doorjamb, my inked arms folded over my chest. “You’ve used up thirty seconds eating me with your eyes. Better move things along, sweetcheeks.”

I expect a snarky response. Instead, her eyes glisten, and she bows her head, but not before I spot a fat tear clinging to her lower lashes. She dashes a hand across her face and turns her head to the side.

The urge to apologize digs into me, but I can’t bring myself to say the words. She wouldn’t believe me anyway but, once again, my decision not to tell her why I refused to talk to her last night and move my family out of potential harm’s way is validated. She’s not coping well with her sister’s disappearance, and why would she? If it were my sister, I’d burn down the world until I found her.

Even so, her tears surprise me. The woman I knew had balls almost as big as mine. She might have been a rookie back in the day, but she’d also been tough as nails. During our six months working together, we’d seen a lot of hideous stuff. Not once had she let her emotions get the better of her. Even with her sister missing, I expected ‘Ironclad Rhodes’, as I’d nicknamed her, to turn up to my apartment this morning.

I sigh heavily, uncross my arms, then point to the sofa. “Okay, Rhodes. Spill what you know.”

She sits down, presses her palms to her cheeks, then briefly closes her eyes. “Just over a week ago, a twenty-year-old woman named Annie Thompson was snatched off the street on her way home from work. Despite extensive police work, the trail went completely cold. The next day, another woman was taken, again disappearing into thin air. Between then and now, four more women, including my sister, have been taken, believed to have been trafficked. Despite having twelve full-time detectives on the case, every rock they flipped over turned out to be a dead end. On Friday, I got called into the boss’s office as a courtesy to be told the FBI were taking over the case. Usual platitudes. Captain will be kept fully informed. Blah, blah, blah.”

“How long ago was your sister taken?”

“Four…” She shakes her head. “No, five days now. She was snatched from a shopping mall.”

I remember Louise talking about Kiera. She’d talked a lot back then, and I’d been happy to let her. It saved me from engaging in pointless conversation. From my recollection, the two girls had been real close.

I twist my lips to one side. “If this is a trafficking case, then it’s normal procedure for the FBI to take over. Why not let the feds do their job?”

She glowers at me. “Thank you for the lesson in law enforcement protocol. I’m not saying the feds shouldn’t work the case. Hell, we’ve gotten nowhere, so I’ll take all the help I can get. But if you think I’m going to just sit by and wait for news about my sister…” She shakes her head. “No. Not happening. Six women have gone missing from the Camden area, Draven. Six. All of them middle class, with good careers. No drugs, no debt, no enemies that we’ve unearthed.”

“How old are the women?”

“Between twenty and twenty-five.”

I scratch my cheek. “It’s an unusual approach. Normally, trafficking gangs target women who won’t be missed. They don’t want the cops on their tail. Women like you’ve described usually have families, careers, a place in society. People who will search for them and never give up.”

She nods. “You’re right, but this gang seems to be going after a different class of women.” Her hand shoots to her throat. “You don’t think they could be setting up an auction?”

“Possibly,” I muse. “Although six isn’t enough for an auction. I’d expect upward of twenty.”

“Six is only from my precinct. There could be more taken from nearby counties.”

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