Page 17 of The Book of Wrath

“Dad?! DAD!” the little voice shrieks, a little girl. Probably no older than fourteen. She spun on me and started flailing her arms at my chest. I gently restrained her as I pulled off her mask. Tears stained her face; she looked like she hadn’t slept in weeks and once I got my hands on her wrists I knew immediately that she was malnourished.

“Get your hands off of my daughter you filthy fucking pig!” He shouted from the ground, luckily for him it was Tony who got to him before I did. I would’ve kicked his fucking teeth out. He started reading the man his rights as Jimmy came out of the door with a bat in hand.

“We got them,” I said to him, his eyes wild with fury looking at the man. He looked right over the little girl as if she wasn’t standing there. I watched Jimmy’s eyes darken and he fucking charged the guy, bat in hand. I yelled for Tony, but it was too late. Jimmy was wailing on the dude like he was a fucking rat. I turned the girl away from the violence despite her trying to see past me.

I heard the guy sputtering and Tony talking Jimmy down. He had been robbed plenty of times and never went off like this on any of them before, this was something more. I turned to see Jimmy moving over to me and the girl. Protectively I got between him and her, but Jimmy just put his hands up.

“Max, you don’t recognize her do you?” he asked me, just standing there, waiting for me to piece together some unspoken words. I looked at her again, her messy black hair was clearly dyed, the roots showing about two inches of dark brown hair, her sunken blue eyes, dark purple circles under them. My eyes looked at her neck, and I almost missed it, small rose tattoo was hiding under her hair behind the lower part of her ear and my heart stopped. The ear piercings are gone, clearly removed. Her once tan skin, now sits paper white and almost see through. I did know this girl.

“Christina Wilson,” I whispered out, and now Jimmy’s reaction was understandable. She was his little sister who went missing when she was 10. I looked at Jimmy and saw confliction in his eyes. She probably didn’t know who he was, not anymore. It’s been four almost five years since she was grabbed. We couldn’t find anything on her. She had never said anything about being followed or a weird feeling before she went missing. The detectives on the case assumed she ran away because she was constantly getting in trouble. She has run away in the past, but Tony and I didn’t think she went missing. We fought with Detective Marsh about him marking her as a runaway.

“Yeah. I get it, I might have to go to jail for that,” he nodded his head back to where that man was laid out bloodied on the ground. “But she’s safe.” He looked at her with eyes of fear, fear of blinking and her being gone again, as if this was just a dream. I could understand that.

“Why did you hurt him?” she whispered out and if hearts could crack audibly, I would’ve heard Jimmy’s shatter.

“He’s a predator, I may have been knocked out, but I in and out of consciousness while you argued with him. You’re my little sister, someone I should’ve been able to protect. I wasn’t there when you were kidnapped from Chadd Road four and half years ago. You went out to the store with Avery and never came home. I should’ve been there for you Tina, I’m so sorry,” his voice was cracking, but it was the look in her eyes that tore at me. More tears streamed down her face. She didn’t recognize him, he looked different from back then. She looked up at me and paused.

“Am I in trouble?” she asked me, looking between Jimmy and I. Damn, technically it was up to Jimmy how this was going to play out.

“Not if your brother doesn’t want to press charges against you. Did that man threaten you? Do you remember anything about how you ended up with him?” I asked her, trying to keep my tone even. I didn’t want anyone to hear the cave shattering in my own heart. Jimmy was lucky to get his sister back, even if she had to take some time to get herself back.

She took a deep breath, trying to steady herself. “I remember everything. In public, he was my dad. Play the part of get locked in a closet. He has a son, Jeffery Moore, he was supposed to be with us today, but Roy told him to come for us if we weren’t home by four. If you wait around, he’ll come for me. He always does. If Roy ever got arrested, which was frequently, Jeff was to handle my punishments. If I was with Roy when he got arrested, he would come saying I was his little sister and pick me up and then do with me as he pleased,” I watched the little light in her eyes wink out. Rage built in me, that man will never see the light of day when I am done with him.

“Tina, you’re not going with that man again. We’re going to get you to a hospital to get checked out then, if you’re comfortable, you can either leave with your brother or your parents,” I said to her. Two ambulances arrived a little while ago, I waved over Captain Woods. “This is Captain Woods, one of the best paramedics I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. You and your brother are going to go with her. Police will be stationed outside of your room, and Jeffery will not be able to get to you ever again.”

Christina hugged me tightly. This poor girl felt like she would break in my arms if I hugged her too tight. I walked her and Jimmy to the ambulance, Captain Woods taking Christina ahead of us. “He won’t make it to the hospital, Jimmy.” I promised and clasped his shoulder. Captain Woods comes to almost all of the events Tony and I are at. She knows about my extracurricular activities and is always willing to help.

I looked at Tony who was helping Mitch and Brain put Roy in the ambulance to hell. Jimmy got on the ambulance with his sister. His coworkers Ray and Chris came out of the back of the shop where Roy had knocked them out and took the shop key from Jimmy. They promised to get everything back into the store once forensics was done with everything.

“Is that Christina?” Tony asked, Mitch and Brian both within earshot of my answer.

“Yeah, she’s going to give another statement at the hospital but, I got the rundown of how much of a piece of shit he is, and his son is. Take him to Bissell. I’ll meet you guys there later tonight. I have a date at eight,” I said, turning on my heels and heading for our cruiser to fill out the paperwork that Roy had fled. The cameras in the car and my body camera would be handled by Roark once I told him what happened.

My phone dinged once I got to the car. I pulled it out and saw a picture message from Megan. I opened it expecting a meme. Fuck! I was not expecting a glorious view of her in a high thigh slit, spaghetti strapped red dress, black heels and red lipstick. Fuck!

Hope this is good for tonight. See you at eight.

My dick is going to take over this date.

Chapter 16

Megan

I got dressed up way too early for this damn date. Ally came over after I got back from dropping off Max’s watch to his dad, talk about an awkward conversation. She did, however, give me the courage to send Max that alluring, seductive picture. I really need to kick her ass for over inflating my ego and making me think that I am beautiful enough to have officer McDreamy.

“Girl, he kissed you! That is obviously a sign that he likes you,” she chimed from my bed as I pulled more dresses out from a tote that I had in storage. Most of my clothes here made me look like an old lady librarian and not the modern librarian that I am. I realized that I lost who I was over the last few years. Now that Ryan isn’t here to dictate my clothes, my hair, my makeup, the shows I watch or the food I eat, I realize that I wasn’t me anymore.

“We were drunk, for the last time. He probably is only asking me out to dinner to let me down gently,” I whined. Gods, leave it to me to fall for the hero. I think I should just text him and cancel. I don’t have enough courage, liquid or other, to go through with anything tonight. I mean yes, I’m a horny bitch right now after that fucking kiss but, for fuck sake I can’t let that go to my head!

“Internal gaslighting isn’t a good idea sweetie,” Ally grumbles as she reads my facial expressions. “You wear your thoughts on your face like a mask. Stop it. Stop thinking that he’s not into you. You both were drunk, good for you. He wouldn’t have kissed you if he wasn’t already thinking it sober.” She smiled at me and handed me a glass of nasty, bitter red wine. I hated wine. I hated alcohol period. Socially I don’t mind drinking, I just don’t like the brain fog afterwards.

“I hate wine, after all these years as friends, why do you still keep trying to make me drink sour grapes? Bleh,” I tease her. She laughs as she chugs down her glass.

“A little birdie told me you plan on coming back to work next week. Any truth to that?” She was an expert at getting details out of people. She probably pestered the shit out of Melissa.

“Need a vacation for your outside activities?” I smirked at her. I knew what she did, I knew that I was probably the only person who didn’t judge her for those activities either.

“According to police scanners they found that girl Christina Wilson. They got the one guy, but according to an unofficial report there is another guy they are looking for in connection,” her lips curled in disgust as she rattled off the horrible things she got off the report. Her way of getting information was slightly unethical but, when your cousins are the main paramedics who take these creeps to a warehouse to be dealt with, you learn a thing or two you don’t mean to learn. Mitch and Brian are super sweet and kind but, for fuck sake they got themselves into some shit over the years.

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