Page 37 of Claimed by Him

The color drained from his face. “The what?”

It’d been a guess based on his bloodshot eyes and general demeanor, but apparently a good one.

“I don’t care about the shit you poison yourself with,” I said. “I care about Meka and where she is. You tell me what you know, and maybe I won’t make an anonymous call to your principal…and the local police department.”

He glanced around, squirming nervously. “Not here, all right? I got a reputation.”

“I’d think getting your ass handed to you by a woman would improve the way people think of you.” I wanted to stay here and make him look like an even bigger asshole, but I didn’t know what he was going to tell me. If it was something that would embarrass Meka, I didn’t want the whole school finding out. I sighed. “My car’s over here.”

I didn’t let go of his arm, practically dragging him to my car. I had a feeling he was going to spread around some seedy lie about how I blew him or some shit like that, but I didn’t care. If a couple rumors floating around a high school were the price I had to pay for finding Meka, it’d be worth it.

I shoved the kid into the back seat and climbed in after him. “Talk.”

He crossed his arms, looking even more like a sulking child than he already had. “Look, I got a rep to keep up, and she was hurting it. Being a damn prick tease. I took her out three times.” He held up three fingers. “Everyone knows that a girl got to give it up on the third date, but she just kept saying she wasn’t ready, or some shit like that. I told her fine, I’d be good if she went down. She was lucky. No dude’s gonna shell out cash for three dates if he ain’t getting some that third time.”

I couldn’t resist. I smacked the back of his head. “Real classy.”

He shrugged even as he glared at me. “Anyway, she wouldn’t do nothing. Not even a handy.”

“Shawn,” I warned.

His cool-guy demeanor shifted, and he looked uneasy for the first time since I’d met him. “Look, these dudes are serious. I was getting my…medicine when I made a joke and then they held me to it. These ain’t the sort of dudes you wanna mess with. Believe me.”

“What joke?”

His eyes shifted, and he looked paler than only moments ago. “Just let it go. When these girls is gone, they gone.”

“I’m losing my patience, and that doesn’t bode well for you, Shawn.” I took my phone out of my pocket. “Maybe I should call my friend at the FBI.”

His entire face morphed into panic. “You don’t have no–”

“I do,” I said while tapping buttons. “Keep giving me the runaround and you’ll meet him up close and personal.”

“All right, all right.” He held up his hands. “I’ll tell you everything. You said you ain’t a cop, right?”

“I’m not.”

“My supplier got locked up almost a year ago, so I started looking for another one. I found this guy who had primo stuff. Except after a couple weeks, he didn’t want money. He wanted something I could get him. Girls.”

My free hand clenched into a fist. Girls. Plural. I realized that he’d said that before too. I just hadn’t caught it until now.

“Him and his guys wanted girls that no one would miss. They didn’t need to be pretty or skinny or anything. Just high schoolers. And losers. Not so many that people would notice, but whenever they said they wanted one, I had to do it.”

“Hate to tell you, but a whole lot of people noticed Meka was missing.”

“Yeah, I fucked that up.” He scratched the back of his head. “That last night, I made everything perfect. Dinner. Flowers. I shelled out serious cash. And she still said no. Bitch needed to learn a lesson, and they needed a girl.”

“You gave your girlfriend to human traffickers because she wouldn’t have sex with you?”

He scowled. “It sounds all kinds of shady when you say it like that.”

“It’s pathological, you moron,” I snapped. A couple pieces clicked into place. “Did you tell them that I was looking for her?”

He shrugged yet again, but the guilt was plastered on his face. Now I knew why I’d been attacked, and how they’d known where I was. He was lucky I was more concerned with Meka than my own safety.

“Where is she, asshole?”

“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “Seriously. I take the girl to meet the guys. I get my stash. They get the girl.”

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