Page 40 of Claimed by Him

I pinched the bridge of my nose and reminded myself that he was just doing his job. “Officer Lennard.”

“Lennard’s still here.” He jerked his thumb over his shoulder. When he saw the surprised look on my face, he added, “Guy’s a pain in my ass. Someone needs to bug him for a change.”

“Glad to help,” I said as I walked past the sergeant.

After a few feet, I was able to recognize the stout, middle-aged man I’d talked to before. Before, I’d assumed that the vibe I’d gotten off him was his disgust at what Shawn had done, but now I wondered if he had an issue with work, or with me.

“Officer Lennard?”

He raised his head, scowling as he saw me. “That kid’s family is going to sue your ass off and don’t think for a minute I’m going to defend you.”

“I don’t care about him right now,” I said. I didn’t add that I’d make sure someone heard about it later, but for the moment, Shawn wasn’t foremost on my mind. “I found Meka Ludwick.”

“Who?”

“The fifteen-year-old who’s been missing for a week,” I said, grinding my teeth together. “The one that kid gave to sex traffickers because she wouldn’t sleep with him.”

“There’s no evidence he did anything,” Lennard said, “and some half-assed, forced confession doesn’t cut it. Tomorrow, I’ll probably be arresting you on attempted kidnapping and other charges.”

I made a dismissive gesture. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” I blew out a harsh breath. “Listen, I found Meka and at least four other girls being held prisoner by several armed men. We need to go rescue them now before they’re moved.”

“And how did you come about this information?” He leaned back in his chair, as if he needed to make it more obvious that the concept of actual police work was foreign to him.

“It doesn’t matter,” I snapped. “This isn’t about search warrants or anything like that. These girls are in serious danger, and I’m reporting it to you in the hopes that you’ll get off your ass and get them.”

He leaned forward then, round face flushing. “Listen here, you can’t come in here making all sorts of wild accusations and insulting officers of the law. I know who you are, Rona Quick.”

“That’s good,” I fired back, “because I know who you are too. You’re the one I’m going to tell Theo Ludwick to sue if anything else happens to his daughter. For all you know, Shawn could’ve called his buddies as soon as he left here, and they’re in the process of moving the girls somewhere more secure.”

He shook his head, a smug smirk curling his lips. “No, you don’t get it. I know who you are. You see, I have a buddy in Denver who called down here a couple hours ago to tell me I had some wanna-be FBI agent going rogue on my turf.”

“I’m a private investigator,” I said, keeping my face carefully blank. “I have a license, and I was legally hired to find Meka Ludwick because someone here didn’t want to do their job. If you would’ve done the work in the first place, I wouldn’t have been involved.”

“If you think I’m going to let someone the Feds kicked out of training tell me how to do my job, you got another thing coming.” He pointed at me, then slammed his hand on his desk. “Girls like that get themselves into trouble. We have more important cases to work than some girl who slept with half the school.”

“‘Girls like that,’” I repeated. “I thought you didn’t know who Meka was, or the rumors about her.”

His face was starting to turn a disturbing shade of red, and I wondered if I’d be legally obligated to do CPR if he had a heart attack.

I cursed my phone and its dead battery, then cursed myself for not thinking to charge it. None of this would be happening if I’d been able to just call 911. I said as much to the asshole in front of me.

“You do that, and I’ll arrest you for obstruction, filing a false police report, and anything else I can get to stick.” He pointed toward the door. “Get your ass out of here before I decide to arrest you right now.”

I looked around the room, but the handful of other police who were here all had their eyes on their desks like whatever they were working on was more important than whether or not I had vital information. I knew that not all of the police in the city were like Lennard or the ones who wouldn’t even look at me, but these were definitely leaving a bad taste in my mouth.

But now wasn’t the time to deal with them. I had to find someone who would listen to me. Someone who’d help get Meka out, no matter what. And as much as I hated it, there was only one person I could think of who’d forgive me for knocking on his door at five in the morning and who had the sort of power that I’d need to rescue the girls. At least someone who wasn’t two hours away. I needed help now, and I didn’t know how long it’d take Clay to round up the cavalry.

Shit.

I really did have only one choice.

And I really didn’t want to talk to him, but the alternative wasn’t an option I could live with.

Dammit.

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