Page 57 of Love Takes Home

Lottie: This is too good. I’m sorry I missed it. Anyone see Ginny lately? Is she okay?

Trish: Oh, yeah, she’s better than okay.

Lottie: What happened?

Trish: Well, she showed up Saturday with Joker.

Lottie: And that’s better than good?

Trish: It is when he declares you his woman and is there to tell your brother.

Elle: What?!?!?! And we missed it??

Lottie: No…they’re together now? Like, together-together?

Tish: Like, together-together.

Lottie: Oh, my gosh! Virginia! Where are you? We need answers!

Ginny: Ginny can’t respond right now. She’s busy.

Trish: Who is this?

Ginny: Joker. And I’m telling you she’s busy.

Elle: Are you really on her phone while you two are doing the naked tango?

Ginny: She wants me to plead the fifth.

Lottie: Love this for you. Tell her she needs to find a night we can all get together. My house.

Ginny: She said not your house?

Trish: My house?

Ginny: How about Zach’s on Thursday?

Elle: I can make that work.

Lottie: Same.

Trish: Tell her we expect all the details.

Ginny: I can give you those for her. She’s currently working on her fourth O of the evening, and she’s going to be busy the rest of the night. Gotta go.

Chapter 19

Joker

The last month hasflown by. Days trying to track down the mystery woman, news reports of kids in other parts of the state suffering the same or a worse fate than Jimmy at the football game. Nights spent wrapped up in Ginny. And no, they aren’t all naked nights as much as I wish they were. I’m in an actual relationship. Dates, flowers for her, Chinese takeout on the couch watching shows. She got me to watchBridgerton, and I got her to watch Game of Thrones. I thought that was a pretty fair trade. And I’ll never admit it to anyone, but I enjoyed both shows.

I haven’t seen her this weekend or been able to talk to her much, and I feel like I’m missing a limb. We had a family we needed to get out of an emergency situation, and the crew that usually helps with that was already on another job, so I got called in to assist. It’s always hard to help someone leave the only life they’ve known for years, but when there are kids involved, it hitsso much harder. I can’t help but imagine that could have been me had my birth parents not fucked up when they did. I don’t remember much about them, only that it wasn’t good.

This weekend’s family was a mom and her young son. The mom stayed because she didn’t think there was a way for her to get out. Until the fucker hurt her son. That’s when she called us. The look on the little boy’s face when we entered the house and started packing everything up is one I’ll never forget. He wasn’t sure if he should be happy we were there or terrified we were going to hurt him more. I took it upon myself to talk to the boy. To let him know we were helpers and we were going to make sure no one could ever hurt him again. We brought them to Briar Mountain and set them up in a temporary apartment while we wait for new documents to come through.

This morning, we’re having a recap meeting and catching up on everything else going on with the company. And just like always, I’m the first one in the conference room. It’s at the community center that Daniel’s parents own. They offer a ton of services to the community here, and his wife, Victoria, runs that side of it. When Daniel came back and started ANON Security, he didn’t want to be far from Vic, so his main office is here and we use the conference room when needed. There’s another small office in Rock Hill, but everyone loves it here, so this is where we meet.

I’m scrolling through emails when Nate walks in.

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