Page 485 of Dark Love

I slide the stack of papers over that Shock took off Plant’s laptop.

Max’s hands fly over the keys almost as fast as Shock’s.

Sometimes it’s hard to believe the Vincenti heir is a computer wiz.

“You don’t need to worry that I’ll leave a trail.”

Good, because I wasn’t.

“Oh, this is interesting.”

“What?” I walk around to his side of the desk.

“It’s an old account. A very old account that’s been paying Plant. Up until about a year ago, the account holder was paying an Eva Gardener twenty thousand dollars every six weeks. Then the payments just stopped.”

“How long was Eva receiving payments?”

Max taps a few keys. “For almost a decade. Could she have been trafficking women?”

It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve seen it happen. “It’s possible. Do we have an address?”

“Yeah.” He rattles off the address.

“This woman lives in a town named Sweet Belle?”

“That’s what it says.” Max goes back to typing like a fiend. “It’s a really small town down south. There’s nothing online to find out anything about her. The town barely has a website.”

There’s got to be an easier way to find out about this woman than sending someone down to do recognizance that’s going to stick out like a sore thumb. “When was the last time she made a withdrawal?” Maybe we can find her when she goes to get more money.

“Three years ago, she took out five hundred thousand dollars. That was the only time money has been taken out of her account.”

Odd. But there’s a thread to pull there. “What about the other accounts receiving payments…”

***

Three hours later we have a dozen threads to follow up on and way too many possible points of acquisition.

“Have you ever dealt with something this big?” Max doesn’t look up from his laptop.

“No. I’ve never seen anything like it. If all of these people are trafficking women, it’s the biggest group in the world.”

My phone chimes alerting me to a person at Dahlia’s door. “One second.” I turn on the video feed just as Dahlia steps inside.

“Stalker much?” Max steps next to me.

“Why do you even care?” I practically growl at him.

Max strides away then stops to turn to face me. “Because you’re in love with her, and I don’t want you to mess it up.”

Excuse me.

“Don’t act all shocked. You aren’t exactly hiding it well.”

“And again, why do you care?” Dahlia is mine, not his.

“Because when you’ve lost love, you understand the value of it.”

Wait. That means all of this has been to help me.

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