Page 72 of Daddy P.I. 3.0

“I know what time it is. I also know I have a fifteen-year-old kid here with no safe place to go. You’re the cop. Tell me what to do.”

“I’ll tell you what you don’t do. You don’t take her home, because I know that’s what you’re thinking. Don’t do it. The kid cries rape or abuse and you’re fucked.”

“I wouldn’t!” True protests.

I hold up my hand again and add a glare.

Theo grumbles. “You need someone who’s an emergency foster or law enforcement to take her for the rest of the night. In Jersey. You can’t bring her to New York tonight.”

“Mac and I figured that already,” I tell Theo.

Mac grunts and takes out his own phone. With both of us occupied, True’s eyes flick toward the door.

I hold up my taser.

She scowls.

“Then you call Franco,” Theo says. “Wake him up at your fucking peril. Tell him you need to file an emergency application for the protection of a minor. The kid will have to give a statement. There will be a hearing. If you haven’t figured out somewhere for the kid to go, I’m warning you, child protection will put her in whatever placement they have. Jersey’s child welfare department was one of the worst in the nation. It’s improved but last I heard, they were still under oversight of a federal court monitor because the problems are so severe. Keep your expectations low.”

“Okay. If I needed you to call in a favor over the state line, could you?”

Theo swears colorfully. “Are you serious?Youowemeafter that bullshit with Brenna and those bikers.”

“Keep your mind off my sub,” Mac grumbles, as he types into his phone.

True’s eyes track away from the door and settle on Mac. Is that ... hero worship in her big brown eyes?

Theo huffs.

“Theo,” I say, to refocus him. “This is aminorwho does not have a safe place to go. A kid who has been breaking into Sacrum because she felt it was safe. Are you hearing me?”

I leave Emmy and Brenna’s belief that she’s a submissive unspoken but strongly implied.

Theo swears some more. “You owe me a hundred goddamn dinners at the Trattoria for this, you emotionally-blackmailing asshole. I know someone in the Jersey DA’s office. I’ll call her when her office opens.”

“Thank you, Theo.”

“Don’t get your hopes up.”

I wink at True. “We won’t.”

She smiles shyly.

“Oh, and call Maude,” Theo says.

I know Maude’s a nurse, well, former nursing administrator but I don’t see how calling her could help. “Okay. Why?”

“Because she’s a member at large for the Communication Workers of America. That’s the union for social workers in Jersey. You want to pull strings for this kid? No one can pull more strings than that woman.”

I chuckle at the image of us all dancing like marionettes at the end of Maude’s strings. On second thought, there might be more truth in that image than is comfortable. “Thanks. I will.”

“Good night. What’s left of it,” Theo grumps. “I’ll set my alarm and make that call first thing. Keep your phone on.”

“Always do. Sincerely, Theo, thanks.”

“You’re welcome. Don’t call me in the middle of the night again unless someone’s dying. Preferably you.”

I chuckle and say goodbye.

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