Page 77 of Mine, Forever

“No, she’s missing, and I need you to help me find her.”

“Listen, buddy, if Ebony ran away from you—”

“You misunderstand. She hasn’t run from me, she’s been taken.”

His expression grew dark.Why did he look so damn familiar?

“Taken? By who?”

“John Lambert,” I offered on a deep breath. I hated saying his name, and yet he wasn’t father or dad to me—he was John Lambert—had been for a long time.

“So go and get her. Obviously, you have the contacts to do so, or I wouldn’t be here right now.”

“I thought I did. Not everyone in the city is willing to help me.”

“What do you think I can do? I have been in prison for over ten years.”

“You knew John. Is there a place he used to… conduct business?”

I couldn’t bring myself to say traffic girls because I couldn’t bear the thought that it could be happening to my Ebony right now. I couldn’t think that there may be a chance she would be lost to me forever.

“Actually, yeah, it’s off radar because it’s not on land, which means the laws the city are governed by don’t apply to him. That was why he chose to do his business on the boat.”

“You mean there’s a boat in the ocean with Ebony on it right now?”

“Potentially,” he said, swallowing a lump. I could see his mind working overtime.

“Where?”

Sitting forward, I anxiously waited for the answer to finding my girl and kill John once and for all.

“I don’t exactly know. He may have moved it, but honestly, I’ve been on it once and that was when I was high as fuck. I wouldn’t be able to tell you.”

“Who would know then?”

“Jett,” he said, sitting back in his chair, relaxing his hands on the table. I could see the scars from where he’d broken his knuckles, the scars running down his hands and fingers from multiple wounds probably from prison. “Why did you get me a day release? All of this I could have told you while locked up. You didn’t have to call in a favor just for this.”

“I’m not going to that prison willingly. I’ve avoided lock up so far, not going to make it easy for them to get me.”

Aubrey laughed, sobering almost instantly. “Why did he take her?”

“To hurt me.”

“Why is that?”

“He’s always enjoyed hurting me.”

Aubrey was silent for a few minutes, watching me intently. “You’re his kid, aren’t you?”

I nodded.

“Yeah, I see it now. I remember you, only when I met you, there wasn’t a bad bone in your body.”

“I don’t remember those days,” I lied. “They were so long ago, and many bodies have died at my hands since then.”

“So it seems. Why didn’t you protect her from him?”

I didn’t know how to answer that.

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