Page 103 of Renegade

“She called me, Mike. She sounded fine—scared, but sober. She said she’d overheard something she shouldn’t have and that’s why she was sitting in jail.”

I grabbed a pen and began clicking it at random. “What did she overhear? Where was she when she overheard it?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know. She said it wasn’t safe to talk about it over the phone. She thought they might be listening.”

Oh, fuck.

Lauren had been played.

I fought to keep any judgment out of my voice as I said, “Lauren, this is the same woman who stole your car six years ago. Who’s to say that she isn’t taking you for a ride right now?”

Her mouth fell into a flat line and she asked, “How the hell did you know about that?”

Shit.

Grey told me. You know, after I helped him return the car to you. But, it’s fine because we weren’t together then.

I kept my posture relaxed. “I’m a cop, Darlin’. Surely, you didn’t think that I wasn’t gonna run a background check on you.”

I regretted saying it almost immediately, but I didn’t exactly have an alternative option.

Lauren’s eyes darkened and her jaw clenched. “You ran a fucking background check on me without my consent? Who does that?”

I waved my hand. “Look, just let me explain. I researched you—I wanted to get to know you better.”

Yeah, that was worse.

She shouted, “Then fucking ask me, asshole! That’s how people get to know each other. Not by running background checks on the other person without them knowing. Are you going to help me or not? She’s not using, I swear.”

I tried to discreetly move my chair further back without her noticing. I got it. She refused to accept that she’d been screwed over once again and was clinging to this hope that—

Unless…

I pulled my burner from my back pocket and replied to the text from Grey.

Me-

“Female?”

Within seconds, he responded.

“Affirmative. Hold overnight.”

Great.

Her mother was being targeted by the Sons and Grey wanted her held until he could neutralize the threat. And there was absolutely no way for me to tell her any of it.

I pressed my mouth into a flat line. “Lauren, I’m not sure it’s such a good idea to take any action until we get all the facts.”

A flush worked its way up her throat and into her face, and this time it had nothing to do with lust and everything to do with murderous rage.

She pointed a shaking finger at me. and hissed, “Oh, so you’ll bend over backwards for David, but not me? I’m not even asking you to cover up a murder—all I need is for my mother to be taken to a secure location so that I can find out what’s going on,” she retrieved her coat off the back of the chair and slipped it on before adding, “I guess that’s too much for a crooked cop to handle though.”

I got up and walked over to her. “Just hear me out. I can’t bend the rules on this one. I need you to trust me on this. It’s all going to be fine.”

The words were right there in my throat. She looked absolutely devastated and I wanted to fix it. I wanted to tell her that her mother was much safer in here than she was on the streets. I couldn’t do it though. I wasn’t willing to involve Lauren in Grey’s shit.

I gripped her shoulder lightly and she wrenched backward out of reach. “I can’t even look at you right now, Mike.”

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