Page 3 of Justice for Francesca

A shudder rolled through his body at the new flashback, reminding him of another woman who had been taken. Exhaustion pushed at him, but he refused to allow the past in right now. If he gave in, he’d relive Fleur’s kidnapping in an infinity loop, and it wouldn’t matter that she’d been returned because even that came with nightmares.

Tripoli thanked Lobo again. “I appreciate this.”

Lobo waved it off. “You helped clean up the aftermath of Tabitha and Gendry at The Library. The club is back open. More importantly, Tilly is safe, my Flame is safe…” He flashed a questioning look. “By the way, how’s your woman doing?”

“What woman?”

Lobo raised an eyebrow. “Don’t give me ‘What woman?’. Sweet little submissive you got conked over the head for, then haunted the hospital for nearly a week over. That woman.”

A sterile recovery room. A blonde woman connected to an IV, dark shadows under her eyes. Hair crudely chopped at the base of her neck.

Tripoli fought his way back again. “Oh. You mean the undercover cop.” Tripoli shrugged, trying to keep any emotion off his face and out of his voice. “No idea. Never saw her after she was discharged from the hospital.”

“Bullshit!” TB exclaimed in surprise.

“No bullshit.”

“You never even talked to her?”

“Nope. She up and disappeared.”

“Odd. I assumed she would have been hanging around, asking all sorts of questions since she was investigating the same case we were. Figured you two would be married with a couple of kids by now.”

“Wasn’t like that.”

“Oh, it was definitely like that. There were fucking tweeting birds over both your heads every time you looked at each other. Might have even been a singing princess or two in the background.”

“Not sure what you were looking at, but there was nothing between us.”

Lobo waved a hand. “Whatever. You don’t spend nearly twenty-four seven at a woman’s bedside if it ‘wasn’t like that.’”He punched the seat in front of him. “Steel, did Midas get you any info for Tripoli here?”

Steel popped up over the seat back, a tablet in his hand. “Midas and his flashy AI, Nova, haven’t entered anything into the system yet, other than a Jane Doe was found at Elysium at seven a.m. this morning. Lieutenant Quint Axton was dispatched when the call came in, and two additional units were sent to secure the scene.”

“I don’t want to know how you have access to that information, do I?” Tripoli asked.

“Probably not,” Steel agreed. “I’ll let you know if anything more comes in.” He turned and slid back down into his seat, then popped back up. “And by the way, he’s right. It was definitely like that.” Then he was gone again.

Tripoli stared at the empty spot above the seat in front of him. A chuckle to his right caused him to turn his head and look at Lobo.

“He used to be the scariest motherfucker of the six of us, which is saying a lot. Now he’s just broken. I got nothing.”

“Not broken, dude!” the disembodied voice tossed back.

“Sorry, my mistake.” TB rolled his eyes, pointed at Steel’s seat back, and mouthed, “Broken.”

“I saw that!”

“All the sex is scrambling his brains. If that’s what happens when you find your other half, maybe you’re better off without Fairy,” Lobo admitted.

“Fleur.”

“Who?”

“Fleur. Her name is Fleur.”

“Oh, yeah. Huh. I’d forgotten. I mean, it was two years ago and, well, you know… it wasn’t like that.” Lobo grinned.

“Shut up,” Tripoli bitched.

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