Page 48 of Pump Fake

“No. I didn’t know what to do.” His gaze leveled with mine. “But she’s your girlfriend. I thought you would know.”

“What? How, um…?” It so wasn’t the time for that conversation, but I guessed we were having it. “How did you know we were seeing each other?”

“I have eyes.”

“Does it bother you?”

“No.” He huffed and rolled his eyes. “She’s cool.”

I ruffled his hair before dismissing the impressively short talk. Preston wasn’t upset about that, but he was about what’d happened to Brielle. We all were.

I told them what Brielle had shared about her dad taking a loan from the mob and that we intended to get the cops involved.

“Wait.” Liam whipped his phone from his pocket, his fingers flying over the screen until he clicked on something. “Is this the guy you saw, P?”

Preston’s eyes widened, and he nodded. I peered over at hisphone and saw who my nephew had confirmed took Brie—Anthony Canino. He was into all kinds of bad shit.

“How did you know it was that guy?” I flicked my gaze from Liam’s phone to his face.

“Remember when I went to my sister’s apartment last week to surprise her with takeout?” Kylian and I nodded. “She was on the phone, so I started setting everything up, but I had to move stuff on her table to make room. There were case files, pictures, and notes spread out. One of the pictures was of Anthony Canino. I recognized him from the article a while back when he was arrested but then his lawyers got him out of all the charges.”

“Didn’t Fiona stop you?”

“Yeah, when she was off her call, but I managed to read some of it. They’re doing a raid at the casino the Canino family owns.”

“Why would she take that stuff home with her?”I’m no expert, but wouldn’t she leave the plans or information or whatever at the precinct?

A gleam lit Liam’s eyes. “I asked her the same thing. She said there’s a leak at the department, and guess who she suspects?”

I shrugged.

“The police chief.”

“Holy shit. That’s not good.” Kylian pushed off the island where he was leaning, a scowl marring his features.

“No kidding.” Liam snorted. “Fi will be here soon. She said she was in the neighborhood when I called and has a few minutes to hear what happened.”

That made things easier. I didn’t want Preston to have to go to the police station to ID the guy if we didn’t have to.

“She’s here,” Liam said. “I’m gonna meet her, catch her up to speed with what we know. Be back.”

Preston looked a little pale. I motioned for him to take a seat on one of the bar stools. Time moved slowly as we waited for Liam and Fiona. My skin felt stretched too tight, the sensationdriving me crazy. I needed to do something—to find Brie. I hated feeling helpless.

The door opened, and Liam entered with Fiona. She was a small woman with dark-brown hair secured in a low bun. He slung his arm tightly around her shoulders as he introduced her to Preston, the only one she didn’t know.

She grunted from Liam’s too-tight hug and knocked his arm away, then focused on me. “Liam tells me you think it was the mob who took your girl?”

“Yes.” I grabbed Liam’s phone and told her about Preston IDing Anthony and also about Brie being nabbed from the Linwood Prep parking lot.

She asked Preston to recount what happened, and when he was done, I filled her in on the rest. “It has to do with her dad. He took out a loan or something, and he’s in jail, so probably not able to pay.”

“Well, if it was the Canino family, we’ve had surveillance on that crime organization for months. I’ll pull any video footage from the school’s parking lot. I appreciate the information, but now you boys need to head to the station and make a statement. Butonlytalk to Officer Fieldings. No one else. Are you clear on that?”

“Yes. Fieldings. Got it.” I committed his name to memory.

“Oh, and do you have a picture of the girl?” Fiona asked.

“Her name’s Brielle Sinclair.” I knew Fiona didn’t mean anything by calling her “the girl,” but it bothered me. I pulled my phone from my pocket and found a picture I’d snapped of her a few days ago.

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