Page 7 of Trial By Fire
Trish quickly dressed in the bathroom and turned the light out before she opened the door. Jackson was sound asleep. He’d gone at her several times tonight, and holy shit, each time was better than the other.
Their sex had never been this hot in the past. It was like a new flood gate had opened. He was dominant, demanding, and attentive. She loved it. It was dangerous as hell, and she had to get out of there without waking him up. She slipped the house key off his key ring so she could lock his door. She couldn’t leave the door unlocked so someone could sneak in and steal their stuff or cause them harm.
She had requested a Lyft in the bathroom as she got dressed. When she snuck down the stairs, it was waiting. On the ride home, she sent Lola a text letting her know she had gone home and would see her when she got there.
Leaning her head back she closed her eyes. What the fuck had she just done? Yeah, she scratched a much-needed itch. She’d scratched it with the one man who broke her heart when he ended things using her job as an excuse. She wouldn’t feelguilty for leaving the way she did. She’d make sure she mailed his key back to him in the morning.
Arriving home, she took her jeans and underwear off and crawled into bed. She curled up into a fetal position and let the tears flow as she sniffed the shirt she’d taken from the bathroom. She’d taken one of Jackson’s shirts that was in the dirty clothes basket and put it on since hers was a skimpy shirt. She sniffed the shirt and allowed herself to fall into a restless sleep.
Four hours later her alarm clock went off. Hitting the snooze button, she rolled over and groaned. She was sore in places she never knew she had the ability to use before. Jackson had fucked her hard and good. He’d bent her in ways she didn’t think she was capable of bending. Did things to her she never would have thought of or liked.
He ruined her last night with how well he fucked her. Fucker. She was about to roll over when her cell went off. Reaching for it, she saw her partner’s number and answered.
“Is there a reason you’re calling me on our day off, asshat?”
“Yeah, Janeishia’s body has been found,” Delbert Roverman sighed into the phone. “From what homicide stated, it’s not pretty. Captain called us in.”
“Fuck! Let me get a quick shower and get dressed. Send me the location. I’ll meet you there.”
Trish got up and headed to the shower. Time to start the day a new and forget Jackson Anderson the best way she knew how; bury herself in her work.
Arriving on scene roughly thirty-five minutes later, she squatted down and looked at the battered and broken body of the ten-year-old girl they’d been scouring the city for over the last six weeks. Her parents never reported her missing and didn’t seem to care she was gone. The teacher who had reported her missing was the only one who seemed to have cared about what was going on with the girl.
She and her partner were building a case against the parents for sex trafficking the young girl. Once she and Delbert had positively identified her, they allowed forensics to continue their work as they spoke with the homicide detectives who had originally caught the scene. Sharing notes between each other, homicide agreed to give them the case since they knew they were dealing with more than one child in that home who were victims.
They knew the father had gang affiliations, so they had to tread lightly. Which was the hard part for her at the moment. The gang he was a part of were new and making a name for themselves on the street. They were also deadly and bloodthirsty. They had no problems taking out cops. The parents had even branded the children with the insignia from the gang, letting people know who the kids belonged to. Kids were nothing more than money-making property to them.
She pulled out her phone to reach out to her contact in gangs when her phone started ringing. Noticing it was Lola’s number, she answered.
“Hey Lola, sorry I’m not at the house. One of our cases busted open,” Trish sighed into the phone.
“I’ll let Lola know. You were a very naughty girl, Trish. You took something that belongs to me. It wasn’t very nice of you to sneak out this morning. Was last night that bad that you had to sneak out of my bed without so much as a note?”
Fuck! Jackson. “I was planning on mailing it back to you. Jackson, we both agreed to one night…”
“Doesn’t mean you had to sneak out like it was a bad night. Did I hurt you or something?” Jackson sighed into the phone.
“No! It was great. I just didn’t think it was appropriate for me to fall asleep…”
“You had no problems falling asleep in my arms the first two times. What was the problem the last time?”
“I’m sorry, Jackson. I’ll mail you your key…” Trish’s voice waivered as she rubbed her face with one hand.
“Hey, Trish, talk to me. What’s wrong?”
“Everything. You’re calling me because I snuck out of your place after we had agreed to just one night. I’m standing over the body of a ten-year-old girl whose parents probably had her killed and I couldn’t protect her…”
“Fuck! Look, when you get home, call me. I’ll come to your place to get my key. I’ll even bring dinner. We can talk then.”
“Jackson, I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Trish interrupted him, biting into her bottom lip.
“Trish, you need to eat. You rarely make time to eat when you’re working. You need someone to vent to. I know how it is to lose someone with the job. That’s all it will be. A friend lending an ear. I promise. Nothing more.”
Trish thought about it as she watched the morgue people bag up the little girl who would never see her next birthday. She would never graduate high school, get married, have kids and laugh again. She literally wanted to bawl at the injustice of it all.
“Fine. I should be back at the house in a couple of hours. You remember where I live?”
“Yeah. I’ll see you in a few hours. Chinese ok or would you like Thai? I remember how much you loved that.”
