Page 51 of Concealed

“We’re roommates and have been for the last two years. She always comes home at night. But not for the last three nights, and I can’t get through to her cell phone.”

“Give me her number.”

Her voice shakes when she recites digits that I scrawl into the notebook attached to my belt. She’s providing me with information that will hopefully make our tech team happy, and give us another puzzle piece.

“I’m going to look for her,” I promise, “but the more you can tell me, the easier it’s going to be to find her.”

“I know she didn’t run away. She was scared of…” Carly glances down the alley. “Not ofhim. His boss. Maybe his boss’ boss’ boss. I don’t know. All I know is that she was scared, and she said something bad was gonna happen to her, that they were gonna send her away, but I don’t know where…”

Her story confirms exactly what we’re suspecting is happening to girls exactly like Carly and Anna. It’s true some cops wouldn’t take a report about a missing teenage prostitute seriously, especially with no way to confirm she was actually missing and didn’t just run away.

But I believe the story.

Fear pours off Carly’s skin, and the stench of stale sweat fills my nostrils. The girl never keeps still. Her eyes dart everywhere at once, her head constantly bobs, and her arms and legs continuously bounce. It’s either anxiety or withdrawals, and my guess is the latter since drugs are just another way that pimps keep their product compliant and dependent.

“Maybe she didn’t know where she was going either,” Carly continues. “She was high and not making a whole lot of sense. Part of me thought she was just talking shit and wanted attention, you know. But then she didn’t come home. When I asked Li Qiang where she is, he lost his shit. He… It was bad. But it doesn’t matter what he did to me. Something terrible must have happened to Anna for him to be so angry.”

Li Qiang is hastily written into my notebook below Anna’s disconnected phone number that will hopefully move more puzzle pieces into place.

“Let me help you,” I say. The apprehension rolling off Carly in waves has me worried she’s going to bolt the first chance she gets. “Please.”

My priority is getting Carly safe and then interviewing her to find out everything she knows about Li Qiang, who might connect us to Zhang Wei.

Carly knows more than she thinks she does – that’s always the case – and she just needs her memory jogged by someone who is trained to ask the right questions and extract information.

Someone exactly like me.

“All I want is for you to look for Anna,” she pleads. “I need to go now.”

“You’re going to be the next Anna if you don’t come with me and let me help you.”

Her hand pauses on the door handle. “It’s too late. I’m already a dead girl walking. But you gave me tonight. Thank you.”

“If you believe that’s true, then stay here with me, and I’ll–”

But she’s already running full tilt down the street while Wallace has her punk ass pimp occupied.

Fuck.

I return to the alley, and Li Qiang is getting increasingly belligerent, calling Wallace every swear word known to man and warning that we have no right to detain him.

And he’s correct.

Carly is gone, and there’s nothing we can charge him with unless she cooperates. He technically hasn’t done anything wrong, at least that we can prove.

My heart is heavy in my throat while my gaze tracks his movements. Even though he’s a dirtbag piece of shit, he ultimately walks away from us while shouting Cantonese phrases into his cell phone.

And I don’t miss the smirk he shoots over his shoulder.

Chapter 12

Rebecca

WyattmustthinkI’ma total head case, and now I’ve given the guy blue balls on top of everything else. Our forced proximity has put me into a position that I’m only half-ready to jump on, and my mind won’t stop running through the possibilities.

There’s no question that I want Wyatt, but going from dreaming about having more in my life, to leaving Matt, to having that “more” I’ve been craving plunked right into my lap – it’s a lot to handle.

On my hands and knees scrubbing a floor that doesn’t need to be scrubbed gives my body something to do, while my thoughts race like a wayward freight train. At least if teaching doesn’t work out, I have a head start as a chambermaid.

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