Page 50 of Keeping Ava

Then, there’s also my desire to get back to her. It’s an almost uncontrollable need. A compulsion that’s driving me insane as we wait. As I follow orders.

My job requests that I stay, but my loyalty has shifted and is with Ava.

Moreover, until Rose speaks up, Perez has me here. Waiting. Helping to put together a map to pinpoint his exact location.

He’s been warned, too. I give him another twenty minutes, and I am out. Fuck them all.

“Just that we’re pricks and murderers.”

I shake my head, picking up my bottle of water to take a sip. “What about Meyers?”

“MIA for two days now.” At least we have a connection now. Know where to start. “We have a squad car on the way to his home...picking up the wife and kids. That’ll draw him out.”

I’m not so sure, but don’t voice it. Instead, I look back down at notes and the latest information uncovered. The connection between Meyers and Salcedo.

Both were on the force a few years back in Lubbock, and partners at that. How Salcedo took the fall for Meyers during a sting operation focused on crooked officers taking bribes from a Mexican Cartel near the border trafficking through their city. One was terminated and served some time, while the other asked for a transfer here.

Meyers flew under the radar and kept to himself a lot. Blending in. Not calling attention to himself while Salcedo waited. Planned.

Asking now for the help Jason needed in order to be a step ahead of every department. That’s how he escaped and evaded capture. Meyers was his eyes and ears.

And yet, I still feel as though I am missing something...

“Have Stein and McGrady been made aware of the situation?”

Gomez nods. “Yes.”

“Has Karla woken up in the hospital?” Perez interjects from behind me, placing his cup on the desk I’ve been using. “Did she hear anything that might be useful?”

“Unfortunately, no. She’s still out and pretty banged up. Rose did a number on her, sir.”

“Christ.” I say, my disgust evident. “What’s the prognosis?”

“Karla will recover. None of her injuries were life threatening.”

“And Rose?” I rub a tired hand down my face.

“She admitted to her part in all of this.” Gomez pulls out his recorder and hits play, letting us hear her for ourselves. How she used a baseball bat on her. How she found her cries of pain amusing. How she pushed the end of her lit joint into her skin, laughing as the skin sizzled and scarred. “Her lawyer is with her now, and we think they’ll try to plead insanity—that she is a victim.”

I’ll be fucked if that happens. Karma is a bitch, and she’ll get hers by the judge’s hand or those on the inside.

And it’s as that thought crosses my mind that another hits. Louder. Blaring across all processors, and I could just fucking shoot myself for not picking up on it earlier.

Anthony told me. All but laughed about it in my face.

Home is where the heart is.

“Motherfuck,” I hiss out, rushing past everyone and toward the parking lot. Perez and Gomez are behind me, yelling my name, but I can’t stop. Not when I’ve been so fucking stupid. When I put her life in danger.

“What the fuck, Ford? Where are you going?” Perez yells from behind me as I click the fob in my hand and the lights of my Camaro turn on near the station’s entrance. “Stop.”

I’m inside my car before they can reach me, engine running before lowering my window. “He’s here in San Diego. We need to go!”

“We don’t know for sure. Don’t know where he could be—”

My phone rings then interrupting him. At once, dread fills me and my chest becomes tight as I pull out my cell and hit accept. “Baby?” I breathe out, not giving a fuck who hears. Nothing but Ava matters. What sounds like a shot being fired confirms my worst nightmare even before she speaks. “Ava, what’s happening? I’m on my way back...it was all a—”

“He’s here, Eli. He found me.”

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