“Oh, there, he turned.” Hunt started clicking away on his phone, then pulled out a second phone from his pocket and started clicking away on that next.
“One Donahue…”
My phone rang, and I answered it.
“Donahue Ferrera,” Bruno said into the receiver. “Thirty-nine. Lives two houses down from y’all. He says that he’s in love with your woman and just wants to ask her out, but he’s too scared.”
I looked at my woman.
And she was mine.
After tonight, dealing with her family, I’d realized a few things.
One, I was overly protective of her.
Two, to be overly protective, there had to be something there.
Three, well, the thought of her being poisoned today, even with something that was so clearly mild, had enraged me.
Still, I was enraged. I wanted to go over to her father’s house and shove my size fifteen boot up her father’s ass.
Then shove it down her stepmother’s throat once it was thoroughly coated.
I was that mad.
“He says that he tries to work up the courage to talk to her, but always freezes up when she looks at him.” Bruno paused. “The guy is a little mouse-like, so I believe it. I told him it was creeping her out and to stop. He agreed and all but ran home.”
The thought of some mouse-like guy having to talk to a wolf-like Bruno was actually quite amusing.
I rubbed the bridge of my nose. “You believe him?”
“I believe him,” Bruno admitted. “Guy about pissed himself when we said that we were in an MC. He blabbered his entire life story. Single guy. Lives with his mother. Investment banker. Trust fund baby. Never had a girlfriend because he’s so shy. His mother called him and told him to come home because dinner was getting cold.” He paused. “There’s one other thing about him.”
I wasn’t sure that I wanted to know based on the tone that Bruno was using.
“Yeah?” I asked. “I’m not sure that I can handle any more news tonight.”
“Well, this actually kind of has to do with that.” He paused. “Or, just adding a little fuel to the same fire.” Bruno cleared his throat. “Apparently the stepmother urged the neighbor to keep at it. That she was more willing to talk to him later at night. That was why most of his attempts came after the sun set.”
“Jesus Christ,” I grumbled, pinching the bridge of my nose. “Of course, she would have to be involved.”
When I glanced up to look at the couch where Crockett was lying, it was to find her staring at me with a knowing look in her eyes.
When I hung up with Bruno, it was to hear her say, “Let me guess. Melody had something to do with this.”
I grimaced. “Yep. She told him you were easier to get a hold of at night. That was why you always saw him after dark.”
She rolled her eyes. “Of course, she did. Because why wouldn’t she? Which neighbor did it?”
I explained, and she shrugged. “I don’t really know my neighborhood all that much.”
No, she didn’t.
She hadn’t even realized that I was her neighbor—or that she had a new one at all for that matter.
“Crockett, I am formally asking your permission to kick your stepmother’s ass,” Six announced.
Crockett grinned at her friend.
A friend I hadn’t realized that she was so close to.
Six was a good friend to have.
Though, she was a bit crazy around the edges.
“You don’t need my permission.” Crockett groaned and sat up, her face whitening slightly as she did. “I don’t count them as family anymore. I renounced them a long time ago. Now they’re just neighbors that I don’t consider I know.”
Six fist-pumped the air, then sobered slightly. “If you need anything more, let me know.” She paused as she looked toward me. “We have a few things going on tonight that we need to focus on. Sorry, but a missing ten-year-old girl kind of trumps you.”
“Well, she’s not missing anymore. She was picked up outside of her school, but her mom had one of those GPS trackers on her in the form of a watch. When the girl was left alone, she called her parents who then activated the GPS. The GPS led them to an area off the interstate that was a couple of miles from us. The little girl came all the way from Louisiana, though. Anyway, the place being empty meant that they couldn’t find the kidnappers. And that’s what we’re doing tonight.”
That was also why I wasn’t needed.
No blood yet meant no doctor needed.
It would happen, though.
None of the crew could make it a week without needing some sort of medical attention.
“For sure, you need to get to it.” Crockett shivered. “Did you know that I was kidnapped?”
Six stopped in the doorway, her eyes wide. “What?”
“When I was eight. I was found fairly quick, but not quick enough to avoid causing a huge rift between my mother and father. They were on the verge of a divorce when she died. I think my dad blames me for getting kidnapped. At least, deep down that’s what I think he blames me for. Hell, it could just be that he doesn’t like me. I don’t know.” Crockett shrugged. “Shit, you need to get out there and find whoever did that.”
Six looked at her friend, then looked at me. Her look was clear. She wanted me to find out more about it and make sure that her friend was okay.
I would be.
You didn’t just randomly toss out information like that and expect people not to want to know more.
Everybody cleared out after that, leaving me alone with my patient.
A patient that I was highly attracted to and who also looked decidedly sexy despite how sick she was.
Or, at least, how sick she used to be.
Her color was improving by the second.
“How did you get kidnapped?” I found myself sitting on the couch beside her, getting close but not touching her.
Crockett turned in her seat, her toes digging into the couch beneath my thigh before she answered.
“I was eight,” she said. “It happened a lot like Six just said. I was walking home from school, something that wasn’t out of the ordinary with me. But I didn’t like riding the bus because there was this dude that liked to play his trumpet right behind me. And I hated that. So I started walking even though it added about five minutes to my day.”
She wrapped her arms around herself, as if talking about it freaked her out.
I had to fight the urge to reach for her and pull her closer, but the IV going into her arm stilled my hand.
That needed to finish before she’d feel better. And I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from wrapping her up and never letting go once I had her in my arms.
“Anyway,” she continued, resting her head on her knees while she gave me direct eye contact. “I was walking home when this van that was selling ice cream pulled up. I’d been buying ice cream from this same dude for months now. And I was super excited because I had enough to buy what I wanted. So I buy this ice cream pop, I’m ripping into it, when I’m picked up from behind. I have a mouthful of ice cream, so all I can do is a muffled scream. Everything goes black after that, and I wake up in an old equipment shed with no memory of how I got there. I couldn’t scream because I had a nasty gag around my face. I don’t know how long I was there before someone walked into that shed and found me. The owners, I think. Luckily, the guy walked in there. I think it was fate. He said he usually had a lawn service that mowed his yard for him, but they flaked out that week so he had to do it himself. Hence him finding me without them wanting him to. They apparently cased our neighborhood for weeks and saw that he never used the shed. Lucky for me, that day he did. I was gone for over eight hours before I was found.”