by Marci Bolden
“You can be mad at me all you want,” she said.
He stopped rubbing soap over his body, freezing at the sound of her voice. “I asked you to leave.”
“But being mad at me isn’t going to bring her home,” she continued.
“And having her arrested will?”
“Yes,” she stated firmly. “It will. Make the call while we can still tell the police her location. Eventually Rene will lose them and Mandy will ditch her sweatshirt. Then she’ll be missing again, and you’ll be back to square one.”
She didn’t wait for his reply. She left him to his shower and returned to his room, where she pulled his shirt off and tossed it on the bed. Dressing, she gathered her things and headed for the door. He might be too angry to do what was needed, but Alexa guessed if she and her team followed Mandy long enough, they’d find another cause to call the police on her without Dean pressing charges. Except those charges might not be dropped and the girl would have a permanent record. She might never get out from under the shadow of whoever it was that had her.
But that wasn’t on Alexa. Dean had a choice to make, hard as that might be, and she couldn’t make it for him. She did understand his anger. She didn’t blame him. She’d had plenty of clients angry with her for making the tough calls they couldn’t bring themselves to make. This one hurt, though. That was her fault for getting involved with Dean on a personal level. Rene had warned her the case could go south, as they often did, and now she was feeling the effects of that in a way she’d never felt before.
Her heart was breaking for him and for Mandy, and for herself, because she didn’t want Dean to walk away from what they’d shared because of the choice she’d made and the position she was putting him in.
Fully dressed, she looked at the bathroom door. The water was still running. He was still standing there debating what he should do…or wondering why the hell he’d ever hired Alexa in the first place. Either way, she had to leave it up to him to decide the next move.
Climbing into her car, she cleared her head of the emotional turmoil and called Rene the moment she was out of Dean’s driveway. “Got any updates?”
“They’re headed east on the interstate. I’d guess they are going back to Chicago.”
Alexa let that sink in. “That doesn’t make sense. Why would he bring her all the way back here just to steal a few hundred bucks and some jewelry from her brother?”
“Testing her loyalty?”
“He’s going to drive five hours one way just to test her loyalty? He could get her to mug a little old lady to do that. This isn’t right, Rene.”
“I agree. What are you thinking?”
“I don’t know, but you can’t follow them all the way to Chicago.”
“I might not have to. They’re exiting. I’ll keep you posted.”
The call ended, and Alexa heaved a sigh. She needed to run home and grab a quick shower and change her clothes before heading into the office and tackling this day.
Dean sat at the kitchen counter, running the events of the night before through his mind. Not just Mandy coming home and then disappearing again but the suspicion in Alexa’s eyes. The questions she’d asked. The way she’d peered through the window as if expecting to see someone watching the house…or waiting for Mandy to reemerge.
When he’d woken up, Mandy had been sneaking through the house, probably intending to never even be heard. She probably had no intention of letting him know she was home. She probably planned to sneak in, steal his cash and their mother’s jewelry, and disappear without a trace. As if she’d never been there.
He’d been a goddamned fool to think that her coming home was going to be the end of this drama. Alexa had warned him, more than once, that finding Mandy was only the beginning. She was addicted to drugs. She wasn’t the same little girl he remembered. She wasn’t an innocent being consumed by the world. She’d been pulled into a world of drugs and prostitution and was doing whatever it took to keep going.
Including theft from her own brother. And dead mother, as Alexa had reminded him.
“Christ,” he whispered as he dug his fingertip into his eyes, trying to make sense of what had transpired.
Mandy was in a world of trouble, and the one time she’d reached out for help might have been her last. That might have been the last moment of clarity she’d ever have if he didn’t force his help on her. And the only way to do that, according to Alexa, was to press charges.
He heaved a breath when his phone pinged, letting him know he had received a new text message.
Alexa.
Mandy stopped at a pawnshop. Holly is on her way to get whatever she sold. Probably Lily’s jewelry. I’ll confirm and let you know.
He didn’t know what to say to that, so he set his phone aside and stared into his coffee, which had long ago gone cold. He didn’t know how long he’d been sitting there trying to determine what to do. What would his mother do? Have her own child picked up for theft? Have her face a judge who could decide to put her in jail instead of a rehab facility?
What had Alexa said? Call the police, file a report, and have her arrested before she ends up dead of an overdose or murdered by some pervert in a cheap motel room.
Those were the options? His only options?
Walking to the sink, he dumped out the bitter brew and turned to rest his lower back against the edge of the sink. Looking out at the living area, he scoffed at the decorations he and Alexa had put up in some pointless attempt to make Mandy’s home more welcoming when she returned.
She hadn’t noticed. She hadn’t even realized what he’d done for her. That wasn’t like his sister. Mandy loved the holidays, any holiday. She loved the decorations. She used to pester their mother weeks in advance, wanting to help her decorate and bake cookies or carve pumpkins. Whatever the season called for, Mandy used to be all in. She’d gotten that from their mother.
The reason Dean had dragged out all those damned decorations was because he remembered how disappointed she had been when he hadn’t decorated for Christmas the previous year. And she hadn’t noticed.
She had been stoned. Just like Alexa said. Too stoned to care about fake spiders and painted monsters and carved pumpkins. She had one thing on her mind when she’d been sitting there—getting her hands on his emergency cash and finding valuables to pawn. To buy drugs.
His sentimental sister, who refused to part with her favorite blanket no matter how ratty the material got, had just sold their deceased mother’s favorite ring and earrings. To buy drugs.
She was out there selling her body, letting strange men touch her. To buy drugs.
An unexpected rush of sorrow rolled through him. Tears bit at his eyes, and his breath burst from his lungs. Holy shit. How had things gotten this bad? How had she fallen so far?
How had she gotten to the point that the only way to save her was to have her arrested?
If he did that, she might never forgive him, but if he didn’t, she probably wouldn’t be alive to resent his actions anyway. She was the only family he had left, and he was going to lose her. No matter what he did, he was going to lose her. But he couldn’t live with himself if he didn’t do everything he could to save her.
Grabbing his phone, he looked at Alexa’s text before forcing his shaking fingers to type out a reply.
You’re right. I need to press charges. What do I do?
She replied immediately. I’m sending someone over.
Dean’s heart ached as he stared at her reply. Any other time she would have said she was on her way. She would have dropped whatever she was doing and run to his side. He tried not to read too much into it. She was on Mandy’s trail; she was working the case. She probably couldn’t stop whatever she was doing. He wasn’t going to take her response personally. At least not yet.
Returning to his seat at the counter, he waited. Time seemed to slip through his hands, just like his sister’s innocence had slipped through hers. Without notice. Without care.
Fi
nally a knock at the door drew him from his thoughts. He blew out a long breath as he crossed the living room. He opened the door to find a woman he recognized from Alexa’s team. Her black curly hair was pulled into a bun and her suit jacket was fitted, making her look more like a lawyer than the PI he’d seen a few times at the HEARTS office. “Tika, right?”
“Right.” Her smile didn’t convey the same kind of support or soothing quality that her teammate’s had. “Alexa asked me to take you to the station. I’ve got a better understanding of the legal system than the rest of the team,” she said, as if to justify why Alexa hadn’t come herself. “I’ll walk you through everything and answer any questions you might have. Once the police are ready to move forward, I’ll get confirmation from Alexa on Mandy’s whereabouts. The police will take over from there. They’ll notify you once she’s been arrested. You can notify Alexa, and we’ll consider the case closed.”
Case closed. Just like that. Mandy would be in jail. Dean would be negotiating for her to go to rehab. And then what? What would that mean for him? For his sister? For his relationship…whatever was left of it…with Alexa?
Tika’s smile faltered a bit. “Dean? Have you changed your mind?”
Dean hesitated, one last moment of doubt, before stepping aside and gesturing for Tika to enter his broken home. “No. No, I haven’t changed my mind.”
12
Alexa’s crummy mood didn’t improve when Holly stepped through the conference room doorway. Alexa hadn’t been looking forward to whatever the team leader would have to say about her crossing the line with Dean, but she definitely wasn’t up for the lecture now that Dean was angry with her. She barely glanced up before returning her attention to the report she was filling out for the case that was about to close.
“How’s your day?” Holly asked.
Alexa scoffed, immediately thinking of how Dean had kicked her out of his house. “Not the best. Yours?”
Holly set two coffee mugs and the bottle of vodka that had taken up permanent residence in the break-room freezer on the table across from Alexa. “This might help.”
Sitting back, Alexa accepted her fate. Holly wasn’t going to leave until they’d had this chat. They might as well take the edge off with a shot. Or two.
“Couldn’t hurt, could it?” Alexa asked.
Reaching into her pocket, Holly pulled out a small plastic bag and slid it toward Alexa. While Alexa opened it, peering at the jewelry Mandy had pawned, Holly poured vodka into a mug.
“I know about you and Dean, Lex.”
“I figured as much.” She rolled the top of the bag closed and set it aside so she could take it to Dean. “There aren’t any secrets in these four walls, are there?”
Holly finished pouring the second drink. “Not many, no.”
“Are you pissed about it?”
Leaning across the table, Holly offered one mug before sitting across from Alexa with her own. “Pissed? No. You’re a big girl. You make your own choices based on whether or not you are willing to pay the consequences. Irritated is more like it.”
Alexa swallowed a sip. “Irritated?”
“Because the consequences for this particular choice impact the business, not just you. He would be well within his rights to feel that a representative of this office took advantage of him.”
“I talked to him about that. I don’t think that’s going to be an issue.”
“Well, it could be. Despite what you think. You muddied waters that are better left alone. It’s done, Alexa. I’m not angry, just irritated that you would risk the reputation of HEARTS. We all work hard to diminish the stigmas attached to a group of female investigators. Having one of us sleep with a client could damage that.”
Alexa lowered her gaze. “I know.”
“You also knew crossing that line with Dean could lead you to this place where you are now. I am correct in thinking the cloud hanging over you today has something to do with your client’s reaction to the turn his case has taken?”
Pushing aside her report, deciding now wasn’t the time to worry about listing expenses, Alexa said, “He wasn’t thrilled when I told him his best option was to press charges against his sister. He blamed me.”
“We often get the brunt of the blame when cases don’t go well. You know that.”
“Yeah. I know that.”
“Tell me what happened,” Holly coaxed.
Alexa suspected Rene had already told her all there was to tell, and not just out of office gossip. Alexa had dragged two additional team members into her case. Someone had to explain that, and out of everyone involved, Rene was the most levelheaded. She was the one Holly would go to for answers first. Rene likely hadn’t sugarcoated any of what had gone down.
“I was with Dean when his sister showed up in the middle of the night. I saw her sudden reappearance for what it was. She was there to take some things, find some money, and hit the road. Instead of calling her out on that in front of Dean, I put my tracer in her sweatshirt and called for backup. I didn’t tell him what I thought…what I knew was going to happen. Instead I let her steal from him and run away so he’d have a legal way of forcing her to get help.” She shrugged. “He thinks he could have convinced her to stay and get sober.”
Holly was a master at keeping her emotions from playing across her face, but even she frowned at Dean’s conviction. “He doesn’t understand what he’s dealing with, Lex. Either by choice or ignorance.”
“By choice,” she stated. “He’s not a fool.”
“He doesn’t have to be a fool to choose to see the best in his sister. None of us want to acknowledge that our loved ones may have a dark side.”
Silence fell over them, and Alexa had to wonder if Holly was thinking of her dad. Alexa would usually take the opportunity to ask and offer her support, but she was emotionally spent at the moment. She didn’t have an ounce of anything left to give to someone else. She had hoped that Dean pressing charges against Mandy meant he had come to understand Alexa’s motives and would reach out to her, but it had been Tika who let Alexa know the police were out looking for Mandy. The fact that she was still in the area was something that had Alexa puzzled. She just couldn’t understand why Mandy had been brought back to the city where she’d been taken. That didn’t make sense.
The moment of introspection passed when Holly asked, “Do you think she’s gone from unwilling victim to believing these people are looking out for her?”
“I think this was a test of her loyalty to her handler.”
“She passed. Now what happens to her?”
Alexa huffed a breath. “I guess she moves up the food chain. Gets a promotion, so to speak. She’ll get better-quality johns, more money or drugs or whatever they are giving her as her share of payment. She’ll be worth more to her handler, so she’ll get treated a little better. And the better they treat her, the easier it will be for her to justify what they are putting her through. She’ll get pulled deeper and deeper into this life, and we may never get her out.”
She nearly choked on the last bit. The idea of not saving Mandy was unfathomable but a possibility she had to face.
“We’ll get her out,” Holly said. “We’re not going to let them take her.”
Alexa appreciated Holly’s sentiment, but they both knew they might not have a choice in the matter.
“So,” Holly asked. “You were together. You and Dean?”
“Yes.”
“And now?”
Alexa shrugged. “I convinced him to have his sister arrested, Hol. I’m not sure there is any place to go after that.”
“Someday he’ll understand that you were trying to save her from herself.”
She toasted her friend. “Here’s to someday.”
Holly laughed slightly. “I’m sorry, Lex. I suck at reassuring people. I know that. I should have sent Eva in here.”
Alexa shook her head. “I don’t need reassurances. I know the score. I slept with a client when he was emotionally vulnerabl
e, and when things didn’t go as planned, he blamed me. You’re right. I knew the risk. I took it, and I got my comeuppance.”
“You like each other, though. Even I can see that.”
Finishing what was in her glass, Alexa swallowed it down to ease her heartache. “He’s a good guy. A genuinely good guy. Those aren’t easy to come by. In our line of work especially. As you know.”
“I do know. I got lucky with Jack. Eva got lucky with Josh. Maybe once this blows over, Dean will see you did what really was best for his sister, and you’ll get lucky, too. He’s in a bad spot right now.”
Alexa sighed. “I know that.” Taking a breath, she let it out slowly, surprised at the sting she felt in her heart. “You know me, Hol. I wanted to swoop in and take all his pain away and make him better. I spend so much time trying to make everyone else better because…”
“Because fixing other people makes you feel less broken.”
Alexa lifted her eyes, surprised Holly got it. Then again, she wasn’t surprised at all. Not only could Holly read between the thinnest lines, but she had her own ghosts to reconcile.
Emotion slammed into Alexa’s chest. “I’m never going to find Lanie, am I?” she whispered.
Holly’s shoulder’s sagged. “I don’t know. I hope you do. I hope you find the answers you need.”
“I hope we both do. Then maybe we can rest. Wouldn’t that be nice? To not always be wondering what happened to them?”
A knock on the doorframe behind Holly drew Alexa’s attention. Tika looked hesitant, as if she suspected she might be interrupting something.
“Hey, Tika,” Alexa said.
“I just got back.”
“How’s Dean?”
“Quiet,” Tika said. “He knew this was the right thing to do, but he wasn’t happy about it. He asked about you.”
Alexa sniffed and sat back. “I’ll reach out to him later.”
Tika’s brow lifted. “Is that vodka?”
Holly held up the bottle, and Tika took it with her to the little table in the corner where a stack of cups sat next to an empty pitcher.