I stepped forward and offering the girl my hand. “Hi, I’m Emily Stafford.”
“Lily. Lily Perkins.”
Finally, I had a name. Despite her quiet voice, Lily had a firm handshake. Her gaze followed me as I sat on the sofa beside the old woman who had yet to introduce herself.
“The man who helped me… he’s really in jail?” Lily asked.
I nodded. “Marcus Wilson. He was in the Army. Special Forces. He’s a big guy with a heart of gold. You know, he could have walked away when he saw what Noah was doing to you, but he didn’t. I don’t think he physically could have, that’s how nice of a guy he is. How did you get here?”
“Cops, ambulance drivers were all talking about Mayor Kinlan’s son, like he was this incredible person who hadn’t just… Like he hadn’t just raped me. It was weird. I was curled up in the corner and they barely even noticed me. One of the ambulance drivers loaded me onto a stretcher and into their ambulance, but then they went back to… to him. I felt like… like I was nobody, Ms. Stafford.”
“Emily, please,” I corrected her. “And you are somebody. I’m sorry you were treated like that.”
She shrugged. “I don’t have any money. My family is in Georgia, but they don’t give two shits about me. I came here to live with my dad, but he remarried, and his wife is a bitch who hates me, so I was just trying to work and get by.”
“How do you know Noah?” I asked.
“I don’t. I didn’t.” Her eyes glossed over with unshed tears. “I was walking home from work when he jumped me and dragged me back behind some sort of bar. I… I screamed, but he covered my mouth. I tried to fight him, but he’s a lot stronger than he looks.” A single tear fell. She swiped at it angrily. “I’m sorry.”
Noah Kinlan was going to rot in jail. I didn’t care what I had to do to get him there, he would never again wreck someone the way he’d wrecked Lily.
“None of this is your fault,” I assured her. “You’re not even the first girl he’s attacked. Noah is a predator, and he needs to be dealt with. That’s why I’m here. I swear to you I will do everything in my power to lock this bastard up and throw away the key, but we need your help. What do you say? You want to keep him from doing this to anyone else?”
She studied her hands, then the carpet, then the old woman sitting beside me. Finally, Lily’s gaze turned on me. Something had changed within her. She no longer looked like the scared little girl she had when I’d walked in. There was fire and strength blazing out from her irises that hadn’t been there before. Tucking her hands in her lap, she straightened her back and asked, “What do I have to do?”
* * *
We moved Lily to the Dead Presidents’ base of operations. She didn’t want to go, but I gave it to her straight and made sure she understood how much danger she’d be in if she stayed. We’d found her, which meant the mayor with his bottomless resources could, too. She broke down and agreed to come with us, but only if I stayed at the station with her.
I drove Lily to the station and got her set up in the room next to a girl named Candice. Wasp, who escorted me and Lily up to her room, introduced me to Candice like I was supposed to know who she was.
Boots wandered into the room and put his head on Lily’s legs, staring up at her adoringly.
“This is Boots,” Candice said, patting down the dog. “He’s pretty much the best guy on the planet.”
Leaving the girls in Boots’ capable paws, I tugged Wasp aside and asked, “Who is Candice?”
His brow furrowed. “The girl from U-Dub that Noah Kinlan roofied and took advantage of.”
“What?!” I ground out. Another of Noah’s victims had been hiding at the station and nobody had told me?
“Uh… You didn’t know?”
“No. Of course not. Why would anyone feel like that’s something the attorney needs to know? It’s not like I have to interview her and prepare her for court and a lawsuit or anything. How long have you guys had her here?”
Wasp had been steadily backing away. He looked from side to side and said, “I don’t think I should answer that question.”
That just pissed me off more. “Why would Link keep her from me?” I asked.
Wasp shrugged, taking another step back. “I don’t know. But I’m sure he has a good reason.”
Before I could dig deeper, the big buff blond beefcake of a chicken turned and fled down the stairs.
Fuming, I hurried out the front door of the station, not knowing or caring if Bull or anyone else was following me. Link was perched on top of his motorcycle which was parked beside my car. I paused in front of him, trying to form the sentences necessary to verbally rip him a new one for not telling me about Candice. Why would he hold out on me like that? Candice could have given me information I needed for the case. I should have interviewed her the second he brought her to the station.
Link’s eyebrows shot up, as if daring me to question his manly methods and knuckle-dragging ways. I opened my mouth to tell him all about himself and decided I was way too pissed to hold an intelligent conversation. Instead, I slipped into my car, locked the doors, and started it up. I expected him to beat on my window and demand entry, but he popped his helmet on and fired up his bike instead. When I pulled out of the parking lot, he followed.
As I drove, I kept wondering why he hadn’t told me about Candice. Trust issues? He had sought me out (after doing a stalkerish amount of homework on me, might I add) and hired me to represent Havoc. Did he think the mayor had somehow bought me off? Was that the real reason he was pissed about our lunch meeting?
