“Lure him how?” I’m already shaking my head. “No. We’re not using Eloise as bait.”
Blade leans forward, elbows on his knees. “I’m not suggesting we send her out to roam the streets, Cannon. You should register her for GED classes at a physical location in Seattle, and then we’ll intercept his fucking ass when he shows up.”
I flinch.
Blade continues, “Hear me out. The study center will have to put in a request to have her records transferred from her high school. I’d bet anything that’s the first thing our fine school cop will be watching. He knows she will eventually need to get her diploma. When he sees she’s applied to take classes here in Seattle, he’ll jump on the next plane. His primary concern is to keep her silent.”
It’s not a bad idea. “Eloise never leaves this apartment,” I insist.
“She doesn’t have to. There’s no need. Larkin’s a coward. He’ll sit in his car and wait for her. We’ll pick him up without anyone being the wiser.”
I inhale deeply, trying to think if there’s a hole in this plan and not coming up with one. Blade is right. It’s brilliant. It’s not like Larkin will tell anyone why he’s coming to Seattle. If he has friends, he will tell them he’s going on vacation. He’ll never return because, darn it, Seattle can be so dangerous. Poor Mr. Gary Larkin. Killed in a random act of violence when street thugs tried to rob him. “It’ll work.”
Blade chuckles. “Of course it will.”
“What about James Westin?”
“Mace found the coroner’s report. Heart attack, just as Eloise suspected. Found dead in his home after an anonymous tip led officers to check his residence.”
“Shocking,” I mumble sarcastically. I’m sure Mace could trace that call back to Larkin, but it’s not necessary. I know enough about this piece of shit. He’s a dead man. I won’t lose a minute’s sleep.
Blade taps his thighs. “Anyone else we need to hunt down and eradicate?”
“I’m not sure yet. I suspect there are other assholes who fucked with Eloise before Larkin got his hands on her. She had a nightmare during her nap. Woke up screaming. She hasn’t told me what it was about yet, but based on what I know, there is a long line of assholes who wronged my girl before she was eighteen.”
Blade winces. “I’m sorry. Let me know if I need to dig around in anyone else’s life. Happy to do so.”
“Thanks.” I glance at the door again. “Think we should check on them?”
Blade grins. “No. I can hear them giggling. I like that sound. Let’s leave them be. It’s not like they could do that much damage to our credit cards. I actually hope they do. I know June could stand to worry less about money. I’m positive Eloise could, too.”
I lean back and run my hands through my hair. A lot of emotions are running through me. One of them is relief because I’ve found my Little girl. I know it. It might take her some time to feel as certain as I do, but I’m positive.
I didn’t even realize I was carrying around a giant weight on my shoulders. Waiting. Always waiting to find her. The one. The Little girl who would make my life complete. It’s not as though I could have roamed the streets hoping to run into her.
The pink room has been ready for my special Little for months. When I moved in, I put just as much effort into that room as the rest of the apartment. I didn’t care if my future special girl hated it. Eloise can change anything she wants. I wanted it to exist so when I brought her home, it would be waiting for her.
And it paid off. Eloise needed a soft place to fall. She needed those books and dolls. The bedding and mattress. All that stuff called to her last night in a way that brought me to my knees.
The image of walking into her room and finding her huddled in the corner with piles of books and dolls… I’ll never forget that moment. I already knew she was mine, but that confirmed it.
I’m a lucky man.
Chapter Twenty
Eloise
* * *
The bathtub in Cannon’s bathroom is huge. The bathroom itself is gigantic, but the tub would fit two people easily. When I step up to it, I turn and look at him. “It will take too much water to reach those jets.”
He frowns. “What do you mean?”
I point at the holes around the tub, the ones he just explained to me are going to push water out and keep my bubbles alive when I turn them on. “It would take forever for the water to reach that height, and it would be very wasteful. Plus, the hot water would run out long before it got there.”
Cannon shakes his head. “Angel, that won’t be an issue. I promise.” He bends over and turns on the water.
I flinch and take a step back, shocked by how much pressure there is and how fast it comes out. Steam rises in the room in seconds.
