Her little hands move to her face to wipe the tears. She clenches her rabbit to her chest as if she’s seeking comfort from her little friend.
“Mama will be back soon, I promise. Let CC take care of you.” I inch a little closer to her and she flies out of the closet, wrapping her arms around my neck and legs around my waist. I wrap my arms around her, taking a moment to hug her.
“Bad man, CC. He scary,” she tells me as I stand up slowly, making sure neither of us fall.
Antonio and I lock eyes, communicating with unsaid words. This is more than a kidnapping, it’s a statement, but for who?
“I know, baby. But Mr. Rabbit here kept you safe. You’re going home with me until Mama comes back okay?” I rub her back, comforting her as we make our way out of this shit hole.
Antonio and Larson move ahead of us, making sure it’s safe for us to leave. Once we step out of the apartment, Melodie breaks out in a cry and hugs us both. The neighbor next door comes out from her apartment to investigate what's going on.
“The police are on their way, you know,” an elderly lady warns us.
Her eyes widened upon seeing two large Italian men with two women and a child. The reaction is normal, especially how dangerous they look. Her attention then shifts to Gabby. Her hands twitch, fighting the urge to reach out and take the little girl, with the sense of protectiveness.
“That’s okay, we’ll wait for them to get here and have this little one checked out. I’m Samantha’s boss and she’s like family to us,” I state as a matter of fact, letting her know we are not the ones who did this. “Did you see what happened?”
“No, ma’am. I heard screaming and crashing and I called the police. Once the noise died down, I stepped outside and saw the door busted open. There wasn’t much I could do since my hips are bad. She’s such a sweet girl. I don’t know what she could have done to get herself in trouble.” The elderly lady rubs her chest.
She hangs her head in defeat. Sadness and blame radiate from this sweet woman.
“I’m not sure she got herself in any trouble. Don’t blame yourself. You did the right thing by calling the police.” I lookpast her to Antonio, giving him the getthe fuck out of herelook. He catches what I mean and signals for the boys to move out. They’ll keep watch on us as we wait for the police but out of sight.
Sirens race down the street and come to a halt in front of the building. We sit on the stairs as I hold Gabby tight, rocking her back and forth. Her little arms stay wrapped around my neck as her head rests under my chest. She falls asleep peacefully with her little snores filling my ears. The officers approach slowly making sure there’s no threat. They’re too slow, we already did their job. We got here faster than they did because the system takes their sweet-ass time coming to this part of town.
Some officers move past us to go check out the crime scene and a female officer stops in front of us to make sure we’re okay. After we give our statement, they lead us to the ambulance. They tried to take Gabby from me as I’m not the mother but she won’t let go and starts to scream. They put their arms up in surrender and allow me to sit with her as the paramedics take her vitals.
I laugh at the thought of them trying to take this poor angel from me. They can pry her out of my cold dead hands if they think I’m going to let them take her into custody. She has no family here and she would just be sent into foster care until her mother was found, and that sure as hell isn’t going to happen. I give my lawyer a call and brief him of the situation and he contacts our connections to make sure I’m listed as the emergency contact for Samantha in case anything happens. Before they can even look it up in their system, it’ll be in there.
As the paramedics do their last sweep, making sure Gabby’s okay, we sit waiting for the all clear to leave. I sing a lullaby, keeping her calm and assure her that I’m here to protect her. Two sets of footsteps approach from the other sideof the doors. As they come forward, I look up, meeting those familiar crystal blue eyes. Fuck!
“What the fuck is she doing here?” I hear the stuck-up bitch from earlier.
Ah, so she’s an FBI agent too. I’m not sure what her problem is with me but she needs to check herself. This is why I hate females. So much drama.
“Celeste,” my name rolls from his lips.
His voice cascades chills down my spine. Before anyone can notice my body's reaction, I straighten my spine and slide my unyielding mask into place.
“Hello, Alaric.”
“So explain to me, why were you at the crime scene, Celeste?” Agent Monroe spits my name out as she questions me in a room at headquarters.
It’s been a while since I’ve been questioned by the cops but I don’t remember getting the third-degree for events that I had witnessed. I bet she’s still pissed about our little interaction this morning. Though, I didn’t do anything to earn the heat that’s blasting my way.
“As I’ve already explained for the third time, Melodie, my club manager, reached out to me telling that Samantha hadn’t shown up for her shift for the last two days. She never misses a shift unless Gabby isn’t feeling good. When she didn’t answer Melodie’s calls, she went over there to check on them and found the door kicked in. I told her to wait until I could arrive. Once I got there, I went inside to see if she was inside and needed help and didn’t find her. I heard crying in the closetand I found Gabby.” I lean back in my chair, heavily annoyed with this chick's interrogations.
The clock on the wall ticks, second after second, reminding me that my valuable time is being wasted. She’s making enemies with the wrong person.
“Why didn’t you call the police and wait to go inside until they got there?” She leans forward, folding her hands on the table.
“The police were called by the neighbor. I went inside in case she was in there and was hurt.”
“And how do you know Samantha?” She stares daggers at me.
She thinks she’s intimidating but all I want to do is laugh in her face but I refrain from doing so, for now. I feel like a broken record at this point and she’s making herself look like a shitty agent who doesn’t listen with her damn ears.
“I own a high-end strip club. She works for me now that I took it over. She was about to move out of that shit hole and take Gabby to a safer place now that she’s getting better pay. Care to explain to me why you’re interrogating me like I’m some sort of criminal or are you just upset still from catching me leaving Agent Solace's apartment this morning? If you’re in love with him, you should have said something.” My lips turn up in a smirk.
