A beat passed before more crackling split the air. “How dare you show your face here! This is all your fault. Get out of here before I call the police.”
Suzi’s mom.
She took a deep breath but couldn’t keep the quiver from her voice as she pressed down on the button. “Mrs. Stanley, there’s been a misunderstanding. I really need to talk to Suzi.”
Seconds ticked by, but no other sounds came through the dirty speaker that sat flush with the weathered door. Mickey took a step back and shielded her eyes as she stared up at Suzi’s third story window. The curtains were closed tight, the window shut. She pulled out her phone, but the door groaned open and Suzi’s gaunt face and haunted blue eyes stared out at her before she needed to use it. The same blond curls Becca had inherited stuck out in all directions, as if Suzi had just rolled out of bed.
“Have you talked to him? Where did he take her? What has he done to my Becca?” As soon as she uttered Becca’s name, Suzi’s voice broke and a muffled sob escaped her twisted mouth. She took a step forward and pounded her closed fists on Mickey’s chest.
Pain and shock rooted Mickey to the spot. She tried to grab Suzi’s arm, but Suzi jerked away. Mickey wrung her hand around the strap of her purse and bit back a sob of her own. “I tried to call Pete, but his number’s been disconnected. But I’ll find him. I promise.”
A strangled snort huffed out of Suzi’s nose and the ice in her blue eyes sent a shiver down Mickey’s spine. “You’ve done enough. You brought that sick bastard into our lives. And now he has my baby.”
Suzi’s words slammed into her much harder than her weak fists had and she staggered backward, nearly tripping down the top step. “I didn’t know,” she said, shaking her head.
“You dated him for four months. You didn’t see any red flags? No gut feeling telling you that you’d let a monster into your bed?” Suzi’s breath hitched and she pressed the back of her hand to her mouth. The dam burst and the flood gates opened. “How could you do this to us? Becca loves you.”
Mickey’s pulse raced in her ears and her stomach turned. “Suzi, you can’t honestly think I had anything to do with this.”
Suzi’s shoulders slumped forward and defeat clouded her irises. “I can’t think about anything right now except getting my baby back. Please, just leave.”
She opened her mouth to speak, but the door slammed shut before anything came out. Her knees buckled and hot metal scorched her palm as she steadied herself with the rail. She’d lost her best friend and her goddaughter in one day. How had she not seen who Pete really was?
Guilt gnawed at her gut like a dog on a bone. Suzi was right. She’d brought Pete into Becca’s life. She’d encouraged the girl to open up to Pete. Male role models were nonexistent in Becca’s life, and Mickey had stupidly thought Pete could be the one. If it hadn’t been for her, Becca would be home right now driving Suzi crazy with her constant chatter.
Reality crushed down on her. Suzi wasn’t the only one who thought she knew the truth about Pete, so did Agent Grassi. Why else would an FBI agent have been waiting for her to get home earlier? The FBI didn’t notify godparents about missing children. He had wanted to find out what she knew. Or in her case, didn’t know.
Digging around in her purse, she searched for the card he’d left her. She needed to call him and straighten this out. Hell, maybe she had some information that could be helpful in findingBecca. A snippet of information Pete had mentioned that hadn’t meant anything to her at the time.
Dammit, she hadn’t grabbed the card. She stepped down the stairs and rushed toward home. Mickey rounded the corner toward her apartment, and goosebumps tickled her flesh. Stones scattered across the sidewalk behind her. She stopped and glanced around. The back of her neck tingled as though someone were watching her.
Get a grip. No one’s watching you.
Quickening her pace, she closed the short gap to her building and hurried up the steps. She reached into her purse and rummaged around the bottom of her bag for her keys. Her heartbeat pounded and her fingers brushed against everything but her damn keys. The jagged outline of a small piece of metal skimmed the pad of her thumb and she clung to them like a lifeline.
The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end and she struggled to unlock the door. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and relief flooded through her as the key slid into the hole and she opened the door. The muscles in her thighs screamed from her earlier workout, but she pushed past the pain and ran up the two flights of stairs to her apartment.
She tried the handle, hoping her roommate had made it home, but no such luck. She jammed the key in the lock, yanked open the door, and hurried inside. Once the door was closed, she flipped the lock and leaned her back against the solid wood. The clawing sensation of fear subsided. She shouldn’t be spooked. Becca was the one in trouble. But all of this had hit too close to home.
Pushing off the door, she walked into the kitchen and picked the business card off the table. She turned the white cardstock between her fingers as an image of the FBI agent with the cocky smile and intense gray eyes flashed in her mind. She’d actuallybeen stupid enough to think he’d found her because he’d wanted to get to know her. Hope had bloomed in her for an instant, until he smashed that hope until it was nothing more than a swirling mist of nonsense. He didn’t know a damn thing about her.
But that was about to change. No matter how big of an ass he’d been, he was looking for Becca. If she wanted Becca home safely, she needed to tell him everything she’d learned about Pete in the last four months. She grabbed her phone from her purse and then set her bag in front of her on the table. Her thumb swiped across the blank screen and she put in her password to unlock the screen before bringing up the call button. Her eyes darted between the card and her phone as she pounded in Graham’s phone number.
Hard metal pressed against the back of her head and every muscle in her body stiffened. Warm breath skimmed over her bare shoulders.
“Don’t move, or I’ll blow that pretty little face of yours off.”
4
Adull ache pulsed behind his eyes and he rolled his head back and forth to ease the tension in his neck. Graham had chosen six years ago to join the human trafficking task force, but it didn’t mean the cases didn’t weigh on him.
Especially this one.
Something was different about how Pete Bogart handled himself. Graham and Eric had found next to nothing about the guy until Graham had interviewed Sanchez. He might be a slimy bastard, but he was smart. They couldn’t find a name, a location, a fucking whisper in the wind about who he was. Not until Sanchez had given him a name…and not until Becca Stanley went missing.
Graham had looked at the other case files and spoken to the families of the other missing girls. None of the families had known Pete’s name. None of the girls had spent time with Pete. So what was different about Becca? For a man who didn’t mistakes, this had been a big one. Becca’s mother could give them information about Pete and she could give them the name of the woman Pete had dated. A woman, once again, Pete had revealed his identity to.
The biggest question now was whether that woman was aware of everything Pete Bogart was or whether she was just another victim in his sick little game. It made his skin crawl.
