Baby shakes his head and turns back to me. “How can big daddy Ashton help?”
“First of all, don’t ever refer to yourself as that again. Second of all, can you access the city’s CCTV footage? Like traffic cameras and shit?” I question.
He brings a hand to his chest like someone just shot him. “I’m offended you even have to ask. Of course I can. Dad pays good money for my schooling.”
I roll my eyes and step forward, spinning his chair to face his computer monitors again and point to whatever he’s doing on the screens. “I need you to find her again.”
I can see confusion lace his features out the corner of my eye. “Chick with the nice tits?”
I smack the back of his head. “Arloe. Her name is Arloe.”
He shifts to look behind him and gives Jude a questioning glance, then focuses back on me. “This your girl now or something?”
“She’s always been mine. Just find her.”
“Well, I’m going to need more than her name this time. The city is big, and it would take hours to comb through all the cams. Do you have an address? Last seen location? I need something to work from.”
“She lives in the apartments off South Rendezvous. You know, the ugly ones not too far from Kenley.”
He nods and lets his fingers fly over the keyboard.
I stand quietly next to him as each screen shows numbers and letters, obvious encryption he’s changing to access what we need. Finally, staticky images dance across the screen before they finally switch to all points of south Rendezvous.
“Do you have a time frame so we can narrow it down a bit more?”
“I dropped her off right after midnight and I went back this morning around eight. So, try between twelve-thirty and eight.”
He nods again and continues typing. He speeds up the feed, but all we see are shots of pedestrians zooming across the screen. But finally, I see her.
Instantly, my heart soars knowing she’s alive, but when I see two men gripping her on either side, that leaves me, and rage takes its place.
“Where did they go?” I ask as they disappear from the screen.
Baby hits another button, changing the camera we are looking at. He does this over and over, following the little black car they stuffed Arloe in. Unfortunately, where they parked wasn’t visible on the camera. It focuses more on the street and not alleys.
Finally, he stops the footage, and the only thing in frame is the same black car in front of the run-down motel not far from Arloe’s. It shows them grabbing her and walking up the stairs and pushing her into a room.
“Can you zoom in on that number?” I point to the door they entered on the screen.
More buttons are pushed, then the image is zoomed in. “Two-thirteen.”
I nod and ruffle Baby’s hair. “Thanks. I owe you.”
“And I won’t let you forget it.” He gives me a wink as I turn to Jude.
“You still sure you want to do this, E?”
“Positive.” I exit Baby’s room without another word.
Jude follows me, his footsteps echoing in my ears and bouncing off the floor louder than they really are, but I guess that’s the adrenaline coursing through my veins at the thought of getting Arloe back.
When we make it back downstairs, we pass Alfredo on the way out, and he’s still wearing the same look of concern. I stop and side hug him. “Don’t worry. I’m just going to get my girl.”
“Be safe, my boy,” he remarks, backing away and opening the front door for us.
“I will.”
Jude and I walk down the steps and slip into the car. I start it and waste no time pulling out of the drive, kicking gravel up along the way.
