Her interest in people, after all, had been what had gotten her into her line of work in the first place. She was always curious about what was going on in people’s lives and in their minds, and how she could help them deal with their problems and emotions. She found the human brain so fascinating.
As she watched couples chatting and kids running around, she smiled. It was hard to believe that a town like this could have a possible sex-trafficking problem, though she doubted anyone she was currently observing here would know a thing about it.
And she hoped it stayed that way. Now that Lawson had gotten those two guys into custody, it was surely only a matter oftime before they got the information they needed to take down Granger and shut down his operation.
Finally, as she finished up her coffee, she spotted Lawson coming out of the police station across the street. Even from here, she could tell he had a grim expression on his handsome face. He must not have gotten the information he needed, she thought. She tossed her trash and walked out to meet him.
“How did it go?” she asked him softly, reaching for his hand and giving him his keys back.
He frowned. “Not as well as I’d hoped,” he admitted. He switched the keys to his other hand, then entwined his fingers with hers.
“You didn’t get much out of them?”
“We didn’t get anything out of them,” he replied, shaking his head. “But I expected that. It was… They seemed like they were enjoying themselves and weren’t worried at all about giving anything away.”
“What do you mean?” she asked, frowning. That didn’t make any sense to her. Why would they have enjoyed being interrogated? They had to know that the business they were involved with was seriously dangerous, and they would be facing years, maybe even decades, in prison if the truth of everything they had done came out.
“Instead of answering questions they were taunting the officers, making them uncomfortable, and spewing threats. Just trying to get a rise out of everyone,” he admitted, as they walked hand in hand toward the truck, which was parked in the town square. “One thing they both kept saying was that Granger was going to come after us. Going to…”
He trailed off, shaking his head as he reached the truck and unlocked the door, like he had all at once decided that she didn’t need to hear the rest. A shiver ran down her spine. She didn’twant him keeping things from her, but judging by the look on his face, she had to trust that she was better off not knowing.
“It’s okay,” she told him softly. “You did your best, right? And what matters is that you have them locked up. They aren’t out there trying to take more young women. That has to count for something.”
“You’re right,” he acknowledged, but the furrow between his eyebrows told a different story. She knew that he wanted to get to the bottom of it all. She wished she could help in some way. But she had learned the hard way that nothing came that easy—
All at once, the quiet of the town square was shattered by a noise. A popping sound. Then another.
At first, Sarah thought it was a car backfiring. But, as Lawson spun around to step in front of her, she realized what it actually was.
Gunshots. Someone was shooting.
“Get in the truck and get your head down!” Lawson ordered her as he yanked open the driver’s-side door and grabbed something from underneath the seat. She stood there for a moment, frozen, unable to move.
“Sarah, now!” he yelled at her, and it snapped her out of her fugue state. She dived into the truck, ducking down on the floorboard, and wrapped her arms around her knees as her heart pounded in her chest. Her mind was racing. What the hell was going on out there? Why was someone shooting? It had been so peaceful, so safe, and now…it was shattered by the sound of gunfire.
She jolted as a bullet hit the side of the truck, a dent appearing in the door just a few inches from her. Her eyes widened, panic flooding her system.
Another bullet hit the metal, and another, the dents pushing inward, like the side of the truck was about to buckle in on itself.Was Lawson okay? If the bullets were hitting the truck, then they weren’t hitting him, right?
She heard another gunshot, this time sounding closer, and wrapped her arms around her head, trying to block out the noise. She was shaking and started to whimper, but could hardly pay attention. Loud. It was all so loud and terrifying. She wanted to see what was going on but was scared to move. She couldn’t believe this was happening right now. And Lawson… Where was he?
Suddenly there was silence. It was almost deafening—it had gotten so quiet so fast. Sarah’s heart thudded in her chest and she held her breath, praying that Lawson was going to call her name. She needed to know he was okay. If something had happened to him, she didn’t know what she would do…
And then, all at once, the door next to her opened. She jerked back and screamed. But instead of some would-be attacker, Lawson stood there, staring down at her with fury in his eyes.
“You okay?” he asked urgently.
She pulled her arms away from her head and looked up at him slowly, and then nodded. “I think so,” she breathed. Her mouth was dry and her body felt numb. She’d been crumpled up on the floorboard and she wasn’t sure she could get her limbs to cooperate. She didn’t think she’d been hit, though there had been a lot of bullets pinging off the truck’s frame. She couldn’t be sure until her body was completely functioning again.
And the same couldn’t be said for Lawson.
Her eyes widened when she saw a red stain on his right side. She reached out to grab his shirt and pulled it up, revealing a bloody gash on his skin.
“What happened?” she exclaimed, terror flashing in her eyes. She tried to squirm her way off the floorboard.
“It’s fine, just a graze,” he assured her, gently brushing her hand away. As he shifted, she noticed that he had a gun in hisother hand. So the shots she’d heard from nearby had been from him.
“Just a graze?” she exclaimed. “You’re bleeding!”
