Ashe’s confidence nearly astounded me.
Like a rock.
I realized right then and there, this thing that she was doing with Lacy, was what she’d been training to do for the last couple years of her life.
What she wanted to do.
She was good with the kid.
Even though I had a feeling that things ran a whole lot deeper than we’d been able to delve into at this point.
Luke shifted to talk to someone outside, his low tones making it nearly impossible to hear what was being said.
When he came back inside, he walked over to Ashe and whispered something in her ear.
Ashe nodded at his words, then smiled at the young girl as Luke went back to his position at the back of the room.
“Lacy, honey,” Ashe said. “Would you like to talk to your parents?”
Lacy nodded. “But… they’re going to be so mad. They told me to stay away from him.”
Luke’s eyes met mine, and he jerked his head to the hall.
I understood what he was wanting seconds later as I slipped out of the room, being sure to keep my eyes on the girl and Ashe, for some reason feeling like I needed to do that.
I didn’t bother to question my instincts.
After what we’d found out before we’d come to the hospital, it was understandable that I would feel extra protective of her.
The moment that I got outside and saw the parents standing nervously in the hallway, I gestured for them to come to me.
They rushed over, their eyes haunted pools of exhaustion and fear.
“You’re Lacy’s parents?” I asked.
The mom and the dad both nodded their head frantically.
I started explaining what had happened up until that point but stopped them when they tried to go in.
“One other thing,” I said. “A few moments ago, she made a comment that I want to ask you about.”
The mother nodded. “Okay.”
“She said, ‘they told me to stay away from him.’” I repeated the words. “What does…”
“Son of a bitch,” the father swore, his fists going tight. “I’ll kill him.”
My brows rose.
Not that I was surprised that the father was pissed, but that he actually sounded like he was going to go and do it.
“Who are we talking about?” I pushed. “The faster we learn who he is, the faster we can get him behind bars.”
The dad ran his fingers through his hair, looking exhausted and pissed.
“A couple of weeks ago,” he said, “there was this new man that moved in down the street. He was young. About twenty or twenty-two? I don’t know. Young enough that it wasn’t weird for Lacy to talk to him, but old enough for us to know that it was too big of an age gap to have them anywhere near each other. She turned sixteen a month ago, and that day, she’d been driving around the neighborhood in the new car that we got her. That was the first time, I think, that Lacy started to really talk to him.”
I gestured to a cop that was standing there.
“What’s his address?” I asked the dad.
The mother was the one to give it, and I turned to the cop.
“I need you to notify the SWAT team,” I said. “Also, you’re going to need to talk to Foster and get him to get a warrant.”
The cop didn’t hesitate. The moment he was gone, I turned back to the parents.
“Anything more?” I asked.
“The day she went missing was the day that I caught them talking and hanging out on his front porch.” He shook his head. “After catching them, we grounded her. She’d disobeyed my direct order to stay away from him. The only time she was allowed out of the house was to drive to school and come straight home. One day she drove to school, but the office said that she’d never arrived for her first class.”
I nodded my head, then gestured toward the room.
“We’ll have to get the rest of the story from her,” I said as I stepped aside.
The mother and the father rushed in, and moments later, Luke and Ashe joined me outside.
“I’m sure there’s a whole lot more that she’s not telling us.” Ashe sighed as she sagged wearily against the wall.
I pulled her into my arms and dropped a kiss onto her head.
She shifted and pressed her face between my pectoral muscles, closing her eyes and sighing.
“I think,” she said, “that there’s nothing more we can do today.”
I snorted. “We’re going.”
She slid me an amused look.
“Can we keep this secret?” she whispered.
“Keep what secret?” Luke asked. “Because if you’re trying to keep y’all’s relationship a secret, I’m afraid that’s out of the bag. I talked to Reese, who immediately called your mom. And yeah, that ain’t a secret anymore.”
Ashe leveled a glare at her uncle.
“Uncle Luke!”
He held up his hands. “It wasn’t like I was meaning to talk about it. But you kissed each other at a shooting scene. What exactly did you want me to do? That shit would’ve gotten to her eventually. And, just sayin’, but cops are a bunch of gossips. If my wife had found out that I hadn’t shared that information with her, she would’ve ripped me a new one.”