My brows shoot high on my head and I start to think there’s a lot more to this story. I need to know more, there’s nothing here that can be used against Fernando, he planned it this way, he knew we were coming.
But he failed to plan for the girl that he took.
“You want her back?” I ask, standing back up and turning around to face Ty.
“Yeah, is she there? Where are you?”
I reel off the address, making a plan in my mind as I end the call and sit and wait in a chair opposite the table she’s sitting under.
I can get him behind bars for a few years for kidnapping and by the time he’s back out on the streets, I’d have cleaned up his whole business and put away all of his contacts.
Ten minutes tick by, the only sound in the room are the woman’s whimpers. The more I hear them the angrier I get. If she’s this scared around us then what the hell did they do to her?
A car pulls up outside and Jonny jumps out, leaving the door open and running into the building.
“Where is she?” He’s frantic and for a second I wonder why he’s like this and then I realize there’s only one reason you get like this over a woman. Now it all makes sense, someone like him doesn’t set this up just for anyone.
I point under the table and he crouches down, cursing when he sees her.
“Gianna?” His voice softens as he nears her, almost like he’s talking to a scared animal. “It’s me, Jonny.”
I look around as we all watch him with bated breath.
“Jonny?” she whispers.
“Yeah, baby, it’s me.” His voice sounds choked and as soon as she’s close enough for him to grab her, he hauls her against him, holding her tight to his body. “I’m so so sorry,” he murmurs in her ear.
Her sobs become louder and I look away, knowing that this is a private moment. I tilt my head to Ty and then the door, silently telling him to wait outside for me before I clear my throat.
Jonny’s eyes meet mine and I tell him, “We need to talk.”
“Yeah.” He nods, pulling back from Gianna. She whimpers when he tries to move so he wraps his arms back around her, standing up before sit
ting in a booth.
I follow him, sitting opposite them and running my hands over my face.
“We got nothing on him here,” I tell him, clenching my jaw. “Apart from her.”
His eyes harden and his jaw ticks as he realizes what I’m saying without having to spell it out.
“She needs to make a statement, she’s the only thing that will put them away.”
He looks down at her, their eyes locked as they have some kind of silent conversation.
He nods at her and cups the side of her face as she starts talking, not able to meet my eyes.
“It was my thirteenth birthday when he took me,” she whispers, lifting her hand to her face and wiping away the tears that stream from her eyes.
“You’re eighteen?” I ask, my brows shooting up on my head.
“In two months.”
Shit, she’s a minor. “I’ll need you to come down to the station.”
“I’ll bring her straight there,” Jonny answers.
I nod silently as I get up out of the booth and walk away, knowing that I just got an extra few years onto Fernando’s sentence.