“I came with a friend.”
“A boyfriend?”
“Yes.”
Jones wrote a few things down. “What happened when you got here?”
“What does this have to do with Fowler?” Grey asked.
“We have to get as much information about her as we can. If this goes to court and we need her to testify, they’ll use everything they can against her,” Jones said.
Grey faced Stanford. “What are the chances of this going to court?”
Stanford sighed. “A week ago, I would have said two percent, but it’s looking more like ninety percent now.”
“Why?” Grey asked.
“Because he’s got some seasoned criminal lawyer who mainly deals with the mafia in the city. They know every loophole there is,” Stanford said.
“But you guys know them, too? Right?” Fuck, he didn’t want to put Emily through this. She’d been through enough.
“Yes. That’s why I’m taking over the case because I want every T crossed and every I dotted.”
Jones cleared his throat. “What happened when you and your boyfriend moved here?”
“He left,” she said.
“Left?” Jones asked.
“We got a small one-bedroom apartment. We hadn’t been there a week when I got home, and all of his things were gone. He left a note that said he was sorry, but he was too young to settle down.”
This was the first time Grey had heard this, and it made him even madder.
“What did you do?”
Emily blinked back her tears. “I kept working, but I was looking for a cheaper place to rent since I couldn’t afford the one I was in.”
“You didn’t want to go back to Austin?” Jones asked.
“No, there was nothing for me there.”
Grey reached for one of her hands in her lap. She was squeezing them together so hard that her knuckles were white, and her fingers were red. With his thumb, he caressed the back of her hand, trying to soothe her the best he could.
“Is it true that you were in an orphanage?” Jones asked.
“Yes. My parents and my brother died in a car accident when I was eight.”
She had told him about this, and he knew she still hurt from losing them.
Jones narrowed his eyes at her. “You were to be adopted a few times, but they fell through. Can you tell me why?”
Emily looked at him with stricken eyes.
He sighed and pulled her closer to him. “Everything’s going to be okay, baby. I promise. Nothing you say here is going to matter to me at all,” he whispered against her ear. He just needed to get her through this and get her home where he could take care of her.