I set aside the take-home chem quiz I’d been working on and patted the bed next to me. “Come here,” I said, fingertips itching to stroke her soft skin and bring hercomfort.
She had a good reason to be upset, but I still hated to seeit.
A week ago, we drove down to Manchester and went into the small FBI field office they had down there. We were worried they wouldn’t take us seriously when we told them what we knew, even though we were reporting a series of federal crimes, and we also had concerns that the Network might have ties within their organization, preventing our accusations from going anywhere. Thankfully, we were wrong, and the process wentsmoothly.
We spoke to two agents—Armstrong and Linetti—who listened carefully, reviewed all of the evidence we’d gathered, and promised to take it higher. After we were done, they told us to sit tight and not breathe a word about it toanyone.
I knew it could take weeks or even months for law enforcement operations to go anywhere, so I wasn’t particularly surprised that nothing had happened yet. I understood Laney’s worry and frustration, though. As long as the Network-Medusa ring was still operating in Royal Falls, she had to keep pretending to be a member, and it was freaking her out more and more with every day thatpassed.
“All we can do is wait,” I said, slinging an arm around her shoulders as she joined me on the bed. “They said the case would be their absolute top priority, seeing as it’s a sex ring involving schoolgirls, so hopefully it won’t take too long. But you know what this shit is like. It can take months for them to investigate and get what they need to makearrests.”
She sighed. “I know. But every day at school, I have to have lunch in the Medusa clubroom and pretend I’m cool with everything, and it’s driving me nuts. I’m so scared something will happen to make it blow up in my face, and every time my phone goes off, I’m worried it’ll be a summons to another party,” she said. “Also, they’ve booked me in for a tattoo. If this FBI thing doesn’t happen soon, I’ll have to go through with it, or else they’ll know something’sup.”
“You won’t have to go through with it,” I said, pulling her closer to me. “If worse comes to worst, I’ll hide you until it’s all over. But so far, we’ve been lucky. All you’ve had to do is hang out with the girls, and they don’t suspect anything, dothey?”
“No.” She shook her head. “But it’s Saturday today. What if the guys are having another party tonight, and I’m expected togo?”
“You can fake sick,” I said. “Just say you’ve come down with the same thing Camila has. She’s been out half the week,right?”
“Yeah. Some sort of flu, Ithink.”
“Well, flus can take weeks to clear up. So if you get a party invite anytime soon, you can say you’ve caught that. Then you can hide out here while you’re faking sick, and I can get Ms. Flores to deliver all yourclasswork.”
“I guess.” She let out another sigh and lowered her voice to a mutter. “Maybe I should’ve just listened to you when you told me the plan was fuckingcrazy.”
I stuck my fingers under her chin and lifted it. “I’ve told you a million times before—nothing is gonna happen to you. I won’t allow it,” I said sternly. “And yeah, I thought your plan was insane at first, but itworked.We got video evidence of all the shit the Network does, along with the other stuff we already had, and now the fuckingFBIis gonna swoop in and take them down. You remember what Armstrong told us, right? It’s gonna be the biggest sex trafficking bust on the east coast indecades.”
She managed a small smile. “That’strue.”
“It’s all because of you,” I said. “You wanted to take them down, so you came up with a plan, and you made it happen. Adam, Trina, and I were just along for the ride to helpout.”
“I couldn’t have done it without any ofyou.”
“It was still your plan, and you had to assume the most risk to make it happen.” I lifted her chin higher, making her look me right in the eye. “You might not believe it, Laney, but you’re the bravest, most bad-ass person I know, and I fucking love that aboutyou.”
“Thanks,” she murmured. “Sorry for being so whiny and annoying. I just can’t stop worrying abouteverything.”
“I get it. You don’t need to apologize.” I picked up the chemistry test and showed it to her. “Here’s a decent distraction while we wait for something to happen. You can help me balance all theseequations.”
Her smile grew wider. “You call that a decent distraction?” she said, playfully elbowingme.
I grinned back at her, glad that she was already feeling a bit better after my pep talk. I hated seeing her scared or upset. It fucking killed me, especially when I thought about how much shit I put her through this year to add to all of that fear andangst.
We worked on our school stuff for an hour or so. Just as I decided to get up and grab us a snack and some drinks, my phone buzzed on the table beside mybed.
I didn’t recognize the number. Frowning, I picked up the call. “Hello?”
“Hi, Hunter. It’s Agent Rob Armstrong here, from the Manchester field office. I interviewed you lastweek.”
I sat up straighter and put the call on loudspeaker, mouthing ‘listen’ to Laney. “Hey. What’sup?”
There was a slight pause on the other end of the line. “Before I say anything else, I need to make something very clear to you. This call needs to becompletelyoff the record,” Armstrong finally said. “My boss will have my ass if he knows I’m telling you about any of this. But I wanted to let you know what’s going on, seeing as you’re the one who brought the case tous.”
“You can trust me,” I said. “Just so you know, though, Laney is here, and she can hearyou.”
“That’s all right. I was going to call her next,” he said. “This way I can kill two birds with onestone.”
My pulse raced with anticipation. “So what’s happening? Are you getting anywhere with thecase?”