“What?”
“Some of them just want another one as quickly as possible to get their check.”
"You aren't fighting this on your own anymore," Dion decreed, and if it had been any other time I might have smiled. It would be nice if it was true, but I was used to empty promises. Too used to them.
Chapter Three
Dion
I left Emily asleep an hour later and went to place a face-to-face call with the rest of the team. I needed to share what Emily had told me about the foster kids and find out what Eric, our tech guy, or Gideon had discovered. I slipped out of the bedroom, leaving the door cracked just enough that Emily could call out if she woke. After her bath, she'd barely managed to pull on the clothes I'd given her before exhaustion claimed her. I'd tucked her into my bed, her small form nearly disappearing among the pillows, and waited until her breathing evened out before leaving.
Hades lay on the floor beside her while Anubis had taken up position by the bedroom door, both dogs understanding instinctively that she needed protection.
Within moments, the screen filled with the faces of my team, and deliberately I put my headphones on since the office door was open. Gideon's expression was thunderous, Maddox looked resigned, and Eric was typing furiously on another keyboard, only occasionally glancing at the camera. I thought Walker was still with his sick gran. Gideon had been out with Abby—still contactable in an emergency—but it was why he was only finding out now what I'd done.
"Before you start," I said, cutting off Gideon's inevitable tirade, "she was targeted again tonight. Three men tried to grab her outside Murphy's Coffeehouse."
That shut him up. Gideon's anger morphed instantly to concern. "Details," he demanded.
I gave them the rundown of what had happened in the parking lot, keeping my voice low.
"And the attackers?" Gideon asked.
Maddox answered before I could. "Trevor stayed there to make sure the coffee shop manager went out the back as usual, but out of sight as Dion instructed him in case the cops arrived. The same car with fake plates arrived a minute after you'd left, and picked them up."
"Fuck," I muttered. "That means whoever was driving the car must have circled back around to get them. Do we have it on CCTV?"
"The car was abandoned in a dead zone," Eric reported.
I let out a rush of breath. At least Emily was okay. I might have struggled without Trevor. I hadn't seen a gun, but then I didn't give them chance to produce one, and gunshots brought attention.
"They had to have been watching Emily," Eric said, looking up from his other screen. "Waiting for an opportunity."
Guilt burned inside me. It had been my fault she was there in the first place.
"Where is she now?" Gideon asked.
"Asleep in my bedroom. She's... shaken up, but physically okay." I ran a hand over my face, suddenly feeling the weight of the evening. "She finally told me why she thinks they're targeting her."
Gideon leaned forward. "Go on."
"She's a social worker with Children and Family Services, as you know. She discovered a pattern—foster kids going missing after being placed with certain families. When she reported it, her concerns were dismissed. She kept digging, went over her boss's head, and apparently stepped on some very powerful toes."
Gideon's eyes narrowed. "Names of families involved?"
"Not yet. She fell asleep before we got that far." I hesitated. "But she's terrified, Gid. Whatever she found, it's big enough that someone's willing to risk a second abduction attempt, and in public."
"Human trafficking," Maddox said quietly. "Using the foster system as a pipeline."
The words hung heavily in the air. We'd all seen enough of the world's darkness to know how plausible it was.
Eric's fingers flew across his keyboard. "I'm looking at Children and Family Services records now. If there's a pattern, I'll find it."
"What's your plan, Dion?" Gideon asked, his gaze piercing even through the screen.
"Keep her safe until we figure this out." I glanced back toward my bedroom door. "She can't go back to her apartment. They obviously know where she lives, where she works."
"She can stay at Salvation," Gideon suggested. "We've got the security there, and Jennifer could—"
