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“I’m not going anywhere. Will you be able to get some sleep here?” he asked with worry.
“I think I’m too tired not to,” I laughed halfheartedly.
“Good. Can I get you anything?”
“No. Honestly, I’m okay. Thank you Harris, for everything,” I said gratefully.
“I haven’t done anything yet,” he scoffed. “Just rest now. I’ll be right over there in the kitchen, so you just call out if you need me, okay?”
I nodded my agreement and watched him walk away. I felt safe with him close. If I didn’t trust anything else, I trusted that Harris would protect me. That was enough for me to push back all of my other anxieties, close my eyes, and allow exhaustion to take me.
CHAPTER 9
NICK
“Is she alright?” Rush asked in a whisper when Harris came back over to us. We were all sat around Aleks at the island counter, watching everything he was pulling up about the little dot of a woman now curled up on our sofa.
“No. She’s not,” Harris sighed.
“We’ll take care of her, boss,” Rush assured him as he patted him on the shoulder.
“Did you find anything else?” Harris asked as he glanced back to Evie, then to Aleks.
“Yeah. This guy leaves numbers when he takes the girls. An ‘eight’ was left in Evie’s car when they found it. That’s how they knew this killer had taken her. She was grabbed from the parking lot of a grocery store. A few days ago police found the bodies of two girls, with numbers ‘seven’ and ‘nine’ pinned to them. ‘Eight’ was missing,” he explained.
“Evie was ‘eight’,” I said as it all came together. “She needs to talk to the FBI. They probably have jurisdiction on this, and she will have information that could catch this fucker.”
“Not yet. I’m not doing anything until she’s told us the whole story. I won’t do anything that could put her at risk,” Harris said firmly.
“He’ll take more victims soon if his pattern holds, Harris. We don’t have a lot of time to sit on this.” Aleks warned.
“Not right away,” Harris snapped. “We have some time. I have to be careful with her. I don’t even know what she’s been through. I won’t risk her getting hurt, physically, or emotionally.”
He was struggling and we all knew why. Harris had been in love with this girl for years. He left her when he joined the military, but not one day had passed since then that he hadn’t regretted it. He talked about her often, and when he did it was some of the only times we ever saw him truly smile. He loved her and he wanted to protect her.
I got it. I had been in her presence for less than ten minutes and I wanted to protect her too. She just looked so fragile and so shattered. We didn’t know what had happened to her, but I knew I would never let it happen again. She mattered to my brother, so she mattered to me. But that didn’t mean I could neglect my duty. I was a cop. It was my job to protect innocent lives and the three young girls he took next would be just as innocent as all of the victims who had come before them. Evie had the power to save them.
“I have a duty, Harris,” I pointed out.
“Don’t talk to me about fucking duty!” he fired back. “Look at her. Do you really think she’s strong enough to face an FBI interrogation? She almost blacked out when we asked her one fucking question!”
“Guys, keep it down!” Rush hissed as he looked worriedly towards the sofa.
“Nick, we get it man, you have a responsibility to report this, but Harris is right. She’s not strong enough. If the FBI take her in, we can’t protect her,” Aleks reasoned.
“I agree. I think we need to give her some time, let her get a little stronger. Maybe she’ll start to tell us more and we can send the FBI an anonymous tip, keep her out of this all together for now,” Rush suggested.
I looked over to where she lay on the sofa, snoring just ever so slightly and looking peaceful. She was pretty, even as exhausted and run down as she seemed. Her blonde hair was thick and wild, fanned out on the pillow around her. Her eyes were just a little too big for her face, giving a look of innocence and vulnerability. Those eyes had sucked me in the minute I saw them.
“Fine. I won’t report anything for now, but if any more girls go missing, I won’t have a choice,” I warned.
“They won’t. We’ll start looking into the cases, see if we can find anything the cops missed,” Harris suggested and I nodded.
“I’ll help tonight, but I gotta get back to the office right now. We good?” I asked him.
“Always, brother.” Harris walked over and patted me on the back. I returned the gesture as I got to my feet, then I left, but not before sneaking one last glance at Evie.
EVIE
