My heart sinks. Her accusation stings. Blake and I make eye contact over her head. “Truth is, we could raid the stash house right now. We’d get some evidence, but not necessarily enough to implicate all of the players. As much as I want to nail every one of those bastards, I have to know that you trust us.”
Blake says, “We could take you in, ensure that you can’t interfere, but that’s not what we want. Lennox wouldn’t even let me look up your address in our database.”
Trena pipes in. “Howdidyou find us?”
Blake explains while I hold Cecilia tight. She hasn’t relaxed yet, but I have hope.
The girls agree that we were clever.
“I want to believe you, but take the parade. I hated that you were trying to control me, but I thought you cared that I was advertising that I’d be running around without underwear on. Turns out, it just interfered with your job.”
I grab her hand. “Fuck, Ceci. I—we care about you. Some guys are real pricks. We’ve seen the worst in our line of work. So while I respect that you’re free to do what you want, I worry someone will take advantage of you.”
Blake adds, “And we don’t want you or any other innocent civilian nearby when we go in for the arrests. A parade complicates things.”
Tension releases from Cecilia’s body. “You won’t stop me from celebrating No Panties Day?”
Blake and I exchange a glance. I say, “We won’t stop you, but we recommend a contained space like a park that’s easier to monitor than having participants spread out parading down a street. Maybe have an officer or two keeping an eye out for creepers.”
“Fine.”
“Fine?” Trena gawks at Cecilia. “You wanted something exciting to happen. Possible danger aside, it doesn’t get much more exciting than this.”
“Before you get too wound up,” I say, completely serious, “we can’t keep everyone safe—including the two of you—if word gets out.”
The girls agree to complete silence.
“But one other thing,” Blake says. “What can you tell us about Ofelia?”
I figured Blake picked up on that too. Definitely our next lead to explore.
“She keeps to herself,” Trena says, followed by Cecilia nodding.
“A last name? An address? Her age?” I prompt.
Cecilia grimaces. “We don’t even know her real name. Ofelia’s an inside joke since she has more money than expected for someone our age.”
“I don’t get it.”
“We decided she uses the old barbershop to shoot content for Only Fans… OF… Ofelia.”
Trena adds, “But now we know that’s not true.”
“Unfortunately.”
Cecilia lights up. “We don’t know where she lives, but she comes into the diner every morning—buying breakfast every single day—not many people our age can do that.”
“So you’ve waited on her?”
“She orders. I bring the food. No friendly banter. Keeps her hood up and her eyes down. I can’t believe how much was going on right in front of me. I feel foolish for considering her one more cog in the clockwork that was slowly ticking the seconds of my life away.”
Blake asks, “Any idea if she would roll over on the people running the operation?”
They shake their heads.
“You mind if Blake and I go in the other room to discuss this for a minute?”
“Have at it.” Trena motions to the single bedroom.
