Page 95 of Carson

I reach around Mila and wipe them away with my hands. “She was crying because she didn’t have anyone to play with but then you showed up. Now Luna will be happy.”

“La Luna is up there,” Mila points to the sky, and more tears spill down her big sister’s face, and I wipe them away.

“She’s named after the moon, how cool is that?”

“So cool,” Mila says, crawling from my lap to Luna’s.

“Rawr,” Carson says, poking his head into the playhouse that is becoming way too fucking crowded. “Found you!”

“You found us!” Mila says, grabbing Luna’s hand and pushing past Carson to get out. “Now it’s our turn to count,” she tells her. “You and Carson hide.” She dismisses us as she drags Luna behind a nearby tree. “One … two …”

Internally I groan. I don’t want to play hide and seek.

But I will.

For Mila, I will.

Chapter Thirty-One

Carver

“I’m doing everything I can,” Jesse assures me.

Nyx and her silent sidekick are still missing.

“Do you think they ran?”

She shrugs. “Anything’s possible. They got their revenge. Maybe they’ve moved on.”

“You don’t believe that.”

The woman doesn’t respond. An answer in and of itself.

I tap my lighter on the table. “You’ve checked everywhere in Trap?”

She sighs. “We’ve been over this, Carver. I’ve turned over every rock in that godforsaken place. They aren’t there.”

“Maybe someone found out they were working with the club?”

She looks at her husband rolling her eyes.

“That’s it, isn’t it? Their handlers are probably wondering how the hell they got away from the congressman.”

“They don’t have any fucking handlers. They arranged for the sale of themselves to the congressman. It was all phony.”

“So, they aren’t under the trafficker’s thumb?”

“No. The traffickers over in Trap would be stupid to grab them.”

She’s not lying there. Men like them usually go for the more submissive ones. “But …” I prompt her to tell me more. I know she knows more than she’s saying.

“But Nyx thought one of them might be following them. A new guy. He just showed up on scene to replace the guy that got arrested in Texas. He’s a known supplier on the streets. He’s a lone wolf, so I don’t know what’s possessed him to work with the idiots over in Trap.”

“Why would he be following Nyx? Surely his new buddies warned him she’s someone not to be messed with.”

“Maybe they did. We warned you, and yet you’re still trying to fuck around and find out.”

I ignore the way she just compared me to a fucking sicko trafficker. “Where do we find him?”