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For far too long, I’d felt like I was going through the motions every day, simply doing my job. Nothing was exciting or special.
Now, I was experiencing unbelievable highs. Merely waking up in the morning was a gift. Of course, it was difficult not to feel that way when I was waking up with Sawyer’s body pressed against mine.
I wanted to believe things would remain this way, but I couldn’t be foolish. I knew there was still a threat lingering out there, and as quickly as my life had turned around when Sawyer walked back into it, there wasn’t a question in my mind that it would change again if something happened to her.
As good as things were right now, I was still very acutely aware of the potential disaster waiting just around the corner. Suffice it to say, I was terrified.
Because what I had now felt like a lifetime in the making. Sawyer was back in my life, and she was there in a way I never wanted her to leave. It was a chilling thought to know that there was an active threat against her life.
I wanted to believe that she’d done all the right things when she learned what was happening and had immediately packed up to leave Maryland. Truthfully, I did. She was here, and it was the best place for her to be for me to keep her safe. I had hoped trouble wouldn’t find her here, but now that my phone was ringing in my hand and I saw the name on the display, I no longer had any good feelings about what was ahead.
“Yeah, you’ve got Jesse,” I answered the call.
“Jesse, this is Detective Eric Perkins.”
I already knew that. I’d programmed the guy’s number into my phone a couple weeks ago after I’d spoken with him about this case. At that time, he had assured me that he hadn’t shared what he knew about Sawyer’s location with anyone else, and the two of us had an agreement that if and when he had any news to share regarding this case, he would contact me directly.
While I had always respected law enforcement and the job they did, I didn’t hide the fact that I disliked Eric’s carelessness when it came to Sawyer’s safety in this situation.
Fortunately, she was okay now, and with each day that passed, she was getting more and more attached to the place she used to call home.
Seeing Eric’s number and hearing his voice for the first time in weeks had me on edge.
“Yes, Detective. I assume you have news to report,” I returned.
“Is Sawyer okay?” he asked.
My gut clenched. Immediately, I assumed the worst. Was he thinking that she might not be okay, or was he merely attempting to ease into this conversation?
“She’s fine,” I assured him. “What do you have for me?”
An audible sigh came through the line. Admittedly, hearing it did not make me feel very good. “Well, I have some good news,” he started. “Throughout our investigation of what was going down at Sweet Temptations, we learned that things weren’t as simple as they seemed to be on the surface. As it turns out, they weren’t just into hiring underage women to work a pole.”
“It’s worse than that?” I asked, feeling a bit of disbelief, all while knowing that these kinds of things were not uncommon.
“Unfortunately,” he confirmed. Following a lengthy pause, he added, “They were leading a sex trafficking ring, and the owner wasn’t the only player in the game. I’m happy to report that we’ve managed to arrest his wife, Adriana, and a few other employees from Sweet Temptations that were also in on it.”
This was fantastic news.
Not, of course, learning what they’d been doing. I had no doubt they’d destroyed at least hundreds of lives.
But for Sawyer and her safety, it was reassuring to know that the woman who wanted her dead was in custody. The only hope I had now was that there was a rock-solid case being built against all the players, so that I would no longer need to worry about this threat.
“I assume this is a solid case,” I said.
“Airtight,” he confirmed.
At that word, I felt some of the tension leave my body. This was getting better and better. “Great. So, is this finally over for Sawyer?” I questioned him.
There was a lengthy pause, and that’s when I knew there was more Eric hadn’t shared. As the tension built back up in my body, he shared, “I wanted to believe that was the case. I was certain we’d managed to nip it in the bud, but I’m not sure we made this happen fast enough.”
“What makes you say that?”
“I had a bit of a one-on-one with Adriana,” Eric revealed.
When he didn’t add anything else, I prompted, “And?”
“She had asked me if I’d taken any recent trips to Pennsylvania to visit my girlfriend,” he returned, his voice indicating he didn’t like having to divulge that information.
