Mia

Nine

Pierce

When I went into work the night before, the captain had called me in for a freaking disturbance call on the party. We just sent someone over to give them a warning. That ridiculous call that had nothing to do with the case caused her to lose all trust in me. She thought I would tell them everything, but I didn’t. I wouldn’t. Even though she stopped talking to me. 

            I showed up at her house that night, standing next to the tree outside her window, just watching. I had officially reached creepy stalker mode but truthfully didn’t care. Whatever happened that morning, I didn’t have a clue, but it was bad enough to keep her in line like they wanted. My imagination got the best of me. 

            For the rest of the weekend, I worked my ass off trying to find out where the hell he had taken her, but I didn’t find anything. Short of beating the s**t out of Kenny until he told me what happened, I did everything I could. Satisfying my temper that way would only make things worse for her and get me fired. The silence on her end was deafening. 

            By Monday, I had gone completely insane. When she showed up at the school, she walked right past me without even looking in my direction, and I couldn’t go after her, couldn’t do anything that would risk anyone finding out about our connection. The entire day I kept trying to track her down between classes, but I didn’t see her again. 

            Right when school let out, I did see Kenny, and I almost went after him. Almost. When I saw her walk up to him with a miserable look in her eyes, I had to force myself to leave before I did something terribly stupid. He did something or this “boss” did something to terrify her into continuing their work. The hell they would pay was unfathomable. 

            The second I walked in the door at the station, I was called into the captain’s office. He sat behind his desk talking to someone on the phone. With a wave of the hand, he motioned for me to take a seat, but I was reluctant to follow his orders. Whatever he had to say to me couldn’t be more important than the blue-eyed bombshell I was wrapped up in. 

            When he hung up the phone, he fixed his gaze on me. “What happened that you aren’t telling me?” he snapped, skipping all formalities and folding his hands on his desk. 

            “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Of course I knew, but I wasn’t in a forthcoming mood. 

            “Cut the bullshit,” he barked. I stared. “You’ve had a s**t attitude since I called you in on Friday.” 

            “Maybe you shouldn’t have called me in on my night off for a disturbance call.” That was the night. If it had gone differently, maybe she wouldn’t have gone the next day, or we would have found a way for me to keep her safe. 

            “Heaven forbid we get the okay from you on the case you’ve been working your ass off on before moving in on a party that directly correlated with that.” He slammed his hands down on the desk, but I didn’t flinch. “It was a courtesy call so we wouldn’t mess with your turf, asshole.”

            “I got that. It just… was poor timing.” 

            He squinted. “You got a girl I don’t know about?” 

            “Ha. No, I don’t.” 

            “Then my only assumption is you’re in way over your head.” My stomach sank, knowing exactly where this was going. “I never should have allowed you to continue this specific case without a partner when Reich transferred. I should have assigned you a new one before letting you continue on with the case.” 

            “Please don’t partner me up. Not now, not when I’m almost to the boss.” 

            “Oh?” He raised his eyebrows. 

            Giving him something was my only option. Besides, I had been slacking in a sense, having forgotten my duties. Finishing this needed to be my priority. “I have a lead. It isn’t a strong one, but my gut is telling me it’s something.” 

            He hmmmed resting his chin on his hands before lowering them back to the desk. “In that case, you’re still taking an indefinite amount of time off security duty. One week at the very least.” 

            My heart pounded. That was my only way to keep an eye on her, to make sure she was okay, still alive. She was still ignoring my texts and phone calls. I had no other way to check on her, aside from being a creepy stalker. “I need to be there.” 

            “No, you don’t. You have the suspect list. We’ll know who to move on once the boss is attained. You’re done there for now. That’s an order.” 

            Flipping him off would have been a poor choice and probably would have gotten me suspended for a few days, especially since my attitude really had been supremely shitty that weekend. “You have plenty of other things you need to find before we can close this, starting with their main location,” he added when I didn’t respond. 

            He had me there. I still had no clue where they were working out of, but I knew someone who did. The question was, could I use her like that? Could I risk whatever I had with her in order to close this case? “All right. I can do that.” 

            “Good.” He nodded his unnecessary approval. “Now get the hell out of my office. I have other s**t to take care of.” 

            That excusal didn’t justify a goodbye. I left his office and the station. My first move before betraying Mia would be to follow some known leads I had around town, then go from there. There were a couple other cases I had to check in on as well. Some leads on those I needed to follow up with, and a victim I needed to get a statement from. I could stay away from the high school for a little while. The girl though, I wasn’t so sure I could leave her alone like she asked.