Inseparable

Clucky.

Kids had never been on my radar, but holding this little girl made me realise I did want them. Maybe not now, but in the future. Abby and I used to talk about getting married and having babies when we were little, but once she got sick, there was no future to talk about. Not for her, and not for me.

Eva came back. She handed Dane a card, and took Anabel off me.

“His social security number,” she smiled proudly, gently bouncing the baby on her hip. I looked at Dane in surprise. Holy shit

. His social security number? What were we going to do? Call the police? That was the obvious answer.

“He covers his tracks,” she added, “call the police and I guarantee your chance will be gone.”

Dane stood up and grabbed my hand. Something was bothering me though. Something that just didn’t add up.

“Eva… how are you so sure that this number is correct? Surely if he’s as smart as you say, he wouldn’t leave that kind of information just lying around,” I said softly.

“I know it’s his number because…”She paused, looking away, “he’s my father.”

What? Her father?

“Look, I know what you’re thinking, but you don’t know my father and what he is capable of,” she cursed in Spanish, “I came here looking for him. He left my mom when she was pregnant with me. I found him through a private investigator. He wouldn’t meet me, and then, suddenly he had a change of heart. We arranged to meet…” She paused, tears in her eyes, “he couldn’t even meet me in person. He set me up with some cash, but then said I had to work off the money I owed him…I got away from him as soon as I could. I didn’t want my little girl growing up around him,” She spat, wiping her eyes.

“So why not call the police? Once you got away? Why let all those other girls suffer?” I asked, unable to comprehend her lack of empathy toward the other girls.

“Because even though he’s my father, he still wouldn’t hesitate to kill me to protect his interests,” she spat angrily. Anabel started crying in her arms. “Look, I’m sorry, but you need to go,” she walked toward the door, her baby screaming hysterically.

“For what it’s worth, I hope you stop him. I hate myself every day for not doing anything, but I need to put my baby first.” Tears welled in her eyes as she tried to calm Anabel, “Oh, and Lily?” I turned around.

“If you so much as mention my name to the police or my father, I will deny everything, then I’ll hunt you down and kill you.” She spoke softly, but with such conviction, it sent shivers down my spine.

“I hope you find your sister, Dane,” she said, and with that, she shut the door in my face.

Dane and I walked silently back out to the car (which was surprisingly still there). Once safely inside, I let out a long sigh.

“Wow,” I murmured. My mind was overheating with the amount of information running through it.

“What do we do now?” Dane asked quietly. He looked overwhelmed. Not that I blamed him. Eva had pretty much said he father was running some kind of sex ring.

“We go back and speak to Fraser and Kella. Regroup. Then see where we’re at. Maybe Reece can dig up some info on this guy.” I said, waving the card. Dane’s eyes lit up. He grabbed the card, and his cell.

“Reece. Yeah, it’s Dane,” he paused, glancing at me, “Yeah, she’s here,” he said stiffly, “Yes, just as cute as before.” I stifled a laugh, clapping my hand over my mouth. This must be killing Dane.

“Dude, can you dig up as much as you can on a ‘Rafel Feluca’. Apparently well known in the drug and illegal sex circles. Uh huh. Right. Sure, I’ll tell her,” He sighed. He hung up his cell.

“Tell me what?” I was almost afraid to ask.

“Tell you that he’s looking forward to seeing you,” Dane sighed, raising his eyebrows as he shook his head. “Seriously, sexy, do I need to punch this guy?” He groaned, as I dissolved into giggles.

Chapter Twenty

Dane rapped loudly on the bathroom door.

“Lil, hurry up before we miss the reservation!” He yelled. Grumbling, I continued drying myself. We still had a good half an hour to get to a restaurant that was two blocks away. Where I was late to everything, Dane was the complete opposite, always early.

Wrapping the towel around me, I opened the door and ran to the bedroom, but not before earning a low whistle from Dane. He followed me into the bedroom.

“Can I watch?” He asked, eyeing me appreciatively.

“No.” I said, pushing him out of the room. “If you watch, I’ll never get dressed and then we’ll be late. And we don’t want that, will we?” I said sweetly, closing the door.