“It’s okay, Meredith. Well, it is now. I’ll be honest, that rumor devastated me. In so many ways, not just because I was so crazy about Sam back then, but because it was you, my friend who’d known me since we were kids. I’ve spent a lot of years hating you, but I don’t want to hate you anymore. It’s so…exhausting.” Allie smiled, her eyes warm and welcoming. Not harboring any ill will. Just like that.
She was a good person, and Meredith had a lot to make up for. “I was so jealous of you back then, Allie. I couldn’t see past it and instead used you as a scapegoat for all the problems in my life.”
Allie laughed. “You were jealous of me? You’re forgetting I was the geeky fat girl back then and you were the head cheerleader and homecoming queen. What on earth could you have been jealous about?”
Meredith sighed. “Everything. Your joy in all things, the love and support of your family, and maybe, being honest, a little jealousy over how much my own dad looked at me and wished I could be more like you. Something that I now see echoed in my daughter’s eyes. Her wishing I could be more like you.”
“Aw, Mer. Darcy loves you. Anyone can see that. We might be friends, but you’re…her mother. And I know she’d do anything for you. Just like you would for her.”
Meredith looked into those guileless blue eyes, the sweet smile of the woman she’d hated for too long. Silly, really. She wasn’t that bad.
She might have smiled a little back. “Thanks, Allie.”
“Any time, Mer. I’ll see you out there,” she said and left Meredith alone.
Who knew? Maybe after all this
was over and she had Darcy back, she and Allie might become friends again.
Time was running out and here she was moping like a petulant kid. She had to get back out there. Someone at the gala had the answers.
She turned toward the mirror for one last checkup and actually gasped. Her face was wan and pale, her puffy eyes almost sunk back in her face.
She looked like the dead.
Grasping in her purse, she pulled out a lipstick and powder compact. If she was going to get anything accomplished, she had to look and act like she was in total control.
Over the speakers, she heard Sam’s smooth voice start to talk. He was thanking tonight’s vendors, something she ought to be doing. She was really going to have to make it up to him and Allie. Doing all of this despite what she’d done to hurt them—
She froze as Sam mentioned one of the night’s contributors. A contributor whose insignia she’d seen several times the last few days. On a delivery truck parked behind the club. On several boxes stacked by the door that her captor had carried her past on their way up the stairs.
It wasn’t a coincidence. In fact, suddenly, everything fit into place.
She knew who had her daughter.
…
Travis studied the crowd from his spot in the corner. A few faces were familiar, former teachers and friends, but tonight wasn’t the night to play catch-up. Their time was dwindling, and he had shit to go on.
Curiosity brought him to Detective Johnson’s side. He’d noticed the guy at the police station last night, but they hadn’t been introduced. “Detective.”
From the look the guy gave him, he recognized Travis, too. “You’re not going to go all maverick tonight, are you, Brennan?”
Guy knew his last name, too. Must have been paying attention. “I’m going to make sure that none of those girls are sold or transported anywhere, if that’s what you mean.”
Johnson shifted his position. “You’re not holding anything back from us, are you? If you have something, you should share it so you don’t risk any more lives.”
Any more? Travis laughed. That was rich. He’d found the girls for the police, delivered the bad guys right to the cops, and he’d risked lives? But he only shook his head. “This isn’t a competition. I’m just doing right by my client. By those girls.”
“Me, too.” The guy reached into his inside pocket and pulled out a card. “Which is why when you find something, you can give me call.”
The arrogant son of a— Travis just smiled and took the card, though. At least the guy was here. Must have some sense to him. “All I know, like I said, is the sale is going down tonight at midnight. I’m thinking that location has to be somewhere fairly private, with access to major freeways and possibly an airstrip. If they’re getting these girls out, they need to do it quickly and efficiently.”
“Tell me something we don’t already know.”
Testy. “I’m damned sure the guy who’s heading the operation is here tonight. Maybe you can share some of what you know, compare notes.”
The guy just continued to watch the faces around him.