Stolen Daughters (Detective Amanda Steele)

He turned around to the inside of the house and yelled, “Tara!”

There was some thumping, then obvious padding of footsteps heading toward the door.

Sean stepped to the side, leaving room for this small woman to stand next to him in the doorway. He draped his arm over her, hanging it on her like a treacherous vine. “Tell this detective where I was this morning between four and six.”

The woman had dark circles under her eyes, and it looked like she had a fresh cut on her chin. Amanda imagined that this asshole had struck her not long before their arrival.

“Tell them.” He nudged Tara in her side, and she winced.

Amanda guessed he might have hit her in the ribs. It was usually best in suspected abuse cases like this to play it cool, but it was taking all of her control not to haul off and hit the guy. Maybe give him a taste of his own medicine.

“Ah, Sean was in bed with me.” Tara’s voice was weak and unsure.

“Uh-h

uh, that’s right.” The baboon was grinning. “We was—” He mimed the rest by thrusting his hips forward and back.

“For two hours? You? I highly doubt it. Less than two minutes, that I’d believe.” She knew she was antagonizing him, but that was the least of what she wanted to do.

Sean grimaced. “No, lady, I’m just that good at pleasuring the ladies.”

Trent stepped closer to the man. “What you think and what you are—likely two very different things.”

His smile faded, and he scowled at Trent, but he looked back at Amanda. “When I wasn’t giving it to her, I was sleeping. Ain’t that right, baby?” Again, he nudged her.

“That’s right.” Tara’s gaze was on the ground.

“Okay. You need anything, call me.” Amanda extended her card to Tara, but Sean swatted it out of the way, and it fluttered to the front step.

Trent picked it up and pressed it to Sean’s chest. “You dropped something.”

Sean stared at him. “She don’t need your deets. Get outta here.”

Trent didn’t budge.

Amanda pried her eyes from her partner and Sean to look at Tara, but she was gone. She must have returned inside. “Let’s go, Detective Stenson.”

“You heard her.” Sean smiled smugly. “Do as the bitch tells you.”

Trent lunged forward, but Amanda grabbed his arm and shook her head. “It’s not worth it.”

Trent huffed but relented and returned to the car. She caught up with him.

In the vehicle, she stated the obvious, “The guy got under your skin.”

“You could say that.”

Amanda could tell that what they’d just witnessed struck close for Trent. “Guys like that piss me off too, but I learned a long time ago you can’t help everyone. The women who get caught up with these losers get themselves locked in a cycle of abuse. It’s really hard to break them free, and there’s no chance if they don’t want to help themselves.”

“I’m well aware.”

She usually tried to avoid getting too personal with Trent but… Screw it! “Someone you cared about was abused?”

“Yeah.”

“Want to talk about it?”

“Not really.”