Inked Babies (Inked Brotherhood 6)

“Call me Rafe.”

Detective Wesley Logan doesn’t seem too pleased with this development. “Nice to meet you in person, Mr. Vestri. As a matter of fact, the main reason I called you was to inform you that Kenneth Shaw might be a dangerous person and to steer clear of him. And what did you do? You went straight to his house and broke in.”

“We did.” Rafe is completely unapologetic. He actually looks kind of scary as he leans over the desk to glower at Wesley, eyes blazing. “And we saved those kids who would have died waiting for the police to take action, so don’t tell me we shouldn’t have done it. Saving those kids wasn’t a mistake.”

“Whoa.” He lifts his hands. A pencil drops to the floor. “Never said it was. Look…” He lowers his hands, though he pushes back from the desk, putting more distance between himself and Rafe. “We never thought he had kids in that house, all right? If we had, we’d have pushed for a search warrant on the spot. And yeah, I’m damn glad you found them. That’s why I’m willing to bypass regulations and protocol and see you today.”

“So fucking nice of you,” I growl, starting to get pissed off at the guy’s self-righteousness. “As if you—”

“We thank you,” Dakota cuts me off, jerking on my hand that’s still wrapped around hers. “Detective.”

Shit. She’s right, I’m ready to pick a fight, and we’re not here for that.

“We just want to ask how the kids are,” Megan says, grabbing the pacifier that’s slipping out of her baby’s mouth and sticking it back in before the wailing starts. “We feel kind of responsible, you know? We found them, and…”

“And I’ve gone through the same thing they did,” I say, forcing steel in my voice. It’s damn hard talking about my past, and I’ve done nothing but during this past week. “With the same son of a bitch. So I thought I’d talk to them. It might help them. And they might give us some clue where to find him.” I nail Wesley with a look. “Unless you caught him and haven’t told us about it.”

“No, we haven’t found him yet.” He tugs on his collar like he’s choking. His eyes dart between me and Rafe, then at the door as if thinking of making his escape. “We found his car, though. It was abandoned in Fitchburg.”

Fuck.

I exchange a glance with Rafe. “He ditched his car, to make it harder for you to find him,” he says, a growl in his voice.

“Look now, Mr. Vestri,” Wesley hurries to say. “This is police business, and all of you shouldn’t get involved in any of it.”

“Oh, this is just a social call,” Rafe says, giving the man a wolfish smile.

Megan gets up and hands the baby to Rafe with a warning glance. “May we meet with the children before their parents take them home? Are they from around here?”

“Ma’am, this is not information we’re supposed to give out to the wider public. However,” he cringes back from the force of our glares, “you’re not the wider public. Uh. You know you’re not supposed to intimidate an officer of the law, right?”

“Do you feel intimidated, officer?” Rafe drawls quietly.

“Mr. Vestri!” Wesley Logan thumps his hand on the desk, and it brings down silence.

It also switches on something inside me, something that’s too close to the surface these days, and a dark veil falls over the room, like a curtain.

Then Dakota calls my name, and the curtain draws up before the darkness fully swallows me.

“Fuck, I’m sorry,” I breathe as she gets up and drags me down onto her chair. I don’t even know what triggers these goddamn episodes sometimes. How am I to ever beat them when a sudden noise can send me headfirst into the twilight?

“Shh.” She inserts herself between my legs and perches on my thigh. She drags my arms around her. “You’re fine.”

She doesn’t even try to hug me, or touch my back in any way, not to trigger another episode. She places a hand over my racing heart and smiles up at me. Waiting until my vision clears and the sweat dries on my face.

God, I love this girl.

Belatedly, I notice the silence around us. Wesley is frowning at us, looking as if he’s about to say something.

Rafe leans against the desk. “So, Wesley. Where were we? Ah, yes, I believe you were about to tell us if the children have been reunited with their families.”

Grateful for his distraction, I draw in a deep breath, dispelling the rest of the cobwebs and taking a moment to appreciate the feel of Dakota in my arms. Her scent is the best drug, the best remedy to the madness lurking in my mind.

“The, uh, the kids…” Wesley tries to loosen his collar again, and he seems torn between staring confusedly at me and nervously at Rafe. “The kids don’t have families. Not families who cared enough to notice they’d been missing, anyway. Apparently Kenneth Shaw kidnapped them from foster homes in nearby states and brought them here a couple of months ago. They were believed to have run away.”

Months. Bile rises in my throat, burning acid. Jesus.

“Does that mean the kids are going back into the system?” Dakota asks, wiggling on my leg, distracting me from my thoughts.