Consolation Prize (Forbidden Men 9)

I explained to him Julianna’s short marriage and why she told me she’d divorced him, then went on about how he’d been bothering her and how I had almost talked her into coming here to file a restraining order against him.

“But you never came in?” Detective Hall wondered.

“No.” And I was probably going to hate myself for that for a very long time, too. I told them about how our families had waylaid us and then how Tyla had needed moral support. “I probably would’ve made her come in today after classes, though.”

Would’ve.

I hated saying that.

I still would. Just as soon as I found her.

The detectives asked me a handful more questions. By the time they walked me out of the interview room, Noel, Brandt, and Caroline had shown up to wait on me with Aspen.

My two sisters immediately converged to yank me into a hug. I hugged them back, needing their support.

“She’s missing,” I told them in a hollow voice, glancing with worry toward my two brothers. “They found her keys and broken phone laying on the ground outside her car with her driver’s side door hanging all the way open, and she’s just… She’s gone. She didn’t make it to class. No one knows where she is. They…” I shook my head, trying to wrap my head around all this. “I think they thought I took her.”

“Of course you didn’t take her,” Caroline said, rolling her eyes.

“But they had to ask,” Aspen returned logically.

“They don’t have any leads at all?” Brandt wanted to know.

Noel just studied me with watchful eyes.

From behind us, a throat cleared. “I find it very interesting,” Juli’s father started, his voice dripping with disapproval, “that this happened to my daughter on the very night after I learned she was dating you.”

I spun to him and narrowed my eyes. “And I find it very interesting that she disappeared the very morning after you showed up in town, issuing threats to her.”

“Excuse me?” He straightened with offense. “Why would I abduct my own daughter?”

“To keep her away fr

om me,” I shot back before countering, “Why would I take my own girlfriend? If we were trying to run away together, wouldn’t I be with her right now?”

“I couldn’t even pretend to know what kind of schemes you’d carry out to hide your nefarious plans.”

I took a step toward him, growing fed up with this shit. “You want to talk nefarious plans, why don’t you look at your little pet project, Shaun. He’s been harassing her for almost two years now. Just the other night, he confronted her at work and grabbed her arm.”

“That’s true,” Brandt confirmed. “I work with her, and some guy showed up, grabbing her and yanking on her wrist. She was so shaken up afterward, I followed her home to make sure she made it there okay.”

Julianna’s father sniffed before shaking his head. “Shaun’s not like that. He’s a good kid. He—”

“He slapped her,” Sasha said, speaking up and surprising me because I hadn’t known she and Tyla and Chad had joined our conversation. “That’s why she really divorced him. Because he slapped her. And he cheated on her, too.”

Brandt eased in closer to me, asking from the side of his mouth, “Did she just say divorced?” When I nodded, he turned to me fully, his mouth falling open. “When the hell was she married?”

“Don’t worry. That was way before you,” I answered, gaining the curious attention of both Sasha and Tyla as they took in the very Brandt Gamble they’d heard so much about before I’d come along.

As I wiped my face, Juli’s father thundered, “Shaun slapped my little girl? Why the hell am I just now hearing about this?”

No one had an answer. Fed up with this entire conversation, I said, “I’m going to go find Juli,” just as Sasha gasped and grabbed Chad’s arm.

“There’s Shaun.”

We all looked over at the same moment to see two uniformed officers escorting Julianna’s ex into the police station. I started for him, my jaw set, only for my two brothers to grab me back.

“Easy,” Noel said into my ear.