12. Utah

CHAPTER TWELVE

utah

“ W ell, that sure complicates things,” Indy said in my ear while I watched Memphis fly from this room.

“Did we know there was a skin trade element to this?” I asked as quietly as I could.

“Probably should have,” Indy replied. “He’s in everything else. I don’t know why I didn’t think to look into that possibility as well.”

“The fuck am I supposed to do with this guy now?” I whispered and tried to look out the windows to see if I could find where Memphis ended up. “Can you call her? Make sure she’s alright. I can’t see her from here.”

“Who would’ve guessed he actually did have a frustratingly good reason for not investigating the murder of a child? I probably wouldn’t think too hard about it either if my own kids were on the line. Give me a second. I’ll call her.”

But really.

What was I supposed to do about this guy?

He had a damn good reason for choosing the route that he did.

Didn’t undo the way that his choices toppled New Jersey’s life into absolute shambles. Definitely didn’t undo the way that it still affected him, and Memphis by association. Knowing that he had a good reason for his own world didn’t change the fact that it destroyed other lives.

And I already cared very deeply for one of the lives affected by his decisions.

“She’s not answering, hoss. Tried it twice,” Indy said.

I let out a heavy breath and looked back at the detective. He was still taped very thoroughly to that chair, still handcuffed, with both ankles likely broken. He wasn’t going anywhere. I tossed the golf club back across the room in his direction to get his attention when it clattered across the floor.

“Don’t move,” I said, before chuckling at how amusing I found myself.

“You’re leaving me here?!”

“If you really want me to decide right now, I’ll be shooting you before I walk out that door. It’s very much in your best interest that I just leave you here.”

He was quiet after that while I went out to search for Memphis.

“She’s somewhere right around your truck,” Indy said. “Or her phone is.”

“Don’t say it like that. Like she’s not wherever her phone is. The fuck is wrong with you?”

“You’re the only people out there, Utah. Calm down,” he said and chuckled that time.

She was sitting on the edge of the tailgate, chewing the fresh polish right off her nails.

“Memphis.”

The way that she jumped at her name suggested that she hadn’t even heard me coming. The black streaks down either side of her face ripped my heart right out.

“Shit,” I mumbled to myself.

“Don’t you do it,” Indy demanded quickly while I reached for the radio in my ear. “I know what that shit means. Don’t you turn me off, U?—”

I interrupted him by doing exactly what he was telling me not to do and I put the little radio in my pocket.

I put myself directly between her legs and wrapped both arms around Memphis to pull her the rest of the way into me. Except she was one of those people who actually cried harder the very second that someone hugged them.

I learned that early in life. Some people felt better being held and some people just felt while they were held. Felt everything. They suddenly found a safe place to feel the rest of whatever they were holding in, and then it just fucking poured out of them.

My phone went off several times while I held her that way.

Then Indy switched back to calling her phone.

“One of us probably needs to answer him,” she choked out.

“He can wait.”

She pushed off me just enough to be able to look up at me, and the streaked makeup punched me in the heart all over again. My hands went right to her face for my thumbs to try to wipe it away, but I was very much making it worse. She started to laugh, though.

“You’re just making me look like a clown, aren’t you?” she asked and giggled again.

“Whatever I’m doing, it definitely isn’t helping.”

She put her hands over both of mine to hold them still against her cheeks while she continued to stare up at me.

“What are you going to do about the detective now?” Memphis asked.

“Anything you tell me to do.”

“I don’t think I’m the right person to make that choice.”

“They had you guys picking people up,” I said quietly. “You didn’t know about it before? The trafficking?”

Her whole body started shaking again like it was causing her physical pain to fight back the tears this time. But she shook her head.

“We never knew what happened to anybody after we dropped them off. Sometimes we were told little things about what had been done. Gambling debts, theft, business rivalries, a weird situation with a fucking horse one time. But they were almost all grown men hunting down other grown men for one reason or another.”

She was rambling, spiraling through her own thoughts.

“Memphis, did you know that he was in the trafficking business?” I asked again.

“I had a hunch the last few months, but I didn’t know . I had no way to prove anything. No way to connect the pieces.”

“What pieces?”

“I want to blow it all apart, Utah.”

“What?”

“Whatever his part is in the sex trade, I want to end it. Forget the rest of what I thought we should do. This is what we need to do, Utah. Will you help me?”

The way that she just stared at me.

Stared into me.

Holding my hands against her face.

Begging me with every piece of her vulnerability.

“I am pretty much just here to do your bidding, angel.”

I would find a single motherfucking grain of rice on a sandy beach if she was the one asking for it.

Something shifted in her face, in her emotions.

She wanted to ask why , but she was afraid that I’d answer.

“Wait in the truck, Memphis. I need to go sort this out.”

I let go of her face to get the radio back in my ear.

“Please. Stop. Doing. That,” Indy said instantly.

“Sorry, man. Won’t happen again.”

“Until the next time you do it, you giant bitch. I can’t help you when things go wrong if I don’t know that things are going wrong, Utah.”

“I know, Indy.”

The number of times we’ve had that exact conversation.

I waited until Memphis was locked in my truck before I went back into the school.

“I don’t think you can kill him now,” Indy said.

“I don’t even think Memphis wants me to kill him now.”

“I can call it in?” he suggested. “Just gather your shit and leave him there. It’s not like he’s going to follow you. I’ll give you a giant head start and call his partner to come pick him up. Can’t imagine either of them will want to have to explain what happened or why.”

“Is there anything else I can get out of him?” I asked, more to myself than Indy. “Memphis wants to take apart the sex trafficking side of this now rather than just focusing on the President himself.”

“See, this is why it would’ve been helpful to have left me in the fucking conversation, Utah!”

I chuckled.

I didn’t have a good explanation for why it felt like I was supposed to protect her overwhelmingly emotional response to what was happening here, but she walked out for a reason. It wasn’t up to me or Indy to decide if she was going to share that reason.

“Start looking into the trafficking side, will you? Don’t make Memphis find a starting point. I can’t imagine the good detective will have anything useful to say about it. If the President was threatening his daughters with sex slavery, he wouldn’t hand out any information about what his role in it was.”