Page 2 of Hard Game

I exhale through my nose and cock my eyebrow at Taron. We broke up because of this case. I was too obsessed, and Taron couldn’t stand it. It took over my world; I barely ate or slept.

But now…A glimmer of hope sparks in my stomach, and I lick my lips.

“Lockwood? That case has been closed?—”

Taron shakes his head, cutting me off. “Another girl has been found.”

My stomach drops, and nausea rises in my throat. “The ring moved on…” my voice trails off as my memory throws images of the past case into my vision, knocking me sideways. The ring had moved on, though. There haven’t been any issues in two years—we spooked them. It didn’t make me feel good to know that those girls were probably being trafficked somewhere else, that all I’d managed to do was push the bastards into another town.

“Well,” Taron says with a heavy sigh. “They’re either back, or they never left. Either way…” He looks at me almost pitifully, but he doesn’t need to. The thought of getting a second chance to put the ringleaders of the trafficking ring behind bars was enough to spark some energy into my tired bones.

“I get it. Carmen wants me.” I nod and retreat to the bedroom, leaving Taron hovering on the doorstep like a creep. “Let me grab my things.”

They really need to add this to the job description of a detective.

•Doesn’t sleep and probably ends up working with exes.

Then again, maybe not.

The criminals would be running riot without detectives.

I’m sure of it.

2

LAUREN

“Diess,” I mutter into the phone as Carmen's voice fills my ear.

“Detective Diess. Are you with Detective Karpe?”

I stare straight ahead through the windscreen wipers, fighting a losing battle with the rain. I don’t need to look to my left to see that Taron is ear-wigging my conversation. “Yes, Ma’am.”

“We have intel that the body of a young woman may be part of the trafficking ring you worked on a few years back.”

I chew my lip and hope she’s wrong. Whatever intel she has, I hope it’s based on bullshit and lies because that ring can’t still exist.

Not here. Not in Lockwood.

“The Lockwood ring?”

Carmen sighs, and my stomach churns. “Yes. Detective Karpe is heading to the crime scene now to see what’s what.”

“What’s the intel?” I blurt out, not caring if it’s unprofessional or not.

“It’s…complicated,” Carmen says. “But it’s one hundred percent reliable. And the intel told me this girl is one of the victims of the Lockwood rings.”

I don’t bother asking who told her; it’s someone who snitches to the police: she’ll never tell me. Some people on the government's payroll are bent on the other side of the law, something I’ll never understand. Why become a police officer or a detective if you’re just going to turn a blind eye to the real shit going down?

“You okay?” Taron asks, not moving his eyes from the wheel.

“Oh, peachy.”

Taron rolls his eyes and continues talking, even though I just want him to shut up. It’s bad enough that he’s my ex, but listening to him drone on will bore me to tears. “Do you still like those little candies? The ones wrapped in foil?”

I shoot him a look and shrug. I don’t like them, I’m fucking obsessed with them, and he knows it.

“Anna loves them,” he tells me, a stupid grin on his face. “But she’s watching her weight, so there’s some in there if you want some.”

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