Page 118 of Truth

He watched me for a few moments and then held out his hand. “I’ve got to call the police. They’ll come take him away since he violated the restraining order. Jesse will make sure he stays put until they get here.”

I didn’t move.

“Miss Reeves, I need you to come with me. We need to call the police, and Mr. Coleman.”

At the mention of Stephan, I refocused on Tom. He held out his hand. I didn’t take it, but I stood and followed him back to his desk.

He dialed and put the phone to his ear. “Mr. Coleman? Sir, you need to get here as soon as possible. Jonathan Reeves showed up. I’m calling the police now. I thought you should know.”

Tom paused, and I knew Stephan must have been talking.

“Yes. She’s right here.”

There was another long silence.

“No. She’s fine.”

Tom handed the phone to me.

“Brianna?”

I sobbed. It was the only response I could manage.

“Sweetheart, I’m on my way. You stay with Tom until I get there.”

“Okay.”

Tom took the phone away from me again. “I won’t let her out of my sight.”

Everything else was a blur. I knew Tom called the police, but I didn’t really remember it, or anything else that happened until I felt Stephan’s hand on my face.

Stephan

I sat across from Michael, a man who didn’t know me very well, and tried to figure out how to explain to him how I had come to purchase Brianna. There was no easy way to do it, so I stuck with the simplest version of events I could. “Someone brought to my attention that they thought Ian Pierce was holding a woman against her will. I went to check it out, and from everything I could see, I agreed with them. Brianna didn’t want to be there.”

Michael didn’t comment or react in any way, other than to let me know he was still listening.

“If I’d gone to the police, they would have wanted proof. And if Ian had gotten wind of something before the police acted, I didn’t want something to happen to her. So... yes, I bought her. I had to.”

He was quiet for several minutes before breaking eye contact with me. “Mr. Coleman, you do realize human trafficking—which you’ve just admitted to—is a felony, right? You could go to prison for a very long time.”

I leaned forward, resting my elbows on my knees. “I realize that.”

Michael opened his mouth to speak, when my phone rang. I took it out of my pocket, thinking it would be Brianna, but it wasn’t. It was the security desk at my building. Tom.

After speaking to Brianna and verifying that she was unharmed, I disconnected the call and stood. “I’m sorry. I need to go. We’re going to have to continue this another time.”

“Was that about the girl?”

I stopped.

“Her father, the one who’s responsible for her being with Ian Pierce, showed up at my building and tried to kidnap her. Tom has called the police because we have a restraining order against him. I need to get to her.”

“I’m coming with you.”

I didn’t have time to argue with him. The police were on their way to my building, and I knew they’d want to question Brianna. She would be scared, and I needed to be there for her. At the very least, if the police had to speak with her, I could make sure it was a female officer. She didn’t need to be traumatized any more than she already had been.

Michael and I arrived on the scene just as the police car pulled up to the curb. Thankfully, we made it into the building before they could stop us. I would have ignored them in any event.

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