Page 59 of Live for Me

Because he still sure as fuck wasn’t a prime example for the way people were supposed to treat one another.

“I’ll be ready to leave whenever you are, angel,” I said and kissed the top of her head.

She was back out that door in the blink of an eye when I released her body.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

memphis

Spending an entire night digging into my own past, to see if it could provide us with a more solid starting point, left me in such an unpleasant headspace by the time that we were actually on the road to Evansville.

I couldn’t remember any Marshalls.

I was always under the impression that they were just regular cops, which was why I never even considered turning to the police once we were free. Granted, I was fifteen and most definitely not thinking clearly in those days. All my memories of that time were fuzzy now, at best. I never imagined I’d reach a point in my life where I would need to revisit what happened in order to go forward. Upon coming to that conclusion, my brain decided almost instantly that it was all better left in thebarely therecategory. Like maybe it had all happened to somebody else, and I was just told the story after the fact. That would explain how several of the details were missing and giant pieces didn’t make much sense.

I sent Indy the information for several shopping centers throughout Memphis and the surrounding cities and towns and asked if he’d look into more recent reports of missing children from those areas. I couldn’t do that part myself. Then I spent the entire three-hour drive to Evansville looking up everything there was to know about the Marshalls Service and how I might find my way into their networks without being detected. It was by no means impossible to get into government systems, but it was occasionally a little more difficult to remain anonymous while it was being done.

Narrowing it down between the Marshalls who were assigned just a job to work in Tennessee and the Marshalls who were originally from Tennessee felt like an impossible task. But there really weren’t many who handled the trafficking cases, and looking at their employment profiles didn’t help identify the ones who might be problematic. These were all standup humans who’d dedicated their lives to keeping others safe as far as their employer was concerned.

“We’ll be there soon,” Utah said quietly to pull me out of the Marshall pit I’d dug myself into.

The Marshall pit was still a welcome distraction from the wee morning hour encounter with Utah in his room. I simply could not allow myself to think about how that had played out. My brain couldn’t handle all the things it might’ve meant. I’d have to spend the rest of my adult life overthinking every word out of his mouth if I’d allowed myself to think about it for even a second, right down to eachtheanda.

No part of me could justify why he’d fixated on me.

Convenience?

Physical location?

Easy prey due to inexperience?

None of those things made it feel any better.

The sight of Utah suggested he could have any woman anywhere. He was a male, so he’d probably already had several women in several places. Nothing about me seemed a likely match for someone like him. I came with enough baggage to fill a train. I didn’t know how to behave around men, or humans in general, for the most part. I couldn’t imagine he looked at me—a girl who bolted at the first sign of physical contact almost every time—and saw a woman who could rock his entire world in bed. He used words likecuteandadorablewhen he talked about me and the way that I behaved. Notsexyorattractiveor any of the words that one might find applicable for a suitable fuck.

But he knew what he was doing. He had obviously done these things before. He knew exactly what to say last night when I was busy trying to remind myself to just breathe the entire time. Those words came from him so easily it was like they’d been rehearsed.

I slammed my laptop closed with that last thought.

He hadn’t done anything other than be helpful since his first day with us. I had absolutely no justification for questioning his intentions, outside of my own panic and insecurity.

What a nightmare I was.

There was absolutely no way he’d sign up for this if he knew even half the shit that flooded my brain at any given moment.

Looking out the windshield of his truck to see the drop-dead gorgeous human who was Nevada certainly didn’t help my current state of emotions. Even in scrubs that made most women look like walking rectangles, she was stunning. Her hair was every bit as long as mine and landed nearly halfway down her back. But where mine was as black as my heart, hers was perfectly golden and loosely curled into flawless bouncing waves. Her makeup game was every bit as strong as mine too, but her skin was perfectly tanned. Not even the slightest bit ghostly.

We watched her cross the hospital parking lot to her car and Utah gave her a bit of a head start before he followed her car back onto the road. I used the time to get his radio out and ready. Since we planned to surprise this poor woman at her home, we’d need to be ready to move quickly. He pushed it into his ear while he parked the truck a row behind Nevada’s car in the parking lot for her apartment building.

“I think she knows,” he said and went for his door. “Picked up the pace already.”

She absolutely had started power walking her way across the lot.

“Excuse me,” I said quietly when we’d caught up to her just enough.

“Sorry,” she said without bothering to turn around. “I don’t carry cash on me. Ask somebody else.”

“I don’t need your money. I need your help, Nevada.”

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