Page 15 of Forged in Secrets

Ben shot her a grateful glance.

“Sure,” Jade said, giving her the number as Grace typed it into her contact list.

“I doubt they’ll be much help,” Jade added. “They just think she ran away. They wouldn’t listen to my idea about her being trafficked, either.”

Grace suppressed the urge to give Jade an eyeroll of her own. If she’d given the police the same breakdown ofher human trafficking theory as she’d given the two of them, it was no surprise they dismissed it.

With an exchange of terse goodbyes, they watched as Jade Gorsky sauntered toward the elevator, her black rubber flip-flops smacking against the carpet.

“You think there’s anything to Jade’s trafficking hypothesis?” Grace asked as soon as she was gone.

“Maybe. While we were waiting for our flight yesterday, I poked around some local news websites. I saw some reports that a cross-border trafficking ring may be operating in this area, but I’d like to see what the police have to say about it.”

Grace rubbed her hands up and down her arms, trying to stave off the sudden chill prompted by Ben’s words. It was hard to reconcile the beauty of the island with the danger that seemed to be lurking in its shadows.

“Jade didn’t exactly sound upset about the possibility of Katie being taken,” she said as they began to head back toward the lobby.

“That whole interaction was beyond bizarre,” Ben agreed.

Neither spoke for a while as they wound past groups of spring breakers who had woken up and were now crowding the halls. Grace found herself looking down at the ground as they passed yet another model-thin girl.

She’d never been particularly self-conscious about her appearance, but she knew there was no way her looks held a candle to half of this particular spring break crowd. At twenty-seven, she suddenly felt old.

“Thanks for cutting our interrogation short, by the way. I know I’m not the best Christian in the world, but I don’t appreciate being accused of leering at potential kidnapping victims.”

Grace felt heat rising to her cheeks as she averted her eyes from yet another neon-bikini-clad torso. She shouldn’t be leering either, even if it was more for the sake of foolish comparison than lust.

Still, she was glad that Ben Forge just wasn’t really that kind of guy. It made her like him even more. Not that she was going to say as much out loud.

“No problem,” Grace said.

Ben’s intense green eyes met hers, lingering there for longer than was necessary.

“All right,” he said, breaking the spell. “Let’s go see what she told the police.”

CHAPTER

SEVEN

BEN

“There’s a not-zero chance that somebody barfed on that chair,” Grace pointed out a little too cheerfully.

Ben lifted his arm from the pleather armrest he’d been resting on with a grimace. “Lovely.”

He lifted that morning’s newspaper closer to his face, trying to see if he could find any useful local articles that might bear on their case while they waited, but he couldn’t focus.

Grace was probably just messing with him, but now he couldn’t stop thinking about the possibility of puke. Gross.

“I prefer the resort,” Grace added. “This place needs a new decorator.”

“I’m pretty sure that the North Pier police department did not hire a decorator to set up their lobby.”

“You say it like it would be stupid if they did,” she retorted. “My father always says that presentation is everything, no matter what the business is.”

Ben read the same sentence in his article a third time as Grace continued to talk. The piece was about a teen girl who had been propositioned for sex in South Padre Island’s entertainment district, prior to the start of spring break. Not that he was retaining much more information than that.

“Hinton Logistics is the most boring sounding company ever,” she continued, “but our brand story is really strong. Our PR team actually won an award for it a few years ago.”

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