Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 78364 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78364 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
“Ah,” I said, straightening. “Well, we don’t want that.”
“No,” she agreed. “Do you want macaroni too?”
“I do. Just not as much as you,” I said, lifting my eyes from her to the man staring at me. “Hi. You must be Luke.”
“I…yes,” he said, smiling at me. “I didn’t get your name.”
“It’s Josiah Redeker,” I answered. “And Luke what?”
“Luke Stoker. How do you know my little star, Josiah?”
His little star? I hated that. He was already creeping me out. “Hey, Stel, do me a favor.”
She nodded.
“You see that blond guy over there?”
“The one with my Uncle Hay and Grampa?”
“Yeah. Just run over there and tell him I need him, okay?”
She didn’t ask questions, just put her plate down and bolted. When she reached Bodhi, he did what he always did with kids—he crouched down, going immediately to their level. When she pointed and he saw me, I tipped my head for him to come.
“Josiah?” Luke asked, laughing. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah, I’m good,” I told him as Bodhi and Stella reached me.
I leaned my head to the right, and my partner, who knew exactly what I wanted, slipped by me and walked around to the other side of the table, beside Luke.
“Bodhi, this is Luke Stoker,” I stated, pulling my phone from the back pocket of my jeans, my eyes flicking to Stella and then back to him.
“Luke,” Bodhi announced like they were old friends, offering him his hand. “Hey. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“Thank you. I—oh, you’re Hayden’s fiancé. Giles was telling me all about that,” he said, his gaze on Stella for a moment and then back on Bodhi. “He was saying that there will be a wedding come September. Congratulations.”
“Thank you,” Bodhi replied, still holding his hand.
I pressed the number for our Chicago office.
“What?” Ethan Sharpe answered irritably. “I thought you were on a forced vacation.”
“I need a warrant check on a Luke Stoker from…” I looked at him. “Where are you from, Luke?”
“What?” he gasped, trying to pull his hand from Bodhi’s, who only tightened his grip.
“Tell him, Luke, or I will put you on the ground to get your wallet,” Bodhi warned him. “And it’s gonna hurt when I do that.”
Luke swallowed hard. “Denver,” he barely managed to get out.
“Denver, Colorado,” I said to Sharpe.
“Would you please let go of my—”
“Quiet now, Luke,” Bodhi ordered him.
Sharpe asked, “Why are you and your partner running warrant checks on—”
“And can you check the sex offenders’ registry in that state for me?”
“Oh,” Sharpe said tightly. “Yes. Running now.”
I heard the keys clicking as Hayden moved up behind Bodhi.
“Hey, baby, what are you—”
“Would you mind taking Stella to the table right there so she can eat but still see us?” Bodhi suggested, smiling at him. “And she needs something to drink with her mound of macaroni and cheese,” he teased her.
Stella was beaming at Bodhi. Hayden looked confused, but then he looked at Stella and smiled, walking around the end of the table, by Bodhi, by Luke, and finally me before reaching the little girl.
“Come on, kiddo, you need a napkin.”
“But I don’t wanna leave Jed.”
“You’re not leaving me. You’re just gonna be right there, yeah?”
She looked like she might cry.
“I will not leave you, you understand? I will not,” I swore, my voice firm for her.
“You promise?”
“Cross my heart.”
“I’ve got no warrants,” Sharpe rushed out.
“Hold one sec,” I told him, then pointed at the table. Stella moved then, walking the six or so feet to the end of the eating table, taking a seat, and watching me as Hayden darted over to another table to get a juice box from a large bowl of cubed ice.
“Go,” I told Sharpe.
“No warrants, but yeah, sex offender. Two girls, one five, one seven, he served three years, been out for five, works at his father’s law firm in Denver, and it looks like he’s a title examiner there.”
“Okay.”
“What do you need?”
“Seattle PD to my location.”
“Done. What else?”
“What’s the requirement for sex offenders vacationing in Washington?”
“Lemme check,” he said, and there were more clicks of his keyboard. “They have to check in with local law enforcement within three business days if the stay in the place they’re visiting will be for ten days or more.”
“Thank you.”
“’Course. Call me if you need me.”
Hitting the END button, I lifted my head as Bodhi walked Luke around the table to me, and then the three of us moved away from the table but stayed in sight of the little girl.
“So Luke here is a registered sex offender,” I told my partner.
“Okay,” Bodhi replied flatly, turning to Luke. “Think now before you answer, because what you say will either have you leaving here in a police car or an ambulance. It’s up to you.”
He nodded quickly.
“Did you molest Stella?”
“What? No, I would nev—”
He was cut off when Bodhi grabbed hold of his face, both cheeks, and squeezed tight. It hurt; I knew it did. Enough people who’d been on the receiving end of his painful grip had made complaints about it that never went anywhere.