Layne didn’t laugh.
“All right, Ryker, I need you to get me four things from this guy. One, why’d he go after Giselle last night? Two, are Towers and Rutledge still in town? Three, are they lookin’ for Giselle? And four, if they are, why’s he gettin’ a blowjob from Tina Blackstone?”
“You got it,” Ryker replied.
“I’ll want more later, start with that and anything else you wanna know.”
“Ditto on the you got it,” Ryker repeated.
“Keep listening to the apartment. If he’s gettin’ head from Tina because they’re not tweaked by Giselle running then the woman might go back to the apartment. We’ll need to hear what she has to say.”
“Devin’s all over that,” Ryker told him.
“Right,” Layne replied. “Tell Devin he’s on clean up. He needs to make sure the Reverend doesn’t talk. Youth Group is suspended for the time being, no explanation, that’s it. Nothin’ else leaks.”
“I’ll tell ‘im.”
“Later.” He closed his phone and flipped it open to call Jasper.
Jasper answered on the second ring.
“What’s up, Dad?”
“We have Giselle. She’s fine. Totally fine. Tripp with you?”
“Yeah.”
“Tell him now.”
He listened to Jasper say, “Dad’s found Giselle. She’s cool, Tripp-o-matic. It’s all good.”
“Where is she?” Layne heard Tripp ask.
“Her parents are coming to pick her up.” Layne answered but didn’t wait until Jas relayed this information before continuing. “You boys finish gathering intel from Giselle’s friends. We need everything we can get on Gaines. When you’re done, you can go home to your Mom’s. And Jasper, I need you to locate Tiffany Emmerson. If you don’t have her number, find someone who does. I want you to call in to me when you know she’s safe then I want one of your boys glued to her until I can get to her parents.”
“Another favorite,” Jasper muttered.
“You got it, Bud,” Layne muttered back. “Closin’ ranks, son.”
“Gotcha,” Jasper replied. “Later.”
“Later, Jas.” Layne flipped his phone shut and looked at Merry. “I need your Dad. We’re spread thin and I gotta have ears on that apartment. Can you call him and get him to the office?”
Merry nodded, pulled out his phone and stepped away.
Then Rocky walked into the room.
“They didn’t change clothes,” she announced when she got close. “They told them what to wear to the shoot. It was skimpy and Giselle doesn’t do skimpy. Alexis told her she could borrow something but Giselle wouldn’t do it. She told me Alexis and Tiffany did but the woman, the photographer and Gaines didn’t make a big deal out of it that Giselle didn’t.”
“Good kid,” Layne muttered.
Rocky got close and slid an arm around his waist so he slid his around her shoulders.
“She’s feeling a bit foolish, sweetheart, thinks she made a big deal out of nothing. Worried her parents are going to be angry, Tripp… I didn’t know what to say.”
Layne had looked down at her while she was talking and when she stopped, he asked, “What did you say?”
“I said always go with your gut, you get a bad feeling, you get safe and then you find someone you trust, which was what she did. I didn’t get into Gaines, I just told her she did the right thing and everyone would understand.”
Layne squeezed her shoulder and muttered, “Good answer, sweetcheeks.”
“Probably be a good idea you get Tripp to text her, say he heard she’s all right, he’s glad and she should give him a call when she can.” Rocky pressed closer and whispered, “She likes him, baby, like, a lot.”
Merry moved back to them, he was off the phone, his head tilted to listen to the car pulling into the drive and then he looked at Layne. “Parents,” he murmured then started to the front door.
“You call him, Roc, he’ll like to hear that from you,” Layne told her and she nodded, smiled up at him and her arm got tight around him.
Then her head turned to the door they heard Merry opening.
“We better talk to Adele and Wade,” she whispered, eyes still pointing in the direction of the door.
“Yeah,” Layne sighed and he kept his arm around his woman as he led her to the door.
*
When Layne arrived at his office, Dev met him at the outer door.
“You got here just in time for the good part,” Dev whispered on a scary smile.
“He talkin’?” Layne asked.
“Yeah and I’m wonderin’ ‘bout her now, she picked this guy,” Devin answered. “First, that boy is stupid as shit. I reckon he got by on his looks his whole life and that worked for him so he uses about a quarter of the eleven percent of the brain that other people use. Second, he’s scared of her, he’s scared of us, he’s scared of everything. Last, he don’t care who he works or who he works for, he just wants to stay pretty.”
“Pretty isn’t gonna serve him very well in the hole,” Layne observed.
“Yeah, I explained that to him. That’s one of the reasons why he’s scared of us,” Dev replied.
“You get my answers?” Layne asked and Devin nodded.
“First, the woman is gettin’ impatient. She’s got clients all lined up, a party, big money, they need those girls but can’t get a lock on ‘em because of Giselle. The girls have made it clear they move as a unit and Giselle’s doesn’t feel like movin’. Towers is unhappy as in un… hap… pee,” Devin answered then grinned at Layne. “This is not only ‘cause Giselle doesn’t want shit to do with them but also because Giselle found herself a boyfriend and they couldn’t find any time with her away from Tripp.”