Maria set a cup of coffee in front of Riley, who smiled her thanks before reaching for the sugar and creamer.
“I know Duke and Maria have said nice things, too,” Riley said.
Jo-Jo shrugged. “They have to. They’re some kind of social workers.”
“They don’t have to do anything. They say what they mean. They don’t lie. Neither do I.”
“What’s that mean?”
“Honey, Jax doesn’t love you. Love doesn’t hurt. A man who loves a woman does not beat her or pimp her out to other men. Jax says love because he knows you need to hear it, but he doesn’t love you or any of the other girls, including Darla.”
Jo-Jo’s jaw clenched, but tears welled in her eyes. “That’s not true.”
Breaking the hooks Jax had sunk into this kid would take time. Riley would likely have to say this hundreds of times before it penetrated the girl’s damaged self-image: “Real men don’t bruise the women they love.”
With trembling fingers the girl wiped away a tear. “Why are you really here?”
“I want you to understand that you have an opportunity to leave the streets. You can be someone different.”
Jo-Jo glanced at her shorn fingernails and curled them into a fist. “It’s not such a bad life.”
“It’s hell. But you’ve been trapped in it for so long you don’t know the difference.” Riley glanced at her watch. She needed to report in before patrol and knew one conversation with this kid would not cut it. “This place offers safety and a warm bed. You can give yourself a chance to sleep and heal. Maybe grab a couple of good meals. Then in a few days if you still think you want to find Jax, there won’t be anything I can do to save you.”
“I don’t need saving. I can take care of myself.”
“That’s what I said when I landed on this doorstep.”
“You stayed at Duke’s?” Jo-Jo’s expression conveyed disbelief.
“I did. I was a couple of years older than you are now. If I hadn’t landed at Duke’s then, it would have been just a matter of time before someone like Jax found me.”
Doubt darkened Jo-Jo’s eyes. “I can’t picture that.”
“Maria, is this true?” Riley asked.
Maria had been wiping the same spot on the counter for at least a minute. “Riley was in a bad place. Duke and I found her at the bus station. She was messed up. Could barely stand.”
Riley could preach a sermon on what she knew about the streets and how they would chew up a girl like Jo-Jo. But she held back. The kid needed food and rest, not a lecture. “Give it a day or two. You’ve nothing to lose.”
Jo-Jo ladled cereal with her spoon. “You’re not going to change my mind about Jax.”
“Maybe,” Maria said.
Jo-Jo ate, wincing as her sore jaw chewed. She glanced around the modest kitchen as if she were afraid to allow herself to like it. “What if someone comes by here to get me?”
“Call me,” Riley said.
The girl stared at her. “I bet you can kick some ass.”
“I can.”
She studied the scrapes on Riley’s knuckles still healing from yesterday’s search in the woods. “Jax must have been surprised as hell when he saw you on that mountain.”
“He was. But if you want to hear the story, it’ll have to be after my shift tonight. I need to roll.”
A sigh leaked from Jo-Jo’s clenched teeth. “Fine.”
“Fine what? Does that mean you’ll be here this evening?”
“Maybe.”
Not a ringing endorsement, but Riley would take it. The girl’s coloring was a bit better, and she’d had a chance to shower and wash her hair. Her road back to life was slow and frustrating. One step at a time.
“Can you walk?” Riley asked.
“Yeah.”
“Good. Walk me to my car.”
Jo-Jo followed Riley out to the gravel driveway where her SUV was parked. Duke was nowhere in sight. “Why is the car running?”
“My dog, Cooper, is inside.”
Jo-Jo peered in the window. “He’s not so scary looking.”
“He’s one of the best tracking dogs in Virginia. He helped me find Jax.”
Maria stood at the front door. She didn’t say anything but just watched, her expression worried.
Jo-Jo glanced back at Maria. “She always looks upset.”
“She’s worried about you.”
“She doesn’t know me.”
“Better than you think. She’s also looked at me that way more than a few times. If you haven’t guessed, I can be hardheaded.”
That coaxed the faintest smile. “No shit?”
“I’ll be back this evening.”
Jo-Jo shrugged her shoulders, but Riley knew the girl was simply afraid to hope. “Whatever.”
Riley slid on her sunglasses and slid behind the wheel. She watched as Jo-Jo turned and slowly walked back toward the house. Her gait was uneven as she guarded her right side. Riley had cracked her ribs on a climb once, and they hurt like hell. Impossible to sleep and blinding pain if you sneezed. Tightening her fist, she imagined the judge sentencing Jax to dozens of years behind bars. But unless Jo-Jo was willing to press charges, he’d likely skate by with a year at the most.
Later that morning, when Riley was on I-95, her phone rang. It was Sharp.
“Credit card receipts show that Lenny left his home in Las Vegas five days ago and checked into a hotel about twenty miles from here. Rented the car you found at the park and bought one meal in a local restaurant. Other than that, he wasn’t on anyone’s radar.”
“What about phone records?” she asked.
“Called his bookie in Vegas several times and a few other numbers that turned out to be burners,” Sharp said.
“Have you considered asking Shield to run a search on the guy? His people might know a better way to trace them. They want to catch this guy.”
“And we don’t? Believe me, I want to bury him.”
“I hear ya. Keep me posted?”
“You do the same.”
“Will do.”
When she pulled into her driveway that evening and got out with Cooper, she’d ended a long shift topped off by another visit to see Jo-Jo. She spotted a dark SUV parked in front of her house. Bowman stepped out of the vehicle in no hurry.
She almost asked how he knew she would be here, then remembered the chip in her arm. Terrific. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”
“Been thinking about the text you sent me last night.”
“Walk with me. Cooper needs to stretch his legs.”
“Sure.”
Down the street, she turned onto a small path that cut through the woods behind her house. “Checking in?”
“Afraid so.”
She laughed but heard the nervous buzz behind it. It was nice to have someone checking in on her, even if the arrangement was temporary.
“Sharp said the man who shot himself was Lenny Vincent. He’s from Vegas and a gambler,” said Riley.
“I know. I talked to Sharp an hour ago.”
“Why would he kill himself like that? The forensic team hasn’t finished its analysis yet, but there were hair fibers found in his car that appear to be from Cassie. The theory is that he killed her.”