Page 78 of Broken Daddy

Walking to the end of the bar, he gestured his head to Mac. The older man moved slowly over.

“Something’s wrong with Devi,” Hayes said bluntly. “You know what it is?”

Mac sighed and shook his head. “She won’t tell me.”

Hayes grunted. “Have you heard anything about what happened to her attacker from the other night?”

“Was just talking to Jerry, the Chief, today. He was charged with assault and remanded on bail.”

Right. At least he was charged.

Hayes sat back at the table and waited until it was close to closing time before he left a tip on the table and walked out to his truck. It took half an hour to clear the place and for her to walk out with the old man.

They got into a beat-up ancient truck and drove away. Hayes wanted to follow, but he knew that would be pretty fucking obvious at this time of night. Instead, he brought up her home address and plugged it into his GPS. He gave them another five minutes before he started driving. When he reached the trailer park, he didn’t enter but drove past it and parked on the side of the road before walking in. It took him a moment to find her trailer. Half of them weren’t numbered.

Mother-fucker.

There wasn’t any security lighting but the full moon provided enough light to see that it was the worst one in the park. And he didn’t like that.

At all.

He needed to get her out of this place. Why did she stay? Surely she could afford better.

His hands clenched into fists and he had to resist the urge to pound on her door, pick her up, throw her over his shoulder and carry her out of here.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

Every light was on. How was she meant to sleep? And where was her father? Was he even there or was she all on her own?

That was it. He was going in.

He wasn’t going to just stand here anymore.

His phone buzzed in his pocket. Shit. Pulling it out, he saw it was Donovan.

Shit. That meant he couldn’t ignore it. He stepped back into the trees that surrounded the park.

“What?” Yeah, he was a grouchy bastard. But he wasn’t really interested in changing.

“Stein got a call and he’s sneaking out to meet with someone. I’m following him.”

What. The. Fuck.

Hayes was torn. He wanted to grab Devi and get her out of here. However, Donovan might be annoying as fuck, but he was his partner. And this sounded fucking dangerous.

For the moment, Devi was safe. She was home, where she’d spent every other night of her life.

So he guessed Donovan needed him more.

“Wait for me,” Hayes barked at him.

“Can’t, man,” Donovan replied. “I don’t know where he’s going so if I stop I’m going to lose him.”

“Fuck. Shit. I’ll track your phone.” They could track their work phones. Hayes jumped in his vehicle and took off, putting Donovan on speaker as he opened the tracker app.

“Sorry to interrupt your Devi watching,” Donovan said.

“Shut up,” Hayes growled. “Why the fuck would Stein leave the house without telling you? And where is Sondra?”