Page 33 of Protected by the Sheriff (Magnolia Falls #2)
Mason
A fter several hours, my phone finally rings, and it’s Olivia.
“Liv, baby, please talk to me.”
Silence for a few seconds, and then I hear her speak.
“Mr. Richards, where are you taking me?”
“I told you to shut the fuck up. No more of this Mr. Richards shit when you murdered my nephew in cold blood.”
“I just want to know where you’re taking me. My mom is in the trunk of your car and scared to death. Please.” Her voice trembles as she speaks.
My heart breaks when I realize she’s feeding me information because she’s in trouble. I grab a pen and start making notes.
“I’m taking you to my warehouse here in town where your original buyer is meeting me.
He’s agreed to take your mother as well.
Apparently, there’s quite a fetish for older women in the skin trade.
Sick fucks,” Richards says, and the sound of him chuckling causes me to clench my hands until my nails dig into my palms.
I try to write down any information that will help us find her in the notes. Bryan Richards is in the same town where her mother lives. He’s got her mother in the trunk of his car and says he’s taking the women to a warehouse he owns in the same town. My blood runs cold at what I hear next.
“He’s quite excited about fucking a mother and daughter,” Bryan adds.
Then, after Olivia asks too many questions, Richards lashes out.
“What’s with the twenty questions? Shut the fuck up.”
I hear a thump and know he’s struck my woman. The motherfucker is a dead man.
Soon after that, the line goes dead. Checking the tracking app, I pinpoint the phone’s location and immediately call the sheriff’s department, urgently requesting they locate every warehouse within the town owned by Bryan Richards or any subsidiary of his company.
I also talk directly to the police chief so he can contact his counterpart in Summersville, where Olivia’s mom lives, adding that I need him to patch me through to his direct line as soon as I’m on the road.
As I drive towards Summersville, I call Declan to let him know what’s happening.
He has a friend who is a real psychopath, who helped him out with Savannah’s ex.
As a law enforcement officer, I try to keep my hands clean, but for the woman I love, I’m willing to do anything—just like Declan was for Savannah.
The drive feels like it takes forever, but before I even get to town, the police have narrowed down the warehouse and are setting up a SWAT team, ready to take Richards out if they have to.
I’ve relayed what I overheard about the human trafficker he’s meeting, and they are ready for that too.
They’ve also put out an APB on Richards’ vehicle and license plates
Thoughts run frantically through my mind of all the things that could happen to Olivia, and it’s killing me.
I can’t stop them. I need to have her in my arms and safe.
If something happens to her, I will never survive it.
The woman is my everything. Tears burn in my eyes as I worry that I might lose the person I love most in the world.
Now I can’t remember why I resisted loving her and wish I had given in sooner. The moment my phone rings and I answer it, my entire life changes forever.