Page 10 of Twisted Trust (Mafia Lords of Sin #10)

MAEVE

C ameron’s apartment is a mess.

Blood splatters cover the wall near the door that’s hanging off its hinges, leading to a smear down to where the landline hangs off the hook on a small wooden table.

The living room is a mess with overturned furniture, smashed vases, torn curtains, and the coffee table smashed to smithereens and missing a leg.

Cameron is nowhere to be found and neither is my son.

I stand in the living room shaking uncontrollably while Chip moves around the apartment and checks every single room as if I haven’t done that already in search of my son.

Levi stands right next to me like some kind of iron statue with his gaze fixed down on his phone while scrolling through several contacts.

Barely able to see my phone screen through my tears, I dial Cameron’s number again but just like all the other times I’ve tried to call him in the last fifteen minutes, it goes straight to voicemail.

I can’t think.

I can barely breathe.

Scott’s already been through so much and now I come back to this mess and my baby boy is gone.

The only images in my mind are ones of horror from every crime show I’ve ever watched and it’s impossible to stop myself from spiraling down a dark hole where Scott will meet the same fate.

“I–I’m calling the cops,” I gasp when Chip comes back, holstering his gun and shaking his head. “I have to call the cops.”

Just as I try to type out the number, Levi’s warm hand suddenly closes over mine and squeezes firmly enough that I can’t type out the numbers. “No cops.”

“What?” Turning my tear-filled gaze up to him, I blink but barely feel the tears sliding down my cheeks. “I need?—”

“No cops,” Levi repeats firmly and he lifts his phone to his ear. “I can do better than cops.”

Chip is suddenly next to me and he takes my phone out of my trembling fingers, taking my attention away from Levi who starts talking quietly and rapidly to whoever answered his call.

“We don’t need cops,” Chip says gently. “But what I do need to know is if there are any other neighbors that Cameron might have dropped Scott off with?”

“Why would he do that?” I gasp. “He wouldn’t do that!”

Chip looks over my head and then he steps away as Levi takes back over and his warm fingers enclose my wrist.

“Chip will check with the rest of your neighbors and I have teams out looking for your son, but Maeve, I need to know everything and anything about Cameron.”

“What?”

“Where does he work? Does he have any family? Any criminal background? What car does he drive? How long has he driven it? Does he have any other properties I need to know about?”

He barks questions at me like rapid gunfire, but he might as well have been speaking in a different language because none of them make sense to me.

I shake my head over and over again.

My chest feels like my ribs have broken and the shards are trying to tear their way out of my chest with every breath.

Tears pour on a constant and the trembling throughout my body is growing more and more violent.

I was supposed to protect him.

My son.

My baby .

“I need to go,” I gasp, trying to pull my wrist from Levi’s grip. “I need to find him! I need to go out and look for him before it gets dark because he hates the dark and I don’t want him to be out there all alone!”

“Maeve!” Levi suddenly grabs me firmly by both hands and shoves me backward until my back hits the wall.

I struggle, but he holds me there with a firm but painless grip.

“Let me go!”

“Maeve! Listen to me. I need to know about Cameron. Why would you leave your child with this man?”

“What?” Those words cut through the dizzy fog like a blade and anger stokes in my belly. “Because he’s my friend! I trust him! He’s a good man, he’s been my friend for as long as we’ve been neighbors and?—”

My throat closes around the rest of my rant as realization hits me like a sharp slap of cold air on a brisk winter’s morning.

All my hatred surges upward and I spit directly in Levi’s face.

“This is your fault!”

Levi doesn’t even flinch. “What?”

“I was fine! I was safe and hidden, we were safe, but ever since you appeared my life has spiraled into shit! And this!” Gesturing behind Levi to the blood on the wall, I try to use the movement to break free. “This screams your world, not mine! What have you done?”

“This wasn’t me,” Levi growls. “I would never hurt a kid. Why do you think you’re still alive, huh? You think I would go through all of this arguing and shit with you if it wasn’t for the fact that you have a child? This wasn’t me, Maeve. I swear .”

“False words from the man who wanted me and my baby dead ,” I snarl fiercely, increasing my struggles against Levi who oddly looks rather alarmed.

That look is fleeting and it fades as heavy footsteps signal Chip’s return.

“Anything?” Levi asks over his shoulder as Chip walks back into the room with a grim expression.

“Nothing. No one heard or saw anything.”

“CCTV?”

“Wiped.”

“No!” My anger fizzles out, drowned under the tidal wave of grief that consumes me and before I know it, I’ve stopped fighting Levi and I’m sinking into his strong arms that wrap around me with aching familiarity.

“I don’t understand,” I sob, twisting Levi’s sleeve between my desperate fingers. “I don’t understand!”

“I know.” Levi’s voice is like a dream.

Gone is the bitter coldness that’s driven him ever since we met in the hospital. His voice is warm now, almost pained, and he holds me tightly and follows me to the floor when my legs give out.

“Cameron,” I gasp through the tears, gripping Levi’s arm so tightly that my fingertips ache and throb.

“He’s a good man. He’s kind. He’s sweet with Scott.

He makes me pasta and they play catch together.

We do movie nights at the end of each month and he’s helped me pay my rent.

” The words pour out of me like a fountain matching my flooding tears.

“He’s just a guy. Just a decent guy. If he’s gotten hurt because of me then I?—”

“Don’t think about that,” Levi scolds gently, and one of his arms curls around my head, creating a cradle of muscle for me to rest my chin on as I sob wretchedly in his arms. “Don’t think about that.

What I need for you to think about is whether he had any enemies.

Any arguments that stuck out, anyone he mentioned that caused him trouble? ”

“Maybe a crazy ex?” Chip pipes up from somewhere nearby.

I shake my head over and over until I feel like my entire body is about to shake apart. “His b–biggest argument is with the cable company over a lack of channels.”

Levi holds me until the tears stop and my agonizing panic is replaced by numbness that settles deep into my bones.

He’s on his phone non-stop with calls and texts while asking me multiple questions to the point that it feels like I’m just repeating myself.

Maybe that’s part of his plan.

I tell them everything I know about Cameron, from his job at the local convenience store and the pet shelter he volunteers at to his dietary issues with certain vegetables and how he’s driven the same car since he was a teenager.

It’s a beat-up old thing but for some reason, the strange splutter in the exhaust always soothed Scott to sleep when we would go for a drive so I always preferred his car over mine.

The sun sets and the warm Las Vegas evening turns into a smothering darkness that amps up my panic for the whereabouts of my son until finally, I get a call.

A sharp-toned detective barks in my ear and gives me the news I’ve been praying to hear for the four hours I’ve been left hanging on Levi’s every word.

“What is it?” Levi advances with his brow knit in concern.

“It’s the police,” I choke out. “They have Scott!”

The drive to the Las Vegas Police Department is the most terrifying of my life.

I chew my nails down to the skin and can’t stop bouncing my knee even when Levi tries to soothe me with a hand on my shoulder.

All I have to go on is a very brief phone call telling me that someone found Scott wandering the Strip and thankfully handed him in.

No details were given about his condition, but Levi tells me over and over that he must be fine or we’d be meeting at the hospital.

I have my doubts.

Those doubts come to fruition when I rush into the police station, slam my hands down on the desk, and demand to speak to whoever has my son.

It’s not a detective who walks out of the office behind the desk but Hillary from CPS.

“Maeve,” she says stiffly. “We meet again.”

My racing heart plummets to my stomach, creating an odd fluttering sensation that sends a rush of nausea up my throat. “Hillary.”

“Who is this?” Levi has been my shadow ever since I bolted from the car and he tenses so suddenly, it’s like all the air around us thins.

“Miss Jackson, if you wouldn’t mind?” Hillary points to an office door across the hall and begins walking toward it.

“Where’s Scott?” I demand loudly. “Where’s my son?”

“Miss Jackson.” Hillary stops in the middle of the hallway. “In here, if you don’t mind.”

Without thinking, I reach back and grab Levi’s hand, which would shock me, but not as much as Levi’s willingness to come with me.

I cling to a vain hope that his presence will somehow help my situation, but mostly, I’m hoping he’ll be able to get the answers she refuses to give me.

The office is rather bare with a small row of plastic chairs against one wall, a low coffee table with several magazines strewn across the surface, and an empty water cooler in the farthest corner near the window.

Hillary walks toward the window and then turns to face me with her lips pursed.

She glances briefly at Levi who remains almost attached to my side.

“Miss Jackson, you have some explaining to do.”

“Where is he?” I surge forward, but Levi’s hand is immediately on my forearm to hold me back. “Where is my son?”

“Interesting that you show concern for him considering he was found wandering the Strip an hour ago and handed in to authorities by a stranger. You work on the Strip, don’t you?”

“What’s that got to do with anything? Please tell me he’s okay!”

She sighs abruptly. “Our medical team have evaluated him and yes, Scott is fine. Very tired and upset, as you can imagine. Although…”

She purses her lips once again and glances down at the tan file she carries in the crook of her arm. “You don’t work on the Strip anymore, do you?”

A chill runs down my arms and legs, turning Levi’s grip on my forearm into a molten brand. “What?”

“Well, I called your work to tell you that we’d found Scott and your boss informed me that your position with them has been terminated. Is that why you abandoned your son and left him to wander the Strip?”

“I didn’t abandon him! He was being cared for by a friend!”

“Which friend?” She pulls a pen from her pocket and clicks the end.

“Cameron Newark. My neighbor.”

“You left your son with someone irresponsible enough to lose him?”

“No, I left him with Cameron but something happened.”

“What happened?”

“I–I don’t know, he’s missing or?—”

“Missing? Did you report it?”

“Well, no, because I?—”

“You’re telling me you left your son with an unreliable friend who has gone missing, but it’s not concerning enough for you to call the police?”

Each time Hillary cuts me off, Levi’s grip tightens on my arm.

“It’s not like that!” I gasp breathlessly, trying to untangle my thoughts. “I was going to call the police but I—” Levi stopped me. Fucking Levi. “I was so caught up in trying to find Scott that I didn’t think about it.”

“You didn’t report your son missing either, did you?”

Every word from her is a spear to the heart and another black mark on my record.

Scott is slipping away from me with every passing second.

The air grows thin and my chest tightens to the point that I’m openly gasping for breath. “Hillary?—”

“You have no job, untrustworthy friends, your son was left to wander the strip,” she tsks sharply.

“Just what kind of mother are you? I was going to look past what happened on my last visit and the danger you placed him in, but how do you plan to care for him when you one, can’t keep him safe and two, no longer have the ability to provide him the necessities?—”

“Enough.” Levi’s sharp, cold voice cuts through the air like a hot knife through butter.

“I don’t believe an ounce of you has the professionalism to deal with this without being clouded by the obvious prejudice you have against Maeve already, but twisting things to fit your own narrative isn’t going to fly here. ”

Hillary stares at him with her mouth open wide. “Excuse me?”

“Cameron is a proven trusted friend, and leaving Scott with him is of no consequence. A dear friend who is now missing, which is a great concern but for Maeve, the safety of her child trumped that, like any good mother. So unless you have any concrete reason Maeve shouldn’t be reunited with her son, I believe you should make that happen immediately . ”

“I think—I mean, absolutely not!” Hillary trips over her words while I stand there on the verge of tears, stunned that Levi is even sticking up for me. “I can’t release a child into the custody of someone who doesn’t have the means to provide for him.”

“She has the means,” Levi snaps. “I’m the means.”

“And who, exactly, are you?” She stands up straighter with a challenge in her eyes, obnoxiously clicking the pen.

“I’m her fiancé,” Levi states calmly.

What?