“We’ll talk about it some other time.” I gave her a hug, laughing to myself over the way she made fools of a bunch of grown men.
***
It was only a few minutes after putting Gigi to bed that Lance came in. I was sitting at the bar, chatting with Erica and Traci. I let them in on Gigi’s secret and the three of us laughed until we cried.
“Where’s Gigi?” Lance looked nearly frantic.
I stood, as did the girls. “She’s in bed. Safe and sound.”
He grimaced, shaking his head. “I didn’t think she wasn’t safe. I need to talk to her, though.”
“I’m sure it can wait until morning, can’t it?”
He rolled his eyes at me. “Yeah, I’m sure it can. Christ.” He grabbed a beer bottle from the bar and stalked off into his office, slamming the door behind him. For some reason, that door slam infuriated me—maybe because I had just finished telling him his daughter was asleep. I followed him into the office, closing the door more softly.
“I didn’t ask you to come in.”
“Big deal. I’m here anyway. You need to learn how to be a little quieter when your daughter’s in bed,” I snapped.
“Oh, would you give it a fucking rest? I don’t need you nagging me to death. You’re not her mother.”
“And you only fertilized an egg one day. That’s it. You’re not her father.”
He glared at me. “Don’t tell me who I am. You don’t have the right.”
“Just like you don’t have the right to hold me hostage here just because I care about your daughter.”
“Hostage?” He laughed. “You’re not a hostage. You wanna leave? The door’s open, baby. Be my guest.” He sat behind his desk, feet up, drinking his beer. “I’ve got more important things on my mind than you right now.”
“Like what?”
“Like none of your business, that’s what.”
“Do you think it would be possible for you to be a little less mature? Because I don’t think so.”
He rolled his eyes again and sighed. “Would you let it go, please? Relax for five fucking minutes and I’ll tell you what’s up. Okay? If that gets you to leave me the hell alone.”
“Do you think it would be possible for you to watch your language? I appreciate you watching it when Gigi’s around, but I don’t feel like hearing it.”
“Like I said,” he grinned, “you can leave any time you want. I don’t wanna offend your delicate ears.”
I sat with a huff. “What is it you wanted to say?”
He took another long swig of his beer, making me wait. My blood pressure boiled steadily the longer he left me sitting there. “I talked to a friend of Rae’s,” he said. “A guy I used to know, too, so he trusted me. Total junkie. He told me Rae was on her way to meet up with a pretty scary dude on Sunday night. He’s called The Scarecrow.”
I shrugged. He said the name like he expected me to know who he meant, but I had no idea.
“He’s probably the most dangerous guy in town. I mean really, really bad shit.”
My face went slack, my shoulders drooped. “Oh no.”
“Yeah. Drugs, mostly. He’s probably killed a half dozen people personally, but maybe a lot more than that. There are rumors that he’s into human trafficking, too.”
I gasped, hand over my mouth. “Selling people?”
“Yeah.” Lance looked disgusted.
“And this is the sort of person Rae was meeting with?”
“That’s what Bobby told me.”
“He’s a junkie, though. That’s what you said. Can he be trusted?”
Lance pursed his lips. “Yeah, I don’t know for sure. He seemed like he really meant it. I mean, that’s a pretty notorious name in our world. You don’t go throwing it around unless you mean it.”
“It just doesn’t make any sense to me. I’ve met Rae lots of times. She always told me she was clean, how important it was to stay clean for Gigi.”
“That’s another thing.” Lance looked even more troubled than before.
“I feel like I don’t want to hear this.”
“I know you don’t wanna.” He looked at me. “Bobby said he went to Rae’s house to do drugs before. While Gigi was in the house—not watching, but in the house.”
I jumped to my feet. “No.”
“Yeah. That’s what he told me.” I noticed the knuckles of the hand holding the beer bottle were white.