The boy pointed to the left. “Yeah, just one street over.”
Jake had positioned himself next to the girl. He wrapped his fingers around her upper arm. She narrowed her eyes and tried to pull away, but he held on.
“Easy. We’re not here to hurt you. Maria, take off your hat and sunglasses.”
“Hey, dude, let her go,” the boy said, and stepped toward Jake.
Maria put herself between the kid and the girl. “Remember me?”
“I’ve never seen you before,” she answered, her eyes wide and on Jake.
“Look at her, not me,” he said, gesturing at Maria.
“What’s going on here, Angie?” the boy asked.
“I don’t know,” Angie said, turning her gaze to Maria. “I’ve never seen . . . Oh, it’s you.”
“Yeah, it’s me. Like my friend said, we’re not here to hurt you, but we need to talk. I’m Maria Kincaid, and this is Jake Buchanan.”
“Let go of me. I don’t have anything to say.”
The boy bounced on the balls of his feet, his wary gaze on Jake. “Angie?”
“You got a name, kid?” Jake asked.
“That’s a stupid question, dude. Who doesn’t have a name, and I’m not a kid.”
“Then give me something else to call you. Make something up if you want.”
Indecision crossed his face. He clearly wanted to protect Angie, but no doubt understood he wouldn’t win a fight against Jake.
Maria placed her hand on his arm. “Angie’s in trouble, and we can help her. Please, what’s your name?”
“Why you wanna know?” he asked.
“Oh, for Christ’s sake, his name’s Eddie,” Angie said. “Now that we’ve all been introduced, let me go. I got nothing to say.”
“I think you do,” Jake said. “We can do this the easy way, or I can call the cops. Who’re looking for you, by the way.”
Angie paled, turning an accusing eye on Maria. “You called them?”
Maria gently touched the bruise on Angie’s cheek. “What did you tell your parents about how you got this?”
“She got up to pee in the middle of the night and smacked into her bedroom door,” Eddie said. Maria raised an eyebrow, and he turned to Angie. “Isn’t that what happened? That’s what you said.”
Angie’s shoulders slumped as the fight went out of her. “No, that’s not what happened.” She gave Maria a pleading look. “Can we talk about this somewhere else? My mom might drive by, and I don’t want her asking who you people are. There’s a park on the next block. Eddie and I will meet you there.”
Jake snorted. “And I’m the Easter Bunny. We’ll walk with you.”
To keep Eddie from trying to snatch Angie away and running, Maria positioned herself between them. Finally, she would find out why the girl at been in Hernando Fortunada’s house.
CHAPTER SIX
Jake stood next to Eddie, his gaze on Maria seated on the park bench next to Angie. “You her boyfriend?”
Eddie shuffled his feet. “Sorta.”
How were you a sorta boyfriend? Either you were or you weren’t. He supposed the girls thought the kid cute, but a haircut wouldn’t be amiss.
“Why were you in that house, Angie?” Maria asked.
The girl clasped her hands so tightly her knuckles were white. Maria pried Angie’s fingers apart and wrapped her hands around one of the girl’s. “You can trust me.”
“Whose house?” Eddie asked.
Angie raised her gaze to Eddie’s. “Hernando’s.”
“Dammit, Angie, I told you not to talk to him. Did he do that to your face?” At Angie’s nod, he turned to leave.
Jake caught his arm. “Where’re you going?”
“To kill that bastard.”
“No, you’re not. Besides, he’s not at his house, and no one’s seen him for the past two days.” Jake turned to Angie. “Let’s start at the beginning. What’s Fortunada to you?”
“My mom’s boyfriend . . . I mean, he was her boyfriend. They broke up after he stole some money from her. Now she doesn’t have enough to make the mortgage payment, and she can’t stop crying because she’s afraid we’re going to lose our house.”
Jake did the math. “So you went to see him to try and get the money back?”
Her eyes filled with misery, Angie nodded. “She’s going to ground me for a month if she finds out. She told me to stay away from him. He was nice when they first started dating but at the end . . . well, he just got real mean. Now she’s all worried and crying a lot, and I-I . . . You know, I just thought I could help.”