Her Scream in the Silence (Carly Moore #2) - Denise Grover Swank Page 0,121

turning to me in disbelief.

I turned to fully face him. “I know it’s a lot to take in, but you strike me as a rip-off-the-Band-Aid kind of guy, and I think I might know where Lula and Greta are being kept.”

He took a deep breath, and when he spoke again, his tone was calmer. “Go on.”

“First, I need to know if you love her.”

“Back to my damn love life?” he snapped. “It’s none of your fuckin’ business!”

“Like I said, I’d bet good money she’s pregnant with your baby. I doubt you’d planned on having kids, but it’s too late to change anyone’s mind about this baby. She’s six months along, so it will be coming. I need to know that you’re goin’ in to save and protect Lula. Not to retaliate for some perceived wrong.”

“Perceived wrong?”

“Those packages we discussed. You told me you wouldn’t hold it against her because her mother put her up to it. Did you mean it?”

His jaw clenched and unclenched. “I could lie and tell you what you want to hear.”

“And that’s why I had to see you in person, to look into your eyes as you tell me. Anything you say will stay right here in the cab of this truck, because I know how dangerous it is for you to admit you care about someone. She’d become your greatest weakness. The last thing I want to do is save her now only to put her and the baby at greater risk later.”

His face remained expressionless, giving nothing away. “You say that as though you have experience in the criminal world.”

“I do. I have a friend who’s pregnant with a crime boss’s baby. I know how dangerous this is for both of you. So I need to know, Bingham. Do you love her? Will you try to protect her and her baby? Your baby?”

His gaze held mine, and I was surprised at the flicker of emotion in his eyes when I mentioned his baby. “Yes.” Then his face turned into a scary mask of rage. “Now tell me where she is.”

I was thankful that rage wasn’t directed at me. “I think they’re on Shane Jones’s property outside Ewing. Only his real name might be Charlie. It’s rural and a perfect place to hold someone against their will. We got the address from a—”

The corner of his eye twitched. “I don’t need to know the details of how you got the information, Ms. Moore. Only the address. Can you manage to give it to me without a story?”

I reached into my apron pocket and pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to him. “The GPS will lead you to it. The drive is blocked with a padlocked gate.”

He looked over the address and slipped it into his jacket pocket. “Won’t be a problem.”

“Will you let me know when you have them?” I asked.

He gave a sharp nod. “Now get the fuck out.”

I tried not to take offense as I climbed out and watched him tear out of the parking lot. If he was truly a man in love, and he seemed to be, I didn’t blame him for being in a rush. I headed back in and returned to my tables. Ruth didn’t seem to have noticed my absence, or if she had, she didn’t comment.

Marco came in around six, looking spent. I rushed over to greet him at the door and led him to an open booth. “You’ve done too much again, Marco.”

“I haven’t done near enough,” he said. “We’re still no closer to gettin’ someone to go out there.”

Oh crap. I couldn’t keep him in the dark about Bingham anymore, not after everything that had happened this afternoon. “Marco, let’s sit down for a moment.”

He gave me a funny look, but he slid into the booth all the same, propping his leg on the seat.

I sat opposite him. “Louise Baker called for Lula this afternoon.”

“Here?”

I nodded. “She admitted some interesting things.”

“Go on.”

I told him how the conversation went, and frustration covered his face. “Why the hell didn’t you let me know earlier?”

“How was I supposed to reach you? Would you have answered the library phone?” If I could have even found the number. His mouth pursed, answer enough. “Your cell phone doesn’t work, and you made it clear you don’t think I should be walking around alone.”

“You’re right,” he grudgingly admitted.

I groaned. “Sometimes I hate that this town is so stuck in the past. A simple working cell phone would make all