“We’re going to be late to the party.”
I rubbed my thumb along his jaw. “Worth it. Besides, the graduate will only have eyes for one person there anyways.”
He grunted. “Booker. That little girl is almost legal, and once she is, shit’s gonna hit the fan.”
She laughed. “Yeah. Race keeps trying to encourage her to do a study abroad program, but she isn’t biting.”
He laughed a little. “Well, some things are worth waiting for. If it’s supposed to happen, then it will when the time is right.”
Or they were just going to have to make the time right for them like we had done. It would be interesting to see how it all played out once the stunning teenager was out from under Race’s watchful eye.
We were in the Range Rover just pulling into the parking lot in front of the condos on the docks when a familiar face appeared and seemed to be anxiously awaiting our arrival.
Stark was pacing back and forth in front of the complex with his hands shoved deep into his pockets and a scowl marring his face behind his glasses.
“I’ve been waiting for you to get here.” He spoke to Nassir but his gaze swept over me as well. “I need your help.”
Nassir reached for my hand and tugged me to his side. “What’s the problem?”
Stark was often called in for security upgrades and other fact-finding ventures Nassir needed him to undertake. I thought I knew the man fairly well but I had never seen him this agitated or upset before. Clearly, neither had Nassir. He looked as confused and wary as I felt.
“The girl that I brought to you, the street kid that had the info on the kid you were looking for, is missing.”
I frowned and watched Nassir narrow his eyes at the other man as he asked, “What do you mean missing? She lives on the street. How can you tell?”
Stark growled and lifted his hands to pull at his hair. “Because she came to me for help and I turned her away. I felt like an ass about it afterward and went to find her to tell her I changed my mind, but she’s nowhere. No one has seen hide nor hair of her. It’s like she vanished off the face of the earth a few weeks ago.”
I ran my hand up Nasir’s tense arm and told Stark, “She just brought a girl to us. She’s the reason Nassir was able to get the Eastern Europeans out of the Point.”
His slate-gray eyes sharpened on me. “When was that?”
Nassir frowned “About two weeks ago.”
Stark’s pacing slowed down and he let out a deep breath. “Maybe she’s all right, then. I would just like to know for sure. The stuff she was asking me to help her with . . .” He shook his head. “It sounded like pretty bad news.”
Nassir shifted next to me. “What was she into?”
Stark cleared his throat and looked down at his feet. “She helps kids in bad situations get out. Her newest project wasn’t some reject from the Point or even some lost rich kid from the Hill. It was Julia Grace.”
I balked not because Noe was doing exactly the same thing I was doing with far less resources but because the name Stark dropped was very familiar. I felt Nassir go stone still next to me. “The mayor’s teenage stepdaughter, Julia Grace?”
Stark nodded. “Yeah. Noe says the girl is in bad shape. I guess the mayor is one messed-up asshole and the girl needs out of the house and out of town. Noe wanted me to hack into a government database and pull a bunch of sealed military records on the guy. I told her no, mostly to be a dick since she hocked all my stuff. But like I said, I had a change of heart and now I can’t find her. I think she might be in trouble, but if you just saw her maybe it’s not as bad as I’m making it out to be.”
I groaned. “This is the Point . . . it’s probably worse than you think it is. Two weeks is a long time to be missing.”
He nodded slowly. “That’s what I’m afraid of.”
Nassir swore and pulled me to him so that he could wrap his arm around me. Every time he heard about a woman in trouble or being hurt, he always wanted me as close as I could get.
“I’ll put some of my guys on it, put the word out that I’m looking for her. I’ll help you find her if she’s still in town.”
“And if she’s in trouble?” Stark sounded desperate.
“Then I’ll help you get her out of it.” And he would. Stark seemed to know it too because he muttered a hasty “thank you” and disappeared back across the parking lot.
I squeezed Nassir around the waist and turned my face into his throat. “I love it when you’re a real boy.”
I felt his lips brush the top of my head. “You made me that way.”
I sighed in contentment. I adored being his conscience and his better half. I loved that our love was his tether to his humanity and the small measure of morality that he managed to hold on to after everything that had happened to him. I would happily spend the rest of my days keeping my devil away from most forms of damnation but occasionally I wanted to run wild and be hedonistic with him on Pleasure Island. After all, it was only fitting that I gave the devil his due after the patience he showed while he waited for me to grow and mature into a woman that could stand by his side and give just as good as she got. I would spend every second of every day we had together giving it to him.