I took a deep breath as I ran up the steps to the front door of a beautiful, sprawling house. Only a few streets over from where Jenna and Rylan lived, I now realized I hadn’t fully appreciated how rich Jalen was until this very moment. It was one thing to know that he’d sold his first company for a large, undisclosed sum. It was something else entirely to see what he’d been able to do with the money.

Fortunately, that just made me feel even better about what I was doing now. He had the sort of money and public face needed to get things done. Since he was the one who hired me, I didn’t feel guilty about talking to him before telling Theo I’d found Meka. Besides, if something went wrong, it would crush Theo if I gave him hope that the worst was almost over.

I knocked on the door and waited. I twisted my fingers together as I mentally ran through what I wanted to say. Because of how things had gone the last time we’d been together, I knew he’d most likely tell me to get lost, which meant I needed to get him to understand that I wasn’t here for me before he slammed the door in my face. Those girls couldn’t afford for more time to be wasted.

I had my mouth open, ready to give Jalen a rapid-fire list of all the reasons he needed to help me, but when the door opened…it wasn’t Jalen.

She was tall, but not quite as tall as me, slender, almost too much though, but none of that was my business. It didn’t matter that I now recognized her as a model I’d seen on billboards and magazines all over the country. Elise Marx, if I remembered correctly. Long, chestnut brown hair, the sort of dark eyes that men wrote about. She was gorgeous.

“Who are you?” She crossed her arms as if my being here was interrupting something important. Her beauty sleep, no doubt. Although from the looks of her, she didn’t need much of that.

I ignored the fact that, for all Jalen’s talk when he’d seen Clay, it hadn’t taken him long to fill his bed. That wasn’t why I was here though. He was an ass, and I didn’t want that drama in my life. I wasn’t here for me, or even for Jalen, really. I was here for Meka and the other girls. Jalen was a means to an end.

“My name’s Rona Quick. Jalen hired me to find…hired me to do some research for him. Is he here?”

She gave me a tight smile. “My husband isn’t available right now.”

Husband?

Okay, now I was pissed. That asshole had made me part of an affair. But again, not the point of me being there. I could be furious with him later, when this was all done.

“I need to talk to him.”

“What you need is to walk your ass out of here and never even look at my husband again.” She gave me one of those up and down looks that women like her always used on women like me. “I don’t care what promises he made you or how special you think your connection was. He’s mine, and nothing’s going to change that.”

I took a slow, deliberate breath, and then let it out. “I need to speak to Jalen about his case. It’s urgent.”

“Elise.”

Jalen’s voice came from behind her and color flooded her cheeks. “I’m taking care of it, Jalen.”

“I need to talk to you about Meka.” I raised my voice so that he’d be able to hear me.

“Who’s Meka?” Elise snapped. “Some other woman you’ve been fucking? The three of you, all together? Is that what you’ve been doing?”

“Meka’s none of your fucking business, Elise.” Jalen appeared at her side. “Don’t you have somewhere else to be?”

Damn. I didn’t like the woman but seeing how coldly he was treating her actually made me have some sympathy. At least I knew it wasn’t just me he behaved like that with.

After he helped me get the cops involved, I planned on never seeing him again. He’d get my invoice in the mail, with a request to drop the check in the mail rather than bring it to the office.

“Jalen.” Elise’s voice had taken on a whiny quality that she was far too old to be using. She was probably only a few years older than me, but I was about twenty years too old to talk like that.

“Now, Elise.”

“I need my purse before I can go.” She stormed back into the house.

“You said you’re here about Meka?” Jalen looked in my general direction, but not directly at me.

If I’d cared, I would’ve thought that he looked embarrassed.

But I didn’t care, so there was that. I didn’t care that he was wearing a pair of flannel pants and a t-shirt that made him look far too good for this early in the morning. Or that just the sight of him made me remember what it had been like to have him inside me.

“I am, but if you’re busy–”

“Come inside. It’s cold out there.”

I stared at him. What the fuck? He was acting like the other night hadn’t happened.

Then Elise shoved past us both, and I reminded myself to keep my focus where it belonged. On Meka.

“Don’t mind her,” Jalen said as he walked back into the house. “I’m glad you’re here. We need to talk.”

I followed. “I told your wife–”

“About that–”

“I don’t care,” I cut him off again. “I really am here about Meka. I need your help.”

“What happened?” His entire demeanor changed, and I knew he had his focus in the right place now.

“To get right to the point, Meka’s asshole boyfriend sold her for drugs. He gave me the address where he took her. I went there–”

“Alone?” His head snapped around. “That wasn’t smart, Rona.”

I held up a hand. “Not your business and not the time. I found Meka and at least five other girls. They were being held in a storage unit by several armed guys. Contrary to what you might think, I’m not stupid. I knew I couldn’t get all of the girls out safely, so I went to the cops, but they aren’t going to do anything.”

“What do you mean they aren’t going to do anything?”

I leaned against the back of an overstuffed chair. I was exhausted, but I still had, as they say, ‘miles to go before I sleep.’

“I took the boyfriend down to the station after he confessed what he did, but they let him go. My phone was dead, so I couldn’t call for help, and when I went to the station to tell them what I found, Officer Lennard basically blew me off, acting like I was trying to interfere in a police investigation. He actually threatened to arrest me.”

“I’ve never liked that slimy bastard,” Jalen muttered. He looked at me, a hard glint in his eyes. “You need me to pull some strings to get the cops to that storage place?”

“I’m afraid they’re going to take the girls somewhere else,” I said, worry worming down my spine. Too much time had already passed, and I’d never forgive myself if I lost track of the girls because I hadn’t charged my stupid phone. “Shawn could have already warned them. He’s the one who tipped them off that I was looking in the first place. I thought about going back myself, but it’s not something one person can pull off, not without risking everyone’s lives.”

Jalen already had his phone up to his ear. I would’ve been annoyed that he seemed to be ignoring me, but he was doing exactly what I needed.

“Hey, Chet, it’s Jalen.”

It took me a moment to realize that he was talking to the Police Commissioner, Chet Shumaker III.

“I need to call in a favor. There’s something going on at King’s Storage, unit twelve. I can’t tell you how I know, but I can tell you that if you send some men out there, prepared to take down some pretty nasty guys, and have a couple ambulances waiting, you’ll end up being a hero. Great press to use when you start your campaign for governor in a couple years.”

Smart, using the commissioner’s political ambitions to get him to do the right thing. I could see the business side of Jalen in that small conversation.

“Yes, this needs to be done now. I know it’s early, but it’s time sensitive.” He waited a few seconds, then smiled. “Excellent. Thank you, Chet. And yes, if you could give me a call when it’s taken care of, I’d appreciate it.” He set the phone down and looked at me. “It’s done.”

“Thank you.” The words were said on the exhale of a relieved breath. “I’ll head down to the site, and once I see Meka, I’ll give Theo a call. I’ll send you a bill after that.”

“Wait,” he said before I was even able to turn to go. “You can’t go there. It could compromise the rescue.”

Dammit. I didn’t think I would, but as soon as he put the idea out there, it was all I could think about. “Good point. I’ll go to the police station then.”

“Wait here with me,” Jalen said. “You can find out what happened when Chet calls me. And we can talk.”

I bristled at that. “We don’t have anything to talk about.”

His expression was serious as he walked over to me. “Yes, we do.”

I swallowed hard and nodded. Apparently, we were going to talk.