Page 62 of A New Days Don

Maybe this is one of Jazzy’s friends. Did they connect some more dots?

I have never felt more desperate for answers, and if these women have them, then I will take what I can get, especially while I am suspended.

I tap my fingers on the desk impatiently as I await the response. It’s 1:10 PM. I have ten minutes, then I have to get going, and if I don’t get a response, I don’t know if I will be able to concentrate with Annalese.

My knee begins to bob rapidly as sweat pricks the back of my neck. It feels like someone is watching me, but when I look around the station, everyone is deep within their work or walking out to start a patrol.

Time ticks by slowly. One minute feels like one hour, but as the clock strikes 1:20 PM, my phone vibrates.

I grab my phone and purse off my desk, running for the exit to make it to Annalese in time.

The response is almost instantaneous.

I am left with the ominous text burning against my hand. I reread it several times, my pulse spiking, and the panic thrumming in waves. I should tell someone. Before I can fully plan how and what I am going to say, another text comes in.

I gulp. Rereading the message several times as I shift in the soft waiting room chair.

It’s that message that makes my stomach twist because whoever this unknown person is, they are spot on. There is no way Gerardo, Vicek, and Lucas are this incompetent. This entire sex worker case has been handled like a bunch of imbeciles running the department.

I bite my lip, my resolve slowly falling into place. I am going, but I won’t go unarmed.

My pulse spikes as I realize how quickly I will be fired for stealing a gun from the station and running an investigation without proper protocol.

Insecurity.

Anxiety.

Fear.

All intermingle before nothing but pure calm coats my skin and body.

Resolve.

I’m going to put the man who plagues my nightmares behind bars, whether the questionable officers in the station will help me or not.

Nobody was there to save me at 21, and nobody will save these women or me, so I will do it.

Chapter 25

Massimo

Night falls quickly, the neon lights illuminating brighter now that the sun has sunk below the horizon. The city slowly begins to wake up as various parties hit the street, but I won’t be joining them tonight.

My phone rings, and Mila’s name pops up on my Audi’s display, making every muscle in my body tense. It’s a little early for our nightly call, and in all honesty, I was hoping to be done with this and showered before her ten PM nightly ritual.

Regardless, I press the answer button and let her sweet voice soothe the beast clawing at its cage, knowing it is almost time.

“Massimo,” I can hear the smile in her voice, and it makes the darkness looming around me retreat for a moment.

“Hello, beautiful,” I sigh, swerving through traffic as I head for the outskirts of the city.

“What are you up to tonight?” There is a shy lilt to her sweet voice that makes the devil inside of me grin. She always sounds so fucking cute when she steps out of her usual safe bubble she has created for herself.

“I have a meeting I am heading to, but I should be free after,” I tell her, desperate to get this over with. This woman has me wrapped around her pretty little finger, and she doesn’t even realize it. I’m practically panting for any little bit of attention she will give me.

“Oh,” she pauses, and I can hear some rustling.

“What’s going on?” My voice is sharp, but with the way she seems to float away distractedly, I don’t care if it startles her, as long as I can get her attention back on me.